Simple Platform

This will show you how to create a platform game using a tiled map, and tile based collision detection.

Create Map

Tiled

You will firstly need to install the Tiled program from the website and link below. In college the Tiled executeables are on moodle, under project, technical skill, monogame, and tiled. I have also added links to other tutorials for using Tiled.

Tiled Website and Download

Tiled Map Editor

Tutorials for using Tiled

Offical Tiled Tutorials

Tiled Basics

Tiled Youtube Playlist Series

Written Version of Above Tutorials

New Tiled Map

You will need a new tiled map, the tile size in the screen shot is 128 pixels, in the end i actually changed this to 32 x 32 and resized the tiles accordingly:

It is important to change the format of the map to Base64 gzip compressed:

Add Tile Set

Now your map is created we need to add a tile set:

In creating this tutorial i first tried a tileset based upon a collection of images, this seemed fine in Tiled but failed to draw using Square.Tiled. So make sure you choose embed and based on tileset image:

Draw Your Level

Now you have a tile set build a simple set of platforms. You should rename the layer to something like Tiles:

Add Player Object

Now you have a section of platforms, we can now set the position of the player. This will also be the object moved by the code and player input. So insert an object layer, and then use the rectangle tool to create the object. My final player was 60 pixels high and 40 pixels wide:

MonoGame Project

Create a new MonoGame project, mine is a Windows project.

Setup Square.Tiled

If you have a project ready, create a new class in your project. Click project and new class and call it Tiled.cs, then copy the code from this document over the code in your new class: Square.Tiled Class

Remember to set the name space to Squared.Tiled.

You will need to add references in the using section for the following:

using System.IO;
using Squared.Tiled;

Code to Display Map

Map Variables

At the top of your Game1 class add these additional variables:

Map map;
Layer collision;
Vector2 viewportPosition;
int tilePixel;

LoadContent for map

In the LoadContent method add the following lines to load the map, the collision layer and to set the texture of the player. The variable tilepixel assumes your tiles are square, the number of pixels is taken from the map:

map = Map.Load(Path.Combine(Content.RootDirectory, "SimplePlatform.tmx"), Content);
collision = map.Layers["Tiles"];
tilePixel = map.TileWidth;
map.ObjectGroups["objects"].Objects["Player"].Texture = Content.Load<Texture2D>("hero");

The Update Method

You will also need to update the viewportPosition, this will center the map onto the player:

viewportPosition= new Vector2(map.ObjectGroups["objects"].Objects["Player"].X - (graphics.PreferredBackBufferWidth/2), map.ObjectGroups["objects"].Objects["Player"].Y - (graphics.PreferredBackBufferHeight/2));

The Draw Method

Add the following to the draw method to draw the map and hero to the screen.

If you already have spriteBatch.Begin() or spriteBatch.End() then just place the middle line inbetween your lines.

spriteBatch.Begin();
map.Draw(spriteBatch, new Rectangle(0, 0, GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Width, GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Height), viewportPosition);
spriteBatch.End();

At this point your project should run an display your map centered onto the player.

Falling

In a platformer, the first thing you want to program is the falling logic, because you need to be able to land on a platform. To do this create a new method called CheckGround. This method should accept an integer for speed, because i want to check ground only when the player is falling and not jumping up. This method will return an integer for the number of overlapping pixels, we can then adjust the players position:

public int CheckGround(int speed)
        {
            int temp = 0, temp1 = 0;

            if (speed > 0)
            {

            }

            //return largest y collision overlap
            if (temp < temp1)
                return temp;
            else 
                return temp1;
        }

The if statement above is to only check for ground when the player is falling, speed would be negative if the player was moving up the screen. The two variables temp & temp1 will be used to calculate the number of pixels the player overlaps the tile on the bottom left and bottom right corners. So we first need to get the exact coordinates for these corners:

public int CheckGround(int speed)
        {
            int temp = 0, temp1 = 0;

            if (speed > 0)
            {
                //get exact coordinates for each corner
                Vector2 lb = new Vector2(map.ObjectGroups["Objects"].Objects["Player"].X,
                    map.ObjectGroups["Objects"].Objects["Player"].Y + map.ObjectGroups["Objects"].Objects["Player"].Height);
                Vector2 rb = lb+ new Vector2( map.ObjectGroups["Objects"].Objects["Player"].Width,0);
            }

            //return largest y collision overlap
            if (temp < temp1)
                return temp;
            else 
                return temp1;

        }

Now we need to work out which tile the player is on, this can be done by dividing the X & Y by the tilePixel. We can use these to get the tile value for this tile. If the tile value is 0 then no tile exists on that part of the map. If a tile is present, we need to workout how much the player overlaps the tile, this is then passed back to move the player this number of pixels:

public int CheckGround(int speed)
        {
            int temp = 0, temp1 = 0;

            if (speed > 0)
            {
                //get exact coordinates for each corner
                Vector2 lb = new Vector2(map.ObjectGroups["Objects"].Objects["Player"].X,
                    map.ObjectGroups["Objects"].Objects["Player"].Y + map.ObjectGroups["Objects"].Objects["Player"].Height);
                Vector2 rb = lb+ new Vector2( map.ObjectGroups["Objects"].Objects["Player"].Width,0);

                //check left bottom
                int tile = collision.GetTile((int)lb.X / tilePixel, (int)lb.Y / tilePixel);
                if (tile != 0)
                {
                    temp = (((int)lb.Y / tilePixel) * tilePixel) - (int)lb.Y;
                }
               
            }

            //return largest y collision overlap
            if (temp < temp1)
                return temp;
            else 
                return temp1;

        }

The temp calculation above works out the top position of the tile, the (int) casting removes any partial tiles in the calculation.

Finally we need to check the other corner, to complete our CheckGround method:

public int CheckGround(int speed)
        {
            int temp = 0, temp1 = 0;

            if (speed > 0)
            {
                //get exact coordinates for each corner
                Vector2 lb = new Vector2(map.ObjectGroups["Objects"].Objects["Player"].X,
                    map.ObjectGroups["Objects"].Objects["Player"].Y + map.ObjectGroups["Objects"].Objects["Player"].Height);
                Vector2 rb = lb+ new Vector2( map.ObjectGroups["Objects"].Objects["Player"].Width,0);

                //check left bottom
                int tile = collision.GetTile((int)lb.X / tilePixel, (int)lb.Y / tilePixel);
                if (tile != 0)
                {
                    temp = (((int)lb.Y / tilePixel) * tilePixel) - (int)lb.Y;
                }
               
                //check right bottom
                tile = collision.GetTile((int)rb.X / tilePixel, (int)rb.Y / tilePixel);
                if (tile != 0)
                {
                    temp1 = (((int)rb.Y / tilePixel) * tilePixel) - (int)rb.Y;
                }
            }

            //return largest y collision overlap
            if (temp < temp1)
                return temp;
            else 
                return temp1;

        }

Using CheckGround

In the Game1.cs create the following variables:

        int speed = 4;
        bool onGround = false;

Now in the update method add the following code:

            if (!onGround)
            {
                speed++;
            }

            map.ObjectGroups["Objects"].Objects["Player"].Y = map.ObjectGroups["Objects"].Objects["Player"].Y + (speed);

            int CheckY = CheckGround(speed);

            if (CheckY != 0)
            {
                onGround = true;
                map.ObjectGroups["Objects"].Objects["Player"].Y = map.ObjectGroups["Objects"].Objects["Player"].Y + CheckY;
            }
            else
                onGround = false;

This code keeps adding to the speed to make the player fall faster, the movement is applied by adding speed to the current Y value. We then check if we have collided with a tile. If we have collided with a tile we set onGround to be true and correct the Y coordinate of the player.

At this point you should be able to test your game, the playing character should fall to the platform below and stay on top of the platform.

Jumping

Jumping should be straight forward, we are going to prevent multiple jumps by counting how many times the player has jumped since the player was last on the ground. To do this we need to declare a new variable in the Game1.cs:

int jumpCount = 0;

Now in the update method add the following to jump everytime the space bar is pressed:

            if (Keyboard.GetState().IsKeyDown(Keys.Space))
            {
                if (jumpCount <= 1)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("jump " + jumpCount);
                    speed = -16;
                    jumpCount++;
                }
             }

The jump works by setting speed to a minus value, the previous code will keep adding 1 to this so that the jump will eventually be a fall. The jumpCount should restrict you to a double jump.

Now we need to change the if statement in the update method to:

            if (CheckY != 0)
            {
                onGround = true;
                
                jumpCount = 0;
            }
            else
                onGround = false;

This resets the jumpCount everytime we land on a tile.

Moving Left or Right

To move left or right add the following to the update method of Game1.cs:

            if (Keyboard.GetState().IsKeyDown(Keys.Z))
            {
                map.ObjectGroups["Objects"].Objects["Player"].X -= 3;
            }

            if (Keyboard.GetState().IsKeyDown(Keys.X))
            {
                map.ObjectGroups["Objects"].Objects["Player"].X += 3;
            }

This should work at this point, however we don't check for collisions with any tiles, this will not be blocked by any tiles. So we need to check if we have collided with a tile on the left and right.

I have used the same logic as CheckGround, ie to check each corner and work out how many pixels the character overlaps by. This can then be used to adjust the X position of the player.

public int CheckLeft()
        {
            int temp = 0, temp1 = 0;

            //get exact coordinates for each corner
            Vector2 lt = new Vector2(map.ObjectGroups["Objects"].Objects["Player"].X, map.ObjectGroups["Objects"].Objects["Player"].Y);
            Vector2 lb = lt + new Vector2(0, map.ObjectGroups["Objects"].Objects["Player"].Height -1);

            //check left Top
            int tile = collision.GetTile((int)lt.X / tilePixel, (int)lt.Y / tilePixel);
            if (tile != 0)
            {
                temp = (((int)lt.X / tilePixel) * tilePixel) - (int)lt.X;
            }

            //check left bottom
            tile = collision.GetTile((int)lb.X / tilePixel, (int)lb.Y / tilePixel);
            if (tile != 0)
            {
                temp1 = (((int)lb.X / tilePixel) * tilePixel) - (int)lb.X;
            }

            if (temp < temp1)
                return temp;
            else
                return temp1;
        }

And also this for the CheckRight:

public int CheckRight()
        {
            int temp = 0, temp1 = 0;
            //get exact coordinates for each corner
            Vector2 rt = new Vector2(map.ObjectGroups["Objects"].Objects["Player"].X + map.ObjectGroups["Objects"].Objects["Player"].Width,
                map.ObjectGroups["Objects"].Objects["Player"].Y);
            Vector2 rb = rt + new Vector2(0, map.ObjectGroups["Objects"].Objects["Player"].Height-1);

            //check Right Top
            int tile = collision.GetTile((int)rt.X / tilePixel, (int)rt.Y / tilePixel);
            if (tile != 0)
            {
                temp = (((int)rt.X / tilePixel) * tilePixel) - (int)rt.X;
            }

            //check right bottom
            tile = collision.GetTile((int)rb.X / tilePixel, (int)rb.Y / tilePixel);
            if (tile != 0)
            {
                temp1 = (((int)rb.X / tilePixel) * tilePixel) - (int)rb.X;
            }

            if (temp<temp1)
                return temp;
            else 
                return temp1;
        }

Using CheckRight & CheckLeft

In the Update method of Game1.cs, change the code to move the player left and right to make it the following:

            int CheckX = 0;
            if (Keyboard.GetState().IsKeyDown(Keys.Z))
            {
                map.ObjectGroups["Objects"].Objects["Player"].X -= 3;
                if (CheckLeft() != 0)
                    CheckX = 3;
            }

            if (Keyboard.GetState().IsKeyDown(Keys.X))
            {
                map.ObjectGroups["Objects"].Objects["Player"].X += 3;
                if (CheckRight()!=0)
                    CheckX = -3;
            }

We move the player by 3 pixels, so once moved check if this overlaps the tile. If it does set checkX which is then used to undo the move by adding this code after the two if statements above:

map.ObjectGroups["Objects"].Objects["Player"].X = map.ObjectGroups["Objects"].Objects["Player"].X + CheckX;

You should now have a game which allows you to move, jump and land on platforms, test it and try out the movement.