Talking about String Avoider game, Game development, HTML5, Javascript and Phaser.
As you know, Phaser 2.6.2 is the latest and last official Phaser version, so while we are waiting for Phaser v3 I am updating the oldest prototypes to 2.6.2 in order to have a set of prototypes working with the latest Phaser version. Last month I started with Space is Key, and now t’s time to revamp String Avoider. The original game was published in 2006, more than 10 years ago, but the game is still fun. « Avoid colliding with walls and guide your string through each unique level. Time is of the essence as you must steadily travel through 26 levels to victory. » And this is what we are going to create: If you have a mobile device, you can play it directly from this link. Move the mouse around the canvas to make the string move, and watch how it reacts when it touches an obstacle. The game field is made by one single PNG blue image with transparent background. The string is an array of points with lines joining such points. Really easier than you may think. That’s why the source code is so short, although I commented it line by line:
var game
var gameOptions = {
// game width
gameWidth: 640,
// game height
gameHeight: 960,
// number of segments which build the tail
tailSegments: 300,
// lenght of each segment
segmentLength: 2
}
// when the window loads
window.onload = function() {
// game creation
game = new Phaser.Game(gameOptions.gameWidth, gameOptions.gameHeight);
// adding game state
game.state.add("TheGame", TheGame);
// starting game state
game.state.start("TheGame");
}
var TheGame = function(){};
TheGame.prototype = {
// when the state preloads
preload: function(){
// setting the game on maximum scale mode to cover the entire screen
game.scale.scaleMode = Phaser.ScaleManager.SHOW_ALL;
game.scale.pageAlignHorizontally = true;
game.scale.pageAlignVertically = true;
// preloading maze image, a PNG image with transparency
game.load.image("maze", "assets/sprites/maze.png");
},
// once the state has been created
create: function(){
// creation of a bitmap data with the same size as the game
this.bitmap = game.make.bitmapData(game.width, game.height);
// drawing "maze" image on the bitmap data
this.bitmap.draw("maze");
// updating bitmap data to let it have actual image data
this.bitmap.update();
// adding the bitmap data as a sprite
game.add.sprite(0, 0, this.bitmap);
// segments is the array which will contain string segments
this.segments = [];
// populating segments array with gameOptions.tailSegments Point
for(var i = 0; i < gameOptions.tailSegments; i++){
this.segments[i] = new Phaser.Point(0, 0);
}
// we create a graphics instance called "canvas", we'll draw the string on it
this.canvas = game.add.graphics(0, 0);
},
// at each update
update: function(){
// clearing the canvas, ready to be redrawn
this.canvas.clear();
// setting line style to a 4 pixel thick line, red, 100% opaque
this.canvas.lineStyle(4, 0x00ff00, 1);
// the head of the string is current input position
var head = new Phaser.Point(game.input.x, game.input.y);
// placing the pen on the head
this.canvas.moveTo(head.x, head.y);
// the first segment is the head itself
this.segments[0] = new Phaser.Point(head.x, head.y);
// looping through all segments starting from the second one
for(var i = 1; i < gameOptions.tailSegments - 1; i++){
// determining the angle between current segment and previous segment
var nodeAngle = Math.atan2(this.segments[i].y - this.segments[i - 1].y, this.segments[i].x - this.segments[i - 1].x);
// calculating new segment position according to previous segment position and the angle
this.segments[i] = new Phaser.Point(this.segments[i - 1].x + gameOptions.segmentLength * Math.cos(nodeAngle), this.segments[i - 1].y + gameOptions.segmentLength * Math.sin(nodeAngle));
// getting the color behind the segment
var color = this.bitmap.getPixelRGB(Math.round(this.segments[i].x), Math.round(this.segments[i].y));
// if the color alpha is different than zero, that is it's not a transparent pixel...
if(color.a != 0){
// from now on, draw the string in red
this.canvas.lineStyle(4, 0xff0000, 1);
}
// drawing the segment
this.canvas.lineTo(this.segments[i].x, this.segments[i].y);
}
}
}
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