So amidst all of my efforts to straighten out the ghost whale and the screen scrolling, I solved a problem I abandoned way back in the times of yore when I first began to write the script for Fox's movement. Now the main sprite idles facing left instead of always wanting to turn around and face right. The small victories are happy ones.

Just tightening and polishing. I'm going to go through all the hitTests and try and make them more accurate using scripts from said file: pixel perfect collision detection

Also my frankenstein screen scrolling attempts have lead to fox being able to fly. flawlessly. Like a speeding bullet. Effortlessly he leaps tall trees in a single bound. naturally this is unacceptable, so I'm bringing it to the table Thursday.

Kit Run has a title scene now. It's much cooler than the screen shot would suggest. In actuality, there is super catchy music, and all the menu items bounce in ever so snes -y. It's very Snake Rattle n' Roll. Oh, and it's not finished. It will have clouds moving swiftly upwards in the background eventually.

my continued efforts have at last rendered the screen scrolling partially functional. Heres what I be tote'n:

if (this._y>208.8 & this._y<363.8)>

_root.groundlevel1._y = -30.0;

trace("stop");

}

else if (this._y>400.0 & this._y<450.0)>

_root.groundlevel1._y -= 10.0;

trace("down");

}

else if (this._y<120.0>75.0) {

_root.groundlevel1._y += 10.0;

trace("up");

}

else if (this._y>550.0){

_root.dead = true;

}

It's pretty good except for two problems: Predominantly, if the ground is in the process of scrolling, hitTests are disabled. So if the ground is moving up to keep up with the fox falling in a hole or something, and the ground hasnt finished scrolling when the fox lands, the fox will just fall right though the ground. hittests dont work when the mc is in motion.

Secondly, and not nearly as important but none the less, the above code tells the screen to scroll up or down ten respectively, but the default position is set. Thus is just reloads to its default position instead of scrolling pleasently, which makes it pretty choppy.

la!

ALAS! I did some exciting scripting today; when you run out of time the ghost whale from bubble bobble load and effectively chases the fox. THE PROBLEM! The fox only actually moves when it's jumping, on the y-axis. When it's running left or right, the ground scrolls in the opposite direction and the fox runs in place. !! This complicates my follow code to the n'th degree. To follow this epic drama, check the kirupa thread here

Just been working on some nit picky things the last few days. I messed with the score bar a bit so it fits better in the border, hunted down and deleted some extra/duplicate MCs and scripts, and tried, trrrriiiiiiiieeed to tackle the primary, seemingly insolvable remaining problems: why does the level complete mc only gotoAndStop when it is supposed to gotoAndPlay? Why does the movie not gotoAndPlay the death scene when I tell it to? Even when it traces the code? and last but not least, WHY can't I get the background to scroll up and down at the appropriate time?

These and other problems will be addressed in the coming week.

The chicken has it's very own groove! Music makes all the difference- I wish I could share but it stays in secret till the game is complete. But let me tell you- it is oooo so 8-bit danceable. Just ask this bouncin chicken!

our friend the blue jay now has his own groove. He hops to right, and hops to left. woo! And pecks too!

So I'm at a real stale mate with Kit Run. I like to only post progress so when nothing is being accomplished I have little to report. When fox returns to its kits with 100% food points, the victory sound plays and all is well, but only the first frame of the level complete symbol plays. It's on the stage all the time, just stopped at frame one which is blank. Then when levelComplete = true, it gotoAndPlay(2), which is the score add up sequence and all that usual shinanagins. Alas, it only plays frame 2 and stops. why? whhhhyyyyy??? I dunno. And so I move on to animating some of the food sprites in the mean time.

:(

haven given up yet again on the scrolling, I moved on to what glorious events shall unfold shouldst thou beat the level. Its a little point adder upper!

The hard art however is getting the program to know when you actually have beaten the level. Lots o nitty gritty action scripts.

(photo included to prove my effort)

ANGUISH. I'm rolling along the check list of this weeks goals fine until I tackle the ever present scrolling problem. I have been trying to get to this to work for, seriously, 8 months. Fuck!

When fox goes up, background must go down, and vice versa. Oh, and when fox decends to mid ground again, the background must return to the default position. One of my main troubles in achieving success is that the background symbol is not where flash says it is. Normally, when you click an object on the stage, properties will give you the x and y coordinates of said object. But! For the background symbol, properties tells me a lie. A value not even conceivable. And when typed into action script, it changes the whole dang dealy. Why the lie? Why? If I type the exact coordinates into the action script as the starting position for the level, the symbol flies off into no mans' land as soon as I test the file. I wasted 3 hours on this this morning and achieved zip. This process has always been predominantly trial and error, but today was entirely the latter. :(

Behold the enemy: Cactus. Cactus shoots spikes and sways with the groovy music.

No matter how much you want to, you CANNOT visit your kits. Not until you have enough food.

The den is now an obstacle until the score bar is full; the invisible block movie clip then unloading. It works sort of - the only problem with saying that "if fox is touching den, then speed = 0", is that fox is then stuck to said den like a magnet, with no means of escape. hmmmmmm.

Kit Run now has a complete soundtrack (I think) with the groovy abandon that any pixelated game should have. Also I've improved the tree of the kits den.

This weeks schedule:

1)Coding obstacles

2)Removing white from chicken

3)Add movement frames to chicken and blue jay

4) Design the enemy (there has to be some element of danger, right?)

Probably next weeks schedule:

1) Screen Scrolling up and down appropriately (ugh)

2) Completing level layout / finishing the big tree

3)Create Title Screen

Resuscitating Kit Run:

I havent touched this flash file since before christmas, so I'm likely going to have to learn everything all over again- and read through the blog to try and figure out where I was at when I left off.

The next action script troubles to tackle: screen scrolling up and down when necessary, death event actually triggering a scene change (why this is so difficult I have no idea), opening title for the game as well as one for the level, and perhaps the most difficult, figuring out how to get the ghost whale, Von Blubba, to chase the main sprite when you run out of time. whew! If I get all of this worked out by the end of the term I'll be a happy animal.

New Sprites: I need to make an assortment of shrubbery, as well as work out random movement for the edibles.

the kits in their den

scenery sprites

kit run has dirt tiles now. I cant decide if I like them - The grass definitely needs help, but all in good time.

Kit Run now has a functional timer- and the sun changes colors (yellow -> orange -> red) to show you how much time you have before sunset. When you get down to 30 seconds remaining, the screen says "hurry up!". If you get down to zero, the whale comes for you...

next up, getting the sun to go down as the timer goes down - getting the sky to darken with the time - and getting the screen to scroll up and down as well as left and right

now when your score bar reaches 100%, the screen displays "return to your kits!" letting you know its time to go back to the den and complete the level.

next up:

time to add in the sun mc, and give it a simple hittest script so that when it goes below to horizon you run of time.. summoning the bubble bobble death whale.

after the sun I will be adding in the den with your kits at the beginning of the level. The den will be blocked off with something that unloads when your score reaches 100%