Tuesday, 21 February 2017

Game Maker Progress 32: Zooming and Interfaces

Hello everyone,

Progress on Foundation of Civilisation is proceeding nicely. One the feature I knew I wanted to implement after the concept build is the ability to zoom in and out. Zooming has a lot of benefits to it; from allowing easier planning to giving a sense of scale.

Zoomed In                                                         Zoomed Out
The feature was fairly simple to implement in a basic form at least - it was simply a matter of increase the room size shown within GameMaker's view system for rooms. The challenge part comes in the form of making sure the interface remains consistent.

Zoomed In                                                                       Zoomed Out

Since an interface element [button, text, sprites etc...] were aligned to the interface itself to keep it on screen, should the player move the camera; it needed to have a separate parameter for each zoom level. After a couple of hours work - I managed to find a way to make sure the interface elements remain in place at various levels of zoom. I am currently debating whether or not to modify the size of the interface elements - an argument for keeping it the way that it is being that the player will be able to see more of the map whilst making decisions, one of the reasons I wanted a zooming feature in the first place.


I will keep it as is for the time being; the next play-testing experience will help decide whether it is something to add or keep the way that it is. 

That's it for now! 

Until next time,
Dylan

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