Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Objective complete - mini debriefing
When we're done ediing the image, we'll have a racetrack which ills the enire stage.
The track contains a well-defined road, some sandy areas around it, and some colorful
borders and grass that a kart won't be able to cross. These different elements will become
important later in the project. That's why we're taking note of them.
Creating a kart
Now that we have a racetrack, the next important thing to create is a race kart. Again, we will
use images from the original Mario Kart game.
Prepare for lift off
Go online and find a Mario Kart
sprite sheet
depicing Mario in his race kart. A sprite sheet
is a special type of image that's often used in professional 2D games. It collects all of the
costumes that belong together into a single image. That way, an image only has to be loaded
once. The game program only shows a small part of the sprite sheet at any given ime. With
scripts, the window through which you view the sprite sheet can be moved. This has an
efect similar to changing costumes in Scratch; it creates animaion.
We will assemble a row of costumes that shows the character in his kart from all angles.
By moving through the costumes, the sprite will appear to rotate by a full circle. We will
use these costumes later to indicate the direcion the character is facing in the game.
