WIP/Demo Game - Arcade style platform e-learning game

Sep 17, 2015

Darren Heath
By Darren Heath

Hi all,

Part of my challenge with Storyline is to try and stretch it as far as I can to try and make examples of really interesting ways of delivering e-learning content.

My latest idea was to try an recreate the old style platform game made famous by characters like Mario/Sonic etc in the days of 8 bit Sega and Nintendo arcade games.

In this latest demo I have used elements from the old Sega game Sonic the Hedgehog, purely down to the fact the elements are available online through searching on Google and as I am not a designer/animator they were ready made and required no artworking , so ideal for this demo (just don't tell anyone at Sega!!)

The premise of the game is very simple, Sonic runs along and tries to 'catch' a question. If he catches one and answers it correctly he wins a ring. Get a question wrong and you lose a ring.

The player simply has to hit the J key within the time period the question is 'active' in order to 'catch' it and have the opportunity to answer. Jump too early or too late and you miss the chance.

This demo is just a short version with only 5 questions but was a test for functionality and usability. I have ideas for enhancing the game by adding in questions at different heights and the user having to press one of 3 keys to jump at the correct height; randomly appearing questions; speed increase/decrease of questions & multiple levels of the game are just some.

The game only runs on SWF output, HTML5 doesnt appear to like animated GIFs, and this version only works with keyboard controls, although I envisage mouse clicks could also work.

Would be great to have feedback from the community as to how this could be improved/enhanced and also what do you feel the current playability is like? Currently there is about a 1 second window where you have to press the J key otherwise you miss the question. 

There is no JS involved in this demo, everything is controlled by triggers.

Would be interested to hear any feedback/ideas on how this runs, how you think it could be improved and what features you would like to see in something like this.

http://prescript-dev.co.uk/storyline/sonic-sprint/story.html

39 Replies
Darren Heath
over 8 years ago10/08/15 at 8:58 am (UTC)

Ahhhh right, sorry I misunderstood where you were coming from.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/41230603/story.html

Ive just put in what you suggested, sonic now 'jumps' for 1 second rather than hanging in the air until he meets an object. Seems to be fine on level 1.1, I've copied it to 1.2 but needs refining slightly as I can make the whole process of jumping over an object a bit smoother.

Done it slightly different to how you suggested. When the user presses the jump key, sonic jumps, a silent audio file plays for 1 sec then when the media completes Sonic state changes back to 'running'

Darren Heath
over 8 years ago10/16/15 at 10:50 am (UTC)

Hi all,

I've finally completed the first level and republished the demo here

Phil, regarding your issue of not jumping I couldn't replicate that, and haven't found any issues in the latest build.

So, in this release the 3 worlds in level 1 are working. Bear in mind this is for young kids so you may find it a bit easy at first. These levels are designed to get the player used to jumping at the right moment, objects vary in height and speed as the levels progress. Level 1.3 is trickier and I would like to know if you think I have made it too tricky!!

Once Level 1 is complete the 'e-learning' will begin from Level 2 onwards. Ive been building question banks and will pull in random questions from those once a successful jump key press

For the time being I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has found any bugs in these 3 levels, or comments in general. Ive played it so much I can almost do the jumps blindfolded now! Future levels will have a randomised object and they wont necessarily be fixed as they are in the intro level.

enjoy!!

Darren Heath
8 years ago02/08/16 at 3:44 pm (UTC)

Hi all,

I'm still here !!!!

I've been a bit busy over the last couple of months and havent had the time to do much more on the game as yet sadly, but it isnt forgotten about and I will get back into it when the time allows.

As for the collision detection, I have used a few variables to determine whether a user presses the correct jump key at the correct time.

As the timeline progresses objects scroll across at fixed points. So I have 2 'gateway' triggers to set a variable off/on. So far example, if the object is set to meet (collide) with the character at 15 seconds into the timeline the gateway variable is switched to on when the timeline reaches a cue point (say 14.5s) and is switched off at 15.5s

If the user presses the jump key within the 1 second window of the variable being switched on then it is considered a successful jump and the user would score points/answer a question etc.

Pressing the jump key outside of this window when the gateway variable is set to off would be judged as an incorrect jump.

There is possibly other more efficient ways to do it but that is how I achieved it during the build of the first few levels that Ive done so far.

Darren Heath
over 7 years ago12/23/16 at 10:24 am (UTC)

Hi James,

I keep intending to finish this project off my life just gets in the way currently!

I have a T/F variable that changes from false to true at a certain point in the timeline, then 1 second later another cur point to trigger the variable change back to false.

I then have another trigger that is executed when the player presses the key to jump which sets another variable.

If both equal true then it is a successfully timed jump, if either equal false then it is considered a crash/incorrect jump

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