Fading stuff is great

Fading stuff.. What kind of stuff i hear ya ask.

Well anything really. One of those distinctive marks between a professional game and a quick amateur game is that nothing fades, or most things do. Some fades can be so fast they only have 1 single intermediate frame of half fade. Others can take ages to fade.

Fading up or down, it does not matter. For impact you usually just pop stuff on the screen, but when it's time for that item to leave it is a bit abrupt to just remove it. Take a look at any game you love and see just how much stuff fades in and out (especially text). Then take a look at a lot of the stuff on Xblig and notice how it pops on and off.

Popping on and off is an option, but it should be regarded as such. Writers should consider this type of thing as a design decision. Personally i love fading (oh i mentioned that already). I have not found a place to overuse it yet haha!

So i just got through fading a few more things on my game, screens and text galore. The one i am most pleased with is the level name that overwrites the level at the start of each one. It popped off and it was ugly. Now it fade quite appropriately and at a nice pace, just in time for the level to start. wonderful. I find it is very complimentary to my 3 stage fading of the background and sprites and overlay Scoreline.

so next time you have items coming on and off in your game, please think of the abruptness and fade.