Creating a Platform Game, Page 3

Animating
Next up we will put in some animations for you character. So, for now, we will put in the idle, run and jump animations. To do this we need to put in some key frames. So, in the timeline of your character MC go to frame 2, and hit F6 (insert New Key Frame). Once you have done that repeat, on frame 3.

Now you should have 3 Key Frames. Frame 1one is your idle frame, so put in your idle image. Once you have done that you need to give the frame a Frame Label, this should be at the bottom left of you screen in the properties tab. Give it the label idle.

Repeat this with the next two frames. On one of the frames draw in your run animation, and give it the frame label run. And on the other frame draw in your jump animation, and give that frame the label jump:

[ give one of your frames the label run ]

Walls
I guess you will want walls now? The easiest, and probably smoothest way is to create a different MC for each side. So, create one MC for your wall to stop right movement and give it the instance name leftblock and another to block left movement and give it the instance name rightblock. They are named the other way around because they are they side they go on if they were together (as seen in the image to your right).

For this to stop them, we need to check if they are touching before we move the character. To do this, we would edit this part of the code:

if (dir == "right" && !_root.leftblock.hitTest(this._x+20, this._y, true)) {

this._x += speed;

_root._x -= speed;

}

if (dir == "left" && !_root.rightblock.hitTest(this._x-20, this._y, true)) {

this._x += speed;

_root._x -= speed;

}

Pick Ups
What type of game is a platform game without any pickups you ask? Well in my opinion, not a very good one.

The easiest way, but not necessarily most CPU efficient, is to make each pick up item check if they are hitting the character, and then, if they are touching set the score up, and unload (remove) that MC.

Here is what you would need to do. First of all, whenever you are setting a number variable up or down, it always needs to be set to a digit prior to that action. So on the actions for the main timeline put:

score.text=0;

Any code that is on the main timeline is equivalent to _root.your_code. For example; that speed code which we have place on the actions is the same as _root.speed=0;. This is because the main timeline is the _root.

-Next up, we need to make our actual pickups. So, draw your pick up. I used a clipart of a gun for example. Select it and press F8 to make it a MC. Now on this we need the following code:

onClipEvent (enterFrame) {

if (this.hitTest(_root.char)) {

_root.score.text += 1;

unloadMovie(this);

}

}

Now, we have all these codes but no visible score. To make a visible score you need to create a dynamic text box. So select the Draw Text tool, draw your text box and set it to dynamic text. Now the text is dynamic we can edit it with our codes, but still it will not show anything because we have not given it a instance name. To do this go to the instance name input text box on the left of the screen down the bottom, and type in score, as that is the name in which we have called it by via script.

Now that we have our score going, you will notice it moves with the screen. You will fix this using the same method we have to stop our character from going off screen, moving it the opposite way to the root timeline. Edit this into your characters code to fix your problem:

if (dir == "right" && !_root.leftblock.hitTest(this._x+20, this._y, true)) {

_root.score._x += speed;

this._x += speed;

_root._x -= speed;

}

if (dir == "left" && !_root.rightblock.hitTest(this._x-20, this._y, true)) {

_root.score._x += speed;

this._x += speed;

_root._x -= speed;

}

To create multiple pickups choose the arrow tool, hold control and click this first pick up and drag away from your first pickup and it should duplicate it. Or, alternatively you can copy and paste your pickups.

Enemies and AI
Enemies are equally important to a good game as pickups. So, lets make one.
Firstly we will need a picture. Place in your enemy picture and make that a MC. Then, with that enemy MC we will need some codes. This is the code for movement (left to right) that we are using in this tutorial:

NOTE

Only Enemies and AI is explained in detail in this tutorial. All other codes are explained more in the FLA only.

onClipEvent (load) {

enemyspeed = 2;

//this sets the speed your enemy will move at

enemystepsright = 0;

//how far it has moved right

enemystepsleft = 0;

//how far it has moved left

enemydir = "left";

//its direction is set left

}

onClipEvent (enterFrame) {

if (!dead) {

//if NOT dead

if (enemydir == "right") {

//if the direction (enemydir) is right

enemystepsright += 1;

//its amount of steps (enemystepsright) right goes up 1

this._xscale = -100;

//_xscale (flips character) is set to neg. 100

this._x += enemyspeed;

//its X goes up the value of enemyspeed

} else if (enemydir == "left") {

//otherwise if the direction (enemydir) is left

enemystepsleft += 1;

//its amount of steps (enemystepsright) left goes up 1

this._xscale = 100;

//_xscale (flips character) is set to 100

this._x -= enemyspeed;

//its X goes down the value of enemyspeed

}

if (enemystepsright == 100) {

//if enemystepsright is equal to 100

enemystepsright = 0;

//enemystepsright is set to 0

enemydir = "left";

//direction is set to left

} else if (enemystepsleft == 100) {

//otherwise if enemystepsleft is equal to 100

enemystepsleft = 0;

//enemystepsleft is set to 0

enemydir = "right";

//direction is set to right

}

}

}

Onwards to the next page!

page 3 of 5