Practical tips: How to do this or that

Looking for advice how to do what you need in the game? Then you are in the right place. We will start with simpler tasks and finish with some tips and tricks and with some advice on how to make a good game. But before we get into the details, let‘s start with a brief introduction on how to actually start making the game and its story.

How to invent the game

You can create classic adventure games here, but also children's games, educational applications, animations and other applications. Once you decide what you want to create, you just need to figure out who will be your hero, what scenes you need, what animations should be in the game and what items can be collected. And what the goal of the game is.

Your hero may be a knight, who at one castle gets a magic sword (after completing some great tasks) and at the other one frees a beautiful princess from the clutches of a dragon. But the hero could even be a dog, or a fish, or a robot... The scenes may be a meadow, a forest, a sea bottom or an old factory... And the items to collect (and use) may be various tools, food, plants... Fantasy truly has no limits.

When designing your game, keep in mind that every scene should have something to watch and something to be done. The player should finish some tasks or solve puzzles – and discover new locations. This way the game story should develop and evolve in front of his/her eyes.

How to collect items

For each subject, which should be possible to collect, there must be a picture that is used in the inventory (list of items). You can create it when splitting images to sub-images – just give the sub-image a name, for example Ring (just switch on the image numbers, select the image you want to name (from the list), fill the text and then save it).

The object can be visible in a location (like a ring on sidewalk), or invisible (like a ring in a trash can). Create a flag with a suitable name (e.g. RingFlag) and give the value 1 to it. If the object in the scene is visible, set that it is active when the value of the RingFlag > 0 (RingFlag is greater than zero).

Then create an active area around the object in the location (around the ring on the sidewalk or around the trash can) and insert your instructions there. The instructions will say that if the value of the RingFlag > 0, the hero will come, maybe do some animation (like bending down), sets the RingFlag = 0 and takes the Ring. When the RingFlag is set to 0, the ring object disappears from the sidewalk and it won’t be possible to take it again, because the required condition won’t be met (RingFlag is not > 0 now).

How to change the main character

If you need to change your hero during the game (it may grow up, change outfit etc.), it is necessary to create the animation in both the original and the changed form. Then, in the scenes where the hero is in the original form, you must use the first set of animations and in the scenes where he is changed, you must use the second set of animations. You will need to set the animations for the walking points as well – just one phase, standing still, in the changed form. This will avoid using the normal animations of the hero (in the original appearance) to be shown in the points of the paths. If you need to use both forms of the hero in one location, just create two parallel sets of paths – but while using different animations of the hero.

How to create a black scene entirely without the hero

Upload a black background, use it in a new location and place a walking point there where the size of the hero is 0%.

How to synchronize multiple activities

One flag can be used for various activities. With it, you can easily synchronize multiple processes. For example: Start of more animations can depend on one flag. Or one animation can set a flag, which will start another animation. Or an animation may set a flag on which depends an object – so it is invisible until the animation sets the flag. And finally - even instructions in any active area can wait until a flag is set to any value. (If you do not want the player to be able to interrupt the waiting, use instructions for an uninterruptible sequence.)

How to remember the position of objects or animations when leaving the location

When playing the game, many changes occur: items are taken, some objects are moved, and animations run. Many of these things are done by setting flags - and their state is always remembered by the GameStylus system. Even taken items are always remembered.

But what if there is an object moved through an animation? What if, for example, the player starts an animation which opens the door of a house - and then departs from this location? We need to ensure that when the hero arrives to the location again the door will still be open. How do you do this? If the first step of an animation depends on a flag, and the flag has value -100 or less, the animation directly jumps to the last step. So: When you first open the door, put the required value to the flag (-100). This will ensure that the next time when your hero comes to the location the door will still be open (the last step of the animation is directly shown).

How the player can stop an animation

Create a suitably named flag, for example Animation1, and give it value of 1. In the animation set a condition that the animation goes after this frame (choose the frame at which the animation can stop, or even more frames one by one) if Animation1 > 0. Create an active area through which player stops the animation - insert an instruction there which sets the flag Animation1 = 0 - so when the player taps on this active area, the animation stops.

If the animation should disappear, then run the animation over and over again, just set the first step as invisible and stop the animation just in the first step. If the disappearance should be synchronized with some other actions, just use the flag for the other actions as well.

How to put more active areas on each other

Just set the active region so that they overlap. And then set their Z-Index. When a player taps the place where the active areas overlap, instructions from the top active area (with the biggest Z-Index) are run. If conditions in that area are not met then instructions from the active area below this one are executed. Etc.

Tip: If multiple active areas need to do almost the same activity, this activity can be put into an area that is hidden under other areas. Then in each area there can be the instructions which are not common for the areas - followed by the instruction for execution of the instructions of that hidden area. (It's actually similar to a simple function/method in programming.)

How to create an opening/closing animation

Animations can be easily run automatically from the Default Action of any location. For a game intro, just put the hero to a location where the intro animation starts. The game player should probably not interrupt the animation – for this purpose use the instruction to begin an uninterruptible sequence. If the animation takes place in several different locations, use the Default Action in each of them - and do not forget to always re-enable the uninterruptible sequence as the transition to the new room switches it off. Other procedures are the same as any other action - simply set correctly animations and instructions, so as to ensure all necessary actions are done.

Tips for a good game

Insert enough points for walking to all scenes - only on these points can the hero stop and change the direction of walking. And use plenty of their interconnections. But don‘t use too many of them.

Create the Active Areas large enough – the player should be able to touch them even on a small screen of a smartphone.

Think ahead of the game. If you chaotically add and delete objects in the locations, things can get messy. It also pays to keep notes about what the flags are good for, why and when they change.

Put images used in one animation to one image. Treat other objects similarly. You'll save memory of the mobile devices.

When debugging, you can sometimes find it useful to put active areas to the first location which will allow you to go directly to another location – for easy testing. Don’t forget to delete these active areas later.

When collecting an item you should always set a flag – and then check it. This prevents the hero from picking up the same item repeatedly (unless that is your goal). If during a combination of the items the original items remain in the inventory then the player can repeat this combination at any time. If you do not want it - and you need to keep his items - make a copy of the same item with a slightly different name (such as Ring1, Ring2). After combining the items just replace Ring1 with Ring2. This way the player has the ring but is not able to perform the combination again.

Don‘t miss: VIDEO + Basic instructions on creating games, Tips on working with graphics, FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions