Chapter 10

Advanced Object And Character Control

You now have all the skills you need to build a wide variety of games, but there's still much more you'll want to learn. In this chapter, we'll take a look at the following useful techniques you'll need to know to get started on your own professional-level game design projects:

• Using easing for smooth motion
• Controlling game characters with the mouse
• Moving objects in the direction of their rotation
• Firing bullets in all directions
• Learning basic enemy artificial intelligence (AI): following, running away, and firing bullets in the direction of the player
• Complex player-controlled objects: a spaceship, a mouse-controlled platform character, a car, and a tank

This is quite a big and dense chapter, so don't feel you need to absorb all these techniques at one sitting. I've designed this chapter as a toolbox for you to delve into when you're trying to solve a particular problem in your own game design projects. Take it one small bite at a time and try to apply the techniques to your projects as much as possible.