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AppGameKit Classic Chat / Beginners Tutorial on 2d Platformers

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Bly B3k
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Posted: 11th Jul 2013 00:01
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Hello there!

I am a new backer of the AppGameKit V2 Kickstarter
and I am looking for a comeplete beginners tutorial on how to create 2d platformer game using AppGameKit, but after looking at 67 pages on this forum and lots of google search, I am unable to find one single tutorial that is comeplete from beginning to the end.

Every tutorial I find is incomplete or full of errors and crash!

How can an absolute beginner learn how to program using AppGameKit if nobody provides complete tutorials?
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Ancient Lady
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Posted: 11th Jul 2013 05:04
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The AppGameKit programmers are working on creating AGK. If they took time for complete tutorials, AppGameKit wouldn't get anywhere.

Did you see this post? It was created specifically to be what you (and other new backers) are asking for.

I haven't looked at the content (not being currently interested in platformers). So, I don't know the overall quality of it. But it was created very specifically for new AppGameKit Kickstarter backers.

Cheers,
Ancient Lady
AGK Community Tester and AppGameKit Master
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Bly B3k
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Posted: 11th Jul 2013 17:16
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Hi There Ancient Lady and thank you for responding to my post.

Yes I have seen the post about New Comers KickStarter Backers 2D/3D platformer, but like all the other post I looked at, it has errors that cause the program to crash.
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Ancient Lady
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Posted: 11th Jul 2013 20:41
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Okay, didn't know that. As I said, I hadn't tried it.

So, if you try to figure out what the issues are and fix them, that helps you learn how it all works. Right?

Cheers,
Ancient Lady
AGK Community Tester and AppGameKit Master
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Zwarteziel
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Posted: 11th Jul 2013 22:02 Edited at: 11th Jul 2013 23:02
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If you are new to AppGameKit you can learn a lot by creating small programs, instead of designing a whole game from the start. So, if your goal is to make a platform-game, you could try to code:

- a function that lets you load graphic tiles and maps;
- a program that lets you scroll the loaded map;
- a program that lets you control a player sprite;
- a scoring system, that adds up when a player hits other sprites;
- a function that lets you save and load your high-scores;
- etc. etc.

You might find that coding your own stuff and figuring your way about problems will bring a lot of satisfaction, instead of following a tutorial. That being said, it is very nice to be able to learn from examples. In this post I've listed some options. I recommend buying one of the listed books: they're very well written and informative.

Edit: also, you might want to give feedback to haliop in his platform-game thread as to where his program crashes on your system. This way, he can correct the code and thus help others. (It works fine on my system, but I am using AppGameKit V1.08 beta 15. You might be using the trial while waiting for the Kickstarter to end, which uses an older version of AGK).
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MrValentine
AGK Backer
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Playing: FFVII
Posted: 11th Jul 2013 23:45
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You can buy this...

Hands On AppGameKit Basic

or the PDF from here

As well as any mentioned or already on the forum tutorials

Have you looked at the Help Documents in the IDE yet?

Also Welcome to the world of TGC!

It might help if you had anything specific in mind and was interested in a little community 'LETS MAKE A' thread in which you ask how a part of something works... like the aforementioned High Score Saving and Loading... provided you did some leg work in finding what is required, [Such as File commands and such] I am sure some will be happy to hint on show how it all goes together, if you show you are willing to make an effort, there are a lot of AMAZING [AL] people on here who are more than happy to help, but they want to see you making an effort too

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DVader
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Posted: 12th Jul 2013 00:40
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I will probably be doing something along these lines in the future. I have been doing a few tutorials of late, and will get to platform games in good time. For now I suggest you experiment, play with AppGameKit and learn some basics to get you a head start.

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LVNeptune
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Posted: 12th Jul 2013 02:45
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@MrValentine : While I personally like that book and I recommend it. Be aware that some stuff has changed which has rendered some of the text slightly incorrect.

http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=206623&b=41

See that thread specifically for the first two chapters with an issue with Sync()
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Bly B3k
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Posted: 12th Jul 2013 02:48
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Hello, Zerotown

I was introduced to AppGameKit from the book 'Teach Yourself Game Programming for Android and Windows which I bought after going thru all the videos on youtube about 2d gaming and I bought the 'Hands on AppGameKit Basic' book, but neither books focused on the 2d platformer game program.

I have played with the included examples & code provided by AppGameKit and looked at all the code-snippets for AGK.

The code-snippets doesn't explain how to integrate the codes into one's own program.

Thanks for your suggesting help.
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MrValentine
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Posted: 12th Jul 2013 03:08
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Bly B3k - take a look at the DBPro boards for Platformer projects and study the code if any there, pretty sure there will be a fair few, after which, you might be able to see how the code works and find a similar route or procedure... Worth a try...

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Bly B3k
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Posted: 12th Jul 2013 03:20
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Hello, MrValentine

Thank you for responding to my post, yes I have looked at the Help Documents in the IDE and forum tutorials.

When I search for AppGameKit tutorials in the forum or google search, I get lots of tutorials for DarkBasic Pro, but every little tutorials specifically for AGK.

I know that AppGameKit was created from the makers of DarkBasic Pro, but I don't know how to convert DarkBasic Pro codes into AppGameKit codes.
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MrValentine
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Posted: 12th Jul 2013 03:32
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Hey, AppGameKit is still less than a year old, DBPro is a decade+

Try studying the code [For DBPro], in the way you wish it, and then compendiate the data into a thread and see about asking some help for breaking it down into code that works for AppGameKit, sometimes a small stream becomes a river

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Hodgey
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Posted: 12th Jul 2013 03:44
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Quote: "Hey, AppGameKit is still less than a year old, DBPro is a decade+"

I believe AppGameKit is almost two years old.

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MrValentine
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Posted: 12th Jul 2013 04:02
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Quote: "I believe AppGameKit is almost two years old.
"




been that long.......



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haliop
User Banned
Posted: 12th Jul 2013 08:56
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hi hi hi what kind of bugs make my kickstarter platform app to crush?
i play it just fine..

where does it crush? i agree there are some bugs that i havent fixed yet cause while i was working on it i left my original project and i had to get it up running again..



http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=198467&b=22
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haliop
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Posted: 12th Jul 2013 08:58
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also the bugs i know off should be a quick learning curve for you to try to handle them and fix them , cause they are super simple all the bugs are related to the Tile Base System,

so if you have from 0 to 10 on the x
and from 0 to 10 on the y
the main problem is that sometimes you can build a tile or any other ent outside of the array [10,10] like you are trying to build a tile on [11,5] or [3,-5] etc so its really easy to fix just look for the limitations of the World Size



http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=198467&b=22
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Bly B3k
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Posted: 12th Jul 2013 18:28
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Hi, haliop

Yes the bug that crash the program are related to the Tile Base System, but only on the downward y direction.

Thanks for explaining the cause of the bug, I will do as you suggested and try to fix the problem.
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haliop
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Posted: 12th Jul 2013 21:48
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i think you should review the code , then just figure out what ive done wrong that could be a good exersize for you , also
this is an Open Source project so please if you dont mind posting your fix , could be great cause im working my ass off on another project and since im running out of case i really need to complete it , i actually took a really bad chance with the platformer cause i lost like a week of work on my other proj.
good luck and dont worry the bugs there are very very small.
there is another bug also when a moving platform is moving down
and the player is on top of it , when you move right or left his movement decreases which makes him hardly move... maybe you can fix that aswell if you want , when i 'll finish my proj i'll be back on the platformer fix everything and add the 3D world creation.



http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=198467&b=22
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SoftMotion3D
AGK Developer
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Posted: 14th Jul 2013 16:59
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array bugs are the easiest to fix when you go out of bounds...

first make a function


then I do the same when im reading from the array but return a tile number that can be a constant for off the map values
etc... I have a lake surrounded by trees and mountains. off the map I would just have it draw mountains if its out of bounds to fill the graphic area.

another thing you can do is just create a blank tile that is black so you do see the edge of the map but doesn't crash your tile engine.

soo...



would you like a complete tile engine tutorial....I could probably make one simple enough.....I have been (basic) coding for over 20 years and have picked up a lot of usefull tricks.

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Bly B3k
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Posted: 14th Jul 2013 18:52
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Thanks, SMD_3D Interactive for your help.

As an absolute beginner I don't fully understand how arrays works and I would like a complete tutorial on tile engine and any other tutorials I can find using AGK.
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The Zoq2
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Posted: 14th Jul 2013 20:23
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It feels like you need a tutorial on some consepts of programming (arrays for example) rather than a tutorial for making a full game. Back when I was starting out I found this tutorial extremley helpfull. It Teaches most of the basics of programming. It is written for dark basic but DBP and AppGameKit are pretty similar so theoretical things like arrays can be carried over.
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Bly B3k
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Posted: 14th Jul 2013 20:41
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Thanks, The Zoq2

I will look at the tutorial you recommended.
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Cliff Mellangard 3DEGS
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Posted: 16th Jul 2013 15:03
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almost all older tutorials or code snippets are out of date because of the rapid beta stages and Changes to agk.

I know that almost all my older released code dont work anymore in the latest beta ?

Android 2.3 , ZTE Skate , 480x800 , 800 mhz , Samsung Galaxy Y , 240x320 , 832 mhz , Sony ericson arc 480x854 , 1 ghz
Android 4.0 , Dmtech 3g 9738B , 1024x768 , 9.7 inches , 1.2 ghz
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Impetus73
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Posted: 20th Jul 2013 22:35
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Out of bounds checks in functions, makes allot of overhead if they are called all the time. I guess I am an old programmer, worried about wasting any cpu cycle. If you program right, there is no need for a check. You having to find the bug, is just the right punishment for your mistake.

----------------
AGK programmer
Did Amiga / AMOS programming in the 90's.
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