Should have stuck with OpenGL..

mangobrain on 2006/03/27 22:09 of TrainTris

I decided not to go 3D this time, to see exactly how hard/easy it is to create a game using *just* what PyGame itself provides (i.e. no PyOpenGL, no 3rd party graphics engines or GUI libraries, etc), coupled of course with the features of Python's standard libraries. I also decided upon an isometric game.

However, I've never done any "pixel art" before; subsequently, I have spent far, far too long trying to draw a little train facing in eight different directions - not to mention wasting most of the first day struggling to come up with an idea. I'm also beginning to realise that I'll need either a more complex system for calculating offsets of mobile objects, or yet more drawings (fortunately just shifted versions of the existing viewing angles; I'll probably opt for the brute force option). Suffice to say the game won't be particularly heavy on eyecandy.

I'm also realising that isometric graphics engines aren't as simple as I first thought. Creating the landscape tiles wasn't a problem; nor was the algorithm for rendering the ground itself. It also took much longer to draw the train tracks than it did to get them depth-sorted and overlaid on the ground. However, getting the train properly depth-sorted, not to mention actually following the track, is proving challenging.

Currently, the train makes it to the third bend (with various popping artifacts as assorted track pieces are incorrectly drawn over the top of it) before disappearing into oblivion, a result of failing to find the next link in the track; this is the result of drastically underestimating the requirements of a robust track-following algorithm. Rethink in progress.

In all, I probably should have stuck with OpenGL, as used in my entry for the first challenge; I suck at 3D modelling, but overall it probably would have been far less time-consuming - and much more fun - modelling & rendering a 3D steam engine than drawing eight separate sprites by hand with more to come.

I'm not going to tell you what gameplay will be like, but it won't involve actually driving trains - neither directly nor through signals, anyway. :)