In lesson 7, we took a look at an existing sample game, The Pong Game, and we also had made changes to this game to make it more interesting. In lesson 10 through 14, I will cover what you need to learn to make a mini Super Mario game.
We will cover the following:
- Designing a Game (Lesson 10)
- Creating Game sprites (Lesson 11)
- Adding Game Rules to Game Sprite (Lesson 12)
- Changing Background when Mario Moves (Lesson 13)
- Managing Score and Levels (Lesson 14)
After following these classes, you should feel very comfortable creating your own game. Let’s start!
Here is a basic table that we need to fill in:
|
Game Name |
Mini Mario |
|
Sprites |
List of sprites: name, costumes, sounds, movements |
|
Sprite Interaction |
How sprites interact in this game |
|
Backgrounds |
The list of background doodles here |
|
Scores and Levels |
The score counter rule and level advancement rule here |
Let’s expand each item to its own table:
|
GAME NAME |
|
SPRITES |
Name |
Look |
Sound |
Movement |
|
SPRITE INTERACTION |
Sprite1 |
Sprite2 |
Interaction |
|
BACKGROUNDS |
Name |
Look |
|
SCORE AND LEVELS |
How |
How many points |
|
LEVELS |
Level |
Requirement |
Starting Background |
Ending Background |
You may download the PDF form of above table HERE.
Let’s fill in each table for this game:
|
GAME NAME |
Mini Mario |
|
SPRITES |
Name |
Look |
Sound |
Movement/ Action |
|
Mario |
-Walk1 -Walk2 -Jump Up -Jump Down |
-Jump -Die -Enter -Score -Grow -Shrink |
-Walk -Jump -Die -Grow -Shrink |
|
|
Fruit Platter |
-Delicious |
None |
None |
|
|
Princess |
-Surprised -Happy |
-Happy tune |
-Jump up and down for joy |
|
|
Brick |
-Regular -Cracked |
-Crushed |
-Crushed |
|
|
Bat |
-Fly1 -Fly2 |
-Wing flap |
-Fly |
|
|
Coin |
-Spin1 -Spin2 -Spin3 |
-Bling-bling |
-Spin |
|
|
Crab |
Walk1 Walk2 |
-None |
-Walk |
|
SPRITE INTERACTION |
Sprite1 |
Sprite2 |
Interaction |
|
Mario |
Brick |
If Mario hand hits Brick, then Brick would crack. |
|
|
Mario |
Coin |
If Mario touches Coin, Coin would disappear and Mario would score 1 point. |
|
|
Mario |
Crab |
If Mario touches Crab, he would die. |
|
|
Brick |
Coin |
When Brick cracks, Coin would show spinning above Brick |
|
|
Mario |
Stage |
When Mario hits the bottom of the stage, he would die. |
|
BACKGROUNDS |
Name |
Description |
|
Level1_1 |
Solid ground, several bricks (to be added from sprites), crabs as enemies |
|
|
Level1_2 |
Holes in ground, several bricks, crabs as enemies |
|
|
Level1_Passed
|
Fruit platter |
|
|
Level2_1 |
Solid ground, several bricks, bats as enemies |
|
|
Level2_2 |
Holes in ground, several bricks, bats as enemies |
|
|
Level2_Passed |
Princess |
|
LEVELS |
Level |
Requirement for this Level |
Starting Background |
Ending Background |
|
1 |
When the game is started |
Level1_1 |
Level1_2 |
|
|
2 |
When Mario grabs the Fruit Platter in Level 1 |
Level2_1 |
Level2_2 |
Whew!! We are done for the design stage. This may seem a lot of work but it’s always a good idea to lay out the design in as much detail as possible for your masterpiece, whether it is an animation or a game. Once you take the time to design your game, the building part should be straight forward.
In Lesson 11, we will work together to create the sprites for our Mini Mario game.
hi this is a great series I wish you had all the lessons for mario here i have been using these to help teach my dyslexic son about progaramming and he is loving it
cheers
Thank you so much for this comment. You’ve made my day!
Thanks for making this tutorial publicly accessible. Kids love games! Me programming them takes too long. Much better to explore and pick up from where you started.