Timer Countdown question

allc1865

Hello everyone
I've created a timer that counts down, but I wanted to know how to make it count down from minutes. For example, 1:40, or 5:00 minutes. So far I only have it so it counts down from 10 seconds or so.
Thanks for any help

Manto

Make an attribute and set it to Minutes*60. Say you want to count down from 5 minutes, set it to 5*60=300.

Timer:
Every second
change attribute timer to timer - 1

Display text
floor(timer/60)..":"..timer%60

KevinCross

I created a chess clock a little while ago for someone here on the forums. Perhaps you could look at that and see how that one works

http://forums.gamesalad.com/discussion/comment/428009/#Comment_428009

allc1865

@Manto1, thanks for your reply!
What kind of attribute is it? Real? Boolean?
Thanks!

KevinCross

@Manto1, thanks for your reply!
What kind of attribute is it? Real? Boolean?
Thanks!

Integer, Index or Real would work. Boolean is a true and false variable type.

allc1865

Okay. That's what I have.
I would create a Real attribute and call it Minutes*60?
I'm just trying to understand.
Thanks

KevinCross

Okay. That's what I have.
I would create a Real attribute and call it Minutes*60?
I'm just trying to understand.
Thanks

Manto1 was saying replace Minutes in his example with the number of minutes you want it to be i.e. if you want it to last for 5 minutes you would say

Change Attribute: game.gameTimer = 5 * 60

If you want 3 minutes you'd say

Change Attribute: game.gameTimer = 3 * 60

allc1865

Okay. So I would create an attribute. Do I set it to anything in this area here?

KevinCross

Although calling it time will probably work I'd recommend against it because there's already a built in attribute called Time. Call it gameTime or timer etc.

And yes leave it as 0, you set it with a Change Attribute before running the Timer loop example Manto1 provided.

allc1865

Thank you that worked! Any way to make it positive? It's counting negative right now.

KevinCross

Do you mean it's counting down from a positive number and then going into a negative number once it reaches zero? Add a rule to stop it from going below zero or set your timer attribute as Index. Index attributes are positive numbers only.

allc1865

Okay thanks, @KevinCross. I'll take a look at it!