Making the tiles scroll was actually a bit easier than I thought it was going to be, and I feel like I leveled up a bit because this was the first Skeleton Wizard problem I tackled by just rolling up my sleeves and jumping in there, rather than comparing my code to another game that was already doing what I wanted.
I used to be terrified of the word algorithm. To me it evoked graduate-level math teachers scrawling impenetrable glyphs across lecture-hall sized chalkboards. After a few weeks of programming tutorials and books, I finally had a perceptual breakthrough: an algorithm is simply your plan for solving a particular programming problem. When I thought I was just trudging angrily between my cubicle and the cafeteria, muttering to myself about why the damn tiles won't line up properly, and scaring small children . . what a was actually doing was developing algorithms!
So for the tile and background scrolling behaviors I devised a system that I figure is probably at least as old as Mario, and may not be optimal but it works: The player is always in one of three "zones", or vertical sections of the screen. If the player is in the center section, the wizard moves freely. When the player enters one of the left or right side sections, the wizard stops moving and the tiles move instead. Many tweaks were required to get the behaviors I wanted, but after another few days of lunch-break muttering I found the proper code to make the player interact with the environment in a way that feels pleasing.
If I didn't know any better I'd think this was starting to look like a game . . . is it time to add bad guys already?
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