Platform Masters development (July 20, 2011) - Sentus Mountains overview

The Sentus Mountains, world 10, is one of my favorite worlds. Aside from the usual activity of clearing levels, you can also run around on the mountains. With the bounce ability, it's very easy to get to 1000 mph by simply bouncing down the mountain slopes. You might be thinking that, if you fall from a high point and become unable to return to the level that you'll need to wait for time run out. Given that jumbo levels on difficulty 0 could easily have 20 minutes for the time limit, that's definitely not an option. Thus, the "restart level" option on the pause menu comes in handy. Using this (and the "return to overworld" option) will cost a life though. The exception is if movement hasn't been granted yet ("Go!" hasn't appeared) - there are no penalties. Use those 2 options with care. At least, when you'll lose a life from using it, you'll be asked if you're sure (with the default on "no").

The Sentus Mountains world has several interesting features. The first is that grass height is dependent on both the slope and elevation - too steep of a slope or high of an elevation and grass won't grow. What you see in the background is what's also in the foreground.

The second is that, with increasing height, the dirt ground gradually fades into snow, eventually becoming purely snow at the highest areas. This also exactly matches what you see in the background.

Between the foreground and the closest mountains in the background are a series of rivers and lakes though I have yet to add in the cities, and forests as well, perhaps even a highway with a bridge or two. Another set of ground decals are to be between the 2 closest mountains and between the next closest ones afterward.

A fourth feature that I don't yet have is the darkening of the sky with height, though this is a feature common with every world. I don't know the formula for this, but since I've obtained the formula for underwater darkening, I would just need to fine-tune a single variable.

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Tags:

• Platform
• Masters
• game
• development
• Sentus
• Mountains
• scenery
• software
• tips
• tricks
• hints

[TheRealAntroid]

When you jump that high, the background with all those mountains gets really beautiful! Great job on this!

[ulillillia]

You should see the most recent PM video. I've even posted it on my channel's front page as it's now my top favorite video. I've completely redone the Sentus Mountains world for the ground. You'll see lakes, forests, rivers, roads, bridges, and even a city and train. The orange color comes from the fact the Sentus Mountains world takes place shortly after sunrise, early in the morning.

[ulillillia]

It's based on the sine of the slope. If you have a slope of 30 degrees, acceleration from gravity is half. For movement beyond gravity, I have it based on the cosine of the slope instead. For the redirection of jumps, that's a lot more complicated. Just think of it as a ball bouncing on a slope.

[ulillillia]

Not only metrics but the game's backend units as well - CU/fr. There are 9 choices available for speed, 2 of which are metric (km/h and m/s).

[TheRealAntroid]

@ulillillia Just watched that, oh wow. You are right, it's impressive, but for some reason my favourite detail was other levels floating there in the distance.

[ulillillia]

I have no way to publish or post that.

[ulillillia]

This doesn't make sense. You're asking for commentary when these videos already have commentary. Could you be referring to something else?

[yyoomadtho4]

@ulillillia just to clarify, i mean without the video, and just the audio alone.

[yyoomadtho4]

@ulillillia it's basically what you're doing in this video right now: talking about how you designed certain parts of the game and why you couldn't do this and that, etc. etc.

[ulillillia]

Both Regnow and Steam are likely to get it, Regnow with the greatest certainty.

[ulillillia]

Huh? What is that?

[ulillillia]

There are at least 3 that are working on the audio front. Audio is where I have the weakest skill and least experience. I can't tell instruments apart beyond wind (I consider brass the same as wind), string, or percussion and I'm unable to determine what genre any of my songs are despite 20,000+ plays on quite a few of them.