Score Actions
The score actions are actions which deal with
things related to score, lives and health.
In most games there is a score of some type and the player will
usually have either health or lives (or both). Now, you can use the
variable and question actions to set this up yourself, but
GameMaker: Studio comes with a series of in-built variables
that deal with these things, and these variables have their
corresponding actions, which are detailed in this section.
Score
Set
Score
With this action you can set the score to a value of your choice.
Note that "score" is a global variable (see this section for
more information:
Variables And Variable Scope) and as such, this action can be
placed in any object, meaning that (for example) you could have a
destroy event for an enemy object that sets the score to 10
relative. Why relative? Well, as outlined in the
introduction to actions, this will add 10 to the current score
whereas if you do not check the relative flag it will just set the
score to 10! You would normally un-check the relative flag and
place this action at the start of a game to set the score to 0, for
instance.
Test
Score
This action will check the value of the score against the value you
input and return true if it meets the condition. The condition can
be either equal to, greater than or less than and in this way you
can have specific behaviours for an instance depending on the
current value of the score variable.
Draw
Score
You can use this action to draw the score variable anywhere on the
screen, just provide the position and the caption to be shown
beside the value. Please note that this action will only be valid
when used in the Draw Event.
Clear
Highscore
With this action you are telling GameMaker: Studio to clear
the high score table. Warning! This cannot be undone!
Lives
Set
Lives
Another global variable included with GameMaker: Studio is
the one for lives (for more information on global variables see:
Variables And Variable Scope). Normally you would set it to
some value like 3 at the beginning of the game and then decrease or
increase the number depending on what happens as the player
progresses. Don't forget to check the Relative box if you
want to add or subtract from the number of lives. At the moment the
number of lives becomes 0 (or less than 0) a "no more lives" event
is generated.
Test
Lives
With this question action you can check whether the number of lives
has reached a particular value. You indicate the value and whether
the number of lives should be equal to, be smaller than, or be
larger than the value. This can be used, for example, to limit the
lives that a player can pickup while playing a game and so keep
them from going above a maximum value.
Draw
Lives
You can use this action to draw the number of lives directly to the
screen. You provide the position and the caption that must be
placed in front of the number of lives, and then number of lives is
drawn in the current font. Please note that this action will only
be valid when used in the Draw Event.
Draw
Life Images
Many games prefer to represent lives with some sort of graphic
rather than straight text, and so GameMaker: Studio provides
this action so you can get the same effect. You specify the
position and the sprite image to be used for each life and at the
indicated position the number of lives is drawn as images. Please
note that this action will only be valid when used in the Draw
Event.
Health
Set
Health
GameMaker includes a built-in health global variable (for
more information on global variables see:
Variables And Variable Scope), and like the previous actions
for score and lives, you can use this action to set and change the
health value. To set the health to a specific value, leave the
"relative" flag un-checked, but if you wish to add or subtract from
the health value, then make sure that it is checked. Please note
that this variable is clamped to be within the range of 0 to 100
(where 0 is no health and 100 is full health) and that when the
health becomes less than or equal to 0 an "out of health" event is
generated.
Test
Health
With this question action you can check whether the health has
reached a particular value. You indicate the value and whether the
health should be equal to, less than or greater than the value. One
use for this is that when the player health gets below a certain
amount you could make some object flash to draw their attention to
the fact.
Draw
Health
We have all seen a players health drawn in the game in the form of
a bar that increases or decreases as the status of the player
changes, well, this action permits you to draw the health variable
in this way too. When the health is at 100 the full bar is drawn
and when it is at 0 the bar is empty, and you can indicate the
position and size of the health bar as well as the colour of the
bar and its background.
Score
Caption
Normally in the window caption the name of the room and the score
is displayed, but with this action you can change this to show the
score, lives, health and what the caption for each of these must
be, or not, as you wish. This functionality is only valid for
Windows, Ubuntu (Linux) and MacOS targets.
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