Coding a Scroller

Usually multiple rectangles, or tiles, in the foreground. Many games will have one or more scrolling background layers, which are generally either one big image, or one smaller image repeated over and over. Just look at a game like Super Mario Bros. There was one background, with clouds and mountains, then the foreground layer comprised of blocks and bricks of different types.

More sophisticated side-scrollers make use of multiple background layers which scroll at different speeds. This is a technique called parallax. The layer representing the very furthest background objects (clouds, mountains, whatever) scrolls the most slowly, while the nearest layer scrolls rapidly, as rapidly as the main character can move.

For the top layer that the character actually interacts with--ie, the bricks, rocks, pipes, etc.-- the composition is usually tile-based rather than as larger images scrolled in parallax, the level being constructed of a large array of small rectangles, where each rectangle or grid location can be empty space, a brick, a breakable brick, or whatever.

Google for parallax scrolling to learn more.


Golem

---

Blender--The Gimp--Python--Lua--SDL
Nethack--Crawl--ADOM--Angband--Dungeondweller