Develop A Vertical Shoot'em Up Game for Android and IOS

An introduction to section 2: Scrolling Backgrounds

In this part of the tutorial series, we'll learn how to import and configure backgrounds to create scrolling and parallax effects for our game project in Stencyl.

In this lesson, we'll take a closer look at the background graphics at use in the game project, and will learn how to make images seamless so that they can be used for this purpose.

An introduction to Section 3: Configuring Actors and Animations.

Actors are arguably the single most important resource type in Stencyl -- without them, there would be no game. In this lesson, we'll learn how to import and configure actors and the animations.

All actors which we wish to perform physics operations on must have an associated collision shape to facilitate these Box2D interactions. In this lesson we'll learn about the three basic types of colliders in Stencyl.

In this tutorial, we'll import and implement the final few actors and their respective animations for our space themed shoot'em up game.

In this lesson, we'll configure the collision shapes for a last batch of actors.

Understanding physics settings and how they effect the performance of your actors in-game is imperative if you are to become competent as a 2D indie game developer with the Stencyl and Box2D engines. In this tutorial, we'll learn how to achieve the best results, based on the purpose of each actor type.

An introduction to Section 4: Visual Programming.

All computer games require player input to operate. In this lesson, we'll learn how to accept input from the player through the keyboard, and how to respond to that input buy moving the Player Ship actor horizontally accross the screen.

The core mechanic in all shoot'em up games is firepower -- the player shoots at obstacles and enemies, and enemies fire back at the player. It's fundamental to the genre, and our shoot'em up is no different this respect. In this lesson, we'll give the player the ability to fire projectiles using the keyboard.

It is often adventageous to remove certaion types of actors -- such as comets or projectiles -- once they have left the screen. This saves on memory and computation. In this lesson, we'll learn how to do just that.

Thus far, our player character (the space ship) has been able to fly off the screen either to the left or to the right. This is not usually possible in shoot'em up games, for obvious reasons. In this lesson, we'll use an actor behavior to prevent the player ship actor from leaving the screen at any point during play.

In this lesson, we'll learn how to use logic blocks to adjust the spawn point for our player projectiles.

An introduction to Section 5: Actor Spawning and Procedural Levels.

Randomization and procedural obstacle generation (or spawning) is an essential element for the gameplay we're creating. In this lesson, we'll create code which procedurally creates comets, or meteorites, at the top of the screen at random points and with random speeds and trajecteries.

In this lesson, we'll implement a game rule whereby large comet actors explode and die (are killed) when they collide with one another on the screen.

In this lesson we'll continue to work on the game rules pertaining to collisions involving comet actors in our game project.

In this lesson, we'll create conditions to handle collisions between projectiles and other actors, therein implementing further game mechanics and rules.

In this lesson, we'll implement the game rules which dictates that the player dies, and is respawned, when hit by an obtacle, such as a comet or astroid.

Power-ups reward the player and help to retain their interest by rewarding them with increased firepower when they have reached a certain point, or survived for a certain period of time within the game. In this lesson, we'll create and code the power-ups system for our shoot'em up game.

An introduction to Section 6: Attack of the Flying Saucers.

Thus far, we have created a playable game demo with fully implemented game rules. But it lacks variety. Let's fix that by adding enemies in the form of flying saucers.

In this video tutorial, we'll give the flying saucers automatic turrets, which rotate towards the player ship and shoot their own projectiles at set intervals.

In this lesson, we'll do some debugging and refactoring of the code blocks for the saucers and turrets, as well as making a few improvements and modifications.

In this lesson, we'll some final adjustments to the spawn point for the player projectiles.

It seems unfair and unbalanced, in the context of the game rules, to allow the the player to destroy the flying saucers with just one shot. Let's fix that by introducing a health and damage trackign system for the enemy actors.

In this lesson, we'll use the same principles and similar code to implement a health and damage tracking system for the player ship actor.

An introduction to Section 7: Score and HUD (Heads Up Display).

Stencyl allows us to draw our own fonts in an image editing application such as Photoshop or GIMP, then import and configure these for use within our games. This is a powerful and useful feature which will learn how to utilize in this lesson.

In this lesson, we'll use the drawing event and various text blocks to start drawing the Score attribute to the HUD of our game.

In this lesson we'll start incrementing the score attribute when the play destroys an obstacle or an enemy.

An introduction to Section 8: SFX and Music.

In this lesson, we'll learn how to import sound effects and music as both MP3 and OGG files.

In this lesson we'll start looping the music for our game.

In this lesson, we'll implement the shooting sound effect and the thrust loop for our player character.

In this lesson we'll implement some additional sound effects.

In this lesson, we'll begin accepting player input on mobile devices through the accelorometer.

In this lesson, we'll allow the player to fire the ships weapon when they touch the screen.

In this lesson, we'll learn how to create a certificate for our APK, then test it in developer mode on an android device.

In this lesson, we'll create a start menu screen, complete with nice looking buttons.

In this lesson, we'll create the behaviors we need to make the buttons clickable.