Hello there. I was fine tuning some details, and while testing with a large view I thought it would be interesting to see and share with you how world is created:
I work with small pieces (lets call them segments) of terrain. Some of them ar frefabs (objects, bridges, windmill...) and the other ones are randomly generated by a function (using simplex noise algorithm).
I allways have 4 segments, and when I come into a new one, I remove the first one and add another one to the end, and this way I have infinite levels. As I go progressing, the difficulty increases, the terrain becomes harder and the frefabs are also harder, and the fuel cans are further away.
Of course there has been a lot of headache while building this. One thing thing that was driving me nuts and in the end it was the easiest thing on earth was the soft terrain concatenation of different pieces. When I change a parameter of the function, the new segment doesn't start where the last one finishes! and also when I have a prefab, it starts and ends totally flat, and those around it don't start nor end flat. All I had to do was interpolating those terrains to get smooth transitions. It looks easy when done, but it was one of the things that made me leave this project and start another ones!
BTW:
Very nice, I have a curiosity, how do you create graphics, paint or find it on the web? For example the cars the objects of the scenario ... etc ...
I don't do the graphics myself. I usually buy them, but I allways try to modify them until I like the result. Let's say I have an idea on my mind, and I don't stop untill things look like what I'm thinking.
I just discovered this thread. Amazing! I'm pretty impressed by your drawing skills. As many others, I'd like to learn more about your development cycle. What programs/material do you use?
in short: first of all I have an idea, then I look for graphics that could fit or I do some myself. Once I have base graphics I make a prototype, it's usually made in a week, or even in a weekend if I have free time. Then you have to convert the prototype to a game! (this one takes months of work) At some point of the development I start adding sound effects (I don't like to leave to the end, I consider it very important and I work a lot on that)
Programs used: Gimp (graphics), Inkscape (vector graphics), tiled (maps), audacity (sounds), bfxr (sound effects), physics body editor (drawing the physic bodies), hiero tools (for the bitmap fonts), and some libgx utilities like the particle editor or the texture packer for the atlas.