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Home > Game Development > 2D Game Development > Learning Cocos2d-x Game Development
Learning Cocos2d-x Game Development
Learning Cocos2d-x Game Development

Learning Cocos2d-x Game Development: Learn cross-platform game development with Cocos2d-x

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Learning Cocos2d-x Game Development

Chapter 2. Displaying the Hero and Controls

In the previous chapter, we saw the inside workings of Cocos2d-x, where we saw which projects and libraries were included. We also looked at the project and folder structure of a single project and dug deeper into understanding the classes that act as the basic building blocks for creating any game.

From this chapter, we will look at how to take those building blocks and make a functional game out of it.

In this chapter, we will see how to display objects, such as the background image and player, and position them on the screen. Once the player is on the screen, the next thing we will do is make her move around. We will look at different ways that the hero can be controlled in.

The things you will learn in this chapter are the following:

  • How to display the background image
  • How to display the hero
  • How to move the hero using the following:
    • Actions
    • Accelerometer
    • Touches
    • Custom controls

First things first

As we are going to start creating the game from scratch, let's remove all the code that is already present in the HelloWorldScene.cpp file.

So, we open up the project by navigating to wp8Game/wp8Game-XAML/wp8Game.sln in Visual Studio and clicking on the HelloWorldScene.cpp file in the Solution Explorer pane under the wp8Component project in the classes folder. We then go to the init() function and remove CCMenuItem, CCMenu, and CCSprite. We need to make sure that the init() function looks as follows:

bool HelloWorld::init()
{
    //////////////////////////////
    // 1. super init first
    if ( !CCLayer::init() )
    {
        return false;
    }
    
    visibleSize = CCDirector::sharedDirector()->getVisibleSize();
    CCPoint origin = CCDirector::sharedDirector()->getVisibleOrigin();
    
    return true;
}

As Windows doesn't use a close button function, we might as well remove the close button function from the HelloWorldScene.cpp and HelloWorldScene...

Displaying the background image

Now that we have a clean slate, let's start from the top by displaying the background image.

You might think that, "Wait a second. Are we going to be using a static image for the background? But the book says it will teach the parallax background." It is true that we are going to use a static background for the time being so that it is easy to visualize and see whether proportionately everything looks right on the screen. The image is just for reference; we will change the static image into a parallax layer later in the book.

First, we need to copy all the assets from the Resources folder provided with the chapter into the Resources folder of the project on the drive. The Resources folder should be in the wp8Game project folder along with the Classes folder, as mentioned in Chapter 1, Getting Started. After importing the background image and other images into the Resources folder, we go to the wp8Game project (not the component!) in the Solution...

Character movement

For the character to move at a constant speed over a period of time, we need to basically update the position of the character on the x or y axes, depending on the requirement of the game.

So, to achieve this, we use the scheduleUpdate() function, which is inbuilt in Cocos2d-x. This function will automatically call the update function over and over again, depending on the frames per second (fps) that we set for the applicationDidFinishLaunching() function of the AppDelegate class. If you remember, we the set the frame rate to be 1/60, which is 60 frames per second, so that the update function will also be called 60 times per second.

To include the update function, we go to the init() function and add the following line of code:

this->scheduleUpdate();

This will initialize a regular call to the update function as soon as the scene is initialized. Next, we need an update function.

Creating a function in Cocos2d-x is similar to creating a function in C++. In the .h file of...

Enabling the touch function

The touch function gives us some basic functions; they can be used to create gestures such as TAP, DOUBLE TAP, and SWIPE, which are used in majority of the handheld games these days. Using these functions, we can also create custom gestures depending on the needs of the game.

We can enable touch on a layer by calling the setTouchEnabled() function on the layer and setting it to true so that the layer starts listening to touches; without this, the gestures won't be recognized.

Cocos2d-x comes with the following four functions to create different control schemes:

  • TouchesBegan(): This function is called whenever a finger touches the screen. Whenever a user touches the screen, a tap is triggered. This is one of the easiest gestures to create. Every touch function takes two parameters: the first is a CCSet and the second is a CCEvent. The CCSet is an array that keeps track of the touch count, such as how many fingers are touching the screen. If there are three fingers...

Enabling multitouch

Now, let's try the same with two fingers; we touch both fingers at the same time, anywhere on the screen. We see that the TouchesBegan() function got called twice, and when we remove each finger one by one, the TouchesEnded() function gets called one after the other.

In Windows Phone and Android, multitouch is enabled automatically. On iOS, we will have to enable it separately by adding the following below the line EAGLView *__glView in the function, (BOOL) application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions in the AppController.mm file:

[__glView setMultipleTouchEnabled:YES];

First things first

As we are going to start creating the game from scratch, let's remove all the code that is already present in the HelloWorldScene.cpp file.

So, we open up the project by navigating to wp8Game/wp8Game-XAML/wp8Game.sln in Visual Studio and clicking on the HelloWorldScene.cpp file in the Solution Explorer pane under the wp8Component project in the classes folder. We then go to the init() function and remove CCMenuItem, CCMenu, and CCSprite. We need to make sure that the init() function looks as follows:

bool HelloWorld::init()
{
    //////////////////////////////
    // 1. super init first
    if ( !CCLayer::init() )
    {
        return false;
    }
    
    visibleSize = CCDirector::sharedDirector()->getVisibleSize();
    CCPoint origin = CCDirector::sharedDirector()->getVisibleOrigin();
    
    return true;
}

As Windows doesn't use a close button function, we might as well remove the close button function from the HelloWorldScene.cpp and HelloWorldScene.h files. So...

Displaying the background image

Now that we have a clean slate, let's start from the top by displaying the background image.

You might think that, "Wait a second. Are we going to be using a static image for the background? But the book says it will teach the parallax background." It is true that we are going to use a static background for the time being so that it is easy to visualize and see whether proportionately everything looks right on the screen. The image is just for reference; we will change the static image into a parallax layer later in the book.

First, we need to copy all the assets from the Resources folder provided with the chapter into the Resources folder of the project on the drive. The Resources folder should be in the wp8Game project folder along with the Classes folder, as mentioned in Chapter 1, Getting Started. After importing the background image and other images into the Resources folder, we go to the wp8Game project (not the component!) in the Solution Explorer pane...

Character movement

For the character to move at a constant speed over a period of time, we need to basically update the position of the character on the x or y axes, depending on the requirement of the game.

So, to achieve this, we use the scheduleUpdate() function, which is inbuilt in Cocos2d-x. This function will automatically call the update function over and over again, depending on the frames per second (fps) that we set for the applicationDidFinishLaunching() function of the AppDelegate class. If you remember, we the set the frame rate to be 1/60, which is 60 frames per second, so that the update function will also be called 60 times per second.

To include the update function, we go to the init() function and add the following line of code:

this->scheduleUpdate();

This will initialize a regular call to the update function as soon as the scene is initialized. Next, we need an update function.

Creating a function in Cocos2d-x is similar to creating a function in C++. In the .h file of...

Enabling the touch function

The touch function gives us some basic functions; they can be used to create gestures such as TAP, DOUBLE TAP, and SWIPE, which are used in majority of the handheld games these days. Using these functions, we can also create custom gestures depending on the needs of the game.

We can enable touch on a layer by calling the setTouchEnabled() function on the layer and setting it to true so that the layer starts listening to touches; without this, the gestures won't be recognized.

Cocos2d-x comes with the following four functions to create different control schemes:

  • TouchesBegan(): This function is called whenever a finger touches the screen. Whenever a user touches the screen, a tap is triggered. This is one of the easiest gestures to create. Every touch function takes two parameters: the first is a CCSet and the second is a CCEvent. The CCSet is an array that keeps track of the touch count, such as how many fingers are touching the screen. If there are three fingers...

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Page 1 of 10

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Description

If you are a hobbyist, novice game developer, or programmer who wants to learn about developing games/apps using Cocos2d-x, this book is ideal for you.

What you will learn

  • Configure and create a Cocos2dx project on Windows
  • Understand the basics of Cocos2dx classes such as CCScene, CCLayer, and CCSprite
  • Develop different control schemes using buttons, a gyroscope, and a custom touch area
  • Implement various methods for collision detection such as circle collision and bounding box collision
  • Discover how to add and remove objects from the screen and update the score as well as Gameover condition
  • Get to grips with the tools used to create spritesheets as well as custom fonts and design particles
  • Integrate ads and inapp purchases in the game to monetize the game

Product Details

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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Sep 23, 2014
Length: 266 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781783988273
Category :
Game Development
Concepts :
2D Game Development
Tools :
Cocos2d-x

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Publication date : Sep 23, 2014
Length: 266 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781783988273
Category :
Game Development
Concepts :
2D Game Development
Tools :
Cocos2d-x

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Table of Contents

12 Chapters
1. Getting Started Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
1. Getting Started
Downloading and installing Visual Studio
Downloading and installing the Windows Phone SDK
Downloading and installing Python
Downloading Cocos2d-x
Creating a new project
Coordinate system
Basic classes of Cocos2d-x
Project breakup
Running the project on multiple platforms
Summary
2. Displaying the Hero and Controls Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Displaying the Hero and Controls
First things first
Displaying the background image
Character movement
Enabling the touch function
Enabling multitouch
Movement with touches
Movement with the accelerometer
Custom controls
Summary
3. Enemies and Controls Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Enemies and Controls
Creating the enemy class
Adding the gameplay layer
Creating the projectile class
Adding hero controls
Summary
4. Collision Detection and Scoring Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Collision Detection and Scoring
Theory of collision detection
Coding collision detection
Keeping track of the score and the game over condition
Storing high scores
Summary
5. HUD, Parallax Background, and the Pause Button Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. HUD, Parallax Background, and the Pause Button
Texts and fonts
Creating the HUD layer and displaying as well as updating scores
Creating the pause button and showing the pause screen
Implementing pause and resuming the game
Adding the scrolling layer class
Creating the parallax scrolling layer
Summary
6. Animations Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Animations
Animation basics
TexturePacker
Creating a spritesheet for the player
Coding the player animation
Creating and coding enemy animation
Creating the skeletal animation
Coding the player walk cycle
Summary
7. Particle Systems Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. Particle Systems
What is a particle system?
Cocos2d-x's inbuilt particle system
Adding the gun muzzle particle system
Adding an explosion particle system
Adding particles for jetpack when a player moves upwards
Creating your own particle system
Summary
8. Adding Main and Option Menu Scenes Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. Adding Main and Option Menu Scenes
Creating the main menu scene
Loading the menu scene at start of the app
Creating the Options scene
Changing the name of the app
Summary
9. Adding Sounds and Effects Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
9. Adding Sounds and Effects
Audio in Cocos2d-x
Adding looped background music
Adding sound effects
Adding the mute button
Summary
10. Publishing to the Windows Phone Store Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
10. Publishing to the Windows Phone Store
A look at the Windows Phone Store
Creating the store account
Preparing/creating the app
Creating the app and setting pricing
Uploading the XAP file, icons, and screenshots for review
Summary
11. Porting, References, and Final Remarks Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
11. Porting, References, and Final Remarks
Running the game on the Windows desktop
Running the game on the Android simulator using the Eclipse IDE
Running on the BlackBerry simulator using the Momentics IDE
Running on an iOS simulator using Xcode
Additional learning resources
Final remarks and a thank you note
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index

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It still describes version 2.x of cocos2d even if version 3.2 is out at this time...
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About the author

Profile icon Siddharth Shekar
Siddharth Shekar
Siddharth Shekar is a game developer and teacher with over 6 years' industry experience and 12 years' experience in C++ and other programming languages. He is adept at graphics libraries such as OpenGL and Vulkan, and game engines such as Unity and Unreal. He has published games on the iOS and Android app stores. He has also authored books including Swift Game Development, Mastering Android Game Development with Unity, and Learning iOS 8 Game Development Using Swift, all published by Packt Publishing. He currently lives in Auckland, New Zealand, and is a lecturer in the games department at Media Design School. He teaches advanced computer graphics programming, PlayStation 4 native game development, and mentors final year production students.
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