Chapter 2. Starting the Game Project

As one well-known adage goes, the best way to learn is by doing. In line with that simple truth, every chapter from this point forward will build on a project that we will establish here. The concept, as outlined below, is based on a prototype version of a successful multi-platform game called Mudslide Cowboy, developed and published by CyberMyth Games. We will use this chapter to:

• Establish the basics of the control system

• Pinpoint the target gameplay elements

• Outline the core mechanics required to implement the game concepts

• Briefly examine the implied narrative

All of the core, functional features will subsequently be implemented in the following chapters of this book. The original game reached the top eight new games slot in a major European country, and received largely positive player reviews, with an average rating of 4 stars out of 5 on Google Play.

Mudslide Cowboy

Before we attempt to build any game, whether we are using Stencyl or some other game-creation software, it is important to always have at least a basic design brief to work off. I refer here to the concept of a design document. While we do not have the latitude here to present the compilation process for an entire design document, which would be, at the very least, many dozens of pages long—we can and will break down the core concept of the game prototype we will be developing.

The fictional element

Fundamentally, in terms of the fictional element of the game, Mudslide Cowboy is about a cowboy riding a log down a mountain that is prone to landslides. As he rides down the mountain, he must collect coins and treasure, save trapped pilgrims, and dodge bombs being thrown at him from above by his air balloon-riding arch nemesis, Dastardly Dan. It is a relatively simple narrative with the central story arc orbiting around the eventual rescue of Lady Jane, the obligatory love interest...

The project files

The project files can be downloaded from the Packt Publishing website at (https://www.packtpub.com/books/content/support). They come in a ZIP file called Game Assets. Extract them to a folder you can easily access, as you will be accessing these files frequently from this point forward. You can download jZip for Windows from http://www.jzip.com for free if you do not currently have a ZIP extraction program installed on your computer. iZip for Mac should also do the job. Once you have done this, we will begin by creating the stub of our game project.

Creating the game project

Once you open up Stencyl, you will be presented with the Welcome Center screen, which is the default opening screen. You should not be inside an opened game. If you are, navigate to File | Close Game. Now, on the Dashboard, under My Projects, select Games, as shown in the following screenshot:

In the main pane, where you are presented with a list of the games currently available in your local installation of Stencyl, you will see a cutout that says Click here to create new Game at the very end of the list of games, as shown in the following screenshot:

Click on the aforementioned button, and after a moment, you will be presented with the following window, titled Create a New Game…:

Depending on the version of Stencyl you have installed, you may or may not see a list of game templates, as seen in the preceding screenshot. Scroll down to the bottom of the template list until you see the Blank Game button, as shown in the following screenshot:

Select this option, then...

Summary

In this chapter, we established the fundamental concepts for our game project, including details, such as target platform(s), control systems, genre(s), and so on. We also downloaded the game assets folder from the Packt Publishing website, extracted the contents of the ZIP file, and created our first blank game in Stencyl. In the next chapter, we'll start constructing the space of our game, principally through the use of backgrounds and tilesets. In other words, this is where we will begin building worlds, so let's get started!