Flixel Puddles and Oil Slicks

I've been using the super cool Flixel framework to make a game and it's quite handy for most things. The game I'm working on is basically a top down...ehh, well let's just say it's top down. :) I can post more details when the game is actually released. As a category, top down and platformer games in general usually have some type of movement modification obstacles. These obstacles allow the player to pass through them, so they don't stop the player from moving, but they somehow alter the player's course by speeding up, slowing down, or sending the player in a different direction. In my case, these obstacles are oil slicks and water puddles, which speed up and slow down the player in whatever direction they are traveling. Here I will cover how I solved speeding up and slowing down the player when he crosses over such an obstacle. Below is a skeleton of my main player class:

package sprites {
   import org.flixel.FlxG;
   import org.flixel.FlxSprite;

   public class Player extends FlxSprite {

       [Embed(source="player.png")] private var Img:Class;

       protected var _runSpeed:Number = 100;

       public var velocityFactor:Number = 1;

       public function Girl(X:int=0, Y:int=0) {
           super(Img, X, Y, true, false, 58, 58);

           drag.x = this._runSpeed * 8;
           drag.y = this._runSpeed * 8;

           maxVelocity.x = this._runSpeed;
           maxVelocity.y = this._runSpeed;

           ...
       }

       override public function update():void {
           // MOVEMENT
           acceleration.x = acceleration.y = 0;
           this.maxVelocity.x = this._runSpeed * this.velocityFactor;
           this.maxVelocity.y = this._runSpeed * this.velocityFactor;
           if (FlxG.keys.UP) {
               acceleration.y -= drag.y;
           }
           // And similarly for all 4 key directions
           ...

           super.update();
       }
   }
}

Using this player class, we can see that by modifying the velocityFactor instance variable, we can effectively control how fast the player can move around the screen. By setting velocityFactor equal to a value less than one, we decrease the player speed, and by setting it equal to a value greater than one we increase the player speed. So what we need now is a way to modify this value externally in response to player interaction with the world, namely, the player stepping onto a puddle or an oil slick. We also need sprites that define how they should change the player movement when they are stepped over. Below is a skeleton of one of my obstacle classes:

package sprites.obstacles {
    import org.flixel.FlxG;
    import org.flixel.FlxSprite;

    public class SpawnerObstacle extends FlxSprite {

        public function get playerVelocityFactor():Number { return 2; }

        [Embed(source="spawner.png")] private var SpawnerImg:Class;

        public function SpawnerObstacle(X:int=0, Y:int=0) {
            super(SpawnerImg, X, Y, true, false, 24, 24);

            this.fixed = true;
        }

    }
}

Here is just a simple implementation of a FlxSprite class where we define that this sprite, when stepped over, speeds up the player by a factor of 2. Below are the relevant parts of the update() method in my main PlayState class.

this._player.velocityFactor = 1;
for each (sprite in this._obstacles) {
    if (this._player.overlaps(sprite)) {
        trace('modifying player velocity');
        this._player.velocityFactor = obstacle.playerVelocityFactor;
        break;
    }
}

Here we loop over the obstacle sprites in the _obstacles array. This array would be created whenever you initialize the obstacles for the game. The obstacles themselves, in this case, are instances like the above SpawnerObstacle class, which have a playerVelocityFactor getter attached. In the beginning, we make sure that we set the player's velocityFactor to 1 so that the player moves at the default speed in the case that they are not on top of an obstacle sprite. We also break out of the loop when we collide with a single obstacle sprite to avoid any extra complexity. We could make it so that we average the velocity factors when multiple obstacle sprites are encountered, but I don't have this use case so it would be unnecessary. When all these parts are in place and working in conjunction, we have a game that satisfies our original goal. When the player collides with one of our obstacles sprites, he is either sped up or slowed down, depending on the velocity factor defined by the colliding sprite. If I get any less lazy (highly unlikely) I'll post an example swf with source code.

Benjamin Snider