Friday, January 27, 2012

Save and Load in Flash Game



Do you plan to create a huge game where it's impossible to beat it in one day? You need a Save and Load Feature in your game? You came to the right place because I'm going to show you how to do this. You can save and load information via cookies to your hard drive. The files generated are .sol files, and it's block text, there is no way someone can alter it to change his score or etc.


How to Save in Flash Game
Basically, when we save in flash game, it's the same with we save a value to some variable then store it to your hard drive. Ok, now lets make a project where we can save some information.


In the project, create a button and change it's instance name to btnSave (or whatever you want). Then create two text box (input text) and change its instance name to txtName and txtPoint.
Place this code:

_global.thename=" ";
_global.point=0;
_global.savefile = SharedObject.getLocal("YourGame");

btnSave.onRelease = function () {
 _global.thename = txtName.text;
 _global.point = txtPoint.text;

 _global.savefile.data.thename = _global.thename;
 _global.savefile.data.point = _global.point;
}

First we define a global variable for name and point, then we create a cookies YourGame for saving and loading game. When you click the save button, your game will take name and point value from variable _global.name and _global.point and store it to YourGame cookies.


How to Load in Flash Game
Now, create another button and change its instance name to btnLoad (or another name you like).
Add this code:
btnLoad.onRelease = function() {
 _global.thename = _global.savefile.data.thename;
 _global.point = _global.savefile.data.point;
}

In the code above, we take point and name value from savefile and store it to our global variable name and point.


Test your Save and Load!
Create another button and change its instance name to btnRefresh.
Add this code:
btnRefresh.onRelease = function() {
 txtName.text = _global.thename;
 txtPoint.text = _global.point;
}


Now, lets test your game. Open it, input name and point in the text box. Click save button. Then Close your game. Now open your game again, then click load button. Click refresh button.


I know that you can do a simple way to do it, you can take direct value from txtName and txtPoint without global variable. I just want to show you that we can load a savefile to some variables. Have fun!


Oh, this is the source code: SaveAndLoad (CS4)


Keyword (Indonesia) : save dan load di game flash
Image : iconspedia.com

Thursday, January 26, 2012

The Best Educational Game I Ever Know


Last night, I was spending my time to browse free games from my fav search engine. And I found one game, that surprised me and said "This is the Best Educational Game I ever know". Why? Ok, before I found this game, I have written an article about educational games in my Indonesian Blog. This is what I am saying in that article.


Games as Learning Media
In this post, I am going to share some opinions about the game as a learning media. There are several reasons why I choose this topic:

  • I am a gamer.
  • I am a game developer.
  • I am a prospective teacher.

Based on that fact, I was so interested in this topic. Yeah, sometimes I looks like forced my hobby with education, but seriously it must be awesome if education can be performed together with playing games.


How it Works?
I was thinking, if during the lecture felt like playing DotA with friends or playing Dinner Dash and Cooking Academy, we discuss about the hero that will be used, the combination of skills that will be cast, the type of item build that will be effective in certain conditions, then the learning process will be fun and full of spirits. We exchange ideas, share knowledges, and all was done without a burden.


Is it possible to make that happen? 
Now there are so many educational games that were created with the hope that students can learn and play. Yeah, it is work, student can LEARN and PLAY, not PLAY and LEARN. The developer of the game just force education to match with their game, not blend them into one game. There are big differences between "LEARN and PLAY" and "PLAY and LEARN". In the first case, we learn something and there is a game in it. The second one, we playing the game, and we learn something, can you see the differences?


It must be cool if the big game company like Bandai, Namco, Blizzard, Valve, etc works with educational people to create something different for educational world. They are making a game, a FULL GAME about a student that trapped in digital world while playing with one of computer in school's lab. It can be Role-playing games or action games, but the goal is to find a way to back to the real world. While finding a way back to the real world, we can insert some educational materials in it, and here is the real educational game.


Oh I found that Game!
After posting this in few months ago, last night I found a game that I was looking for, the real educational games, and it was the best educational game I ever know in my life. Its CellCraft, an educational, real-time strategy game about cellular biology and developed by Brain Juice, has just been released under an open source license. You can play it here CellCraft Game. And this is the source code in GitHub.


Keyword (Indonesia) : game edukasi, cellcraft open source

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

MathQuest Story - Combinatorics



Hi, guys... As I said before Piqosoft Fire Creature has Educational Game Project, MathQuest Story : Combinatorics. Finally, I announce that MathQuest Story : Combinatorics has been finished.


MathQuest Story : Combinatorics is a game to learn mathematics especially for permutations and combinations subject. So, by playing this game, I hope you can have fun while learning mathematics.


In this game, you as user are the new citizen in Tori city. The first time going to school, your math's teacher asks you to help some stores so that you can understand permutations and combinations by yourself. The goal is you have to collect 5000 points. After completing all the levels in each store, you have to go back to school to conclude a certain concept that you got in that store. You have to do some exercises after finished the tasks in all of the stores to fulfill the 5000 points.


This game is made looks like a daily reality. There are time and day which always run so there are morning and night. Every morning, you have to go to the school before visiting the other places. After that, at 1 pm, you can continue your task in a store or save your game. Each visit waste 15 minutes of your times in the game. When night comes, exactly at 6 pm, you have to go home and save your game so it is better if you can finish your tasks before 6 pm.


Extra points will be gave if you can finish the tasks in each store quickly. It means, finishing the stage on the first day will be different from finishing it on the second day. Using "HINT" when you do exercises will cut 10 points that you got. If you have difficulties in calculation, you can use the calculator feature on dashboard.


This game is developed by using English. It has some features to enable narration, subtitle, and music.    When you choose to disable the subtitle, you can practice your LISTENING skills. Of course, this game is very useful for students who wants learning permutations and combinations, especially for students in International Schools.


Here some of the views on MathQuest Story : Combinatorics.




Below are the map of Tori City.




One of the store views is showed like this.




But, the size of this game reaches 25 MB. So, I still find the best way to upload it. 
Check it out only at Fire Creature.


Keyword (Indonesia) : game matematika, game permutasi, game kombinasi

Monday, January 9, 2012

Fiery - My First Monster Ever

 
 

Hi again... From now, I'll remove the header of my post, because it doesn't display like I want on the home page. And this time, I want to share about my first experience on Draw My Own Monster. This is my first time to use CorelDraw, and I try to create my own monster for www.FireCreature.com logo. And now, I have one.



Create Your Own Monster
If you want to create your own game, of course you need an artist to create the resource for your game. But if you don't have an artist or don't have a money to pay them, you must create your own resource or pick free resource from the internet. There is a lot of free e-book on the internet that can teach you how to draw your own monster.


Tadaa... My First Monster Ever! Fiery...


Fiery


What do you think? I'll try to keep practicing to create another monster, and character, and of course I'll post in here, so you are free to use it on your own game.


Keyword (Indonesia) : fiery, logo baru www.firecreature.com, monster api, gambar iga ninja, coreldraw