Book Image

Box2D for Flash Games

Book Image

Box2D for Flash Games

Overview of this book

Physics games are getting more and more popular, and Box2D is the best choice if you are looking for a free, stable and robust library to handle physics. With Box2D you can create every kind of 2D physics game, only coding is not the fun part, but the game itself. "Box2D for Flash Games" will guide you through the process of making a Flash physics game starting from the bare bones and taking you by hand through complex features such as forces, joints and motors. As you are learning, your game will have more and more features, like the physics games you are used to playing. The book analyzes two of the most played physics games, and breaks them down to allow readers to build them from scratch in a step-by-step approach. By the end of the book, you will learn how to create basic primitive bodies as well as complex, compound bodies. Motors will give life to cars, catapults and siege machines firing bullets, while a complete collision management will make your game look even more realistic. If you want to make full Flash games with physics, then Box2D for Flash Games will guide you through the entire process of making a Flash physics game.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)
Box2D for Flash Games
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Controlling motors with keyboard


We want the player to control the truck with arrow keys. Left arrow key will move the truck to the left and right arrow key will move the truck to the right.

  1. To let the player control motors with keyboard, you first need to include the KeyboardEvent class, which will allow us to create keyboard listeners:

    import flash.display.Sprite;
    import flash.events.Event;
    import flash.events.KeyboardEvent;
    import Box2D.Dynamics.*;
    import Box2D.Collision.*;
    import Box2D.Collision.Shapes.*;
    import Box2D.Common.Math.*;
    import Box2D.Dynamics.Joints.*;
  2. Then, we need some new class-level variables:

    private var world:b2World;
    private var worldScale:Number=30;
    private var left:Boolean=false;
    private var right:Boolean=false;
    private var frj:b2RevoluteJoint;
    private var rrj:b2RevoluteJoint;
    private var motorSpeed:Number=0;
    

    left and right are Boolean variables, which will let us know if left or right arrow keys are being pressed.

    frj and rrj are the front and rear revolute joint...