Creating a Game

In the Quick Start guide, we learned how to set up a very simple project using dill pixel. Now let’s go through the process of creating a basic game.

Custom Splash Screen

Create a Splash.ts file in the src folder. This will be displayed when the game starts. Similar to a Scene, there are added(), enter() and exit() methods to control how the screen is revealed and hidden. It also contains a update() method that runs every tick, and a handleLoadProgress() method that can be used to update the progress of the loading screen. For simplicity’s sake we’re just creating a green background and adding a title that can be clicked to take us to the next screen:

import { FlexContainer, SceneTransition } from 'dill-pixel';
import { gsap } from 'gsap';
import { Sprite, Text, Texture } from 'pixi.js';

export default class Splash extends SceneTransition {
  private _labelPercent: Text;
  private _textContainer: FlexContainer;
  private _bg: Sprite;
  private _percent: number = 0;

  constructor() {
    super(true);
  }

  added() {
    this._bg = this.add.sprite({
      asset: Texture.WHITE,
      tint: 0x1f2937,
      width: this.app.size.width,
      height: this.app.size.height,
      anchor: 0.5,
    });
    this._textContainer = this.add.flexContainer({
      gap: 10,
      flexDirection: 'column',
      justifyContent: 'center',
      alignItems: 'center',
    });
    this._textContainer.add.text({
      text: 'Loading...',
      style: {
        fontWeight: 'bold',
        fontSize: 36,
        fill: 'white',
        dropShadow: true,
      },
    });
    this._labelPercent = this._textContainer.add.text({
      style: {
        fontWeight: 'bold',
        fontSize: 72,
        fill: 'white',
        dropShadow: true,
      },
    });
  }

  async exit() {
    // ensure percentage completes
    await gsap.to(this, { _percent: 100, duration: 1, ease: 'sine.out' });
    return gsap.to(this, { alpha: 0, duration: 1, ease: 'sine.in' });
  }

  update() {
    this._labelPercent.text = `${Math.round(this._percent)}%`;
    this._labelPercent.resolution = 2;
    this._textContainer.layout();
  }

  resize() {
    this._bg.setSize(this.app.size.width, this.app.size.height);
  }

  protected override handleLoadProgress(progress: number) {
    super.handleLoadProgress(progress);
    gsap.to(this, { _percent: Math.ceil(this.progress * 100), duration: 1, ease: 'sine.out' });
  }
}

In ./dill-pixel-config.ts, import your Splash class:

import Splash from '@/Splash';

and set the set the splash property to

{ ... // other config
  splash: {
    view: Splash
  }
  ...
}

your dill-pixel.config.ts should now look like this:

import Splash from '@/Splash';
import { defineActions, defineButtons, defineConfig, defineContexts, defineControls } from 'dill-pixel';

/** Default template */
// TODO: Add custom contexts here if desired
// by default, we use the default contexts
export const contexts = defineContexts(); // e.g.

// TODO: Add actions here
// examples below
export const actions = defineActions(contexts, {
  //pause: { context: '*' },
  //close: { context: ['menu', 'popup'] },
  //back: { context: ['menu'] },
  //next: { context: ['menu'] },
  //select: { context: ['menu', 'default'] },
  //show_popup: { context: '*' },
});

/** Don't touch */
export type Contexts = (typeof contexts)[number];
export type ActionTypes = keyof typeof actions;
/** Don't touch */

// TODO: Add buttons here
const buttons = defineButtons();

// TODO: Add controls here
export const controls = defineControls(actions, buttons);
/** End of Default Template */

/** User config */
export type Data = {
  dill: string;
  pixel: number;
};

export const config = defineConfig<Data>({
  id: 'Test',
  defaultSceneLoadMethod: 'immediate',
  defaultScene: 'start',
  splash: {
    view: Splash,
  },
  useSpine: true,
  showStats: true,
  useVoiceover: false,
  data: {
    initial: {
      dill: 'pixel',
      pixel: 0,
    },
    backupKeys: [],
    backupAll: false,
  },
  actions,
  input: {
    controls,
  },
  assets: {
    manifest: './assets.json',
    preload: {
      bundles: ['required'],
    },
    background: {
      bundles: ['audio'],
    },
  },
  plugins: [],
  storageAdapters: [],
});
/** End of User config */

in index.html, you can remove the loader.css import, as we’re no longer using it.

Create Scenes

Game Scene

Create a Game.ts file in the scenes folder. This will be the main game scene with a few elements: an image, a title, a message, and a button.

Add the id and debug label to the scene

export const id = 'game';
export const debug = {
  label: 'Game',
};

Clicking on the image will trigger a short animation and increment a counter. Clicking the button will take us back to StartScene.

Note that in the destroy() method we’re cleaning up the gsap animations.

import BaseScene from '@/scenes/BaseScene';
import { FONT_KUMBH_SANS } from '@/utils/Constants';
import { FlexContainer } from 'dill-pixel';

export const id = 'game';
export const debug = {
  label: 'Game',
};

/**
 * Game scene
 * so you can access the application's properties and methods in all scenes extending this one
 * it also allows you to add custom logic to the scene that can be shared across scenes
 */
export default class Game extends BaseScene {
  private _layout: FlexContainer;

  initialize() {
    super.initialize();
    // a temporary layout container
    this._layout = this.add.flexContainer({
      flexDirection: 'column',
      gap: 10,
      alignItems: 'center',
      justifyContent: 'center',
    });

    // some title text
    this._layout.add.text({
      text: 'My',
      style: { fontSize: 18, fontFamily: FONT_KUMBH_SANS, fill: 0xffffff },
    });
    // from src/assets.json
    this._layout.add.sprite({ asset: 'wordmark.svg', scale: 1 });

    this._layout.add.text({
      text: 'GAME',
      style: { fontFamily: FONT_KUMBH_SANS, fontWeight: 'bold', fill: 0xffffff },
    });
  }

  async enter() {
    return this.animate({ alpha: 1, duration: 1, ease: 'sine.out' });
  }

  async exit() {
    return this.animate({ alpha: 0, duration: 0.5, ease: 'sine.in' });
  }
}