I am making a Sprite Kit game where the player (basically a stickman) has a running animation and a parallax scrolling background.
Now I have enemies that come near my player. To destroy these enemies sometimes I have to touch the enemies node to launch a rocket or attack them with an attack button or just jump over them.
Everything is working fine, but I want to add some extra moves to destroy them. I want some enemies that you can just destroy if you have drawn a whole circle around them. So imagine they come and you make a circle and then my player launch a laser or something. The problem is I have no idea where to start.
I haven't found anything on the internet. If it's too complicated or almost impossible how about touching my player node and dragging to the enemy?
EDIT: I think I have to create a custom GestureRecognizer that recognizes if a circle is drawn around a sprite and then runs the code. I don't know how this works ?
Yes, it's too complex. Not just from a coding point of view, but also from that of the player's experience.
Anything that requires complex gestures over a large amount of glass is annoying for the player because they're never going to have the same experience. Their finger's moisture and oil content always changes, as does the ambient temperature and cleanliness of their screen.
So big gestures required to be performed quickly (a gaming input like this) will sometimes be fun and smooth, and other times degrade as an experience based on the nature of the above properties.
Best to avoid them for a game's best possible experience.
If you must do it, there's two ways to research how.
Seek out "custom gesture" creation and utilisation through documentation and google, etc.
Think about using some kind of array to store all the points where the player's finger moves through during that circle gesture and attempt to discern if an enemy is within that space and then act accordingly.
--- probably other ways, too. But these jump to mind.
Related
i'm new in the development of swift ios game using spirtekit and i need help. I want to develop a vertical 2d endless run, where with a swipe you are able to move the player in direction and if there is an obstacle, it is created in a position calculate with the position of the player. Once create the obstacle i would like to make it falling down but alway with the same relation with the player (this means that it has to move only on y axis).
Can you suggest me some ideas on how to manage this?
This book teaches you exactly how to make what you are looking for:
https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Started-SpriteKit-Jorge-Jordan-ebook/dp/B01891X7TM
This is the end product:
https://itunes.apple.com/lr/app/inside-the-hat/id1076967804?mt=8
You can get it for free here (with trial):
https://www.packtpub.com/application-development/getting-started-spritekit
The source code for this is around somewhere on the web, but I forgot where :( I bought the book a year ago and can't find it now.
Basically, you have a long background that is .moveTo .. in .update you check the position of the background, then reset it based on its XY position (it basically just goes all the way down, warps to the top position, then falls)
Also in .update you check for score, or a timer, or just a random check, then spawn an enemy, obstacle, etc. You give the enemy / obstacle SKActions to move towards the player, and let .didBegin(contact:) handle scoring, sound effects, death, etc.
In my game, the size of the level can be larger than the screen of the phone and the camera will follow the player around the level, so there can be a decent amount of content(such as SKEmitterNodes) in the scene that is not visible at any given time. I've been reading through some of the SpriteKit documentation and found this quote in the SMEmitterNode section:
"Consider removing a particle emitter from the scene when it is not
visible onscreen. Add it just before it becomes visible."
Is this something that can be done in my type of game design? I don't want the nodes to be completely removed since they will eventually be put on the screen, but is there a good way for me to add/remove the EmitterNodes (or other SpriteNodes) that are a certain distance from the screen/is this a good idea to do? I'm looking to improve my frame-rate and don't want costly nodes like SMEmitterNodes working while they're not even being displayed, but will adding/removing them as the player moves around reduce the performance?
Here is the idea I currently have: create a rectangle that extends a certain distance around the screen and detect when a node comes into that rectangle, and if it's not already added to the scene, go ahead and add it. Thank you for any suggestions.
SKNodes really aren't a problem because when they are off screen they are not being rendered anyway, just evaluated. So the main thing to worry about with SKNodes are any physics bodies attached to them,
SKEmitterNodes however require some processing power, and that is why apple is recommending not having them emit if they are not on screen. I would just subclass my SKScene class, and do a checks only on SKEmitterNodes whether or not they are in frame, and emit based on that.
So, I would throw all your SKEmitterNodes into a container like an array, and have a loop function to have the node do a CGRectIntersectsRect check based on your camera location and viewable screen size. and if they intersect, add it to the scene, if not remove it from the scene. The array will keep a strong reference so you do not have to worry about it deiniting on you
If I have a sprite node, just a white circle somewhere on the screen, how am I able to make it so when I drag, let's say downwards and slightly to the left, the circle sprite would launch upwards and to the right and then gradually come down, like a golf shot.
Another way of explaining the mechanic is the Angry Birds game, where you launch the birds of the slingshot, the birds move in the opposite direction of your drag and gradually come down.
For another live example of the mechanics of the circle, look at the app, Desert Golfing.
Thanks, and if you don't know what I mean just comment and I'll try to explain it better.
OPTIONAL: If you do know how to do the slingshot type mechanic for the circle, do you also know how to add an arrow to the screen so users know which way the circle will launch?
Ill try to break your problem down into small steps that you could then solve yourself:
Detect the swipe:
use a UIPanGestureRecognizer. You will be able to implement a method that is called whenever a user drags their finger in a certain direction.
Here are some good references:
- Pan Gesture Official Documentation
- A very useful question that can serve you as a guide
Detect the magnitude of the swipe in order to impart an impulse
Check out the second link above. What you have to do is in the method for the gesture recognizer you will detect certain flags such as when the user starts the pan or ends the pan. Then, you can check for the location at those moments. With the Pythagorean theorem you should be able to get the distance and use that as the magnitude.
Apply impulse:
Create a physics body for your sprite and then make sure that you have gravity set inside your physics world. This allows the sprite to move in a parabolic motion. Then, use applyImpulse: on your physics body with your magnitude.
Regarding the arrow, you can easily do some delegation from within your pan gesture handler that gets the magnitude of the swipe and projects a reflection that your arrow will then show. Your question is pretty loaded so going into more detail is impossible, but best of luck. Hope this helps!
I'm currently making a game where driving a moon lander across the terrain of alien planets. The lander is free moving so you can turn any direction you like.
I've got a camera centred on the player's vehicle and navigation is working well, however...
As the player approaches the horisontal sides (x) of the map I'd like the map to display continuously.
I've used a couple of different approaches so far; I've added an identical sprite as the map to the left of the map and created a method that moves the extended map to the right side if you approach that side instead, and I've also tested with two different extended maps, one for left and one for right. I've then setup physics for the extended maps and changed the landers position from one side of the map to the other as it collides with the extended maps.
My issue is that I'd like to have my enemies spawning and walking around the main map and as you approach the side you will of course not see the enemies on the other side of the map - you'd only see the extended map with no contents.
My preference would be for the world to "bend" so that as you approach the left edge you'd automatically see the right edge and vice versa. I have no idea whether this is even feasible so any suggestions are much appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
I'm not sure I understand your question. Maybe this will further discussion, anyhow.
If you are looking for a scrolling behavior then I would have two backgrounds (or more if you want a wider scrolling field) and your method for swapping the tiles around to make the background feel continuous, use the "camera" tracking technique and shown in Apple's sprite kit demo to follow your player (which it sounds like you are doing). Then when aliens move offscreen in either direction relocate them in the same way that you would swap out your background tile(s) with something like position.x += widthOfBackgroundTile.
I'm trying to do a menu like the one that "Contre Jour" game has, with 3 elements spinning in a circle when user drags left and right. I'm using CALayers with CATransforms to position them in a 3d spinning wheel (no problem so far).
I need a way (maybe with NSTimers?) to calculate in-between values, because CoreAnimation just interpolates values, but if you NSLog them, it's just gonna show the start and the end, or just the end. I need all the in-between values, I need to snap the wheel movement when I release the finger (touches ends)in one position (there are 3 elements, each one shoud be at 120 degrees.
My guess and am quite sure I'm correct is that they are using a game engine such as Unity3D or Cocos2D or any other of the many to manage their sprites, animations, textures, physics and basically everything. Trying to replicate it outside of game engine will most likely result in crummy performance and a lot of hair pulling. I would suggest looking into a dedicated game engine and give it a shot there.
I am not sure I understand exactly what Contre Jour does with the spinners, anyway, I think that a reasonable approach for your case is using a UIPanGestureRecognizers to update the status of your spinning wheels according to the panning.
Now, it is not clear what you do to animate the spinning wheel (if you could provide some code, this would help understanding exactly what you are trying to do), but the idea would be this: instead of specifying an animation ending point far away from the starting point (and letting Core Animation do all the handling for you, even when the dragging has stopped), you would only modify the status of the spinning wheel in small increments.
If your only issue is stopping the animation when the dragging stops, you could try calling removeAnimationForKey on your layer to halt a specific animation.
Look into CADisplayLink. This works very much like an NSTimer, except its refresh rate is tied to that of the display, so your animations will be smoother than if you were to use timers. This will allow you to calculate all the in-between values and update your control.
I'm not clear what you are asking, but I do have one insight for you: To get the in-between values of an in-flight animation, query the layer's presentationLayer property. the property that's being animated will have a value that's a close approximation of it's on-screen appearance at the moment you fetch the value.