Ultratron: How Enemies Spawn works?

Newbie & Debugging Questions
#1

Hi, I think this is a specific question to @princec, but I would like to know how the Enemy Spawning works in Ultratron?

More when groups are spawned in something that looks like a grid, how is that achieved code wise?

Thanks!

#2

I would like to say it’s super simple and so on except… er… it wasn’t in the end. There is indeed a grid, or at least, we spawn at 16 logical pixel units. There’s a random formation chosen, which will be either a circle shape, wedge shape, line shape, or rectangle shape, and possibly either hollow or solid. Then it’s possibly randomly mirrrored. Then we plot the gidrahs according to this low-res bitmap and remove any gidrahs that are “too close” to the players.

Cas :slight_smile:

#3

Cas, thanks! That got me thinking, and then I thought what about drawing the spawning forms with say tile editor? Will try to do something like that.

Another question if you don’t mind. How did you achieve the glow effect? Sprite wise or shaders? If sprite wise care to explain how or show an example? Thanks again!