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How to use Stencyl

Your First Game

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When you open Stencyl , a menu

screen will appear giving you a

choice of playing a game which

is already made.

Or creating your own.

For this lesson we are

going to create our

own game. To create

your own game you

must simply click the

create a new game

button

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There are different kits for to use to

create a game and each kit focuses

on a different type of game.

For today we will be using the

crash course kit.

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Before you start you have

to give your game a name

and describe what it is.

(don't worry about screen

size).

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Now we are ready to

start making our game,

first we have to make a

character (Actor).

So click on the Actor

Types

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There are already two

actors you can use and

add abilities to.

Or you can choose to

create your own character.

We are going to Create a

Actor

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Don't forget to give

them a name

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A new actor will have no

animations so we have to find

some for them or make them.

Stencyl allow images to be used as an

actor. So you can even use your

favourite cartoon character.

for this example we drew the

animations for a character in

Microsoft Paint, to import the

images you must select "click here

to add a frame" then choose your

image.

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It is good practice to name

animations so give each animation

a name, to add animations simple

click on the add button.

Next is to add behaviours, to add a

behaviour, click on the behaviours

tab and click in the grey box to add

a behaviour.

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These are the behaviours that come

with the crash course kit, each kit has

different behaviours. For this

character we need to add Jumping,

Stomp on enemies, walking and die in

pit and reload. Let's start with walking

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For each behaviour a

movement key must be

assigned, for walking the

move right and move left key

should be set to right for right

key and left for left key

The animations you created

can be used for the walking

behaviour.

In this game the left and

right animations are used

for the animations which

match. for example, idle

right and walk right use the

right animation.

To add a behaviour click the

"+Add Behaviour" button.

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Some behaviours can use a sound

when they are performed. For

example, in the jumping behaviour

you can use a sound called

"Jump".

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The Stomp on Enemies behaviour

relies on groups in which an actor

is in. In this game, actors within

the enemies group can be

stomped on by our actor.

However our actor needs to be in

a group called "Players" to do

this. To set a group for a actor,

click on the properties tab.

In the properties section, click on

the group menu and select

players.

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We don't have an enemy actor yet,

so let's choose one. Choose pronger

and go to its behaviour section.

The behaviour needed for pronger to

be affected by being stomped on is

called stompable. This allows

pronger to be stomped on.

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Pronger already comes with

animations, so choose an animation

and the sound for when it is stomped

on. Before we finish, Pronger needs to

be set into the Enemies group

Just as before click on the properties

tab and change the group for

Pronger to be set to Enemies.

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The final step is to create a scene to

play the game on, to do this select

Scenes and create a new one.

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Just as before provide the scene with

a name and click create, the other

options do not need to be altered.

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The new scene is empty so just like the

actors we need to add to it, backgrounds

and tiles can be found on Stencyl forge. All

you have to do is look for what you need

and download it to your game.

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To get a tile or background from

stencylforge, select it and click the

download button.

To search for a item on stencylforge,

select the type of item to search for what

is available. for example, if you want a

background, select Backgrounds.

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If an item is downloaded form

stencylforge, it is automatically added

to the game.

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To add tiles to a scene, click on the

tile. Then add it to the scene by

clicking on a part of the scene.

For example, with the tile selected. You

click here to add the tile to that part of

the scene. The same method can be

used to add actors to the scene.

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Before starting the game, the gravity must

be set to stop our actor from flying off the

screen. To do this click on the Physics tab

and set the vertical gravity.

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With all the Characters added let's

test the game by clicking on "Test

Game".

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Congratulations on

making your first game.