Making A Pause Screen. How to do it properly?

cbt

Hi all,

I got stuck again during my project. Again..

I'm making a "Pause Screen" to pop-up when game is paused. So it's something like;

if Game.Pause=1
Spawn Actor "Pause Screen"

-Pause screen sized 480x360. I want it to cover all of the screen until the "Resume" button touched. Well.. it does cover all of the screen, but, all of the actors that BEHIND the "Pause screen" are still usable.

Is there any way to make a completely separate "Pause screen" without adding "if Game.Pause=0 etc. etc." to every actor I have?

quantumsheep

cbt said:
Is there any way to make a completely separate "Pause screen" without adding "if Game.Pause=0 etc. etc." to every actor I have?

@cbt
There used to be... not anymore, though I've mentioned it once or twice *cough*

Codemonkey very kindly helped me out with pause on my game, but honestly, it's a horrible work-around compared to what we used to have, which was 'go to another scene while preserving the one you've just left'.

You can find an example here of CodeMonkey's workaround here: http://gamesalad.com/game/play/48909

Don't ask me to explain it though, I haven't the foggiest...

Please 'Like' my original post here (http://gamesalad.com/forums/topic.php?id=5875) if you want to formalise your request for this feature to be re-instated

@everyone else:

This isn't me using a pseudonym.

Just so you know....

QS

mrfunkleberry

I believe QuantumSheep knows how to answer your question.

*standing back, with ear protection*

EDIT - damn it, he beat me to it

quantumsheep

You don't need ear protection, mate...

I'm personally amazed at how calm I am, seeing as it's been about FOUR MONTHS since pause got screwed, with nothing happening this month due to the focus on stability...

Which means, if *at best* they get it back in next month, I'll have been without a pause function for half a year...

Is it any wonder I haven't released any new games lately?

QS

reddotinc

Having to set everything to if game.pause = 1 etc is really tiring, but once you have it all set the its pretty simple, just try not to over think it

quantumsheep

swiftmedia said:
Having to set everything to if game.pause = 1 etc is really tiring, but once you have it all set the its pretty simple, just try not to over think it

Alas, you *have* to overthink it if you use timers...

JGary321

Timers and Pause is easy

We've had this conversation sheepy. You don't remember our late night talks?? Well, I guess there really wasn't much talking now was there.....

More like typing I reckon....

eaguirre

For my games I create a game attribute that I call 'state'.
This state controls tells me what I'm doing.

For example: I create different game states: game.SHOW_HELP (integer) = 0, game.PAUSE (integer) = 1,...etc. Then I create an actor that will be used as a button in my game. So in a MouseUp event I set the game.state = game.PAUSE

All the objects in the current scene have something like this at the beginnig of the actor's code:

if (game.state != game.PAUSE)

do what ever

endif

The state machine is very powerful. I use this state machine in my last game Doodle Playground Battle, for example when I switch between Player 1 attack and CPU AI player attack.

quantumsheep

JGary321 said:
Timers and Pause is easy

We've had this conversation sheepy. You don't remember our late night talks?? Well, I guess there really wasn't much talking now was there.....

More like typing I reckon....

Darling, we have indeed chatted long into the night about this, and we still won't see eye to eye on it!

Still love ya though!

Kisses,

QS

SingleSparq

When it does happen sheep, they're will be celebrating in the streets of London that night eh?

quantumsheep

Dude, I swear, I'll have a bloody party!

beefy_clyro

Whats that .... Party at Quantums!

reddotinc

quantumsheep said:
Alas, you *have* to overthink it if you use timers...

Agreed.. I tried to make my pause screen into a wonder feature and it caused nothing but problems!

AfterBurnett

"Typ

JGary321 said:
Timers and Pause is easy

We've had this conversation sheepy. You don't remember our late night talks?? Well, I guess there really wasn't much talking now was there.....

More like typing I reckon....

"Typing" is that what you call it these days? :P

cbt

quantumsheep said:
Dude, I swear, I'll have a bloody party!

Well, now I know the "Behind the scenes of the Pause", all I can say is, I will show up on that party and rock like there is no tomorrow!


Seriously, if you are making a quiz game, pause is really important.
And I'm checking out the QS's topic now. I hope we can make them hear us!
And thanks for all the answers. I think I will come up with a solution soon....

Dhondon

Some answers from Gendai would be useful. Do I spend 2 days filled with blood,sweat and tears. Or do I wait till the next update for an pause feature? Think this is a bit strange that they don't tell us about stuff like this (and remove features without any comments on when we can expect to get it back). This is an devtool, right?

iDeveloperz

I admit I miss preserve scene. But creating your own pause means it is instant. And you don't have that loading thing whilst changing scenes, mainly because your not changing scenes. :P

BarkBarkCo

Can you pause/resume INTERPOLATE actions? using JGary's method?

quantumsheep

cbt said:
And I'm checking out the QS's topic now. I hope we can make them hear us!

I think they have heard us, to a degree.

Check this out: http://gamesalad.com/blog/2010/05/19/getting-to-know-you-survey/

Question 13 states: Which feature would you most like to see added to GameSalad?

You then get the option of"
Facebook/Twitter
Pause
Leaderboards

While I appreciate hugely that GS is listening and even chucked in 'pause' as an option, I feel they're setting it up to fail by including it with the other options.

They're not in the same league. Pause should just 'be there' - Facebook and leaderboards are awesome extras.

Just my two cents,

QS