Using TShirtBooth's "Awesome Menu Template" with the "Cannon Physics Template" Questions!!!

cheim

Hello, I am making a game that resembles the Cannon Physics Template, and I also bought TShirtBooth's "Awesome Menu Template." I was wondering if the two could be linked together by using the GS Project Merger: http://www.deepblueapps.com/Deep_Blue_Ideas_Ltd./GS_Merger.html
and then linking the scenes together by using the GS Scene Merger:
http://www.deepblueapps.com/Deep_Blue_Ideas_Ltd./GS_SceneMerger.html

If so, is there anybody that can offer any support on this, or does anybody know of a simpler way to do this. I have my entire game created, but I've been stuck on this for a week and have done nothing but try and figure it out for a week 9 hours a day, and I just want to be certain that those would work before I went and purchased them.

Thank you

LiquidGameworks

Not dogging on DBA software (which is amazing, I just see the merger as best for co-op development), but this seems like an excellent opportunity for you to learn to be a real GS developer. Templates are available for you to learn from. The absolute best way to learn from them, in my opinion, is to rebuild them in a new project. I'm fairly certain you can rebuild a menu based off the template in less than a couple hours, much less than the amount of time you wasted wondering whether or not to buy the merger.

Open up your project, and the menu template, and just make the menu from scratch, following everything in the template. As you do this, you'll have an appreciation for everything you find in the template, including items you can leave out (especially if its a multi item template), and fixing bugs that are sometimes inherent in templates. By doing this, you'll better understand the core mechanics of GS, guaranteed.

cheim

Haha, well yes I could do that I guess, but you are talking to somebody who is creating his first game in gamesalad, and when I look at all of the game.Blahblah attributes and what not, it doesn't tell me what they mean and where they came from. I am willing to learn, but I sure don't feel like rebuilding a very complicated menu template will teach me anything. I'm a mechanical engineering student, so I'm not looking to be a full time gamer, I just had an idea and would like to see it come to life if anyone is willing to help me out.

Thank you very much

LiquidGameworks

Rebuilding it will teach you everything. The problem is, if you don't understand the how the bridge is built, then you'll be useless when something goes wrong. I would think a mechanical engineering student could figure out the logic in the menu systems. Math is generally the biggest hurdle for people here, and if you have trouble with it, God help us all :P. But seriously, if a History/Econ grad (me) can figure this out, I'm sure you can. For one, its very likely the menu system template and canon template have lots of little extras you won't need for your game. If that's the case, you're building a game which will be a poorer performer for your lack of effort. I haven't seen Tshirtbooth's template, but I doubt its too complicated. If you just rebuild it, copying from the template to the new project, you'll get it. Its as easy as looking at one project, and typing into the next.

cheim

Alright guys, I'm not looking to learn every single attribute in the world. I'm simply just trying to put a menu system into my game - preferably the one I already own, and then my game will be complete. If you're going to rag on my novice GameSalad abilities please don't comment here, but if you are a kind person who would enjoy helping me get my first game out there then please post all you want. I am in some serious need for help here.

Thank you

JohnPapiomitis

To answer your question, yes you can merge any project together with the dba mergers

Also theres only 6 kinds of attributes in gamesalad and no one is trying to rag on your abilities, there just trying to help you. There advice is good. Your not gonna be able to much and are gonna have to ask help on everything you try if you dont take the time to learn the program. But best of luck to you

EireStudios

I bought the project merger to do the same as you, I added Tshirtbooths awesome menu to my game but I added another world and shortened the number of levels in the two worlds, the project merger was perfect for this, but I also learned enough from looking at the awesome menu template to implement my own menu system for my next game so I would advise you while your using the project merger to also study the template for your next game because there is a lot of cool effects you can add to the menu if you code it from scratch and know exactly how everything works.

tenrdrmer

Liquid GameWorks has the best advice here. Your gonna be 1000 times more competent in your future abilities if you go through that cannon template and recreate the entire thing in a new project from scratch. Just cause its Drag n Drop does not mean you don't need to know how what and why its doing what its doing. If this is your first game I also recommend going through the cookbook tutorials. In the end you will be so much better off if you learn now instead of getting knee deep in a project with no idea how any of it works and need to fix a bug.

cheim

Thanks soulstealer and tshirtbooth. Oh also will it work with just the project merger, or do I need to get the scene merger as well to make the well done scene appear over my game scene? or would it make it more convenient to do it that way?

Thank you so much for you help
Casey

cheim

??? Sorry, I'm just trying to be 100% sure before I make the purchase of the programs.

Thank you,
Casey

EireStudios

@cheim I only used the project merger to add the menu system to my game and it worked perfect, but if you have the money I would advise to buy the scene merger also because if you forget to add something to a scene like I did, it would save you alot of time if you had it

LeonardDeveloper

Ya i think you should consider buying the scene merger its a great tool!

jckmcgraw

Personally, you don't just buy a game, unless you are very rich and having somebody else do the work for you.... I think that if you are expecting to make a game on a platform easier than gamesalad then you are out of luck. You should really try to learn GS and all of the attribute stuff. Even with many frustrating moments it is quite fun!

cheim

Okay, I have both the Project Merger and the Scene Merger. Now, there are three problems that have arrived. A lot of you said I need to try to learn GS, well by making this game and posting my problems to you guys I feel like I am learning some pretty quality knowledge, so thank you all for helping me out.

Problems:
1. After using the Project Merger, I placed the stars into my scene individually, changed the rule to capture the stars when they get hit by what my player is throwing instead of just being clicked on, but when I click preview the stars are not visible. They are "visible" in the graphics, and it also says they are on a scrollable layer just like all of my other actors. Any ideas of what could fix it?

2. I use the scene merger to merge my first game scene and the first menu scene. Tshirtbooth, I know you said to make it be on a non scrollable layer. The problem arises because it doesn't allow for me to click just certain actors to be non scrollable, because they are all under a "background" tab and it only allows me to check mark that - so if they are all non scrollable, my pause and back and level done button do not appear visible on my scene. Again, any ideas?

3. When I merged the two scenes like in problem two and kept the layer scrollable so the stuff would show up, and then clicked preview the menu scene actors all showed up visible like they should, but they all instantly dropped and fell down until they were no longer visible. Don't know why, but would like to learn why.

So basically all I wish to accomplish is make the menu scene follow the camera at all times of my scene, so the pause, back, and level done buttons all always stay in view, and for the stars to be able to be captured. Sounds simple, but to me it's not, so I really do appreciate all of your guys' help.

Thank you,
Casey

p.s. - tshirtbooth, if you wanted to view it to make the problems clearer to you, I could email you my project. That is only if you had time, for I do understand you are busy. If not, then thanks anyways.

cheim

p.s.s. - living in Kansas sucks. I wish I personally knew a person that worked with GameSalad so I don't have to bother all of you guys lol.

LiquidGameworks

On your layers, you can make new layers. If you need a scrollable layer that shows on top of your background, just make a new layer, drag everything you need to be scrollable into the new layer. If you need another non scrollable layer to lay on top of your scrollable actors (say, a pause button you always want on top), make another layer, put it above the other layers, and drag your "pause" or whatever into that. Remember with layers, they are stacked so that actors lay "on top" of each other. If something isn't visual, make sure its not below another actor (namely, the background).