Three rows of four aliens zig zag back and forth across the screen. Player moves the tank and shoots the missiles.
Programmatically dynamic! Quickly and easily modify the difficulty of the game including number of missiles and how fast the aliens move. Additionally, modify the size of the screen for different screen resolutions.
True game functionality including collision detection and user-control over tank movement.
Three game conclusions: win, run out of missiles, or be smooshed.
Alien Invasion
Background:I created Alien Invasion for the Lectora User Conference "Power Users Keynote." I wanted to see how far I could take native Lectora (and my skills). The result was this dynamic file using pure Lectora actions without external javascript or jQuery, or Flash.
Modifiable demo
For demonstration purposes, I added the ability for you to see how easy it is to modify. Normally this functionality is modified within the Lectora file itself, but this will give you an idea of how quickly you can make changes. Click the button at the top right to make changes.
Amazingly and simply re-usable!
Designed for fast (within seconds) ability to modify:- Play field: screen width and height (different page sizes)
- Speed of alien movement left and right
- Speed of alien movement downward (at the end of a row)
- Spacing between aliens both X and Y
- Base number of missiles (“earned” missiles can be added)
- Minor graphical modifications (moderate changes to alien width and height)
Game play
- Dynamic movement
- Twelve enemy aliens: three alien rows of four aliens each.
- Aliens zig zag across the screen on the X (horizontal) axis in alternate directions per row.
- When aliens reach the end of the row, they move down the Y (vertical) axis and get closer to the player's tank.
- Collision detection
- The player moves their tank using the arrow keys and shoots a missile using the space bar trying to time the shots to collide with an alien.
- The missile travels upward. When it collides with an alien, the alien disappears and the score is modified.
- There are three types of outcomes to the game:
- Missile-based
- Win. All aliens were cleared
- Out of ammo. Player ran out of missiles before aliens were cleared
- Movement (new row) based
- Smoosh. Aliens weren't cleared fast enough, and smooshed (collided with) the tank (ouch!!)