Workflow
- 1. Level Design Workflow I would like to make a 2D side scrolling shoot em’ up game with a space theme. It will feature a keyboard controlled player and randomly generated waves of enemies. First of all, I needed to create a sprite for my character. I chose a robot sphere to fit the space theme and saved it as a PNG file. Next, I had to edit the “hit box” and center the sprite. This is so that when the sprite is inserted into a level, it is centered exactly where I place it and not in the nearby tile. I then had to make an object for my player. To do this I clicked the “objects” tab and selected “Create Object”. This will give the character its properties such as being solid.
- 2. Now I need to add events to the character. This includes what keys are pressed to move the character and what happens if he touches a wall, etc. To do this I added a step event and selected the “code” option. This also allows my player to move around the level. I then typed in the code for the player to move, without this code, the player would not be able to move at all and would simply sit in the middle of the screen. I found the coding slightly difficult due to the many specific terms and phases that are required.
- 3. Now that the character has been programed to move, I will test the game to make sure that the code works; but first I need to make a level to test the code in. To do this, I clicked the “rooms” tab and created a new room. Now that I have a level to test my character in, I can check to see if my code is working as it should be by clicking the small green arrow on the upper toolbar. After loading the game, I tested the code by moving the character in all directions and found that the code works exactly as it should do. I will now make a background, while not essential; this will make the game significantly more interesting. First though, im going to change the settings so that the player cannot move off screen.
- 4. Now the player cannot control the character off screen and the player will always stay inside the level. I chose to make this my background to keep to the “Space battle” theme. The blue background will act as a barrier to stop the player from leaving the level. Next I’m going to insert this background into my game. I now realised that if I want to make my background scroll, I’ll have to remove the blue walls on the left and right edges and added a few more details to make the game more interesting.
- 5. Now ill will make the level scroll forward, and I have also redesigned the background yet again. After Changing these settings, I tested the game to make sure is works as it should. Next im going to add some depth to the game by adding another background that will move slower than those in the foreground.
- 6. This is the scene from my game now. There are two backgrounds moving at different speeds. I’m now going to add a particle effect to the player to give it a more interesting visual. This code will create particles whenever it is applied to another object, im going to apply it to my character.
- 7. This code makes my character produce the particles. I have tested the game again to confirm that it works as it should. Now I want to make a laser for my character. I’ll start by making the sprite and the mask. Here I have made a sprite for the laser and made its mask, next I need to make my character fire the laser, so I will create the code for the lasers movement and what it does if it hits an enemy. This is the only bit of code I need to make the laser move after it is spawned.
- 8. This allows the player to shoot the laser when the “enter” key is pressed. I tested the game to make sure this worked again. Now im going to add sound. To save time im going to download some pre-made sound effects from the college. This is the code I used for the sound, now im going to make an enemy. I also changed some of the sprites to be meteors instead of a robot.
- 9. I have made enemies and given them a attack formation, they will spawn randomly after a certain amount of time has passed. Now that this is done im going to give them lasers and code them to be destroyed when hit by a the players projectile. I have now given the enemy lasers and set them to fire at the player. This was pretty easy since I had already programmed projectiles into my game. I now would like to add health/shield mechanics to my game
- 10. As you can see in the top left of the screen, there is now a health bar displayed that decreases by 25% each time the player is hit by an enemy laser. However now, I must make it so that if the player health becomes 0, they lose the game and it restarts. Now whenever the player’s shield reaches zero, they will die and tea me will restart. Now I will add the final component to my game, which is a score system.
- 11. Now that the points system is in the game, the game is finished, I will again retexture some of the objects but nothing new will be added.