Video demo: https://youtu.be/kZOgTTxo4RI
Welcome to my first mini-game (first ever game, for that matter) that I have created using Lua with LÖVE 2D. It is a game where the player aims to collect as many different fish in the time limit provided. Initially produced in Scratch for CS50x's first assessment, I wanted to challenge myself by making that same game under a different framework. It was a big learning curve for me, but I enjoyed many aspects while developing this game myself, such as the visuals. Inspired by a lot of pixel art I had found online, I have hand-drawn almost all of the images in the game. Being a gamer in my earlier years, the music and sound effects I have used within my game may be recognisable to many people - they are soundtracks from Resident Evil, Rhythm Heaven, and Yoshi's Island. Hopefully, it brings a lot of nostalgia to some. Despite a conceptually simple idea, I underestimated how much code was needed to develop this game. The various files within my project represent different game states, and I will explain what each file contains and its role. I will also address my design choices - heavily influenced by complications and time constraints.
The game consists of six files, most of which are a different game state. The exception is the main.lua file that bridges the game's menu and the gameplay itself. The code within main.lua is preset to open the menu.lua file.
As the file name suggests, menu.lua is a simple menu that prompts the user to play the game or quit using key presses. Initially, I attempted to make buttons that the player can hover over and then select, but it came with an issue that persists in my code. Anytime the player presses the spacebar outside the gameplay, it results in an error. Despite successfully ignoring other keypresses, trying to control the use of the spacebar came at the cost of a cascade of errors. Eventually, time constraints led me to simplify the menu to what it is now, and using the spacebar still results in errors. Any advice on this would be appreciated. The running.lua file contains the player interactions - the bulk of the code.
Within the running.lua contains many variables and tables involved in scaling, conditionals, and time. Two main functions:
function love.keyreleased(key)
if key == "space" then
-- Will update key_released table for key pressed
love.keyboard.key_released[key] = true
-- Play sound
sounds.mlem:play()
--[[ TESTING PURPOSES -> Player is taken back to fishing mode
elseif key == "b" then
backToFishing = true
lure.x = WINDOW_WIDTH / 2
lure.y = lure.originalLurePosition
]]
else
print("Ignoring key press: ", key)
end
end-- Checks whether a specific key was released by querying the love.keyboard.key_released table
function love.keyboard.wasReleased(key)
-- Will update key_released table for key pressed
return love.keyboard.key_released[key] or false
endThese functions allow the lure to move back and forth along the x-axis when keypress sustained and move the sprite along the y-axis when the keypress is released. A unique sea creature can be caught depending on where along the x-axis the lure is pulled. The game will not accept duplicates - the aim is to seize as many different creatures as possible, and those caught creatures will display on the right side. The game does have a timer (also visually represented by the sun setting) that will eventually reach zero and trigger one of the associated files: ending1.lua, ending2.lua and ending3.lua, depending on whether the player caught no, some or all fish, respectively. Before diving into these three files, I would like to address that the intricacies of the running.draw() were carefully layered to look more realistic in the surrounding scenery of the 2D game. Separating sprites and objects from each other made proportioning easier.
Once the timer is up, the running.lua file changes the game state to one of three ending files depending on the player's collection of creatures. ending1.lua and ending2.lua are much the same in terms of code: they have the ending image, music, and a timer that, once elapsed, will allow the player to quit the game. This feature prevents unintended keypresses that may result in errors and prematurely terminate the ending scene. ending3.lua has additional code. I required the anim8 library
local anim8 = require 'libraries/anim8'to animate not only the sprites within the running.lua, but the ending where the player has caught all creatures. Each scene is triggered once a certain amount of time has elapsed.
I hope you enjoy this mini-game. It was quite a learning curve for me. Any tips and advice is welcome.
Epilepsy Warning
This game contains visual effects that may trigger seizures or other adverse reactions in individuals with photosensitive epilepsy. Player discretion is advised.
- Clone the repository to your local operating machine by entering the following in your terminal (command-line):
git clone https://github.com/ShannyxMP/Beast-Fishing.git - Navigate into the folder containing the game files.
- Highlight all files and folders within the game folder and create a compressed folder.
- Rename the extension of the compressed folder to
.love. For example: Beast-Fishing.zip => Beast-Fishing.love. - You can now play the game as a .love file. To do so, you will need to have LÖVE 2D installed on your operating system which you can get here. Once installed, you can run the .love file by double-clicking it or using the command-line and navigating to the directory containing the .love file, then running the command:
love Beast-Fishing-Game.love
This was a final project for CS50x's Introduction to Computer Science.
COPYRIGHT 2023-2024 ShannyxMP (formerly ShannyMP)
Character design was heavily inspired by the great Todo Asano.
- Fix keypress bug