7.- CREATING ITEMS

Now that we have a fully working Inventory its time to add some items to the game.

Go to the ITEMS panel and create your items, for this tutorial I created 4 items and named them CAN-O-COKE, JAR, HIPPY-JAR and COFFE and assigned an image to each by going into the IMAGE tab and selecting the proper image (I suggest you use PNG files)

Now we go to the first Scene and create a new object and lets call it CAN-o-COKE, then place it in the scene, move it into position and create a polygonal area that cover the entire can (you should know how to do this already).

Since this is going to be a pick able item we are going to add a CONDITION to it, so open the CODITIONS panel and create a condition and name it CAN-o-_CONDITION (or something related to the object) and set its initial value to TRUE.

Settig the condition to TRUE will mean that the objects initial state is visible and later when its picked the condition will be set to FALSE and it will make it disappear.

Now open the PROPERTIES panel and establish the Objects position in a suitable place for the character to reach the object and pick it while still being inside the WAY BORDER.

Also assign the alignment the character will use when it reaches the object.

Finally we are going to establish the items condition into the CONDITION tab, by assigning the condition in the items properties we are telling the object to follow the visibility according to the (TRUE/FALSE) statement

(True = visible and selectable / False = Invisible and un-selectable)

Finally we are going to set the ACTIONS for this object. You can add some actions for the LOOK, TALK, etc, but for this tutorial Im going to focus on the TAKE action.

SO, lets add an action with execution type set to EXECUTED COMMAND ON OBJECT, for the command TAKE, and we are going to add these actions:

I started with a DISPLAY TEXT, with this the character will say something before it takes the item.

Then we create the action ADD ITEM CAN-o-COKE (this will create the item into the inventory)

And we add the Action CHANGE CONDITION of CAN-O-COKE to FALSE (this action will make the can disappear from the scene giving the illusion that the character took the item. )

Save/Run and test your object, in the following screens you can see the before and after actions.

That’s it, now fell free to create as many objects as you would like in your games.

Picking objects from other places

We already know how to pick objects that are present in the scene, but what about objects you dont see in the scene?, something you can get by looking in a coffin, box or wardrobe?.

And on top of that what if we CANT pick the object until we do something else first, like looking at it or finding it.

For this one Im going to use the Stall we already created, and the first thing we are going to do is create TWO conditions in it and name them STALL_CONDITION_1 and STALL_CONDITION _2, lets change their value of both as TRUE.

Now the tricky part

We want the TAKE action to tell us we need to LOOK before we can pick anything up, so:

Lets start by adding an IF CONDITION is TRUE for the Stall_condition_1 (since the condition is TRUE the actions under its tree are going to be loaded first)

Now we add another action of IF CONDITION is TRUE for the Stall_condition_2 (since the condition is TRUE the actions under its tree are going to be loaded first)

Now we will create an action part of DISPLAY TEXT and we are going to write something like I should look the stall first (since its under the TRUE condition you wont be able to do anything else unless that condition is set as FALSE)

Now we added an action part of ELSE to split the condition statements (This means IF condition is TRUE do something, ELSE (if condition is FALSE) then do another thing)

For the second option We can create a DISPLAY TEXT saying something like I will take that Jar

Now add an ADD ITEM and select the JAR

And we change the Condition of Stall_condition_1 and Stall_condition_2 to FALSE (with this we are overriding the initial conditions and are affecting the IF conditions)

Now we finish this with an END IF action part.(this will close the initial question remember we are still under the tree for IF CONDITION of Stall_condition_1 )

Now lets split with an ELSE action part

And add a display text action part saying There is nothing else in here (so, if you already picked up the object from the stall your character will tell you there is nothing else he can pick from this object)

And we close with another END IF action part.

See the image bellow and you get an idea what I just explained above

NOW we need to set the actions for the LOOK at action:

We start by creating an IF CONDITION is TRUE for the Stall_condition_2

In it we will add a Display text telling us There is an item in here<p2>it seems to be a Jar<p2> (the <p2> are pause definitions of 2 seconds)

And we change the Condition of Stall_condition_2 to FALSE (this will allow the take action to take effect, if we dont add this we wont be able to take the item)

Now lets split with an ELSE action part

And add a display text telling There is nothing else in here

Finish with an END IF

You should have something like this:

How does this work?

Well, if you use an IF action you can do a couple of things with it since you can add an ELSE action, a more graphical example could be somebody telling you

IF you go with me we might have a good time, ELSE (like saying the contrary) you might not live to see the day.

So IF you go with that person you wont die, but we can make it interesting by adding another choice like else you die, if you died then IF you where good you go to heaven ELSE you go to hell, If you didnt die then you dont know if you go to heaven or hell.

Hope the example was understandable enough of the structure.

The conditions are a way to control the yes or nos of the Ifs, and we created TWO since we where asking Two different questions.

The END IFs are necessary so you can close each question, if you dont put those END Ifs then the code will read to the next question instead of stopping where needed.

A programmer might give proper answers about codes and structures, but IF it works for me then is al good ELSE Im teaching you wrong (hehe!!)

Now go save and run, you should be able to have some interactions until you are finally able to pick your JAR item from the stall.

USE ITEMS ON OBJECTS

Nice, we now know how to add items that can be stored in our inventory, but an adventure game relies not only on picking objects, but on using them as well.

SO, for this tutorial Im going to show you how you can use an item over an object and receiving an item, and also how you can combine two objects to create another item.

First (if you havent done so) you can create the USE cursor (you should know how to do this by now)

We need to specify some setting for this cursor if we want to be able to use (drop) items over other items or characters.

The Button type Must be establish as COMBINE COMMAND, and command can be used on should be established as OBJECTS AND CHARACTERS and the most important feature ITEMS CAN BE DRAGGED with this command check box, the cursor should be established to the USE cursor you created in the cursors section.

Now, if we need to combine a couple of objects to get a third, we need to create a very simple action.

Lets open the ITEMS panel and select one of the two items you need to combine, then add an action, in the execution type select ITEM DROPPED <-> (Its quite important that you select the one with BOTH ARROWS (<->) since this means you can drag either object over the other, so it works both ways, if you only use ITEM DROPPED then you have to set this action on the other object as well, so its easier to use the both ways option, but you are not limited)

For this tutorial I want to combine the CAN-O-COKE with the JAR to receive the HIPPY-JAR, for this we select either the CAN-O-COKE or the JAR and add an ACTION of ITEM DROPPED <-> since we can allow the combination to be done if any of the two items are dropped over the other.

Now the ITEM is the item you are going to drop onto, so, in this tutorial Im creating the actions on the CAN-O-COKE so the ITEM should be the JAR (if we create the actions on the JAR the item should be the CAN-O-COKE)

The action parts for the object should be

We add a REMOVE ITEM JAR and REMOVE ITEM CAN-O-COKE (when we combine items they should disappear to create another)

And we add the ADD ITEM HIPPY-JAR (This is the item as result from the combination)

Do a test run and you should be able to combine your items.

Now, if the object you want the interaction to be is in you scene, you MUST create the interaction in your SCENE’S object NOT in the item itself.

For this tutorial I’m going to use the stall, so in the SCENES tab and select the STALL object, add a new action with the EXECUTION TYPE to ITEM DROPPED, I selected the HIPPY-JAR because you need to obtain it from a combination.

You can create some interactivity for this action; the first action part is a simple dialogue text of the action the character is going to perform

Then I added an action part REMOVE ITEM and selected the HIPPY-JAR

Then added a DISPLAY TEXT so the character can say something like it dissolved into coffee

And we add the ADD ITEM COFFEE (This is the item we get from the stall)

Then added a DISPLAY TEXT so the character can say something like mmm, this coffee smells great.

This is the screenshot of the coffee item we get as result of both combinations.

And that’s it

BUT BEFORE YOU GO TESTING, check the ALLOW DRAGGING OBJECTS FROM INVENTORY check box on the game settings or you wont be able to drag anything.