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 How to name a room?
You can name any of the rooms, in the map editor.
Move the mouse currsor inside the room you want to name, hit [ctrl]+[R] and enter the
desired name, usually in upper case.
When you save the map, these names are saved in the dizzy.nam file,
that is loaded by the default template when the game is started.
You can also set room names by hand, in the game.gs file,
in the RoomsSetNames() function, instead of loading them from the file.
Use the RoomSetName() function to set a room's name.
During the game, you can change a room name any time.
For the rooms with modified name during the game, you must add code in
the LoadUserData() callback and set their correct
names, depending on the status of the associated puzzle. That's because the
load game feature doesn't store their names.
How to deny access to a room?
One way to do this, is to test the access condition in the OutRoom_RX_RY() callback
of the previous room, from which you can enter the special room. If access is dennied, move the player back.
Test the player's position to find if he was going into the special room, and not to other
ordinary ones.
Another idea is to use the OpenRoom_RX_RY() callback
of the special room, and, if access denied, to move the player back in the previous room.
You can use player's position, to know where he came from.
These callbacks are explained and exemplified in The Rooms chapter from the DizzyAGE book.
The third idea, is to use a physical barrier, a static brush, to block the path.
When you solve the associated puzzle, you may hide this brush and clear the path.
And finally you can use a trigger, a colliding dynamic brush.
The trigger can be visible (like a person), or it can be invisible.
In the colliding handler of this object, you can move the player back.
When you solve the associated puzzle, you may disable the trigger.
How create games with larger rooms?
The standard room's size for Dizzy games is 240x136 pixels, like in the originals. This is the editor default settings.
Until now DizzyAGE supported rooms up to 256x192 - that's as big as the whole Z80 screen.
Starting with version 2.4 Dizzyage supports larger rooms.
But don't start abusing it! A recomended rezolution that is still retro enough is 320x240.
If you want to push it further for a special game, you could try 640x400 or 640x480. But I wouldn't go any higher.
Consider that these sizes should match true display resolutions (set from dizzy.ini), or black borders will be displayed arround it.
This rezolution setting is available in the dizzy.inf file. In fact there are 2 such sizes.
First one represents the size of the screen including the borders (game_screen_bw and game_screen_bh).
This by default is set to 320x240. I remind you that content can be painted on the borders using negative coordinates or beyond the acctual screen size.
The second one is the actual screen size (game_screen_w and game_screen_h).
This is 256x192 by default and it accomodates the original Dizzy layout with a border of 8 pixels, a top game menu and a room of 240x136.
After choosing these two sizes for your game, you'll have to set the propper room's size in the editor, before start building your map.
Of course, you can set all these sizes (bordered, screen and room) to the same values, like 320x240, for a "full display" effect and paint the hud
info on top of it.
A game using a higher resolution, like 640x480, would have to set this resolution as default along with scale 1x
in dizzy.ini so the players will see the whole image.
As cool as a high resolution could be, it is not for every game. It will not make your game better by itself!
So don't abandon the classic retro style of the original Dizzy games!
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