new user with questions

[Kathleen]

I am trying to make a game to help music students learn their lines and spaces. The idea is that notes drift across the screen on a musical staff over different lines and spaces, and the animated character has to blast them off the staff.

I have the animated character able to move up and down on the left side of the screen and fire bullets, and a musical staff in the center of the screen. I have cloned a bunch of enemy stations and lined them up vertically on the right side of the screen and programmed it so that every five seconds, one of them randomly fires a whole note across the staff. I also have it so the animated character can fire a bullet and explode the notes with a particle effect.

I need a way to have the letters A through G appear on the character, depending on what line or space the note is drifting across, and a way to make it so that the note will only explode if, say, it is on a "G" line on the staff and the player has used the arrow keys or the letter keys or some other method to call up the "G" character. I don't know how to do this.

Another problem I have is that it seems like the bullet has to hit the note in just the right spot or it won't explode, unless the note gets right up next to the charachter.

Can anyone help me with any of this?

[LB]

Test if the note is overlapping the line or space for that note. And make sure you know what the key signature is lol I play trombone.

[Kathleen]

Thanks for your reply! It doesn't seem to matter whether the notes are just floating across the backdrop or if they are moving across the lines or spaces. In any case, I want them to move across the lines and spaces because that's how you determine which fighter to use to shoot them.

[LB]

Use the bouncing ball movement and set the initial direction towards the character, or wherever you need it to go.

[Kathleen]

Hi LB,

I got the shooting action to work right and explode the notes by changing the On Loop "Particle" condition. I had it so the note had to overlap the star, but it needed to be so the star overlapped the note.

Please pardon my ignorance, but what should the bouncing ball movement be applied to?

I've got about 30 invisible alien bases firing notes across a musical staff. Any idea how I can make it so that when base 12, for example, fires a note, that note can only be exploded if a certain character, say one with the letter "A" on it, fires at it? Would I need to clone the bases rather than copy or duplicate them?

[Sieg]

I'm having trouble visualizing what exactly you are trying to do. A screenshot would help loads.

From what I understand you need a way to tell the notes apart. You could do this by storing the base's number in the note's alterable value A.

Something like:

Base12->Shoot "note"
Set Alterable value A of "note" to 12

Then when a bullet hits a note you test what base it came from.

Collision between "bullet" and "note"
+ Alterable value A of "note" = 12
--> Explode "note"

If this is useless to you, then you will have to help me understand better how your game works.

[Kathleen]

Hi Sieg,

That sounds right, and I've done something like that on some tutorial. I'd be happy to send you a screen shot, or the whole game as I've got it so far. How would I do that?

Basically, there is a blank musical staff with lines and spaces in the middle of the screen. Notes are fired randomly from a vertical row of invisible bases on the right side of the screen and drift across the staff on top of various lines and spaces.

On the left side of the screen is the fighter, who can move up and down with the arrow keys and fire a missile with the space bar. Right now, any note she hits explodes in a particle effect.

What I need is a way to change the fighter to represent the seven letters of the musical alphabet, A through G, and a way to link those seven characters to the bases that represent those letters on the lines and spaces. There would be several of each letter name represented on the lines and spaces in different octaves.

Then, when a note started drifting onto the staff on a particular line or space, the player would have to know what letter name it was and quickly change the fighter to match that letter. Then she would position herself directly across from the note, fire a bullet at it, and it would explode. If she changed the character to a "G" and the note was really an "E", the note would not explode.

Since this is really a game for girls, it also might work to actually have a social group of seven different fighter girls instead of just one. Then the player would select which of the seven fighters, A through G, would bomb the note. But it might make for a crowded screen.

Thanks for any help you can give me. Would I need to build this on Developer if I eventually wanted to market it?

[Ravenius]

Would I need to build this on Developer if I eventually wanted to market it?

No, but if you're using MMF 2 standard you need to include the logo found on the CD. You won't need Dev, unless you do not want to include that logo.

[Kathleen]

Thanks! I would just include the logo.

[Ravenius]

I took another look at your post, and if I got you right it seems like an easy task. If you want, you could upload what you've got so far and I could fix it, making comments to it so you see what happens. You could upload it to a site like http://www.wikiupload.com/. I understand if you want to keep it private though, but that would be the fastest way I could help you. Oh, and nice to see other musicians around the forums.