Ultimate Game Design : Building game worlds

times a trade-off occurs between using a sprite effect and using a particle effect. If the
sprite effect looks convincing, you can save some processing power by choosing to
use it over a similar particle effect. If the sprite effect simply doesn’t look right, you
might be forced to build the effect in particles, or to not build the effect at all.
There are even emitter types that emit sprites instead of particles. The sprites behave
like particles. These are less processor-intensive and can still be used to create
interesting effects, like magical spells.
Figure 3-13 is an example of building a magic effect using sprite particles from an
emitter attached to the drone insect. You can see clearly from the bitmap outlines
that these are sprites being emitted in the animation sequence.
As you build up your environments, you will introduce props into your scene via
file referencing. Maybe one of your props will be a warrior skull and a faction flag
mounted on a pike weapon. These props might be scattered about and stuck into the
ground to warn players that the enemy is near.
You’ll want all of your props to fit the visual style of the game you’re creating. You
accomplish this by doing crafty, low-polygon modeling and making great use of textures.
A particle effect added to a prop can make it stand out from the others and say
something. Plus, it just looks so cool! Maybe you would like to create a sinister magical
glow on a totem at the center of your pike props. The point is that you can add
visual detailing to your props by using particle effects efficiently. Try using them as
FIGURE 3-13
Sprite emitters for effects
C H A P T E R 3
73
Lighting, Texturing, Particles, Effects, and Audio