Blobs in Games

From Red Blob Games's Blog

Coordinate transforms, still #

Last post was about my attempt at explaining coordinate transforms. Progress has been slow. I've implemented many of the diagrams but I'm still having trouble with the narrative. Last time I said this was my outline:

1. Show a side scrolling game with some cool camera effects.
2. Introduce world coordinates vs screen coordinates.
3. Solve the problem of scrolling: subtract an offset.
4. Introduce transforms. (may need to be later)
5. Introduce inverse transforms, for mouse clicks. (may need to be later)
6. Introduce cameras. More complicated than offsets, but can do more.
7. Show some cool effects with cameras. (may need to be earlier)
8. Introduce chaining transforms.
9. Show some cool effects with chaining.
10. Demo showing all concepts together.

I've been experimenting with different orders for the topics and now think there are two intertwined “tracks”: the concept track introduces mathematical concepts and terminology, and the problem solving track shows solutions to specific gamedev problems. These two tracks are paired up:

I think in each case I should start with the problem to be solved, then show the immediate solution, then explain the concept behind the solution. The concepts then lead to a reusable solution. Example:

1. Problem: we want to scroll the screen
2. Immediate solution: add an offset before drawing
3. Concept: we're transforming world coordinates to screen coordinates
4. Reusable solution: a translate transform is a function or object that converts coordinates

The next section is:

1. Problem: we want to keep the player in the center of the screen
2. Immediate solution: use the player plus half the screen size as the offset
3. Concept: a "camera" points at the player, using view coordinates
4. Reusable solution: a camera object is placed in the world, and we use that to build the translate transform

What order should I present these topics? I'm not sure. I know I want to put scrolling first. If I put mouse clicks second, then it's fairly easy to solve, and there's less motivation to learn inverse transforms. So I might put that later. If I put tile grid coordinates second, then it leads to chaining transforms together, which will be useful for following the player with a camera. Or if I put following the player second, then it leads to view coordinates, which might further motivate chaining transforms.

I think the main problem is that I'm not feeling particularly inspired right now, so I'm working very slowly.

Coordinate transforms, again #

Back in 2015, I had attempted to explain coordinate transforms in terms of matrices. In 2016, I started over, trying to focus on coordinate transforms without matrices. That didn't work the way I wanted either, and I wrote a blog post about that, saying that I was going to focus on game cameras. I started that, but lost motivation. The last line of that blog post is: Well, I failed. I lost motivation to work on this so I've put it on hold … again. I think I may take a long break from tutorials.

Reader experience with 404s #

There are many days when I don't feel like working on my project. I use this feeling to "productively procrastinate" on things that I've been wanting to do but haven't done yet. Earlier this week I decided to tackle two related problems:

1. I want to know which pages are reachable from the home page. I can then review the ones that aren't reachable and consider adding them if they're finished.
2. I want to make suggestions on the 404 page, but only to pages that are reachable from the home page. There are a whole bunch of random pages I have that aren't finished or useful, and I don't want to use those for suggestions.

Little details #

On each of my pages you'll notice the main element: interactive diagrams that visually explain a concept. But there are lots of other techniques I use too. Unfortunately, I don't remember all of these when I'm writing a new page. I decided to make a catalog of things I've used so that I can remember to use them on the new pages I write.

I've been working on this for a few months and it's still incomplete but I decided I should share it: https://www.redblobgames.com/making-of/little-things/

Are there other little details on my pages that I've forgotten about? Probably! I will update the document as I think of them.

Labels: making-of

Brainstorming with reversal #

In the previous two posts I described how I sometimes approach a problem by trying to arrange it into a matrix. Sometimes that doesn't work and I instead try to look at the problem backwards. As an example, consider procedural map generation. I often start with a noise function, adding octaves, adjusting parameters, and adding layers. I'm doing this because I'm looking for maps with certain properties.

Labels: ideas , structure

Brainstorming with factoring #

In the last post I described how I sometimes describe a problem with a matrix, and then look at the matrix transpose to see if it gives me new ideas. Another technique I use is to look for a factoring.

In algebra, factoring transforms a polynomial like 5x² + 8x - 21 into (x + 3)·(5x - 7). To solve 5x² + 8x - 21 = 0, we can first factor into (x + 3)·(5x - 7) = 0. Then we say that x + 3 = 0 or 5x - 7 = 0. Factoring turns a problem into several easier problems.

Let's look at an example: I have six classes, File, EncryptedFile, GzipFile, EncryptedGzipFile, BzipFile, EncryptedBzipFile. I can factor these into a matrix:

Labels: ideas , structure

Brainstorming with transpose #

Sometimes I get stuck and look for a way to think about a problem a different way. There are some problems that you can view in the form of a matrix/table. The structure looks like this:

There are rows and columns, and I'm trying to work on the cells. Let's try an example from a simple game:

Labels: ideas , structure

Improving hexagon map storage diagram #

Last week, I decided to improve the map storage section of the hexagon guide. This section had a diagram that suggested the use of a 2D array, but then it presented formulas that didn't look like what was shown. Reader feedback made me realize this section was confusing. I was mixing two separate steps here.

1. Store the map in a 2D array.
2. Slide the rows to the left to save space.

Labels: hexagons

Improving island shaping for map generation #

One of my goals for 2019 is to improve my existing pages. This week I improved the island map section of my noise-based map generation page.

Labels: maps

Improving the 2D Noise page #

One of my goals for 2019 is to improve my existing pages. Yesterday I decided to work on my old 2D noise page. We normally use Perlin/Simplex noise to make terrain heightmaps, but on that page I used Fourier transforms instead. Perlin/Simplex noise are a fast approximation of the things you can get from Fourier transforms.

The 3D renderer on that page always bothered me. It was one of my early experiments with WebGL. I had never been able to figure out exactly what I didn't like or how to fix it.

I decided to improve the renderer.

Labels: graphics , noise