Combining Innovation & Technology
The Challenge:
Do you enjoy playing computer games? Stencyl is a great way to design and build computer games of your own! Explore the world of game design as you learn to use Stencyl and make your first games. Your challenge is to build a computer game from scratch using Stencyl tutorials as a guide or to use Stencyl to modify and improve an existing game. For a Black Diamond your challenge is to consider what makes a great game and then use Stencyl to design your own mobile game or your own desktop game with Stencyl.
Stencyl software
STEAM U Challenge Levels:
GREEN CIRCLE (1 PT.)
Received if challenges from the Blue Circle are not met.
BLUE CIRCLE (2 PTS.) IN ADDITION TO ALL IN THE GREEN CIRCLE....
OPTION 1:
Complete Crash Course 1. This course will introduce you to the various parts of Stencyl.
Complete Crash Course 2. This course will show you how to create a game from scratch.
Design your own game from scratch.
OPTION 2:.
Review the concepts and terms in the
What You Should Know section. Make sure you know how copyrights work.
Launch Stencyl and open Stencylpedia to find a sample game to modify.
Establish your objectives and decide how you will modify the game.
Click on Table of Contents on the top left of Stencylpedia. Work through chapters 2 (Buliding Logic) through 5 (Mechanics) as you follow along with your own game design project.
BLACK DIAMOND (3PTS) IN ADDITION TO ALL IN THE GREEN CIRCLE AND BLUE SQUARE...
Create a working game for the desktop or a mobile device.
Plan your game (click HERE for example and directions)
Consider these games when making your plan:
Angry Birds has been downloaded billions of times.
Super Mario Run was voted one of the best mobile games in 2016. Super Mario Run offers easy navigation but is still challenging because you have to collect all of the coins and there are lots of levels to conquer.
Kathy Rain was another popular mobile game in 2016. Kathy Rain plays the role of detective as she tries to uncover the suspenseful truth behind her grandfather's mysterious death.
Your game should include the following (click HERE for more information on each):
Goals: Good games have a way to “win” or advance.
Rules: Almost all games have rules that define how the game is played.
Challenge: Good games are neither too hard nor too easy and must be appropriate for the age and ability of the player. Often, the difficulty increases as players learn to play the game.
Interaction: Successful games often require us to interact with other players, game pieces, or with a computer.
Tutorial on Game Design in Stencyl
Challenge Resources:
You will see the Welcome Center screen when you start Stencyl. This is the homepage of the software.
You may see a different Welcome Center view depending on which version of the software you have.
From the Welcome Center you can:
Create a game.
Open an existing game.
Check out the latest news.
Kits & Dashboard
Kits contain resources for creating a game.
The Dashboard displays game resources and logic.
Resources and Logic
Resources include the parts of a game you need to create the game location and action. Examples: Actors, background, scenes, and sounds.
Logic blocks are what you combine to create a computer program that gives the game action.
If your program is not working properly you will need to debug. Your debugging mantra should always be, "Do not get discouraged. You can fix this." SmartLabs are all about problem-solving, so approach it like a puzzle and have some fun!
Here are some important things to keep in mind:
You are not alone. Virtually every computer program must be debugged. In fact, software companies often continue debugging for years after software is released to the public.
Your program IS working: It is performing each step exactly as instructed, even if it is not doing what you expected. All you need to do is find the instruction that is causing the unexpected behavior.
Usually, the problem is something simple. A problem with a single instruction can often lead to dramatically unexpected behavior.
Steps:
Think about how the program is behaving unexpectedly – often that will be your best clue to the problem.
Carefully examine each program step in order to identify the problem instruction(s). If you have multiple program modules, try playing each one separately to seeif that helps you find the problem.
Make one change at a time to isolate the problem. If you make many changes at once, it can be hard to tell which of the changes are positively or negatively affecting the result.
Stencylpedia - The complete guide to doing anything on Stencyl
Actors are the characters, or interactive objects in your game. A person, a spaceship, a monster, or a flower could be actors.
Characteristics of Actors include:
Appearance – This is how the actor looks. Example: Guy in a suit.
Behavior – These are the actions of the actor. Example: Walking.
Physics – The are the interactions with the game environment. Example: Falls when it steps on a banana.
Games should obey physics. If a ball is kicked on Earth, it behaves like it would on Earth. How would it behave differently if it was on the moon?
Behaviors are actions associated with each actor. They determine the following:
What an actor does (Example: A behavior can program an actor to walk left.)
How an actor is controlled (Example: The actor moves right when the right arrow is pressed.)
How an actor interacts with and reacts to other objects (Example: The actor could jump when the space bar is hit or slip when it steps on a banana peel.)
You can change attributes about the behavior in Design Mode.
Reload and jumping and stomping are all behaviors. Event Another event
Create a jump behaviorAttributes define how a behavior specifically works.
For example, a speed attribute can be created according to an actor's “walk” behavior. In the example here, walking has a speed of five kilometers per hour.
Similarly, an attribute can define the height of an actor's jump (behavior).
The behavior of walking can also be defined differently for each actor. For example, one actor could walk quickly, while another walks slowly.
Events are the things that occur in your game and the outcomes of those occurrences.
For example, you can program an event where the cause "Hit Spacebar" leads to the effect "Fire Laser".So when the spacebar is hit on your keyboard, the laser will fire in the game.
Think of the scene as the place where the action occurs in your game. The “worlds” or “levels” in a game are scenes.
They control game flow, guiding the player from level to level.
They include images, sounds, and music.
The computer screen uses the (X,Y) coordinate system to organize objects in the scene. (0,0) is at the top left. The coordinate system defines a scene's limits, in which the actors must remain.
Scenes are a place where the action occurs.
X, Y Coordinate System
Your computer screen is similar to a sheet of graph paper. Actors must stay
on the paper.
In Stencyl, game mechanics are rules that allow a user to interact with the game. Game mechanics can be created by either you or by Stencyl.
Examples include:
Adding background music
Playing sounds and music after certain events
StencylForge Resources
StencylForge houses resources for game development. Click on the StencylForge icon to access them.
Need an actor type, a behavior, a scene, or a sound? Either make your own or use one from StencylForge.
NOTE: Using someone else's work may come with restrictions and rules. Make sure you understand how copyrights work.
Copyright: It Is the Law
Whenever you use someone else’s intellectual property, you should consider their rights under copyright law. Copyright law can be confusing, but here is what you need to know:
When someone creates original work (e.g. music, art, stories, or even a game), it belongs to them.
While people want you to use their work because they share it on StencylForge, they may care how you use it.
In order to know if you can use someone's work, read the license attached to the item.
StencylForge has three types of licenses:
Public Domain: The creator has contributed all of the work to the public and has not retained any rights for his/herself. You can use it in any way and for any purpose.
Creative Commons Attribution: The creator retains some rights to the work. You can share, modify, and reuse the work (even for commercial purposes), but you must give credit to the original creator of the work wherever it is published.
All Rights Reserved: You can download and use the work, but you cannot share, modify, or republish the work.
Creative Commons is a non-profit that is devoted to
expanding the range of creative
works available for others to
build upon and share.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Coming Soon...