Throw a Bone

It’s time for some action, I am going to make things more interesting with shooting projectiles, a core mechanic that is seen in many game genres. I’ve been set to complete the “Throw a Bone” tutorial where it will teach me how to create some basic code blocks to accomplish a shooting projectiles simulation. After this is completed, I could use some of my previous skills to modify and add more features to my mini game.

Tutorial

As I begin to complete the tutorial, it starts out with the same basic steps which is to select “on start” “set mySprite to (I select an image of my sprite) of kind player”. I’ve made my player, gave him some movement when I press on the keys or buttons. Then there were instructions given on how to make my projectile come out of my player if I pressed a button. Afterwards, I arranged the velocity I wanted the projectile to move at and there it is, the tutorial finished. Now it is time for me to add some other things to my mini game.

Modification

First, I thought of amplifying the space a little bit more in able for my to move around more and make things more interesting. I selected an image for my tiles so that I could set the tiles as my walls. With these tiles, I created a square shaped map where my player could only move within that area and the same applies for the other sprite I am llatter going to create.

Secondly, I proceed to organize the blocks of code to make the projectile shot while I am moving around and when I am in place, no movement from the player. This was one of the challenges I encountered during the project, because there was an “if” statement required in this part and here is where a lot of logical thinking is applied. It seemed confusing at first, but later on, after a while of figuring out how to organize the blocks of code, it turned out to be fine for what I was aiming for. 

Then for my third step, I created the other sprite which it is supposed to be the enemy sprite but I set it as food. Either way, it’s main role is, when the projectile overlaps the enemy sprite, the enemy sprite will be destroyed and score a point for the player. As soon as it is destroyed, it will respawn and keep bouncing against the walls until it is destroyed again. This process will continue until the player reaches up to 15 points which will be the victory of the game.

Overall

The tutorial seemed very simple, nothing complicated. When I got to start with my moding, I made a few challenges for myself so that I could learn new things and make this project more entertaining. If it were all too easy, I could probably get bored but if I make the challenges too hard it can get overwhelming. After all this process in creating a mini game, I practiced my skills on MakeCode Arcade.

Throw a Bone