Composition and the camera
Keep meaningful content off the edge: other screens put the edge elsewhere, and a phone cutout can cover a projectile. Camera shake is good for one bar, fast spin and sharp zoom make people sick
Every screen is different
The level is built on a 16:9 monitor. On a 20:9 phone it shows more in width and less in height, on a 4:3 tablet the other way round. An object that sat exactly on the edge ends up either deep inside the frame or outside it
The Screen Limit track sets how the visible area is constrained:
- not at all
- a fixed aspect ratio
- a range of aspect ratios
Fixed is the most predictable. Everyone sees exactly what you saw, but other screens get bars at the edges.
Choose deliberately. "Not at all" is a choice too, and it means you do not know what the player will see.
A new empty level or a level from an audio file already starts with a fixed 16:9 key on the first frame, unless you untick Pin Screen Aspect when creating it
The game's interface moves out of the unsafe area of the screen, level content does not. The camera frames the level against the whole screen, so a phone cutout can cover a projectile. Keep meaningful content away from the edge
The camera is a tool
The camera is not a backdrop. It has keyframe tracks: Camera Position, Camera Rotation, Camera Zoom, Camera Pivot, Camera Shake
A 15-degree rotation makes a simple pattern hard without a single new object. It breaks every direction the player had got used to
That power works against you too. The camera can make a level impassable, and you will not notice, because you know where to look
Fast rotation, constant shake and sharp zoom make a level physically impossible to finish. Not by difficulty, but by how the player feels. Shake is good for one bar on a drop and unbearable for a minute
Layers
Draw order is relative: an object's layer is summed with the layers of all its parents. If you drag an object to a different parent, what draws over what changes. Even if the layer number was never touched
Keep decoration and danger in different layer ranges. Then decoration will not cover a projectile by accident
Readability beats beauty
A player who did not see a projectile because of decoration is your mistake, not theirs. When you have to choose, cut the decoration