A couple of 'creating games' Qs

[Malte Brill]

Hi Eva,

first of all thanks for the kind words about ArcadeEngine. :-)
I´ll try to give some detailed thoughts on your second question. For 
the first question I can give the same recommendation as X. Look at 
chatrev. Not only the Client Server is impressive, but the people that 
hang around there. If you have questions concerning Client server 
solutions for your game chatRev is definetly the place to go.

<http://www.chatrev.bjoernke.com>

 >2. Can one have a scrolling screen?

The answer is yes, you can. I would recommend not to lay out a huge 
backgroundimage like hugh does in his stack. This would be overkill for 
really large maps. Instead you may want to set up a tile based engine. 
Create a set of tiles (images that align to draw the map) These tiles 
should have a fixed size. The next step is to create a group of buttons 
that fills your card. Store your map in an array, or a customproperty. 
This could look something like this:

tile1 tile1 tile2 tile3 tile1 ...
tile1 tile2 tile2 tile3 tile1 ...
...

The group must contain at least 2 rows and columns of butons more than 
is needed to fill the card. 4 or 6 could be better though. This 
technique allows you to have a "buffer" once a button scrolls out of 
view you can set the icons for the buttons that are out of the visible 
area of your map to the next needed image IDs. You will need to play a 
bit with buttons locations to come up with a useful tile system though. 
:-)
Currently I am experimenting with isometric view. And I can only say it 
rocks, but setting up an isometric tile system is a lot harder than a 
front or from top view.

Hope that helps a bit,

Malte

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