In this tutorial (originally printed in Zzap! Amiga #20-23) I run through setting up a basic platform game project. If you’d like a print version of this tutorial you can read it in back orders from zzap amiga here.
Here are the assets for Tutorial 1 part 1: TUTORIAL 1 FILES
Part 1 : Creating Your First Level
One of the most common things I’m asked, when streaming or at events, is “how do I get started in Scorpion Engine?” So I thought I’d help with a tutorial game. All the assets you should need are downloadable above – so you can get a running start. Between these tutorial entries I recommend opening the demo projects, running two instances of Scorpion Editor (referred to as SE from here on) side by side and copying and referencing things you see when building on your own ideas. That’s mostly how I learned, but jumping into a tutorial is a great way to break the ice!
Let’s make a winter platform game. You’ll control a fed up snowman throwing snowballs at other seasonal characters. We’re going to be using the Experimental build of SE for this – any new features will likely be in the public build by the time you read this anyway. 😀
First.. Install Scorpion Engine (experimental) from pixelglass.org/#scorpion – It’s worth thinking about using GitHub desktop to manage for project folders and SE installs – but that’s beyond the scope of this column really, I go into a little more detail about it in the introduction, though. It would give you an easy way to keep backups and revert any accidents or changes you make. Otherwise, keeping a lot of manual backups of your project folders is a very good idea once things are getting complex. The other things you’ll need: Libresprite (free) from libresprite.github.io (or Aseprite from Aseprite.org) and Tiled from thorbjorn.itch.io/tiled. You will also need a working install of WinUAE or FS-UAE. It’s also a good idea to have real Amiga hardware for testing purposes too as your projects get bigger.
Get all these things installed and set up first. Before things get going; a note for Mac and Linux users – don’t worry, a good few people in the SE community use Wine for Linux, or Parallels VM on Mac to run SE. It might make the initial setup a little more complex, but it’s definitely doable. (i can’t help with that here though, come seek the community if you have issues!)
Load up SE and you’ll be presented with:
Choose “New Scorpion Project” – Create a new folder to put the project In. This one I’m calling “Snow No” then press Save.. You’ll be greeted by this screen and the Project Tab where we set up much of the settings for the entire game. Leave everything as it is for now.
Before we go any further let’s use File Explorer to look at our project folder – Press the “Open Folder” button in the top left. Most of the files and folders you see here are things that Scorpion modifies for you, so don’t mess with them until you know what they all do. There isn’t exactly a “right” way to organise a project folder but for this example we want to copy the “Sound” “Sprites” “Actors” “Maps” “Panels” folders from my tutorial Zip. Copy any remaining files over to the project’s folder too. SE can use files you’ve put anywhere in that folder – but keeping them organised into sub-folders will help a lot as the project grows in complexity.
The game’s Palette is the default and unsuitable for our game. Creating a primary palette is the first thing I do on a new project– in this case though – press the import button at the top centre of the main window (see above). Choose the mixelslab32.png you previously placed in the project folder in the file selector and the three questions From 0, To 0, All 32 colours).
Now your palette should look like this:
✅ Note that you can edit colours directly in the editor by clicking on the #xxxxxx code beneath a colour and typing in a new RGB value, alternatively you can edit the palette in Libre/Aseprite by editing the amiga_ocs.palette.png file. Another thing that’s worth noting is hardware sprites can only use colours 17-31 while BOBs and the background can use all 32. (there’s a lot more nuance to this with AGA and other configs but i’m trying to keep things simple)
Creating a Map.
You’ll need Tiled installed for this, so do that first. 🙂
Choose the Maps Tab at the top of the Scorpion Editor window. Then the + next to “Tilesets” at the middle left. Choose Maps/Snownotiles.tileset.png as the source image and call the output file “snowno.tileset.tsx” and place it in the project folder.
The tileset should look something like this. We need to give the tiles some “properties” making them solid, so actors (including the player) will be able to stand on them.
On clicking “Edit Tileset” you’ll have to choose Tiled as the default editor for .tsx files, once that’s done, it’ll open like this:
Choose each of the solid looking floor tiles and tick the “IsSolid” property. For the thin wooden platform just set “IsPlatform”
✅ A note about these checkboxes:
- IsSolid = A solid tile that a platform game actor can’t walk or fall through
- IsPlatform = A tile you can jump up through to stand on, and press down to pass down though.
- IsSolid+IsPlatform = A tile you can jump up through but not press down to fall through.
Save the tileset. Now go back to the Maps Tab in SE and press the + next to Maps (Top Left) – Choose the “snowmo” tileset from the list, call the map Level1 and place it in the Maps/ folder. Now with that selected in the Maps list, click Edit Map (top right) and it’ll appear in Tiled.
Important note: When dealing with Maps.. Rather than creating and editing files willy-nilly from within File Explorer or Tiled; it’s wise to choose to edit or create new ones from within SE’s Map tab. This forces it to do things like refresh the Actor and Blocks list and could save you some confusion later.
In Tiled the default map size is FAR too big for our little level so go to the top menu. Map/Resize Map.
Set it to 16 tiles wide (256 pixels) by 12 (192 pixels). This game isn’t going to scroll. But you can use truly huge maps in your other games!
Now the map is small, use the stamp brush and the palette of tiles (both circled) to draw this (or similar) level in Tiled, not forgetting to save it!
✅Tiled tips:
- Right clicking on a tile in the map while using the stamp tool picks up that tile type.
- Holding Shift while drawing with the tile stamp tool will draw a line of that tile.
Currently there’s no background for the map so let’s go to the Panels Tab in SE (top right) and create a new “panel”* with + in the top left. Select the Panels/SeaGradient.png – then save the file as sky_sea.panel in the Panels/ folder. Under “Find References” in the right pane click where it says “Main Middle Panel” and choose: Amiga Copper Sky. Now switching back to the Maps Tab – In the centre right where it says Background – choose your new panel.
✅”Panels” are what scorpion uses for things like statusbars, menu screens and background effects like copper skies or parallax backdrops.
So now we have a level. In Part 2 we’ll be adding the player’s actor, his attack and some enemies, and running the game for the first time! Oh, and I’m just some guy – there will be many different ways of achieving some of the things I’ll be discussing in this series, so don’t be afraid to experiment and try different things. I hope this has been a useful introduction and see you next time!
I recommend taking breaks and not storming through the tutorial in one sitting, there’s a lot to digest here.
