Endless Sidescroller

[noxoc]

Hi!

 

I just started using Phaser/GameDev and was wondering how one would build an 2d endless runner/sidescroller. If I'm not mistaken the Bounds are by default set to the size of the canvas. How and when would I procedurally add new grounds and obstacles? What about the Bounds? And how can I make the camera follow my player while keeping the player on the left side of the screen?  

 

Also: is there a way to search the Docs? Or even a Package/Source for Dash.app?

[XekeDeath]

Maybe treat the game as if you are on a treadmill: the player looks like they are moving, but actually remain stationary.

No camera movement, no worrying about running out of bounds, spawn things off to the right, move them left.

[Heppell08]

Didn't think of it like that Xeke! Something I will keep in mind for future reference

[noxoc]

Thought of that too. However I thought it wasn't very elegant and seemed dirty-ish to me and ditched it.

Now I'm not so sure anymore is that really how it's done? 

So I'd create a group with everything but the player and then move that group, right?

[Heppell08]

Seems like the only way to me now its been said. I'd have probably made the bounds huge and then struggled with the random obstacles etc etc. BUT since the game is technically still and the player is animated to look like moving, and the level comes at the static player randomly, it would appear to make much more sense and a lot more reliable to code and modify.

[noxoc]

Thanks! I'll give it a try  

[Lapu]

Hi guys, is this concept of world moving around the player rather than player moving around the world good for mario style games?

How for example would you handle enemies appearing/ disappearing when player moves through the world? lets say i want my enemy to persist in game even when player

or enemy moves apart from each other? i would like to simulate enemy move across the world so when i go back/front with player enemy may be in completely different place.

Hope that you understand what i'm trying to achieve. 

[lewster32]

This is where separation of rendering from logic comes in. The 'treadmill' concept is actually how many scrolling games work (I made a simple example here a while back) and certainly how an endless runner should be done - the player stays still and the world is scrolled past them. Then the developer can choose to either only track objects on the screen and close to the edges off-screen, or track all of the objects in the world but only render those visible on screen. The former option means objects that leave the screen will be reset (this is what causes weird stuff like the traffic in older Grand Theft Auto games being different every time you look the other way) but is faster, whereas the latter option ensures consistency. Other options could be to stop updating objects off-screen, or update them less frequently, or make the 'safe area' where objects exist larger so the resetting issue becomes less obvious.