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I'm planing a 2D board game and I cannot figure out how to make the animation of the player from tile to tile. Note that tiles are not in a grid, they are flexible (x, y) points in the map.

The ways I found until now:

  • Just move the player from (xi, yi) to (xf, yf) with nothing special
  • An helicopter comes from an edge an transport the player (a circle) to the next tile
  • A little man walking by making it in a wrong perspective (side)

Do you have any better ideas, thanks alot?

Totty.js
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  • I'm not sure what you mean by your tiles are flexible x,y points on a map. If this means that the tiles are shapes other than a grid, the implementation should be similar to a grid's just with more movement directions. If you mean to say that you can put a unit wherever you want (within his/her move radius) then why would you be keeping track of your units based on tiles? – Peteyslatts Dec 23 '12 at 01:03
  • Depending on your use of language, have you looked at tweening libraries? Most of these have all the functions you need to animate complex/flexible paths. – Sidar Dec 23 '12 at 01:06
  • @Peteyslatts: My map has various islands, therefore they are not in a grid, they are distributed around wherever it can be. The player move from island A to B. And no, I'm not keeping track of your units based on tiles, but based on which island it is. – Totty.js Dec 23 '12 at 22:13
  • @Sidar: I'm not asking about how to do the implementation, but for a concept of how to move the players. – Totty.js Dec 23 '12 at 22:14
  • @Totty Your question isn't clear. Are you just asking for "ideas" on how to visualize the animation or are you asking on how to move them from A to B? – Sidar Dec 24 '12 at 07:40
  • I'm asking for "ideas" on how to visualize the animation – Totty.js Dec 24 '12 at 18:20

2 Answers2

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Without any knowledge of what your game is, the theme of the game, or what kind of things you want to be moving, all we could possibly do is throw out random ideas hoping you like one. So... here's a rampant brain dump of ways I can think of to get from A to B:

  • Land
    • Walk/jump/skip to the destination
    • Pull out a sled and slide to the destination
    • Jeep/Car/Tank/etc.
    • Burrow through the ground
    • Ride a horse/camel/dog/caterpillar/etc.
  • Air
  • Sea
    • Boat/Sea-Doo/etc.
    • Summon a wave and ride/surf it
    • Swim
    • Submarine
    • Ride a shark/whale/jellyfish/floating piece of trash/etc.
  • Magic/Scifi
    • Magic carpet
    • Space ship/rocket/etc.
    • Teleportation/wormhole/etc.
    • Folding space
    • Riding a unicorn/pegasus/Luck dragon/etc.
  • Other
    • Mailed in an envelope/box/etc.
    • Being eaten and regurgitated/"passed"
    • The ground you're on gets up and moves
chaosTechnician
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You can use a sprite sheet of the character walking to their destination from a top-down perspective until they get to water (I'm assuming these islands have water around them). When they get to the water, you can use a sprite sheet of them swimming freestyle or backstroke, etc, again from the top-down perspective. If the islands are about the size of the player, just have him dive in and swim, no walking required.

As an alternative to swimming, you can have him picked up by a submarine that just so happens to surface at the right place and time and have that carry the character to the next island while still on the surface. Sub reaches the island, the character disembarks and the submarine submerges again.

I do like the idea of something like a jetpack, or flying carpet as well. Hell, you can even mix it up a bit: submarine this turn, jetpack the next, followed by a giant slingshot, etc.

However you wish to do it, I reckon sprite sheets would be the way to go. Just be prepared to do a lot of editing (unless you're crazy talented).

MetaReference
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