Talking about String Avoider game, Game development, HTML5, Javascript and Phaser.
Are you enjoying my String Avoider prototype tutorials? Let’s make a small recap of what we hade done so far using Phaser: In step 1 the game engine has been updated from an old 2.2.1 version to the latest official Phaser version which is 2.6.2 and it’s the last one before Phaser 3. In step 2 the game was optimized to make it smoother to play on mobile devices. In step 3 we added a powerup because we all love games with powerups. Now it’s time to complete the prototype by adding levels and a nice background gradient which is made on the fly thanks to Phaser graphic methods. Every line of the source code is commented, so don’t be afraid to miss something, you won’t. Here is the game, currently with three cycling levels: Touch the canvas, and “start” circle will disappear revealing the string, drag your finger anywhere and see how the string follows your finger movements. Reach the end to advance to next level. If you have a mobile phone, you can play the game directly on this page. And this is the line by line commented source code, have fun with it:
// the game itself
var game
// all game options are defined in this object
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,
// number of levels. Useful to preload each level PNGs
levels: 3,
// current level
currentLevel: 1
}
// levels information are stored here
var gameLevels = [
{
startSpot: {x: 320, y: 120},
endSpot: {x: 320, y: 840}
},
{
startSpot: {x: 80, y: 80},
endSpot: {x: 280, y: 80}
},
{
startSpot: {x: 80, y: 830},
endSpot: {x: 80, y: 130}
}
]
// 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 all level images, PNG images with transparency
for(var i = 1; i <= gameLevels.length; i++){
game.load.image("level" + i, "assets/sprites/level" + i + ".png");
}
// preloading game icons as spritesheet
game.load.spritesheet("icons", "assets/sprites/icons.png", 80, 80);
},
// once the state has been created
create: function(){
//
// GRADIENT BACKGROUND
//
// creation of a bitmap data with the same size as the game
var background = game.add.bitmapData(game.width, game.height);
// we are going to create a gradient background, that is a series of retangles filled with different colors
var gradientSteps = game.height / 2;
// determining rectangle height according to game height and gradient steps
var rectangleHeight = Math.floor(game.height / gradientSteps);
// looping through all gradient steps
for(var i = 0; i <= gradientSteps; i++){
// interpolateColor method interpolates the two given colours based on "gradientSteps" steps returns the i-th step
var color = Phaser.Color.interpolateColor(0x0e2be3, 0xa6e1ff, gradientSteps, i);
// drawing a filled rectangle covering the full width of the game and rectangleHeight height
// the rectangle is filled with a color given by getWebRGB method which returns a CSS friendly string value
background.rect(0, rectangleHeight * i, game.width, rectangleHeight, Phaser.Color.getWebRGB(color));
}
// adding the bitmap data as a sprite
game.add.sprite(0, 0, background);
//
// LEVEL MAZE
//
// creation of a bitmap data with the same size as the game
this.bitmap = game.add.bitmapData(game.width, game.height);
// drawing proper "level" image on the bitmap data
this.bitmap.draw("level" + gameOptions.currentLevel);
// 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);
//
// GAME ICONS
//
// temp variable to access more quicly to level information
var levelObject = gameLevels[gameOptions.currentLevel - 1];
// adding start icon
this.startSpot = game.add.sprite(levelObject.startSpot.x, levelObject.startSpot.y, "icons", 0);
// setting start icon registration point to its centre
this.startSpot.anchor.set(0.5);
// adding end icon
this.endSpot = game.add.sprite(levelObject.endSpot.x, levelObject.endSpot.y, "icons", 1);
// setting start icon registration point to its centre
this.endSpot.anchor.set(0.5);
//
// INPUT MANAGEMENT
//
// 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;
// waiting for player input to call startMove method
game.input.onDown.add(this.startMove, this);
//
// GAME STUFF
//
// 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 = [];
},
// 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, black, 100% opaque
this.canvas.lineStyle(4, 0x000000, 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);
// 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);
// if it's not game over, this means the player solved the level so we move on to next level
if(!gameOver){
gameOptions.currentLevel = (gameOptions.currentLevel % gameLevels.length) + 1;
}
// 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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