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I didn't know this program even existed, now i do. Thanks a lot for that :) And i'll be sure to watch all your tutorials and rate them accordingly ;)
Thanks Wolfgang. StencylWorks is still rather new. I started this summer when it was coming out of beta. Please let me know if you have any questions after (or during) the tutorials. I'm here to help.
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This tutorial is a great help, it's helped me understand the basics, however, I am still in the process of downloading stencyl, I will move on to the next tutorials when I have completed this one, and after I've seen all five, that's when I will know whether or not I will need to ask for more help. Keep up the good work. :D 5*'s for interactivity and clarity of the tutorial.
Thanks for the 5's. I'm always happy to help. If you need any further assistance, that is what I have setup my livestream for. If I am on the computer, I am on there, and programming help takes precedence over just about everything else :)
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i like the tutorail but i cant seam to get my charector to not have the white stuff around it cause it looks like a box please help.
You can either use a graphics program which allows you to make transparent pixels, or, when you import the image, set the white around the actor to be the transparent color (it's an option you get right after uploading the image into Stencyl).
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Thanks a million for making this. I used to code for game maker and then when I decided to transition to stencyl it was all very confusing, but you've shined a new light on it!. Better then any stupid youtube tutorial I've seen yet!
I'm glad to have helped :). BTW, I think I saw you in the stream... if there is something further I can help you with, please let me know (was sleeping when you posted).
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Well ABIGAYL The Movement part kinda confused me. Being totally new to flash, the functions seem so foreign. Mainly, I used the = thing.instead of the is down.
Im not sure how to relay my message but it would be awesome if you could make an updated version as i am interested in flash games. I am at a complete loss and you must forgive my negligence. I seek your kind understanding.
Deltian, the coding for each arrow being down is still naturally in the coding in the updated version. I think at this point it might be easier to directly show you how to do the coding. Feel free to stop by stream (livestream.com/poweredbyflowers), and if I am on, I can walk you through the tutorial myself.
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Dear developer. My stencil version looks nothing like yours. I am confused and now, my game doesnt work. I dont blame you/ I blame myself. Now may i pls haz halp?
I was using the original Stencyl version to make the tutorials. What part confused you? There isn't too much that changed (I now have the updated version as well).
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Please note: Do not move your player out of bounds. To keep this tutorial simple, I did not explain that coding. It will be covered in tutorial 5. Thank you for your patience :)
Tutorial 5 can be found here: http://www.kongregate.com/games/Abigayl/stencyl-tutorial-5-music-powerups-more (While it is best to do the tutorials in order, can skip there to see how to do it or take the shortcut of finding my "8 way" behavior on StencylForge with the edge detection already in place.)
Chargeit, the idea is to start with a simple idea and expand on it. To see time-based score, please advance to tutorial 2 :) http://www.kongregate.com/games/Abigayl/stencyl-tutorial-2-attributes-etc
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Best stencyl works tutorial I've seen so far. I like that you actually get a finished product and the steps are not overly confindent. Its also the first avoider game I've ever played. Thank you for your time and efforts.
Thank you :). One of the goals I have in making these is to show users how to start with something basic that is playable and continue to expand on it until it becomes more of a normal, higher-quality game.
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Can you make a tutorial where it shows how to add aiming at the game? (You click and the character shoots at the mouse)
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I never would have thought a 12 year old could make a simple shooter from scratch. 5/5! Please make more advance tutorials like this one!
Compassion International. It's a Christian organization that tries to help poor children all over the world get food, water, education, etc. http://www.compassion.com/
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Not saying this is a bad tutorial, but this dosn't help me at all. I wish it was more " In-depth " you seem to skip quiet a few scenes that appears on stencyl.
What do you mean? This tutorial is supposed to be basic; the later ones go more in-depth (2-5). The few scenes I do not cover, I still write about. If you could send me a PM with more details as to what the issue was, I'd appreciate it. You can also come to the stream: livestream.com/poweredbyflowers
Ah, that was the original plan but it was quickly nixxed when I decided to make these tutorials interactive. In this tutorial, I already used the arrows for game movement and later use WASD for the game too.
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I think it'd help navigation if you were to put A/D or Left Arrow/Right Arrow as controls as well, A/Left to go back and D/Right to go fowards. Perhaps W/S and Up Arrow/Down Arrow as well, W/Up back and Down/S fowards.
Listerine, have you looked at tutorial 3? ;) This is a basic game. I kept it as simple as possible. Later on (in #3) I show how to include WASD keys AND how to avoid the ctrl+key issue that crops up with using them ;)
Do you mean like in an RPG? If so, the coding is a bit complicated. If you can tell me exactly what you are looking for though, I may be able to make it into a tutorial or just show it in a livestream for you.
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Are multiplayer games too complex to start off with? And if so, is it possible to make one with Stency? Because, when I cover the basics I want to make my own bird view's multiplayer game.
Stencyl is not designed for handling multiplayer games. It can do anything you would normally use AS3 to do (which is just about everything), but multiplayer games are far more complex. I personally don't see myself doing multiplayer games for probably at least year from now... one player is much simpler. Even 2-player local can be trickier (although definitely manageable).
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I was looking for new Kongregate games when I stumbled upon this... recently I've been finding it extremely hard to use the game engine Unity3D, where as it consists to look pretty easy: but for someone as young and inexperienced as my self anything that involves code is unyielding! I've decided to give Stencyl which I've never heard of before a go. I'll be following your tutorial series now. :) Thank you very much!!
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Very well done, and fun as well! I am a middle school teacher who has been teaching Scratch programming for a while. After they have a good grounding in Scratch, I want to move my kids up to Stencyl, but I have been a little intimidated by all the added complexity of Stencyl. Your tutorials have given me a good starting point to dive into Stencyl with confidence.
Thanks for all your hard work!
Tom Simpson
Heathwood Hall Episcopal School
Columbia, SC
Tutorial 4 will go over cursor-based shooting. You can use some of the ideas there and expand on them to make an action RPG game, but I strongly advise against it for a first game. RPGs are generally much more complex than other games you can make instead and then build your way up to making an RPG. Just like the platformer though, if there is enough interest, I will try to make a tutorial for it later on. :)
You might be able to find some ideas here: http://community.stencyl.com/index.php/board,17.0.html
I personally use Paint NET for all of the simple graphics and hire help from DeviantArt for anything more major.
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Thanks for the tutorial i needed some knowledge and tools on how to create my first game in flash and didnt how to start, i will try this for sure :D
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Amazing tutorial, this is a great way for me to try out new game developing software without having to read an entire book or go forum surfing. 5/5
I'm glad you liked it. I am trying to make them so that you can do each tutorial in about 30 minutes to an hour (depending on in if you have to make the graphics, etc.). Thanks for the 5!
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thanks for tutorial! I now can (at least start)) to make my own game! I'd like to see more tutorials made by you (i can't stand those developers program tutorials)). Thanks again!
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Now I don't have to read through long forums trying to know how I can make games. Thanks. I can feel my first game coming up. :D
It's good to be loved :D. I look forward to seeing what you can create :). Can always PM me or join my livestream if you need additional help (when I have livestream going that is).
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Congratulations for your patience and care teaching things to beginners. I was wondering about using stencil and watching your tutorial made me want to take the first shot at it. Please keep up the good work and do not get disappointed if people do not rate accordingly (it happens A LOT on kong). By the way lemme know if you ever need artwork for your tutorials and games. Best of luck to you.
Aye doc, I have gotten used to that unfortunately (can see the first comment here by "SteelTroll"). Will be sending you a PM about the art since I always could use help. Thanks!
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One issue I see with the initial code is that if I hold up or down first, I'm able to go right and left without releasing up or down. If I hold left or right first, I am unable to go up and down without first releasing left or right. Is this an error in the "if" logic for the player actor?
This is not an "error" so to speak. I kept things as simple as possible for this tutorial. All of tutorial 3 (work-in-progress right now) is about improving the controls to be more responsive, 8-way, and using WASD keys.
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There is one glitch in the game maker, it keeps losing my actors (it says there's none there, and when I go to upload new ones it still shows the ones I should still have on the upload screen)
This sounds like a problem with Stencyl. If you post the issue with screenshots and error messages to the forums, someone can likely help you out. http://community.stencyl.com/index.php/board,3.0.html
Could you please give me more details. What is not working with the collision detection? If there's an error, I want to fix it!
EDIT: I just tried again to follow the tutorial to make the example game and it is still working for me. I don't know why you (and the others rating your comment up) are having issues. Please send me more information so that I can figure out what is going on for you.
If you can figure out where there is room, let me know! I would love to have something like that (or page numbers was another suggestion), but I use up basically all the room.
EDIT: There is now a progress bar across the bottom (in Tutorial 2 now too). :)
Rulis, it depends on your level of experience. For experienced programmers, I totally agree with you. Stencyl is not designed for them. It's designed for people just starting out in programming. For them, Stencyl is a great tool to learn how to program with. Besides, this is a tutorial for helping people learn how to program, not a question of which program is better for programming.
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In the tutorial, did you use paint or some other program to make the player? And do you have any suggestions for a good free graphics maker? Thanks!
I very highly suggest Paint NET. It is free to download and use, and there is a wealth of options in it. It's how I was able to make things like the lava in The Lonely Square. http://www.getpaint.net/
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Well done. It would be great if we have this game as main overview and other smaller game tutorial to cover more focused topics. Basically, modularize the contents.
Thank you. Two more tutorials are already planned. The next will go over the main ideas on how to use attributes, both local and game-wide ones. The third will go over mouse-based shooting.
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When I looked at this more closely, I found another great thing you put in. You didn't tell the user anything about stencylforge. Sounds like a bad thing right? No, it's very good! Making your own graphics/sounds/code is much better, and your tutorial gets that into the users head. What charity does the revenue go to?
While I think StencylForge is a good tool, when I tried to use it, I found that I preferred coding myself. I agree with you that doing things yourself is much better. Also, the in-program tutorial goes over using the Forge if I'm not mistaken, and I do not wish to repeat ideas that can be found elsewhere. The charity is Compassion International, an organization that tries to help poor children all over the world get a good education, have their basic needs met, and teach them about Jesus.
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Abigayl, brilliant tutorial! I gave it a 5/5 and favorited it, and I checked it's rating (add /metrics to your games URL), but sadly it's only at around 3.18. I think that's because of people like steeltrollNoHack downrating it, thinking that stencyl is *evil*. steeltrollNoHack, tehre are many erasons some of us use Stencyl. One reason I use it is because i'm busy learning C++ and Unityscript. AS3 (and 2 and 1) are very messy. Many people just cannot understand code, and Stencyl's colorful design blocks are much more user-friendly. Good games can be made,, it just depends on how much time people put into i. You should notice that most flash games are very bad as well. Other people cannot afford Flash. Yes, Flashdevelop is there, but it's harder to use and find tutorials for. Then there are Linux users. And Actionscript 2 is not completely outdated.
Thank you for your 5/5 and your tip (I was checking the rating based on where it fell in the Stenyl-tagged games). With your rating, it no longer needs too look at metrics: 3.33/5, which means it has indeed began its climb back up. Agreed on the time put into the games. TLS took about 3 months to develop. I appreciate your support!
Yes, making a highscore would be a part of the next tutorial (hence why I didn't do it for this one). If you need specific help with it, can join my programming stream: livestream.com/poweredbyflowers
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cool tutorial im sure lots of people will find it useful if they want to make a game using stencyl :D (especially since it looks really complicated).
Stencyl isn't complicated, at least not compared to the other programming tools. That is the reason I use it ;). There's just some nuances that you gotta get used to. Once you start learning the lingo, the pieces start falling into place.
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I just completed the tutorial and I found it to be very helpful. Granted, I am a new StencyWorks user, so I do have a lot to learn, but I'm glad for the jump-start the guidance of this tutorial was able to provide as it provided a template from which I was able to gain a much better understanding of how the development environment works.
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Please rate this comment up if you would like to see further tutorials delve into more advanced concepts (just so I know if there is an interest).