Feedback Question about level design

[NeOp]

Hello everyone!

So, i´m doing level design for my 2d platform action game, and was really in doubt about something. The game will be 100% in pixel art, so i was thinking, is it better to do the entire map lenght and then just put in layers in my room? Or do i create tilesets to level design separately? The maps i´m planning are really big in lenght, kinda like Salt and Sanctuary, with almost no room transitions. I plan to use paralax effect too.

Thanks in advance!

 

[dannyjenn]

If I understand what you're asking, I'd say that it's better to use tilesets. Because they take up a lot less space in the memory and disk than huge background images, so you should always use tilesets/tilemaps when possible. (It probably significantly cuts back on the loading time too.)

However, using background images could be easier, and you probably could get away with it. I mean, most (if not all) modern PCs could handle it, and most gamers use high-end PCs anyway. (Not sure about smartphones and mobile games.) So this is more of a question of whether you want to take your time and do things the right way, or if you just want to get your game made as quickly and easily as possible.

 

[Yal]

Tilesets let you make a cool platform once and then reuse it as much as you want, single static images force you to remake EVERY platform from scratch. Your art quality will suffer from this (or development will take longer) so there's no real reason to not use tilesets, unless the art style requires you to have so many unique assets that there's just extra work to tileset the graphics.