SOoo I'm making a rpg dungeon type game and I am trying to made a character selection screen but i'm not sure how. I've tried following youtube tutorials but I was really confused…

There are many different design concepts for selection menus. Iit would be helpful if you could direct us to a particular selection screen that you got inspiration from or you are trying to follow.

Each character in the selection pane should be a sprite. Use the “wait until clicked on” blocks to detect which character the player had chosen.

wait until <mouse down?>
if <touching [mouse pointer v] ?> then 

  this character was chosen ::grey

else
another character was chosen :: grey
end

MasterofTheBrick wrote:

There are many different design concepts for selection menus. Iit would be helpful if you could direct us to a particular selection screen that you got inspiration from or you are trying to follow.

Each character in the selection pane should be a sprite. Use the “wait until clicked on” blocks to detect which character the player had chosen.

wait until <mouse down?>
if <touching [mouse pointer v] ?> then 

  this character was chosen ::grey

else
another character was chosen :: grey
end

I am really just going for a simple selection screen. And ty for the code i'll try it!

MasterofTheBrick wrote:

There are many different design concepts for selection menus. Iit would be helpful if you could direct us to a particular selection screen that you got inspiration from or you are trying to follow.

Each character in the selection pane should be a sprite. Use the “wait until clicked on” blocks to detect which character the player had chosen.

wait until <mouse down?>
if <touching [mouse pointer v] ?> then 

  this character was chosen ::grey

else
another character was chosen :: grey
end

and what's the this character was chosen block? Sorry for all these questions I'm a new scratcher and this is my second game and third project.

But if the choice of character is essentially between costumes for a single sprite you can use cloning or stamping to select one. That at least saves duplicating code for different sprites. Still possible to have a group of costumes for each one for basic animation.

Here's an example https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/41719938/

deck26 wrote:

But if the choice of character is essentially between costumes for a single sprite you can use cloning or stamping to select one. That at least saves duplicating code for different sprites. Still possible to have a group of costumes for each one for basic animation.

Here's an example https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/41719938/

But each sprite has movement costumes.

Then initiate the movement using variables.

if <(avatar) = [1]> then 

  Movement for avatar 1 ::grey

else

if <(avatar) = [2]> then 

  Movement for avatar 2 ::grey

else
And so on :: grey
end

end

deck26 wrote:

But if the choice of character is essentially between costumes for a single sprite you can use cloning or stamping to select one. That at least saves duplicating code for different sprites. Still possible to have a group of costumes for each one for basic animation.

Here's an example https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/41719938/

Yes, didn’t think of that sooner. Thanks for bringing it up.

kuku_the_cockatiel wrote:

deck26 wrote:

But if the choice of character is essentially between costumes for a single sprite you can use cloning or stamping to select one. That at least saves duplicating code for different sprites. Still possible to have a group of costumes for each one for basic animation.

Here's an example https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/41719938/

But each sprite has movement costumes.

How many? If the code is otherwise the same it's easier to keep it all in one sprite rather then duplicate which would mean every change having to be copied multiple times.

It's not hard to work with a range of costumes - eg if you have 10 costumes per character you can easily set a variable to 0 or 10 or 20 etc and use that as an adjustment. So switch to costume ‘myvar’ + 5 would give costume 5 or 15 or 25 or whatever.

Or you can use costume names so you can cat-walk1, cat-walk2 and dog-walk1, dog-walk2 etc.

deck26 wrote:

kuku_the_cockatiel wrote:

deck26 wrote:

But if the choice of character is essentially between costumes for a single sprite you can use cloning or stamping to select one. That at least saves duplicating code for different sprites. Still possible to have a group of costumes for each one for basic animation.

Here's an example https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/41719938/

But each sprite has movement costumes.

How many? If the code is otherwise the same it's easier to keep it all in one sprite rather then duplicate which would mean every change having to be copied multiple times.

It's not hard to work with a range of costumes - eg if you have 10 costumes per character you can easily set a variable to 0 or 10 or 20 etc and use that as an adjustment. So switch to costume ‘myvar’ + 5 would give costume 5 or 15 or 25 or whatever.

Or you can use costume names so you can cat-walk1, cat-walk2 and dog-walk1, dog-walk2 etc.

Each character has 9 costumes

kuku_the_cockatiel wrote:

deck26 wrote:

kuku_the_cockatiel wrote:

deck26 wrote:

But if the choice of character is essentially between costumes for a single sprite you can use cloning or stamping to select one. That at least saves duplicating code for different sprites. Still possible to have a group of costumes for each one for basic animation.

Here's an example https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/41719938/

But each sprite has movement costumes.

How many? If the code is otherwise the same it's easier to keep it all in one sprite rather then duplicate which would mean every change having to be copied multiple times.

It's not hard to work with a range of costumes - eg if you have 10 costumes per character you can easily set a variable to 0 or 10 or 20 etc and use that as an adjustment. So switch to costume ‘myvar’ + 5 would give costume 5 or 15 or 25 or whatever.

Or you can use costume names so you can cat-walk1, cat-walk2 and dog-walk1, dog-walk2 etc.

Each character has 9 costumes

So do you understand what I'm suggesting?

deck26 wrote:

kuku_the_cockatiel wrote:

deck26 wrote:

kuku_the_cockatiel wrote:

deck26 wrote:

But if the choice of character is essentially between costumes for a single sprite you can use cloning or stamping to select one. That at least saves duplicating code for different sprites. Still possible to have a group of costumes for each one for basic animation.

Here's an example https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/41719938/

But each sprite has movement costumes.

How many? If the code is otherwise the same it's easier to keep it all in one sprite rather then duplicate which would mean every change having to be copied multiple times.

It's not hard to work with a range of costumes - eg if you have 10 costumes per character you can easily set a variable to 0 or 10 or 20 etc and use that as an adjustment. So switch to costume ‘myvar’ + 5 would give costume 5 or 15 or 25 or whatever.

Or you can use costume names so you can cat-walk1, cat-walk2 and dog-walk1, dog-walk2 etc.

Each character has 9 costumes

So do you understand what I'm suggesting?

not really…

What would the costume names be for one character? Let's say walk1, walk2, walk3, run1, run2, run3 and so on.

Prepend the character name os if you can choose between ‘cat’ and ‘dog’ you'd have costumes named

catwalk1, catwalk2 …. dogwalk1, dogwalk2 … and so on.

So you set variable ‘charname’ to ‘cat’ or ‘dog’ and you can then use

switch costume to (join (charname) [wa;lk1])  // etc

You can still use next costume if necessary, just make sure you loop round within the current range. So if your 9 dog costumes were numbered 10 to 18 you want to avoid next costume taking you to costume 19. That's also easy enough. If the var ‘range-start’ is set to 1, 10, 19 etc according to the character you can replace next costume with

switch costume to ((range-start) + ((costume#) mod [9]))

This may sound copmplicated but it only affects your costume changes - use custom blocks if handling costume changes in multiple places. Believe me, it is easier than having to correctly update multiple copies of scripts across multiple sprites.

Ninja'd again


I think this is what deck-26 is trying to say:

set [avatar v] to [scratchcat] //this is an example character
set [counter v] to [1]
repeat (number of costumes for one avatar's movement cycle ::grey)
switch costume to (join (avatar) (counter)) //this would switch the costume to scratchcat1
change [counter v] by (1) //the next costume would be scratchcat2
end

deck26 wrote:

What would the costume names be for one character? Let's say walk1, walk2, walk3, run1, run2, run3 and so on.

Prepend the character name os if you can choose between ‘cat’ and ‘dog’ you'd have costumes named

catwalk1, catwalk2 …. dogwalk1, dogwalk2 … and so on.

So you set variable ‘charname’ to ‘cat’ or ‘dog’ and you can then use

switch costume to (join (charname) [wa;lk1])  // etc

You can still use next costume if necessary, just make sure you loop round within the current range. So if your 9 dog costumes were numbered 10 to 18 you want to avoid next costume taking you to costume 19. That's also easy enough. If the var ‘range-start’ is set to 1, 10, 19 etc according to the character you can replace next costume with

switch costume to ((range-start) + ((costume#) mod [9]))

This may sound copmplicated but it only affects your costume changes - use custom blocks if handling costume changes in multiple places. Believe me, it is easier than having to correctly update multiple copies of scripts across multiple sprites.

I understand it now but I dont want to change the costumes I just want a simple select screem. Sorry if I misunderstood. If you want to see how I'm trying to make a select screen, here is the project: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/547873203/

MasterofTheBrick wrote:

Ninja'd again


I think this is what deck-26 is trying to say:

set [avatar v] to [scratchcat] //this is an example character
set [counter v] to [1]
repeat (number of costumes for one avatar's movement cycle ::grey)
switch costume to (join (avatar) (counter)) //this would switch the costume to scratchcat1
change [counter v] by (1) //the next costume would be scratchcat2
end

ooh but is there any way to make it without all the costumes of all the characters in 1 sprite?

kuku_the_cockatiel wrote:

I understand it now but I dont want to change the costumes I just want a simple select screem. Sorry if I misunderstood. If you want to see how I'm trying to make a select screen, here is the project: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/547873203/

Then what problems are you facing now? All you have to add in is the mouse down? detector and you're fine.

kuku_the_cockatiel wrote:

I understand it now but I dont want to change the costumes I just want a simple select screem. Sorry if I misunderstood. If you want to see how I'm trying to make a select screen, here is the project: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/547873203/

You can do that simply by broadcasting to show all 3 sprites. When one is clicked you set a variable to that name and broadcast to hide the others - the broadcast receiver hides the sprite if the variable doesn't match that sprite's name. That's all easy enough.

Still think you'll regret this though if the scripts are going to be identical for the three characters. You detect a bug and you'll have to change it in 3 places. Make a minor mistake in one and you might not notice until much later - unless you test everything 3 times or repeatedly delete scritps and copy them between sprites (just another chance to forget to do so or get something wrong like having duplicate scripts).

Even if the scripts vary slightly it would be better to code for the differences - eg if they move at different speeds use a variable for the speed; if one character has some special ability use if blocks.

kuku_the_cockatiel wrote:

MasterofTheBrick wrote:

Ninja'd again


I think this is what deck-26 is trying to say:

snip ::grey

ooh but is there any way to make it without all the costumes of all the characters in 1 sprite?

The purpose of this code is so that all of the costumes are in 1 sprite, hence making the project more efficient.

deck26 wrote:

kuku_the_cockatiel wrote:

I understand it now but I dont want to change the costumes I just want a simple select screem. Sorry if I misunderstood. If you want to see how I'm trying to make a select screen, here is the project: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/547873203/

You can do that simply by broadcasting to show all 3 sprites. When one is clicked you set a variable to that name and broadcast to hide the others - the broadcast receiver hides the sprite if the variable doesn't match that sprite's name. That's all easy enough.

Still think you'll regret this though if the scripts are going to be identical for the three characters. You detect a bug and you'll have to change it in 3 places. Make a minor mistake in one and you might not notice until much later - unless you test everything 3 times or repeatedly delete scritps and copy them between sprites (just another chance to forget to do so or get something wrong like having duplicate scripts).

Even if the scripts vary slightly it would be better to code for the differences - eg if they move at different speeds use a variable for the speed; if one character has some special ability use if blocks.

Ok thanks! If this does create any problems I'll use the other code you suggested!