I'm always on the fence as to whether or not I should use tile sets for my GameMaker game backgrounds, or if I should just use the objects which draw the background elements to do it instead.

I don't have pictures to share yet, but in my current project, I have a set of images that frame the edge of the play area. They are made up largely to look like natural rock formations, and so it'd be best if they aren't symmetrical left to right.

These graphics are the only part of the game that could realistically utilize tile sets, but I'm stuck as to whether or not I want to put the effort in to convert them to tiles. This scene will never change in the game, and there won't be multiple rooms that use the same tile set - it'll be once and done.

Still, having them as a tile set will make it much easier for me to make sure the patterns in the edge aren't repeated from one side to the other. And I will then let GameMaker handle whether or not to draw them, as opposed to either always drawing them, regardless of whether or not they're in the camera's frame, or rolling my own code to check. And then, on the off chance that I do end up needing to tile another room, I'll have them ready. Hmmm.

Well, I'll return to this soon I suppose. My dev time is just about up for the night, and there's a new season of The Great British Baking Show premiering on Netflix today. TV awaits!