Skills Challenges

MY SKILL CHALLENGES GUIDE

September 13, 2006 at 12:17 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

SPECIAL THANKS TO

PIKMIK (Problems 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,10)

MAXYMOUS(Problem 9)

ANGDIG (Problem 11)

Problem ELEVEN“To make this problem you have to firstly make a character so go “Add Sprite” then “load sprite” then choose a sprite in this case I chose the ‘pacman_stand.’ Then you have to “Add Sprite” for the stone which can be found in the “Various” folder. Then press ok.The next step is to make objects for all the sprites. For the “object character” put in the “character” in the sprite and check the solid box. Go “Add Event” and choose keyboard left make x: -5 and for y keep it zero then check relative. Then go “Add Event” then choose keyboard up and for y: -5 and for x keep it zero and check relative, then press ok. Go “Add Event” and choose keyboard then choose right then in x: 5 and in y keep it zero, check relative and press ok. Finally go to “Add Event” and go to keyboard then choose down and make y: 5 and keep x zero, check relative and press ok.Next you have to make an object for the “Stone.” Put in “stone” in the sprite and tick solid. Go to “Add Event” and choose the “Collision” event then put in the “Object Character.” For its actions put in “If a position is collision free.” This can be found in the control tab. Make x: 32 and keep y: 0 next put in Objects: only solid check relative and press ok. The next action you have to put in is the “jump to given position” which can be found in the move tab. When the box appears change x to 32 and keep y: 0 then check relative and press ok.Now we have to “Add Room.” Make the grid 32 by 32 and put in the character and two stones. Then press the green arrow and try it out!”  I had a lot of trouble doing this one and it wasn’t until I saw angdig solution that I could actually do it. This is one of the most difficult ones out of all of them and I suggest that you get help if your are struggling  

Problem TEN“A character jumps up off a platform, and return under the influence of gravity – you cannot jump from midairInformation about object: jumperSprite: jumperSolid: trueVisible: trueDepth: 0Persistent: falseParent:Mask:Step Event:If relative position (0,1) is collision free for Only solid objectsset the gravity to .5 in direction 270//if there is no wall underneath the object, set gravityelseset the gravity to 0 in direction 270//if there is a wall under the object, destroy the gravityif vspeed is larger than 12set variable vspeed to 12//if the object moves too fast, set the speed back to a slower realistic speed.Collision Event with object wall:move in direction direction at most 12 till a contact with solid objectsset the vertical speed to 0// stop the gravity if it is touching the wall. Also makes it sit on the wall, not above it.Keyboard Event for Key:if relative position (-4,0) is collision free for Only solid objectsmove relative to position (-4,0)// Makes the object be able to move on the platform.Keyboard Event for Key:if relative position (0,1) gives a collision with Only solid objectsset the vertical speed to -10// Makes the object jump up.Keyboard Event for Key:if relative position (4,0) is collision free for Only solid objectsmove relative to position (4,0)// Makes the object be able to move on the platform.” I found this very time consuming but easy in a way. You just have to know what to do with the whole gravity thing and the no jumping in the air.  

Problem NINE“9) A character fires a bullet and has to wait one second before being able to fire the next bullet.

Start with problem 4 and you’ll have it done nice and quick.

Open your shooter and add a create event. Put in set the value of a variable from the control tab and type canshoot for the variable and 1 for the value. Now get an alarm event and put the same thing as the create event in the actions menu (copy and paste). Under the key press-space bar event put in if a variable has a value from the control tab. type canshoot under variable, 1 under value and equal to under operation. Next put a start of block and end of block from the control tab into the same event. Put the create an instance of the bullet in between them and also add: set the value of a variable with canshoot as the variable and the value as 0 from the control tab. Add set an alarm between the blocks that has 30 steps and is alarm0 from the main2 tab.

Now you can only shoot a bullet every second (no sooner) which makes your problem solved. I had help from Jrb01 for this task and give him credit for helping me out..” 

I never got this one, I ended up getting help from my teacher and now I get it and it works.  Problem EIGHT“You have to hit a character 3 times with a bullet before it dies.I recommend you only attempt this after you finish problem 4.Load up your problem 4 game.Open the enemy object. Click on the create event. Drag set the number of lives, under the score tab, into the action section. When the popup appears, type 3 in the new lives section. Click ok. Click on the already made collision with bullet event. Drag set the number of lives, under the score tab, into the action section. When the popup appears, type in -1 in the new lives section. Click the relative box, then ok. Delete the change instance into explosion.Click on add event, Step. Drag If lives are a value, under the score tab, into the action section. When the popup appears, type 0 in the value section, and select equals to in the operation section. Then drag both start of block and end of block, under the control tab, into the action section. In between these, drag change the instance, under the main1 tab. When the popup appears, select object explode in the change into section, and yes in the perform events section.Test the game, to see if the enemy will explode after 3 bullets.” 

This is fairly straight forward and it should require too much time to do it, just try and make sure that the lives is set to -1 relative when the collision with the bullet and object happens.  Problem SEVEN“Make a timer which counts up or down how much time is left to play.Create an object. You do not need a sprite. Click on add event, create. Drag set the value of a variable, under the control tab, into the action section. When the popup appears, type my time into the variable section. Type how long you want the timer to countdown into the value section. Drag set an alarm clock, under the main2 tab, into the action section. Type in room_speed, or 30, into the number of steps section. Select alarm0 in the alarm no. section.Click on add event, alarm0. Drag set the value of a variable, under the control tab, into the action section. When the popup appears, type mytime in the variable section. Then type -1 in the value section. Tick the relative box.Click on add event, draw. Drag draw a text, under the draw tab, into the action section. Type ‘time =’ +string(mytime) into the text section. Leave the x and y sections 0.Put this object in a room, and play it, to see if it works.” 

This is one of the more difficult ones and it is easy to get one thing wrong in the steps and stuff everything up. Make sure that you get the relative’s right and also double check everything especially the draw a text part.  

Problem SIX“A ball goes through a goal and the score goes up by one…the score does not go up if the ball misses the goalAdd a sprite of a ball. Also add a sprite of goal posts (does not have to look like actual goal posts)Add an object and use the ball sprite. Click add event, key press, space. Drag the blue arrows, under the move tab, into the action section. When the popup appears, type in 45+random (90) in the direction section. Type how fast you want the ball to move in the speed section. Click on add event, other, outside room. Drag jump to the start position, under the move tab, into the action section. When the popup appears, click self, then ok. Then drag the red arrows, under the move tab, into the action section. Click only the square, stop button, when the popup appears.There are many ways of creating the goal system. I chose to create a goal object. Create an object and use the goal sprite. Click on add event, collision with the ball object. Drag set the score, under the score tab, into the action section. When the popup appears, type 1 in the new score section and tick the relative box. Drag jump to the start position, under the move tab, into the action section. When the popup appears, click on other. Drag the red arrows, under the move tab, into the action section. When the popup appears, click on other.Test the game by creating a room, and putting a ball at the bottom of the screen, and if you followed my directions, put the goal only at the top. If you put different directions into the blue arrows on the ball, put the goals there.This is only one way of solving this problem. There are many other ways. My game had a shooter run up and take a random shot. My friend’s game made the ball stop when you released the space bar. This is a few more examples of how you could solve it.I needed help with this problem. My teacher helped me by showing me the directions of which the ball should go, if I want it to be random. I would like to thank him for helping me.” This is fairly straight forward when you learn how to do it. It’s easy to get confused about the coordinates, so if you are not sure just go to your room settings and place the cursor over where you want the goals to be.  

Problem FIVE“Make one object follow another object.Add 2 sprites; they can be anything you want them to be.Add an object. Use the sprite you want to be the leader. Call the object leader.Click on add an event, Create. Drag the red arrows, under the move tab, into the action section. When the pop up appears, click all the arrows, but not the square in the centre. In the speed section, type how fast you want the object to move.Click on add an event, other, outside room. Drag jump to a random position, under the move tab, into the action section. When the popup appears, click ok. Drag the red arrows, under the move tab, into the action section. When the popup appears, click on all of the arrows, except the square in the centre.Add an object, and use the other sprite. Call the object follower. Click on add an event, step. Drag move towards a point, under the move tab, into the action section. When the popup appears, type in (leader).x in the x section, (leader).y in the y section. Type how fast you want the object to move in the speed section. Click on add an event, collision with leader. Drag jump to a random position, under the move tab, into the action section. When the popup appears, click ok.Open the leader object again. Click add an event, collision with follower. Drag jump to a random position, under the move tab, into the action section. When the popup appears, click ok. Then drag in the red arrows, under the move tab, into the action section. When the popup appears, click on all of the arrows, not the square. Type how fast you want the object to move in the speed section.Create a room, and put in one leader and one or more followers. Play the game to test if the follower moves towards the leader.I did not need help with this problem, as I have done this last year. 

I did what Pikmik did for this, you have to be very careful when you enter the obj1.x in the coordinates section, In one of the other examples it says 2 put .x in both but you put .x in the x one and .y in the y one.”  

Problem FOUR“When a bullet hits a character, the character explodes and the explosion then disappears.To start this task, complete all of Problem 3, as it will make this problem easier to complete.Once you have completed making a character move and shoot, add another sprite. Load a sprite you think will be good for an enemy. Create an object and use the enemy sprite. To make the enemy move down the room, create an event on the enemy object. Click on create. Drag the red arrows into the action section, and when the popup appears, only click the down arrow. Then type in how fast you want it to move, in the speed section. The enemy should now walk down the room. Test this by putting an enemy object in a room and playing it. Add another sprite in, of an explosion. Our animation was provided by our teacher. The animation should look like something exploding. Add an object and use the explosion sprite. Click add event, then other, then Animation end. Drag destroy the instance, under main 1 tab, into the action section, and when it loads, click on the applies to self. On the enemy object click on add an event, collision with the bullet. Drag in change the instance, under main 1 tab, into the action section. When the popup appears, under the change into section, click the explosion. Under the perform events section, click yes. When a bullet from the character hits the enemy, it now should explode and the explosion should disappear. I completed this task by myself, as I have already learnt this from game maker last year.” I did exactly what Pikmik did for this, the only thing that you need to remember is that you must destroy the instance when it is in a collision with the wall also, if you do not do that the bullet gets stuck and does not go away.  

Problem THREE“A character can move left and right with arrow keys (you have to keep pressing the key for it to keep moving) and fires a single bullet forward when you press space bar. You have to release and press space bar again for more bullets.Add a sprite. Load a sprite you would like to use, eg a character or a space ship. Also, load a bullet sprite..
Create an object, and use the character sprite. Add an event, and click on key press, left. Drag the red arrows, under the move tab, into the action section and click only the left arrow when the pop up appears. Type how fast you would like the character to move under the speed section. Add another event and click on key press, right. Drag the red arrow keys, under the move tab, into the action section. When the pop up appears, only click the right arrow..
To make the character stop when the key is released, add an event, and then click key release, left. Drag the red arrows, under the move tab, into the action section. Only click the stop button which is square, when the pop up appears. Add an event, and then click key release, right. Drag the red arrows, under the move tab, into the action section. Only click the stop button which is square, when the pop up appears.
Test if the character moves by creating a room and putting the character object in it. Play the game and see if it moves.
Add an object and use the bullet sprite. Click on add event, create. Drag the Red arrow pointing down (set the vertical speed) into the action section. When the popup appears, type in the speed you want the bullet to move, with a negative in front. This will make it shoot up.To make the character shoot bullets, click on add event on the character object. Then click on key press, space. Drag the yellow light bulb (create the instance of an object), under the main 1 tab, into the action section. When the popup appears, in the object section, locate your bullet object. Then click on relative, so whenever you press space, a bullet will appear where you are.To test the game, put your character in a room and when it loads, press space to see if it shoots.I did not need help with this problem, as I learnt how to do this last year.” I did basically the same thing. The main thing to remember is when you go to do space bar select key press.  

Problem TWO

“Find a strip sheet of sprites and save it to your computer.a) On game maker, click on the add a sprite button. When the pop-up appears, click on edit sprite. A screen will appear. Click on file, and then on create from strip. Load the strip sheet and click open. An edit screen will pop up. Under the number of images section, type how many sprites there are in the row/column. If the sprites are in a row, type the number of sprites in the images per row section. Adjust the size of the box, so it fits the sprites perfectly, by using the image width and height sections. When the sprites are lined up the boxes perfectly, click ok.To preview the sprite, click on show preview. If the animation is too fast, click on the animation tab, then click on stretch. Type the number of frames you want the animation to be, so it will slow it down. The more frames, the slower it will be. To test the animation in a room, create an object and use the sprite you just made for the sprite. Play the room to test the animation.” This was a difficult task for the different size ones, but when you get to know how to do it becomes very easy but just takes time. The same size ones is easy.  

PROBLEM ONE “A ball bounces around a room and its direction is random. When the demo starts you can’t predict in which direction the ball will go. When the ball hits the walls you can’t predict in which direction the ball will go..Find a sprite of a ball and put it into your game. Also find a wall sprite and put it in your game..Create an object called wall and use your wall sprite. Then tick on the solid box..Create an object called ball, and use your ball sprite. In you ball object, click on the add event button, and click on the create button. Drag the blue arrows (set the direction and speed of motion) located in the move tab, into the actions space, and type in random (360) in the direction section.Click on the add event button and click on Collision. Select wall. Drag bounce against objects into the action section, and in against section, select solid objects. Click on the control tab and drag both start of block, and end of block buttons into the action section. In between the two blocks, drag the blue arrows (set direction and speed of motion). In the direction section, type random (360).  Create a room and put a border of walls. Add some balls and play to test it.” I did basically this but instead of using random(360) I used an alarm clock to that sets off every 45 steps (1.5 Seconds) which is a lot more time consuming then random (360).

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August 31, 2006 at 3:00 am | Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

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