Talking about String Avoider game, Game development, HTML5, Javascript and Phaser.
I was recreating some levels of the original String Avoider game when something on level one captured my attention: it’s a little scissor icon I always avoided because I thought it was a deadly obstacle to avoid, but for some reason today I hit it and discovered collecting scissors does not kill you but shorten the string. This means, it’s a powerup. So let’s add this kind of powerup to the game. First, I need a new icon to be added to my sprite sheet file which now it’s calledicons.png
.
Here it is:
Now I am ready to place the new icon on the game, check for collision when the string moves, and shorten the string by actually deleting the second half of the array of points which forms the string.
Have a look at the game:
Touch the canvas, and “start” circle will disappear revealing the string, drag your finger anywhere and see how the string follows your finger movements. Make your string touch an obstacle or reach the end and the game will restart in two seconds. Get the scissors powerup and the string will shorten.
If you have a mobile device, play the game directly at this link.
The code is very easy and the few lines added have been highlighted to make them even more clear:
// the game itself
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");
// preloading game icons as spritesheet
game.load.spritesheet("icons", "assets/sprites/icons.png", 80, 80);
},
// 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);
// adding start icon
this.startSpot = game.add.sprite(80, 80, "icons", 0);
// setting start icon registration point to its centre
this.startSpot.anchor.set(0.5);
// adding end icon
this.endSpot = game.add.sprite(game.width - 80, game.height - 80, "icons", 1);
// setting start icon registration point to its centre
this.endSpot.anchor.set(0.5);
// adding scissors icon
this.scissors = game.add.sprite(140, 800, "icons", 2);
// setting scissors icon registration point to its centre
this.scissors.anchor.set(0.5);
// just a flag to inform us if we already had an input, that is if the player already clicked/touched the canvas
this.firstInput = true;
// we create a graphics instance called "canvas", we'll draw the string on it
this.canvas = game.add.graphics(0, 0);
// segments is the array which will contain string segments
this.segments = [];
// waiting for player input to call startMove method
game.input.onDown.add(this.startMove, this);
},
// startMove method, will be called each time the player touches/clicks the canvas
startMove: function(e){
// checking if it's the first input: player clicks/touchs the canvas for the first time
if(this.firstInput){
// not the first input anymore
this.firstInput = false;
// making start icon invisible
this.startSpot.visible = false;
// populating segments array with an amount of "gameOptions.tailSegments" Phaser Point objects
for(var i = 0; i < gameOptions.tailSegments; i++){
// I want the string to be a circle at first, so I am using a little trigonometry to place these points accordingly
var radians = 12 * Math.PI * i / gameOptions.tailSegments + Math.PI / 4;
// creating Points objects and placing them into segments array. "10" is the radius of the circle
this.segments[i] = new Phaser.Point(this.startSpot.x + 10 * Math.cos(radians), this.startSpot.y + 10 * Math.sin(radians));
}
// calling moveString function. Actually this function moves and renders the string, and the two arguments represent
// respectively the x and y movement to apply to string's head. We set them to zero because there's no movement
this.moveString(0, 0);
}
// removing callback
game.input.onDown.remove(this.startMove, this);
// add a move callback to be fired when the player moves the mouse/finger and call dragString method
game.input.addMoveCallback(this.dragString, this);
// add a up callback to be fired when the player releases the finger/mouse button and call endMove method
game.input.onUp.add(this.endMove, this);
// saving current event position, that is the position where the player is currently touching/clicking
this.startPosition = e.position;
},
// endMove method is called when the player released the finger/the mouse button
endMove: function(){
// waiting for player input to call startMove method
game.input.onDown.add(this.startMove, this);
// removing other listeners
game.input.onUp.remove(this.endMove, this);
game.input.deleteMoveCallback(this.dragString, this);
},
// dragString method is called when the player moves the finger or the mouse while keeping mouse button pressed
dragString: function(e){
// calling moveString function. Actually this function moves and renders the string, and the two arguments represent
// respectively the x and y movement to apply to string's head.
// We set them to represent the distance from current input position and previous input position
this.moveString(e.position.x - this.startPosition.x, e.position.y - this.startPosition.y);
// updating startPosition variable
this.startPosition = new Phaser.Point(e.position.x, e.position.y);
},
// moveString method updates and renders the string
moveString: function(x, y){
// it's not game over yet
var gameOver = false;
// 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(this.segments[0].x + x, this.segments[0].y + 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);
// checking if we collected scissors powerup while it's still visible
if(this.segments[0].distance(this.scissors.position) < this.scissors.width / 4 && this.scissors.visible){
// setting scissors powerup as not visible
this.scissors.visible = false;
// remove the second half of the string
this.segments.splice(this.segments.length / 2 - 1, this.segments.length / 2);
}
// looping through all segments starting from the second one
for(var i = 1; i < this.segments.length - 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);
// game over...
gameOver = true;
}
// drawing the segment
this.canvas.lineTo(this.segments[i].x, this.segments[i].y);
this.canvas.moveTo(this.segments[i].x, this.segments[i].y);
}
// if it's game over or the head of the string is fairly inside the end spot...
if(this.segments[0].distance(this.endSpot.position) < this.endSpot.width / 4 || gameOver){
// removing listeners
game.input.onUp.remove(this.endMove, this);
game.input.deleteMoveCallback(this.dragString, this);
// wait 2 seconds before restarting the game.
game.time.events.add(Phaser.Timer.SECOND * 2, function(){
game.state.start("TheGame");
}, this);
}
}
}
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