I need help with my first game; use of templates, beginners advices [detailed info]

patrykadas

Hello!

I need help with my first game, what is unusual I've already got theme song and graphics, but all I need is some help with gamesalad mechanics.

I attach the simple sketch of game area - you start with the cannon going up and down on an arc, you have to tap it to stop and shoot.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ymykqifmn6zldst/examples.png


After that there is camera change (like in Angry Birds), zooming the object shooted and after, I don't know, 0,2secs you can control it like in JetPack app. After every tap you loose your stamina (I belive it would be best to follow health bar status tutorial).
It might sound quite simple, but It is my first app ever and I want to start from basics.

What are best templates to buy?

I will appreciate every hint!

Thank you,
Patryk

patrykadas

Ok, JetPack Template might be essential, what I am most concerned about is:


How to make cannon ball an actor that you can control just after the ball reaches level?

contrasthall

your main object will be the cannon you should only have one in the scene that never gets destroyed once it dies it only looks like it is destroyed but since it will hold the control camera behavior you will change attribute back to where the cannon shooter is and hide it through one of multiple possible ways, change attribute or invisible graphic.

doing this will make the camera follow the cannon once it is shot. now you have to get the angle of cannon shooter to tell the ball which direction to shoot off i believe u can make a game attribute angle and retrieve cannon shooters angle and mess with that until you get that working via a shoot button you can only see when the cannon is back at the main screen by the cannon shooter. i hope this helps put you in the right direction it will be a good learning experience for you and you will be doing games like this within a day once you get good but be patient.

i can't tell you what templates to buy if you are searching the market place but if you like you can have a look at some of my stuff on the market place by searching "rezand games" and they all come up. any more questions feel free to ask ill try to keep checking back. good luck.

Dues

Id suggest you start by going trough the cookbook. Its alot easier if you understand the basics. Gamesalad is a fantastic tool, but it wont do all the work for you.

http://www.youtube.com/user/gamesaladcookbook

Also check this out

http://forums.gamesalad.com/discussion/49228/fryingbaconstudios-video-tutorials-updated-regularly

patrykadas

Thanks for your replies! I will definitely do that. What is pity is the fact that this youtube channel is not so up to date.

It's good to know that GameSalad is capable of doing the stuff I mentioned, as I do not want to write a single line of code.

I will keep you updated if any doubts!

Thanks again,
Patryk

whompy

I'm new to GS as well, and what has really helped me out is doing tshirtbooth's 14 video tutorial on how to make a boggle game. Even if you don't want to make a boggle game, or even a word game, I recommend you do his tutorial because you'll learn a lot about actors,attributes, and what GS can do.

Or if you don't want to do a word game, do crazycam99's video tutorial where he shows you how to make a firefly hero game from start to finish. I didn't do that tutorial yet, but it's gotten some good comments, so I'm sure it's helpful. (Does anyone know about any other start-to-finish tutorials?)

whompy

tatiang

@whompy's right... completing a game, especially a simple one, when you are new to GameSalad is a great way to understand it better without biting off more than you can chew.

I also have a similar start-to-finish tutorial in the link in my signature.

patrykadas

Hi guys!

I've watched everything you said and it was pretty awesome. Big thanks for your help!

I've also know how to make guy flying like in JetPack, I know how to generate random obstacles in random places.

However, I don't know how to make this cannon shot. I want it to go from 0' to 90' and from 90' to 0' contstantly, when tapped then shot and just after few seconds we can control it.

Thanks,
Patryk

tatiang

Sounds like you just need to Interpolate the self.Rotation back and forth. Have you looked at the built-in Cannon Physics template?

patrykadas

Once again, thank you for your reply.

Actually, I haven't because I don't own it. Where can i get it?

I use Windows7 gamesalad version.

tatiang

It's listed when you open GameSalad Creator for Mac:



Not sure about Windows...

patrykadas

Nothing like that on Windows, unfortunately.

Once again, I really appreciate your help. I also found excellent tutorial from TshirtBooth's considering Recoil, so it looks good.

However, I still don't know how to make the stuff with cannon.

tatiang

Start here: http://forums.gamesalad.com/discussion/29037/free-yourselves-from-the-tyranny-of-center-only-rotations

patrykadas

You are awesome! I will test them tommorow.

GameSalad is really great tool, thou it has got some minor bugs in Windows.

I will keep you updated, as I've already drawn some stuff!


One more:

I can randomly generate stuff etc, but I would like to have whole sequences in a character goes through. When one is done, then another one is randomly selected with smooth transition. Any idea how to achieve that?

SnapFireStudios

It is easy to use random(min,max) in the equation editor. Then you can just hook it up with an attribute and then some rules that tell the actor to do certain things when that atribute is equal to anything between the min and the max.

I totally agree that the first thing you should do is to just get a game done. That's definitely the best way to start out, as you can get to know the program without worrying about creating a masterpiece.

Good luck,
- Thomas