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Video Game Design Foundations
Standard Toolbar
The
Standard
toolbar contains the most common tools found in the pull-
down menus, but displayed as buttons for easy access. Basic tools such as New,
Open, Save, Cut, Copy, Paste, Undo, Redo, and
Contents
(help) are located on the
Standard
toolbar. This places the tools just a mouse click away.
Navigate Toolbar
To move quickly from one area of the game programming to another,
use the tools on the
Navigate
toolbar. Tools included on this toolbar are Back,
Forward,
Storyboard
Editor,
Frame
Editor,
Event
Editor,
Previous
Frame, and
Next
Frame. Also included on this toolbar is the frame identification and selection
drop-down list.
Run Toolbar
To see how your game is working, it is helpful to use the tools on the
Run
toolbar. These tools allow you to test the game to see if everything is working
as anticipated. The
Run Application
tool allows you to test play your game from
the first frame. The
Run Frame
tool allows you to test play just the current page
you are designing. Use the
Stop
button to cancel the
Run Application
or
Run
Frame
tool and continue working on your game.
Editor Toolbar
There are two basic
Editor
toolbars. Which toolbar is displayed depends
on which mode or view is currently displayed. One version of the
Editor
toolbar is displayed in frame view. The second version is displayed in
event view.
In frame view, the editor toolbar contains the tools needed to view all the
aspects of your frame creation and conditional programming. The
Zoom
tool
allows you to see your work in greater detail by magnifying the view. This can
help to properly align your background and character features. The
Zoom
tool
is also used to reduce the view. Other options include applying a grid to the
editor window and tools for controlling font and style, text color, and alignment
of text. The last button is the
Center Frame
tool. This allows you to quickly have
the background view centered on any selected object. This is helpful when
using a large or scrolling background.
In event view, the
Editor
toolbar displays different tools. The
Zoom
tool is
still available, but it appears slightly different. The other tools on the toolbar
help the designer to view or exclude from view events and objects. This is
very helpful when designing a large game and the designer needs to focus
on a single programming element of the game or on a small set of features or
objects.
Workspace Window
The
Workspace
window displays the programming tree for the game. The
application is the top-level branch. Below that, each frame is displayed in order
as separate branches. The branch for each frame can be expanded to display
each object used in the frame as branches below the frame.