Spaceman

• 

  Project Page

Inspiration

My parents first mentioned this hackathon to me, and I was pretty interested! I wanted to see what I could make, and what other people could as well. My inspiration for creating a tile scroller based in space, was because I thought that a "space base" fit the theme well, because that is something humans would create in the future when exploring. I chose a tile scroller because I had recently learned how to create one.

What it does

It is a tile scrolling game, that also has a simple level editor. The tile scrolling means that the game is made up of tiles, which are saved, and scroll by when you load them. The level editor allows you to edit blocks, and change the level to your liking! Also, there is a not-so-secret jetpack that lasts for 15 seconds. The goal of the game is to reach the very right of the level.

How we built it

To create the basics of a tile scroller, every tile had to be the exact same size (16x16). I created a Tile Grid list, which would store the location of every tile, and what costume that tile should be. For example, tile 1 would be the bottom left, and tile 2 would be above that tile. Next, I had to make the tiles positioned correctly with the camera, so I created some camera variables, which allowed for the tiles to be positioned correctly. However, the tiles wouldn't go off the screen, so using a cool method involving changing costumes, allowed for the tiles to disappear until they were on your screen again. Next, I had to create the basics of a platformer, To create the collision detection, I checked the surroundings of the player, and what tile they were. If the tile was a costume>2, then it was solid. Then, it had to be pushed out. However, this only worked for a small point inside the character, but I was able to find out how to fix that. Then came the level editor. The ghost block was simple, just create a clone at the cursor, and set the ghost effect to 50. Then, I created a brush block, which allowed the mouse to change the tile number to different values. To create the scrolling through different blocks system, I used a list, and stored the keybinds for every type of block. Then used some simple when key pressed buttons to scroll through them. I created multiple tile costumes in a pixel art editor, as well as the character. I then added a jetpack at a certain location. Using a similar method to the collision detection, the jetpack is now able to be picked up, and function! Then, used the in-game level editor to create the level.

Challenges we ran into

Creating the jetpack was difficult, as it was difficult figuring out some of the mechanics, like how to set it to activate after picking it up, and hiding it after picking it up. Also, creating the costumes for the tiles was difficult because I had to create them myself, using some reference images. Because I was using a simple online editor, I kept having to go back and forth, changing the colors so everything would match.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I'm pretty proud of the whole thing. It was challenging to make, and there were lots of problems I had to solve. Also, because this was my first hackathon, that is also an accomplishment.

What we learned

I learned how to make a tile scroller, and what a hackathon is like. I have never done a hackathon, and this was a great experience. It was a challenge, but the final product was worth it!

What's next for Spaceman

I didn't have enough time this time, but maybe in the future in my spare time, I might create more than one level, and a main menu. This would make it even better, because there would be multiple levels to play. However this would be difficult, because right now, I don't know how to save multiple levels.

Built With

• scratch