Comments for Stencyl Tutorial: First Game

I do that on a regular basis... tutor IRL ;)

I'm glad you were able to figure it out. I am guessing you changed the enemy graphics at some point from a larger graphic to a smaller one... that is normally the reason for a larger collision box than it should (for some reason Stencyl doesn't automatically resize when changing graphics).

I suggest posting to the bug forums: http://community.stencyl.com/index.php/board,4.0.html Also, your question was a bit a confusing... who doesn't appear and what is the thing that is annoying?

Stencyl is basically a more powerful form of Scratch from what I have heard (never have used scratch myself).

Congrats on your game. The second tutorial (there's 5 in total) goes over the scoring ;).

Strepto, glad to be of assistance :). I'd suggest starting off with smaller game (or just smaller parts to a larger game) and building up from there, like how the tutorials go from a bland game to a decent avoidance game. If you want some ideas for breaking down a larger idea into segments or need any other help, let me know :)

Good luck with your project. As I suggest to everyone, start with something small and manageable and expand on it. For example, start with walking around on a field, then, add swinging a sword, then add the collision of a stationary enemy, then add enemy AI, and so on. Break down big projects into smaller ones :)

Thanks :)

Pickle, sorry about the annoyance. I do have bookmarks at the start/middle/end (press 0/1/2) to help, but I do not see how I can add many more bookmarks except using other numbers. If it would help a lot, will see about updating the tutorials to add more points.

I use Paint NET: http://www.getpaint.net/download.html In the fifth tutorial, I will briefly go over one of the key features in it: clouds.

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.

Thanks. I hope you learned from it.

It is somewhat similar. The creator of it is very open that he used (and expanded on) the ideas started off in Scratch. IMO, it's a nice balance between power and simplicity.

I'm glad it's helping. This is the first of a five-part series, and there's a second series (and an extremely detailed third lone tutorial) on here too :).

I go over how to do 8-way controls in the later tutorials. The goal for this tutorial was just how to show how to create a basic game. I think it's either part 2 or part 3 that has it (all 5 parts were meant to be done together).

Did you attach the behaviors to the actor/scene (accordingly)? If you used the scene creation tool to create the player, do you see it in the preview within Stencyl?

www.stencyl.com It's totally free to use if you want to make flash games. :)

There is an entire second series in the links in the "Updates" area. It takes the same amount of time to redo these to the newer versions of Stencyl as to make an entire new set, so I chose the latter; it focus on a platformer game instead to learn the ropes.

Things are better if you do them yourself. It will help you to learn the ropes, which will help down the road.

I used Paint.NET (download for free: getpaint.net). As long as you are using Windows, it's a great, free tool :)

Just replying to this one instead of all of them... I think it's time you come to my livestream instead (livestream.com/stencyl). And, this time, don't leave immediately. Last time, I replied after only 2 minutes and you were already gone. Just because I'm not streaming doesn't mean I'm not on.

Did you remember to have an "otherwise set velocity to 0" at the end of the movement coding chain?

If you ever can't see things from "when drawing", be sure that your space is correct; there are two types: actor space (in which the location is relative to the upper-left corner of the actor) and screen space (where the location is relative to the upper-left corner of the screen). Which you want depends on if you want the text to move with the actor or stay put.

The coding looks solid. Are you sure that the boxes are set to the collision group "actors"? If you want to, upload the game to StencylForge, make it public, and then tell me the name, and I'll take a look directly. Also, if you want a more instant chat, you can come to my stream (livestream.com/stencyl). If I am online, I'm on there.

Sounds like something might have gotten corrupted somehow. Try closing and reopening Stencyl. If that fails, perhaps uninstall and reinstall Stencyl. Also, try some of the premade games to see if those are working (if so, it's more likely that the game was corrupted than Stencyl itself).

The off-screen issue is something I cover in a later tutorial (this one is part 1 of 5; see the "Updates" section for the rest). As for the hitting of enemies, I must assume that the collision coding you made is wrong somehow since it does sound like collisions are registering. Be sure that you don't have it turned off (i.e. unchecked). If you want, use the camera option (it's on the bottom of Stencyl) to take a picture of the code and let me see it.

In the "Updates" section (which is now hidden :[ ), you can see the major changes to the current version, as well as the links to the second tutorial series, which are for the current version.

www.stencyl.com

I just calculated it out. Assuming you somehow pressed the "attach" button once every second, it would take over 158 years to hit it that many times. Have you tried my second tutorial? It goes over more advanced spawning methods (link is in the Updates section).

What it actually wants is proper grammar so I can understand what your problem is :P. You can use specific velocities instead of random ones if you want.

Did you remember to attach to scene? (See Max's comment before you :P).

You can make the enemies any size you want. It's your game (assuming that you are following along making your own game).

Common mistake ;). I now program primarily with events so I don't have to worry about that.

You would attach it to the scene you made earlier (if you didn't, make a scene and attach it to that one). In this tutorial, there is only one scene, so that is the one you attach it to.

I used Paint.NET, an excellent free program if you are using Windows (if on a Mac, I think Gimp also works well).

The original file was long lost. That said, I have kept it up-to-date in the Updates section... which has unfortunately been hidden since Kongregate updated their system :(. You can still read all of the changes there though (and find the links to my other tutorials, including for my 2.0-2.2 set).

I do have a tutorial on animations as part of my second tutorial set: http://www.kongregate.com/games/Abigayl/stencyl-2-0-tutorial-4-animations

Nothing should actually crash, so that is surprising. It is indeed based off of Stencyl 1.2 (and Stencyl is about to reach 3.0). That said, check the "Changes to Current Version" in the notes area... unfortunately with the reworking of the website (which I do not like), that is now hidden. It does go over the major changes though. Also, you can always check out the SECOND tutorial set, based off of the current version of Stencyl (again the links are in the now-hidden news section).

Something inside of Stencyl likely became corrupted. If you haven't done much in Stencyl yet, try doing a complete uninstall, re-download Stencyl, and re-install it. If you have files that you wish to save (or if that does not fix the issue), then I would suggest going to the Stencyl forums and posting in "Ask A Question", adding in the zip file and anything else you can find. I am not good personally with issues involving Stencyl itself.

Thanks :)

Thanks :). Be sure to read the the news section for the updates to the current version.

In 2.x, Stencyl got rid of the old collision codes. Now you need to add event -> Collisions. Generally you will want "with actor of type". (BTW, be sure to check my "Notes" section between this comment section and the tutorial for a list of the major changes to 2.x).

It's Paint.NET, a MUCH better (still free) version of "Paint" (but only for Windows). It's comparable to GIMP.

Having java installed does help ;). I'm surprised that the tutorial ran without it...