Done!

I want to save and load level data - preferably as separate files. How do I do this.

The data will be grid based - each entry in the grid will represent a location on the layout (x and y in the grid). The status of that location (what is there and it's state) would be stored in the grid.

I've looked at webstorage, json and arrays and this seems to be a way to do what I want, but the semi-temporary nature of webstorage worries me and that I can't see a way to access several files (levels) individually - ultimately the levels would be retrieved (from a server) as needed in batches (level packs).

I sort of understand that I can store an array as a json string - I don't know how I would get that string to a file and how I would retrieve it later.

Here's a description of the sort of information that'll be saved (per level)...

A grid (currently 13x13 but may change) with each entry containing a string which will 'describe' what is in that location - My program will parse the string to recreate the screen (layout) on load.

tileset, tile number, health - would be represented by a series of characters eg "001 012 100" - would mean tileset 1, tile 12 and 100% health.

I hope I have explained clearly enough for you to understand what I want to do.

Thanks for reading!

Hello. I'm only posting here to get my badge

Seriously though. I've been here for a little while and feel confident about what can be achieved with C2 and the help of this forum.

My real name is David, but don't tell the others!

How do I set (move) the mouse position. I want to lock mouse.y to my bat's y position - I've found when playing if the mouse drifts off the top or bottom of the play area you lose focus and can lose your ball!

I have read...

how-to-set-the-mouse-cursor-position-in-in-game-coordinates_t58781

But the link is 404.

Make sure the status bar is ticked in the view tab. If the coordinates are still not visible, right-click the status bar and click on the 'mouse' checkmark.

I have decided to go with a breakout clone as my project to learn how to develop games with C2. Please don't groan but it's a pretty good project to get me started.

Basic game description:

There is a bat and a ball and several types of obstacles (bricks) to destroy to progress onto the next 'level'. You'll have a set number of chances to progress - I'll call them lives but they'll be represented in-game as extra bats.

As in the tutorial that I watched there will be powerups to collect which will include:

Good:

WideBoy - A slightly wider bat.

Normal - Normal width bat.

Magnet - The ball will stick to the bat until you click the mouse.

DoubleUp - The last ball that you hit will split into 2 balls. There will be a maximum number of balls.

SlowDown - will reduce the velocity of the ball - there will be a minimum velocity setting.

Breaker - This will go straight through any brick - busting them as it goes.

ExtraLife - An extra life.

AutoPilot - Will take control of the bat for you for a set amount of time.

Blocker - Will place a wall under the bat for a set amount of time.

Pusher - Will push all the remaining bricks up the screen by one brick depth.

Bad:

Dinky - A tiny bat.

SpeedUp - The inverse of the SlowDown powerup. There will be a maximum speed setting.

Puller - The inverse of the Puller powerup.

There will be a number of brick variants:

Glass - Various coloured bricks that require a single hit to destroy.

Stone - Various coloured bricks that require 2 hits to destroy.

Metal - Various coloured bricks that require 3 hits to destroy.

Unbreakable - cannot be destroyed except by the following brick...

Explosive - when hit will destroy any nearby bricks.

So, that's the main game but I want to create an editor too!

Ideally, the editor will allow me to save and load a level pack. Each pack will contain 50 sheets. Player created packs should be able to be named by the player and the game should auto detect them and show them on a pack select screen.

So that's it for now. I'm sure I will have many questions for you guys in the next few days. I will post any progress I make if it seems interesting enough.

Thanks for reading!

Crypt.

Is there a quick way to fade out a music object? - Nevermind I installed rex_audio_helper.

I've been playing around with the ideas from the breakout clone tutorial....

I've added a scrolling background - basically 2 tiledbackground objects that are set to move down the screen at 10*dt and when each one goes off the bottom of the screen its y value is set to -window.height. Nice and simple but I'm getting a gap occasionally between the two images which gets wider/more frequent the faster the background is scrolled. Is there a solution for this?

Also, I would like to have the block actually appear to shatter into small pieces when hit - I have an animation (just a puff of dust) in place at the moment - What's the best way to do this?

The graphics are all done by me except the spacey image - which I made seamless.

What I want to do as an exercise in learning how to develop games in c2 is not new or revolutionary in fact I wrote a similar game way back when I was just a teen on a c64 in commodore basic, but I do have some game ideas that I want to save as a 'real' projects further down the road.

As for my full history, I've had and learnt to program the following computers : Vic 20, C16+4, C64, Amiga 500, Amiga 1200 and then sadly on to PC which I never continued programming apart from HTML and CSS with a little bit of Javascript. Incidentally I have Cloanto's Amiga Forever package installed - the full version from a virtual CD download. There are many memories stashed right here on my PC.

For the last 5 or so years I've been a bit of a Halo geek in that I learnt from scratch how to model in 3D apps such as Sketchup and 3DS Max - I made several fairly popular Halo Custom Edition maps - the most popular of which was my "bc_raceway_final_mp" on Halomaps (the link was removed - not enough rep ) which got around 40,000 downloads - I'm not ashamed to be blowing my own trumpet here - I'm pretty proud of that map. If you've played Halo Custom Edition quite a bit then you will probably have played on it.

I'm loving the nostalgia here and the chance to make new friends and learn something new - and the forum is superb.

Ok, is it possible to embed my latest effort directly in the post so interested people can try them out? - Solved.

How do I scroll a background image/layer? - Solved.

I have noticed that a lot of demos / examples I try to play through the browser (firefox) seem to stutter violently at the start and some just completely hang a few seconds in. Can anyone explain what is happeneing here?

2 Amiga guys on the same forum?! Never happens!

I am currently working my way through the breakout tutorial suggested by Burvey although I have read it/watched it before, I'm actually watching and doing now. I suppose I should say that I'm using the free version of C2 until I'm sure that I can get on with it.

Hello, I am fairly new to this forum - apart from a couple of months of lurking and reading.

I'm not new to programming having released an Amiga 1200 game way back in the 90's which I doubt anyone here would remotely remember. It was called 'Munch' and was a fairly complicated Pacman derivative. A demo of that game was released on several popular computer magazines of the time and several full versions were sold.

I've been lurking about several forums to get a flavour of the current indie / bedroom programming scene and have downloaded several game development environments.

Construct seems to be a fairly popular IDE given the activity on the forum - there is one other IDE / development system that seems much more active but I tried out their IDE a while back and did not like it.

That's the background, now on to the nitty gritty...

I want to have another crack at developing some games but my knowledge is based on outdated methods - 'Munch' was written entirely in AMOS Professional Basic (stop sniggering at the back ) - Amos was extremely competent at the time - especially after the source was compiled.

To help me get started I wondered if some of you guys would hold my hand while I walk through my game idea (it's nothing new) and show me how to do what I want to do as I progress. I will give an outline of the game in my next post.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to starting my first project in Construct.

regards,

Crypt.