Creating a Game Environment

 

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I'm needing some direction (more on the lingo side of things) on making a computer game similar to "Riven" or "Myst", The type of game where you walk around Pick up stuff and solve puzzles...

Well, there is no one way to do this, I'll see if I can get you started.  The basic idea of these types of games is that you have an "environment" built on some type of grid that the user has free control to walk around and explore.  Lets start by looking at the set-up for the grid itself.  Any time you start a project like this make sure to plan it out on paper first.  A little planning at the beginning can save tons of stress later on.  Personally, I like to use number systems, as it can quickly automate most of the process.  I am going to set up a naming convention for my markers that uses the x position, the y position and the direction the user is facing.  You could do this with graphics and keep it to one frame, but with puzzles, this can get a little hairy.  My basic marker would then look something like this... 1-1-1 This would be a marker on the grid at 1,1 and facing North.  (I use a 4 number system, where 1 is north, 2 is east, etc.)  Now that we have our naming convention, we are ready to start building score and adding markers.  If we were just making 1 or 2 nodes, this would not be a problem, but for a larger on it can take a lot of time.  For this purpose, I have provided a simple script that will create the markers, name them, and add a "hold on current frame" script for each.  Think of it like this.  If you have a 5X5 grid with 4 directions on each, do you really want to create 100 frames with 100 instances of a script by hand.  Here is the basic score builder code... (Note that this shoudl be a movie script, not a behavior.) on buildNavScore numX, numY, holdScriptName   xGrid = integer(numX)   yGrid = integer(numY)   if xGrid > 0 and yGrid > 0 then     beginRecording       go to frame 1       cycle = 0       repeat with x = 1 to xGrid         repeat with y = 1 to yGrid           repeat with z = 1 to 4             the frameLabel = string(x) & "-" & string(y) & "-" & string(z)             go to frame ((cycle * 10) + 5)             the frameScript = member(holdScriptName)             cycle = cycle + 1             go to frame (cycle * 10)           end repeat         end repeat       end repeat     endRecording   end if end on getBehaviorDescription me   describe = "This little script is very helpful for generating a basic grid structure for a game that utilizes 4 point nodes. Call like this..." & return & "buildNavScore(numberOfXGridPieces, numberOfYGridPieces, nameOfHoldScript)"   return describe end For the purposes of this demo, I chose a simple 3X3 grid and made a "go to the frame" script called "hold", then typed this in the message window... buildNavScore(3, 3, "Hold") A few seconds later, we have our score set up.  Now we need a navigation behavior to move us around in this environment.  For this we can use the last marker we passed to get our current position.  I used the findLastLabel script to get the current marker name.  From there we can separate out each element and move to the correct new location.  Below is the behavior I used to do this.  It is dropped on a "hotspot" and can then be used across every frame.  Here is the basic code... property whichHotSpot, spriteNum global maxX, maxY on getPropertyDescriptionList me   p_list = [:]   addProp p_list, #whichHotSpot, [#format : #symbol, #comment : "What navigation hotspot:", #default: #ahead, #range : [#ahead, #turnleft,#turnright, #back]]   return p_list end on mouseUp me   --get the current marker   currentLoc = findLastLabel()   --set the delimiter to break the location by   the itemDelimiter = "-"   currentX = integer(currentLoc.item[1])   currentY = integer(currentLoc.item[2])   currentD = integer(currentLoc.item[3])   newLocList = [currentX, currentY, currentD]   case whichHotSpot of     #ahead:       --go foward 1 based upon the current direction       case currentD of         1:           --Facing North           newLocList[2] = (currentY - 1)           if newLocList[2] < 1 then newLocList[2] = 1         2:           --Facing East           newLocList[1] =(currentX + 1)           if newLocList[1] > maxX then newLocList[1] = maxX          3:           --Facing South           newLocList[2] = (currentY + 1)           if newLocList[2] > maxY then newLocList[2] = maxY         4:           --Facing West           newLocList[1] = (currentX - 1)           if newLocList[1] < 1 then newLocList[1] = 1       end case     #turnLeft:       newLocList[3] = currentD - 1       if newLocList[3] < 1 then newLocList[3] = 4     #turnRight:       newLocList[3] = currentD + 1       if newLocList[3] > 4 then newLocList[3] = 1     #back:       case currentD of         1:           --Facing North           newLocList[2] = (currentY + 1)           if newLocList[2] > maxY then newLocList[2] = maxY         2:           --Facing East           newLocList[1] = (currentX + 1)           if newLocList[1] < 1 then newLocList[1] = 1          3:           --Facing South           newLocList[2] = (currentY + 1)           if newLocList[2] < 1 then newLocList[2] = 1         4:           --Facing West           newLocList[1] = (currentX - 1)           if newLocList[1] > maxX then newLocList[1] = maxX       end case   end case   goTo = string(newLocList[1]) & "-" & string(newLocList[2]) & "-" & string(newLocList[3])   if marker(goTo) <> 0 then     go goTo   end if  end on getBehaviorDescription me    describe = "This behavior can be dropped on hot-spots to navigate a 3d/Myst like environment. Use the Build Environment Script to generate the markers for the environment, then set the maxX and maxY values as globals."    return describe end Place this on your hotspots and then set the maxX and maxY globals in your startMovie handler.  This tells the script what the maximum X value and maximum Y value in the grid is so it will not run beyond its edges.  Technically this could be removed as it also checks for the existence of a marker before jumping to it, but a little extra error checking never hurt.  If you want a node to be non-existent, just remove its markers. This is still a pretty simple script.  You can add conditions for skipping markers, making 6 or 8 sided nodes, etc., but this should be a good basic start. As for the objects, there are a lot of approaches you can take.  You can add handlers in the first frame of a node to check if the object has been picked up, and if not, make it visible, but the easiest way (for a few objects) might be to put each object in a separate channel, then when it is clicked or picked up, have it added to an inventory list and its channel visibility set to 0.  It will vary for each project, but this is a pretty safe method. As usual, you can also find all of these behaviors/scripts in the behavior database.