Klik coding/game design tips:

After my few years in programming and klik (well, only one in klik, but you got the picture), I decided to put down a few tips here.

#1: Shrink (or crop) your sprites
ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT IF YOU DON'T USE FINE DETECTION!... Of course, if you want balance, and not improved speed, don't shrink (or crop), your smaller characters will get the advantage; but other than that, shrink (or crop). They will cut of a few kilobytes per active object and lots of times it can be appreciated.
Example: Once, editing a sprite on BWF (Buggie Wrestling Federation), I shrunk (cropped) all of one character's frames... it cut of around 12-20kb... for one character one one frame!
Of course, a drawback is that you always have to reposition the hot spot... if you're not extremely lazy, though, this shouldn't be a problem...

#2: Code Re-use
Astro Ghost and Ale Pong took me about the same time to make, but Astro Ghost had around double it's levels with around 30... it also had a lot more lines of code (50 something to never more than 20)... what was the time-saving factor? CODE-REUSE!
Tis techinique can save you loads of time, especially if used with levels... basically, you copy and paste the code (or level) to save time... then, of course, you edit it to suit your own needs.
Any problems? Yes... that's why you shouldn't use it for everything: Examples: Numerous bugs have to re-fixed in every level... which you probably could catch only in the end with code re-use (while you'd find out without it)... also, major changes to something, aka custom platform movement, will take a lot more work to repair...

#3: Use groups
I'll admit, I under use groups, but they are extremely useful. When you want to deactivate an entire list of events, grouping makes it done in one line of code... All I can say about groups.

#4: Edit your sprites
And this is important. Rarely be satsified with your first draft, lots of things could probably improve it... This was a fault of mine in Astro Ghost, where I kept the first climbing animation (which was a crazy looking piece of crap)... eventually, I edited it, and it looked loads better... Lesson: Try to find improvements in your sprites...

#5: Motivation
Motivation runs out quickly, so always try to find new sources... I'd say my problem is when it comes to art...
Motivation, in my opinion, can be underrated... I once had a whole lot of motivation, I thought it'd never end, but a month came by, and it was almost all gone; just enough to keep it out of a "temporary" hiatus...

Hopefully these tips are useful to you. Klik out.
Alebrain