ID:121778
 
I've been working on translating my idea for a strictly video-based tutorial into a more traditional written tutorial. It shows how to create a game using BYOND by walking through the development of a simple game. The tutorial is designed so you can follow along - you can copy and paste code from the tutorial into your own project and see how things work. The tutorial also includes videos that show what you'd see if you were following along. This way you can still see how things would work without actually following along.

The tutorial is geared towards people who understand DM. It's not going to explain what a var is or what a list is. It assumes you know those things and shows how to put things together to create a game.

Click here to start the BYOND Game Development Tutorial.

The tutorial currently has four parts:
  • Part 1 — Covers defining turfs, making a map, including the Sidescroller library, setting the mob's bounding box, and a few different graphical improvements.
  • Part 2 — Covers modifying the Sidescroller's library movement (to lower gravity and add variable-height jumps), also creates the concept of a "race" with a starting line and finish line and shows the player their time when they reach the finish line.
  • Part 3 — Adds some special turfs that bounce the player in the air, increase their movement speed temporarily, and teleport them. Also adds an on-screen clock showing the player's time.
  • Part 4 — Adds two kinds of enemies - robots that walk back and forth on their platform and laser turrets. Also adds tubes that move the player up or down and conveyor belts.
Each part represents what you could accomplish in about 15 minutes of development time. Each part should take 10-15 minutes to read if you don't get into the details too much. If you read things more closely or try to follow along, each part could take 20-30 minutes. If you're not interested in following along, a .zip of the project is provided at the end of each part.
Amazing, but i found one bug. If you jump on one of the special tiles, weather your in a race or not, you gain its effect.
I'm not sure what you mean - when you run the game you're always in a race. The mob's bump proc also has this line:

if(!race) return ..()

Was there a place where I left that line out?
So far so good.
http://i43.tinypic.com/332cvnk.png - It was working fine a few days ago :/
Tensa Soul wrote:
http://i43.tinypic.com/332cvnk.png - It was working fine a few days ago :/

Include the Keyboard library.
That's correct. The newest version of the Sidescroller library requires the Keyboard library. This tutorial requires both of them (and it eventually requires the HUD Groups library).
Darker Legends wrote:
Tensa Soul wrote:
http://i43.tinypic.com/332cvnk.png - It was working fine a few days ago :/

Include the Keyboard library.

Thanks.
I updated the tutorial slightly. I added highlighting to the code sections and added a fourth part (I had it written when I first posted this, I just needed to record and upload the videos).
i mean after you finish the race, you know how you stop the player from being able to use any of the special tiles? If said player jumps on one he can still use it. Not a big bug, but one none the less.
D-Cire wrote:
i mean after you finish the race, you know how you stop the player from being able to use any of the special tiles? If said player jumps on one he can still use it. Not a big bug, but one none the less.

I never intended for you to be unable to use the tiles after crossing the finish line. Most likely, what'll eventually happen is that the player's movement is locked after completing a race so this wouldn't be an issue either way. Thanks for having a critical eye, though. Be sure to let me know if you find any other issues.
These are great.
Tensa Soul wrote:
http://i43.tinypic.com/332cvnk.png - It was working fine a few days ago :/

Was the big red arrow really necessary? I mean this reminds me of that Sequelitis video when it talks about game developers treating gamers like idiots. It's like, he's gonna click on that screenshot and just stare at it like "....I don't get it. What's he complaining about?"

ANYWAY, I haven't finished it yet but it looks good. I like the fact you included video which makes me not tl;dr.
Enzuigiri wrote:
Tensa Soul wrote:
http://i43.tinypic.com/332cvnk.png - It was working fine a few days ago :/

Was the big red arrow really necessary? I mean this reminds me of that Sequelitis video when it talks about game developers treating gamers like idiots. It's like, he's gonna click on that screenshot and just stare at it like "....I don't get it. What's he complaining about?"

Yes, I've seen plenty of compiler errors before =)

ANYWAY, I haven't finished it yet but it looks good. I like the fact you included video which makes me not tl;dr.

Glad to hear. I'm not sure if the numbers aren't being recorded right, but the videos appear to have a very low number of views. I'd find it strange if it wasn't counting views from the embedded player (and was only counting people that click the link to view it on youtube). I'd expect people would go through the whole thing and only watch the videos.
This kind of thing really adds to BYOND. It really helps users learn how to actually start acting like developers and not just players. I think big red arrows are *exactly* what is needed in projects like this- it points it out for the newer users (and clueless) and if you don't need it you can ignore it.

Not to mention that the features your libraries add are invaluable for what most new users actually expect from a game.
I love you <3
Thanks for the positive responses!

A tutorial isn't very useful unless people know about it and I can only do so much to promote it myself. If you'd like to help out, be sure to recommend this tutorial to anyone who is looking to learn more about BYOND game development.
I may have missed something when looking through this, but I think it's more like a "Using the Sidescroller library to make a racing game" tutorial. "Game Development Tutorial" makes me think it has more to do with game development in general, when actually the tutorial guides you on how to add Sidescroller-library-dependent content. But for that, it's still a pretty nice-looking tutorial. I like your art.
Most tutorials are centered around an example. Even though the example is a racing game, most of the examples (on-screen display, datums, areas, special turfs, autojoining tiles, constructors, warps, etc.) can be applied to many other kinds of games.

It makes use of libraries (sidescroller, keyboard, HUD groups, and Hub eventually) because they make it easier to create a decent looking game. Without them the tutorial would be much longer and cover much less (or it'd rely on things like verb panels and output controls). The tutorial is about BYOND game development, so it makes sense to use existing BYOND game development resources.