03 · make
Make·
Turn the knobs; every knob is one number, color or word in your code. Then open a room. Each room takes the room column; the game and player two stay where they are.
The knobs·
| kind | looks like | changes |
|---|---|---|
| number | a slider | speed, lives, gravity, how many, how long |
| color | a color box | the background, the player, the walls; Flash swaps it with a second color twice a second |
| words | a text box | the title card, what the game says |
Turning a knob rewrites its line, and the game changes as you turn it. While you are playing, a slider changes the game without starting it over; on the start screen or an end screen the game starts over with the new number. A setting the game reads only when it starts, like Lives, shows in your next game.
Sliders sit in groups, like Player, Hazards and Rules; click a group's name to fold it. Add a slider, under the knobs, turns a number in a CAPITALS line of SETTINGS at the top of your code into a slider: pick the number, name it, set its lowest and highest, and give it a group if you like.
The switch beside a slider's number lets players turn that slider on Spawn Point, under tune it. What they turn changes the game on their screen only. The starter games page lists every knob and the line it changes.
The rooms·
Under the knobs, a card for each room, with what is left to do there and a count like 3 of 5 rooms complete. A game with nothing to paint has no map card. The studio opens on the room where you spend the most time, and says so.
Under the game·
| button | does |
|---|---|
| Code | opens The code from anywhere; it wears the checker's stage |
| Stop · Play | freezes the game where it is; Play carries on from there |
| Restart | starts the game over; your changes stay |
| Minimize | shrinks the game to 300 × 300 while you work |
| Playtest | hides the tools and plays it the way Spawn Point does; Back to building comes back |
| Full screen | the game on the whole screen; Esc comes back |
| Tools | for looking inside your game, below |
| Undo · Redo | take back the last change, or put it back (Ctrl Z, Ctrl Y) |
| changes | the number beside Undo: your history, every change in words, with a way back to each. It keeps the last 100. |
A game with levels, cards or cutscenes has a row of tabs under it: one for each part, in order. A tab plays just that part, and player two works on that part only. Play the whole game plays it all from the top. When the game breaks, Ask player two to fix it shows under it.
Tools·
| tool | does |
|---|---|
| Step | after Stop, plays one frame at a time |
| Game speed | normal, half, slow, crawl, for testing; the game you share is not changed |
| Hitboxes | draws every sprite's hitbox |
| Grid | a line every 50, numbered every 100; the mouse's x and y show beside it |
| Lines that ran | play, and the code room marks each line with how many times it ran, and the lines not reached yet |
| Place | opens Layout; press it again to come back |
| Picture | saves a picture of the game as it is now |
| console | what your game printed and what went wrong. Type a name like player.x and press Enter to see it now. watch keeps a value on screen while you play. |
Line by line
Click a line number in the code room to set a breakpoint. When the game reaches it, it stops there, and Next line, Into, Out and Go on walk through your code one line at a time.
There is no save button: your game saves itself as you go. The game menu, top right, has the rest: see the studio.