Basic Game Tutorial: 0 - Introduction

Hello again!

In these tutorials, we'll be covering how to begin making your very own game.

It is strongly recommended that you have completed at least the first 5 regular tutorials before going into this project. We'll be using concepts which might seem a little tricky for an absolute beginner. If you're happy with loops, variables, if statements, arrays, for loops, functions, structures and how the screen works, then carry on!

In the tutorials so far, we've been using basic shapes to illustrate the core concepts of programming. Here, we'll be stepping things up a notch and using a small selection of the vast amount of assets FUZE⁴ Nintendo Switch has to offer.

Before we get started, let's quickly outline the basic steps we'll be taking in the upcoming parts to this project.

Part 1 - Drawing the Background

In the first part of the Basic Game Tutorial, we'll be covering how to draw a background image to the screen, how to make the game switch correctly between docked and undocked modes, and how to create the beginning of a 2D camera.

Part 2 - Creating a Level

In the second part, we'll be covering how to use the drawSheet() function to access a tilesheet to design and draw a level of your very own to the screen.

Part 3 - Drawing and Animating the Player

In part 3, we'll be using the drawSheet() function once again to draw and animate the player. This tutorial will introduce the concept of a state machine to keep track of the player characters current state.

Part 4 - Collision

In order to move around on our level, jump onto platforms and tragically fall down the gaps, we need to interact with our level. In part 4, we'll cover how to make the player character interact with the level we've created.

Part 5 - Movement

Once our character interacts with the level properly, we will cover adding movement controls to the game, with the ability to walk and jump.

Part 6 - Items

Now that we've got the foundations ready, we can start adding some simple items to the game!

Part 7 - Enemies

Finally, we'll be adding a simple slime enemy to our platformer. We will learn how to make enemies move around on platforms, how to animate them and most importantly, how to jump on them!

Part 8 - Customise

Now our game is complete! Or is it? It's up to you now to take this project as far as you like! Use this part of the project to see how to add your own ideas to the game.

Let's go!

Now we've outlined the structure of what we'll be learning and why, let's dive straight in to the first part. See you there!