[pre-alpha]test

Hi, I've been working on my first flash game ever! Just need a little but of feedback on it: enemy movement, player movement, shoot speed, etc... I'm nowhere near done but I just don't want to be overlooking anything. Anything that strikes you let me know. I'm also having some problem where once in a while the game not freezes but I think if you are shooting lots of bullets an enemy might get killed offscreen and you can't proceed to the next set of enemies, which I am trying to resolve right now. If you play through the few sets of enemies which all look the same you will reach an inventory system where you can purchase new weapons. Anyways if you have nothing bad to say, a pat on the back is always nice. Just needed some outside opinions...

Controls:
Arrow Keys move you
Spacebar shoots(holding down will shoot slower than jabbing it)
B Key will change weapons, if you have bought new ones.

anyways here it is...
here

Thanks a lot!

ChaseNYC

EDIT: I've enabled a few weapons so they can be tested without having to purchase them, just use the B key to cycle through your weapons!
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Leave some feedback!

It looks like a start. I don't know how much you want me to comment because I'm sure a lot of it you will fix overtime.

• Make the background black
• change enemy bullet graphic
• I didn't understand what the red circles were after I shot the enemy ship
• Less life
• The enemies ship movement was a little funny sometimes. Sometimes it would just mirror your position.

That's just a few things I saw right off the bat. Keep working

I guess I should have said more in my first post...

Graphics
The graphics should be completely disregarded... they are basically just there so I can see what is going on.

Enemies
Basically the game has an engine that interprets information at the beginning... for example the first set of enemies has all the information held like this:

Code:

---

//eSet(totalEn, EnOnScreen, EnemyHP, enemySpeed, enemySpeedP, enemySpeedx, enemySpeedxP, movement type, shooting type, money)
var Set1:eSet = new eSet(10, 3, 3, 5, 2, 4, 1, 0, 1, 25);

---

so basically this enemy: you need to kill 10 before next set is called, 3 enemies will be on screen at a time, speed ones are obvious, movement type decides whether it moves on its own or follows you, shooting type means this enemy will shoot only when it is lined up with you, and when you kill it you will get 25 added to your money. I will be adding more attributes to this class such as damage and other stuff...

I am planning to add more enemy movement types but I'm curious what you think of the current two, if they feel realistic or need to be adjusted? I guess TheLostGuru got an odd feeling by the ones that follow you... Any suggestions of how to make the following ones feel more realistic?

the fact that when u hit an enemy and it becomes a red ball is just a poor place holder for damaged ship and wont make the ship move slighty right in the end.

Weapons
I have added some weapons, namely Heat Seaking and Exploder which ingame can be selected by hitting the B key to cycle through. I am curious to what people think of these weapons? if there are any bugs with them spotted... just any general comments would be greatly obliged...

hmm, if more notation is needed i will just edit this post...
edit: i've editted the original post some but I will try and stick to editting this post from now on.

Looks like the enemies are currently spawning on the stage. It may look better if you create them outside and make them move into stage.

fixed, thanks for spotting that tony, I actually had done that on purpose because I thought they might have been getting shot while offscreen and causing a bug. Problem fixed...

A lot has been added/changed I would really like some thoughts on the game... It is really very early in its process but I need to start hearing some feedback, to be honest a little bit upset with the amount of responses.

[off-topic] anyone feel like the games forum has been kind of dead since forums broke?

You're probably not getting much responses because it's a "pre-alpha" version. People prefer seeing things that are a bit more finished. It's fun, but there's not that much there yet to comment on. Good start though.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ChaseNYC

Code:

---

//eSet(totalEn, EnOnScreen, EnemyHP, enemySpeed, enemySpeedP, enemySpeedx, enemySpeedxP, movement type, shooting type, money)
var Set1:eSet = new eSet(10, 3, 3, 5, 2, 4, 1, 0, 1, 25);

---

---

I don't want to criticice - if it works, it works - but I think that's an odd way to do things. If I were you, I would normalize the data a bit more - ie, seperate the enemies from the levels (sets). That way, you could easily add different types of enemies to one set, or re-use enemy types in multiple levels without having to type their hp and speed. Not sure if you'd want to have the movement type per enemy or per set.
(Plus, always use uppercases for the first letter of a classname, and lowercases on variable names).

Something like :

Code:

---

var enemy1:EnemyType=new EnemyType(hp1,speed2,...);
var enemy2:EnemyType=new EnemyType(hp2,speed2,...);

var set1:EnemySet=new EnemySet([enemy1],totalEnemies1,enemiesOnScreen1);
var set2:EnemySet=new EnemySet([enemy1,enemy2],totalEnemies2,enemiesOnScreen2);

---

It's just a tip, do with it what you want, but I care a lot about data normalization :)


Edit : you could also just use Objects to create enemy types and enemy sets. That way, it's clearer what all the numbers stand for. Example :

Code:

---

var enemy1:Object={hp:3,speed:3};
var enemy2:Object={hp:4,speed:6};

var set1:Object={enemies:[enemy1],total:10,onScreen:3};
var set1:Object={enemies:[enemy1,enemy2],total:10,onScreen:5};

---

Well actually today I moved back into focusing on enemies/levels and I realized what you pointed out makes a lot more sense I'm just having a little bit of trouble figuring out exactly how to do it... how would the enemyset store information as to how to spawn the monsters like if I wanted to call 2 of enemy1 then 2 of enemy 2 then at the same time one of each enemy, I can't seem to figure out the details for seperating enemies and enemywaves...

thank you for the response!

ChaseNYC

Quote:

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how would the enemyset store information as to how to spawn the monsters like if I wanted to call 2 of enemy1 then 2 of enemy 2 then at the same time one of each enemy

---

Could be something like this :

Code:

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var enemy1:Object={hp:3,speed:3};
var enemy2:Object={hp:4,speed:6};

var set1:Object={
        enemyWaves:[
                {
                        time:0, // at the beginning
                        enemies:[enemy1,enemy1]
                },
                {
                        time:50, // after 50 frames or something
                        enemies:[enemy2,enemy2]
                },
                {
                        time:50, // after another 50 frames
                        enemies:[enemy1,enemy2]
                }
        ],
        // any other date for the set
};

---

You'll have to keep an index for the enemyWaves array to keep track where you are in the wave, and some timers etc to indicate when to spawn. Alternatively, you can spawn new enemies from the wave not based on time but only if all current enemies have been killed, that's up to you, or this could something that varies from level to level.

Hope this helps a bit.

hmmm this looks much better, going to be a f***'ing headache to go through and change all the code... guess its time to learn Objects... didn't know classes before this game and now I do, so hopefully the end result will be me understanding objects... i don't know why I've been leaning toward enemies being killed rather than spawning at a certain time, my game is all on one frame, well actually two(inventory is seperate frame) so I don't know how to do it by time persay but I can try and explore that option... any hints on how to do time with only one frame are welcome... thanks so much Fall X for your help! oh, if you know any good object tutorials feel free to let me know what your fav is heheh.

Thanks again!

ChaseNYC

The Object class is just an empty dynamic class, where you can add stuff to as you wish, like this :

Code:

---

var o:Object=new Object();
o.name="MyObject";
o.speed=1;
o.move=function() {
trace("Sorry, too lazy");
}

---

The code above can also be written as :

Code:

---

var o:Object={name:"MyObject",speed:1,move:function() {trace("Sorry, too lazy");}};
// you can still add other properties :
o.lazy=true;

---

I made that o-object in one line, but off course you can split it up over multiple lines as in the examples above.

It's good to code everything in one frame. I would strongly suggest NOT attaching everything to the root, this can cause problems. Create a Game class that extends MovieClip, and make that a container (for both your game's code, and all movieclips). If you want to advance to the next level or something, you can always remove the Game and attach a new one.
As for time based code, in your onEnterFrame just keep a variable that increments and use an if to execute some code when it reaches a certain value. You can also use miliseconds and compare those by using getTime() of the Date class.

Sorry, don't know many tutorials, I knew OO before I started doing Flash, I just use the manuals or google whenever I'm stuck.

Quote:

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I would strongly suggest NOT attaching everything to the root, this can cause problems. Create a Game class that extends MovieClip, and make that a container (for both your game's code, and all movieclips). If you want to advance to the next level or something, you can always remove the Game and attach a new one.

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WAH this sounds really important and but I'm not sure I understand what exactly this means... "Create a Game class that extends MovieClip," don't know what that means... not sure what it means to make that a container...

I think I am going to PM you really quickly after posting this... Thanks for spending all this time helping me!

ChaseNYC

I prefer helping you here in public than in pms because it could possibly help others.

Extending movieclip means creating a class which inherits from the movieclip class. You do it like this :

class Game extends MovieClip {
//...
}

In your fla, you'll have to create a new movieclip (doesn't have to have content), and in the linkage settings there's a field for an AS2 class, type Game there.

Now each time you attach this movieclip (in the ide or through code), it will have the Game class "attached" to it. So it will call it's constructor and you'll be able to write all your code for that mc in that class file. Yay! :)

With a container, I just meant that you'd attach all other movieclips to this mc, and you write your main loop in an onEnterFrame inside the class.

Makes any sense?

Anyway, I'm off to bed, it's 4:14am here :)

So if I wanted to do that I would take all the code off the inital frame and put it in the MovieClip's initial frame? then whenever I have a code that refers to what used to be on the main first frame as _root i would just change to Game? I am not sure I understand but that is how I'm hearing what you are saying... maybe if you have a sample fla that I could see? obviously not anything that is private,,, thanks again, sleep well!

ChaseNYC

sorry I'm so ummm flash incompetent...

Here you have some tutorials regarding OOP and classes, I haven't read them yet, so I don't know how useful and good they really are...

http://flashscript.biz/MX2004/OOP_tutorial/lesson1.html
http://www.kirupa.com/developer/oop/index.htm
http://www.kirupa.com/developer/oop2/AS2OOPindex.htm

Also, there are some books out there that will help you, for example:

"Object-Oriented ActionScript For Flash 8"
"Object-Oriented Programming with ActionScript 2.0"

By the way... sorry for the off-topic (or sort-of) I didn't know about the object class and it caught my attention, could you explain a bit more of it, Fall_X? also, is it anything like using _prototype and other functions similar to it, used in AS1 OOP? does it support private, static, etc methods?

Hope it won't bother to make this question on a thread not originally meant to ask these things... I'll make a new thread regarding this if prefered.

ummm maybe I'm really confused but aren't the object classes that he was talking about the same thing as OOP?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ChaseNYC

ummm maybe I'm really confused but aren't the object classes that he was talking about the same thing as OOP?

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Well... Flash contains its own classes with their own functions... for example BitmapData; Object is one of them.

So... it's not like creating your own classes in .as files and importing them in your movies... OOP is more like a concept, dunno, a way of programming, and classes are heavily attached to it...

I don't know if you'll understand what I mean, I don't know how to explain it better... and as I said, I don't know much about OOP in AS 2 either...

okey I made a very simpel test with class open the .as and there you have the most basic stuff that oop have.
oh and it is flash 8

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ChaseNYC

ummm maybe I'm really confused but aren't the object classes that he was talking about the same thing as OOP?

---

OOP is all about classes and objects. And since the Object class is, well, a class, it is off course OOP. However, the OOP concept is a lot broader, Object is just one class.
The main advantage of Object is that you can use the {} syntax to instantiate objects from this class, which can be a bit more readable. So for things that mainly store data (level data, enemy data, etc), I would use the Object class. For things that need a bit more code, or inheritance, I'd make my own classes.

For instance :

var level:Level=new Level(1,2,3,4);

Could be, using the Object class :

var level:Object={number:1,speed:2,enemies:3,bonuses:4 };

As you can see, it now becomes clear at first glance what all the numbers are used for.

I sent you a pm with a link to a zip. It has an example where you can see how I usually set things up. It may help you a bit.

EDIT : heck, I'll add the link here, maybe someone else will want to take a look. Made it in mx2004 so anyone should be able to open it :

http://www.gamesquid.com/temp_/FrameworkExample.zip

this looks amazing and definitely how my code should be done... I just woke up and I'm a little out of it but my immediate question is that when I open your game.fla and try to hit test movie it gives me some errors:

Code:

---

**Error** Symbol=Player, layer=Layer 1, frame=1:Line 1: The class 'Player' could not be loaded.

**Error** Symbol=Exit, layer=Layer 1, frame=1:Line 1: The class 'Exit' could not be loaded.

**Error** Symbol=Bonus, layer=Layer 1, frame=1:Line 1: The class 'Bonus' could not be loaded.

**Error** Symbol=GameController, layer=Layer 2, frame=1:Line 1: The class 'GameController' could not be loaded.

**Error** Symbol=Game, layer=Layer 1, frame=1:Line 1: The class 'Game' could not be loaded.

---

not sure why this is happening but I'm probably gonna get back at you with some questions, or back on this thread with some questions, maybe someone else will be able to help so you don't have to walk me through everything...

thanks so much,

ChaseNYC

You probably opened the fla straight out of the zip, and it won't be able to find the .as files. Unzip them all in one directory.

Nice, I have to go soon but I've been toying with it some, figured out a way to make the bonus appear in different places for the three levels. by inserting

Code:

---

this.levels=[
{type:"Game",number:1, bonusx:200},

---

and then later on putting:

Code:

---

this.game.bonus._x=level.bonusx;

---

so this.levels is or is NOT one of the objects we have been talking about above? You called it an array in comments and it looks different than the code above but seems to be able to work in the same way as an object if I'm not mistaken. Anyways thanks a lot... going to have a lot of fun fooling around with this. I can very quickly see how this would be of great use to me.

ChaseNYC

level's isn't of type Object, it's an array. But each element in the array is an Object.
So levels[0] is an Object, levels[1] is an object, etc.
Basically, stuff between [ and ] makes an array. Stuff between [ and ] with name:value pairs makes an Object.

Code:

---

var someArray:Array=[ // an array containing
        {x:1,y:10}, // an Object
        {x:10,y:5} // and another Object
];

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