TSO Game Plan. Warm up.

[TSO]

Posting this here for assistance in learning G-E and since zxcvbnm suggested I try and setup a post like this to be most effective.

To warm up to game-editor I want to start by remaking a game called Pang.



Primarily Requires:
1.Main menu
2.Main level and Gui. (score, lives, possible miniature picture of current weapon, timer. The main level box.)

3.Player who's weapon is a ranged:
Starting harpoon gun [straight up], machine gun[wider coverage/spread], side/angled gun[45* angle shots], laser gun[straight up maybe bounces off mirrors], ect.

4.Music, sound effects, sound controls.

Secondary objectives.
5.Potential hot seat co-op?
6.Level selection
7.Saving?

Progress: (semi colour coded)
1.Main menu:
Following the tutorial for a main menu it's done.
Not quite sure how it'll load my level though. Do i make separate GED and merge it?
Build it all in one GED?

I Just set it to load level and name of my first level. No idea how it'll find it.
Browsing tutorials and forum search hasn't turned up any clear directions or resources on the matter.
and built in tutorials do seem to be lacking in some informative details or design purposes of it's features.

2.Main level and Gui:
Requires me to design levels in one big main box with many balls of different sizes continuously bouncing around.
First problem I ran into. Balls leave the box if they bounce just the right way.
Attempting to build the main box differently then using tiles leads to crashes or weird looking walls with gaps I never put in them. I'll attached my level resources so hopefully others can run into same problem and use their experience to fix it.

Side Note:
Can't seem to add the bmp files I used. What is accepted?
bmp files are just boxes from tile file side by side about 12 long. Enough to cover each side and maybe extend off screen. (default G-E view resolution if it matters.)

3-x: Not working on until I get initial two setup.

Final design should hopefully look as good as or better then this:


I can update the thread for problems I run into or Make new threads for issues. Which would be more effective?

[zxcvbnm]

Excellent set-up and very clear wording . Lets get started !!
Now lets say you have the load game command to level 1 . You make another GED and name it level 1 . That way when you click on homescreen start button , it will open level 1 . Note it will open level 1 on the exported version , not the GED.
Now I personally dont use tiles . I use the clone command and place my sprites accordingly .
Also the game sprites that I use are PNG files . The reason is PNG files dont use as much memory space as BMP files.
To answer your ball movement question , I made a pong game that had really good ball movement . Its in the game demo section with source code .
Yes You can keep all questions reguarding this game here and we will be happy to assist you.

[TSO]

Progress: (semi colour coded)
1.Main menu:
Alright done for the time.

2.Main level and Gui:
Ball corner bouncing off map fixed.
I tiled along one side. Cloned and it wouldn't snap so i just did my best hand placement on right side.
Tile bottom clone to top.
Maybe not your method but it seemed to work.

Sidenotes:
Ball seemed to slow down from bounces. Saw something similar in your pong. I set it's physical response to walls to about 1.2 velocity multiplier and 1.2 collision I think. Seems to work fine now.
Cloned a extra ball and spaced them unevenly to produce some uneven bouncing.
Can't seem to set separate speeds or starting direction. script is shared. Just make a new actor for that?

Hard drive failures or system shutdowns... something... Backing up files and shifting priority things to new hard drive took up a day or two worth of time...
Used platformer tutorial to drop my dummy character in place. I think code for moving left is wrong. corrected it.
Also a lot of steps seem.... misleading on what to do. "Clear button, or clear again"?

EDIT: Forgot. Character using platform tutorial for some reason won't bump into side walls.
physical response dosn't work or givin code. must have forgot something.

GUI:
Set to put together a GUI next.
Not sure I want to have my character shooting at the balls yet.
I got pictures ready I just don't know how to implement them.
I'll take a look at incursion demo I think it is... Maybe I'll figure it out partially.

Point me to a guide or give me some steps. I could probably set up some variables to count the score, lives and what weapon(s) to have active.
Not sure about the timer or how the code connects it all just yet.

EDIT: Posting is getting annoying... some bugs or something in typing in a message because my keyboard seems locked out or something.

I looked at incursions script code and animations and think I got the idea to make a GUI sorta...

Start designing and see to scaling game size to fit it all decently.

[zxcvbnm]

Ok with the score code I give you an example

you need these 3 actors
bullet
ball
score

lets say you have bullet actor hit the ball. Lets say everytime the bullet hits the ball you score a little. The code would be like this
click on bullet
click on events
click on collison // on any side of // ball // click add action // script editor //
score.textNumber=score.textNumber+20;

click immediate action

Ok the only thing you have to remember is to put the score actor as a number by selecting text in the actor control panel. I tried to make the tutorials as clear as possible . My tutorials are under the name krenisis . If you dont understand the code I just put here just tell me but thats as simple as I can put it.

[TSO]

Progress: (semi colour coded)
1.Main menu: Done
2.Main level and Gui:
Set the first score code. Seemed rather simple.
Doing a pretty bad lives count code but I think it'll work.
And if it does I can set current weapon in use.

Leaves the timer?
Still haven't fixed the side wall collision. Still kinda baffled about it.
Try rechecking events but should be labeled correctly.

Side note:
Sometimes when I end a test run in game mode, after leaping off screen or something.
When the editor opens up a random ball is seen continuing on course and flies off screen.another game test will then sometimes be missing a ball. Although the editor may show both still.
Usually I have saved a copy before testing so i just don't save after the glitch happens...

EDIT: Ok I over estimated my understanding of variables.
I made a global variable with
lifecount=3;
name: livesleft

type interger
name: livesleft

With
player actor collides with a ball lifecount-=1;
following lessons learned from platformer tutorial.

Game mode seems to have lives always set at 0 so I'm stumped by the editor's syntax for this.

I can see it coming together a bit now. SS =)
Mind you I'm using place holders.
I got a beta character design that looks a lot better and I'm just working on the game image still.

[TSO]

So I fixed the lives counter... rather pissed that the problem was I used 'create actor' instead of 'draw actor'... took me 3 days to figure that out... and no global was ever needed....

EDIT: shooting is also done although I need to make a cooldown timer for timer.
Also need to turn bullets into a harpoon mechanic.
Done up player character image a little better. Will have to work on players animation.

Need a hand with timer still.
Whiles testing shooting I found a odd glitch between Vertical walls and shooting.
While jumping through vertical wall and massing shots and only when I do this my character gets carried up off screen supposedly to the "roof".the bullet has no collision info nore have i set any on player to the bullet.

Is this some side effect of my vertical collision trying to take effect like horizontal? except of pushing me back sideways it's pushing my character up?

[TSO]

Primarily Requires:
1.Main menu: Done
2.Main level and Gui: Done
3.Player, guns, Enemy (almost forgot):2/4 Done
a.Player:Done
b.Guns: Test shot done.
Harpoon mechanic will be tricky.
-kill the first contact it has with a ball while traveling.
-keep a rope that also kills the ball behind it.
-Shot needs to stick to the ceiling.
-Keep a solid rope behind it.
-kill the first contact it has with a ball.
-disappear after contact
-also disappear after some time.
-no extra shots until the first is gone.

Machine gun should be easy as well as 45* shot?
Laser will hopefully come after harpoon is figured out.

Could use a hand with timers.
How does game-editor handle counting time?
There a special function like I used for score?
What about cooldown time in code I have to make a variable count down in code and execute at 0?

[zxcvbnm]

Ok here is a timer , tell me if this is what your looking for. If you need help understanding how it works just let me know.

[zxcvbnm]

Ok here is a one shot demo . You can only shoot once , then you will have to move over one space to the right to shoot again. If you have any questions or need help with this demo let me know.

[TSO]

I've looked at them both.

From what i read.
for the timer GED
time.textNumber is the timer variable?
It would access the current time displayed?

And looks like it increases counter of time every 500miliseconds? so like every half second it counts? (assuming 1000ms=1second)
There any way to adjust that speed if I need?

[zxcvbnm]

I've looked at them both.

From what i read.
for the timer GED
time.textNumber is the timer variable?
It would access the current time displayed?[/quote']

Ok textNumber is in the variables/functions list . Yoy place the name of your actor // then a period // then the function/variable textNumber.

[quote='TSO']
And looks like it increases counter of time every 500miliseconds? so like every half second it counts? (assuming 1000ms=1second)
There any way to adjust that speed if I need?

Yes you can change the speed if you wish by creating another timer. Do you know how to create timers ?
Also I would like to thank you for sticking with this project , as long as you stick with it , we at game editor will continue to help you.

[TSO]

Well if anything this is a demo game project.
I figure if I can finish this I can set up just about any 2d game I'd imagine on game editor.

Which I guess should lead to the question is there any copyright issues I should know of if I'm interested in making a retail game?
I don't see a copyright page on main or forum.

Love the amount of progress I've made compared to Novashell. I couldn't get past the box and ball part.
Given my hardrive don't fail I should be quite busy adding in all the weapons and timers and other such 'rules' for a bit.
Thx for the last bits of information I was looking for.

[zxcvbnm]

As long as you dont use copywritten graphics or names , you have nothing to worry about. What platform you looking to get into?

[TSO]

For a start I was thinking PC.
Make a couple free 2d games/demos and setup some sorta donations link.
Slap together a website for it all.
Then have extra-features/full games for a price.

Nothing to fancy. Just a warm up.


Harpoon cooldown Mechanic
Trouble with combining single shot with cooldown timer.
If I hold down firebutton it fires a single shot.
If I tap it over and over more shots fire though with no regard to my if statements it seems.

Actors:
Player
Timer
Variables:
Hcooling
cool


Player:
if(Hcooling==0)//Harpoon cooling?
{
CreateActor("harpoon", "Harpoon", "(none)", "(none)", 0, 200, false); //take shot
Hcooling==1; //no more shots / Cooldown
}



Timer:
//cool==0; //set cooldown timer?

if (Hcooling==1)//cooling set?
{

cool+=1;//increase cooldown counter?


if (cool>=10)//10 seconds of cooling done?
{
cool==0;//reset cooldown counter
Hcooling==0;//turn cooldown off
}


}


Side notes:

Learning every event/function seems to have a code counterpart.
I'd like to maybe have a list of the code counterparts with details as to what subfuctions do if you can point me to one.
(Repeating events, what selecting timers actor does? curious if there is a slightly more detailed source of information then what editor provides.)
If not I guess I can work my own way around.
Might save crowding actor events into single scripteditor events such as collision info and such.
I got like 6 collision events I could probably have all pasted under one script I was thinking.



Old data not replaced with new data (bug?):
To help bring out what i now realize are pretty dark coloured characters and weapons I've made I put up a white background.
I found it too bright, so i took the old image and paint-can filled it with a sorta dark navy.
continued on working on cooldown code and setting up some new enemies to spawn.

Save game reload to make sure everything was saved but certain animations seem to reset to old graphics.
The most obvious I've seen now is the background. It loads up a old white background kept in 'data' instead of saving the new navy background kept in 'art' into 'data'.

Same thing happens with a bullet actor 'harpoon'.
I used black and greys which don't show well in the editor and made a new purple-ish graphic.
So I deleted the old grey graphic before browsing and selecting new purple one, Editor crashed but seemed to keep the change after.

This seems to be a reoccurring problem with editor when I attempt to change actor animations or switch to newer graphics.
I'm working around it but unless your not the creator perhaps i should make a bug report?

[zxcvbnm]

Ok you said your game is file associating with old animation data. Here are some steps
1) Delete the animations you dont need .
2) Make sure to read your code over , make sure your not calling the old animation to play .
3) After you have done step 1 and 2 , delete the animations from the garbage bin of the computer. Yes game editor can read deleted items in the garbage bin.
4) Yes I am just a regular user of game editor , so you can file a bug report in support forum. That way the next version of game editor will be better.

As far as the cooldown timer , I am trying to visualize what your doing. I never did one before , but I try and see if I can make it work.