Book Image

SFML Game Development By Example

By : Raimondas Pupius
Book Image

SFML Game Development By Example

By: Raimondas Pupius

Overview of this book

Simple and Fast Multimedia Library (SFML) is a simple interface comprising five modules, namely, the audio, graphics, network, system, and window modules, which help to develop cross-platform media applications. By utilizing the SFML library, you are provided with the ability to craft games quickly and easily, without going through an extensive learning curve. This effectively serves as a confidence booster, as well as a way to delve into the game development process itself, before having to worry about more advanced topics such as “rendering pipelines” or “shaders.” With just an investment of moderate C++ knowledge, this book will guide you all the way through the journey of game development. The book starts by building a clone of the classical snake game where you will learn how to open a window and render a basic sprite, write well-structured code to implement the design of the game, and use the AABB bounding box collision concept. The next game is a simple platformer with enemies, obstacles and a few different stages. Here, we will be creating states that will provide custom application flow and explore the most common yet often overlooked design patterns used in game development. Last but not the least, we will create a small RPG game where we will be using common game design patterns, multiple GUI. elements, advanced graphical features, and sounds and music features. We will also be implementing networking features that will allow other players to join and play together. By the end of the book, you will be an expert in using the SFML library to its full potential.
Table of Contents (21 chapters)
SFML Game Development By Example
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Hunting bugs


As proud and satisfied as you may be with your first project, nothing is ever perfect. If you've spent some time actually playing the game, you may have noticed an odd event when quickly mashing the buttons, looking something like this:

The image represents the difference between two sequential updates. It seems that earlier it was facing the right direction and then it's facing left and missing its tail. What happened? Try to figure it out on your own before continuing, as it perfectly illustrates the experience of fixing game flaws.

Playing around with it some more reveals certain details that narrow down our problem. Let's break down what happens when a player starts mashing keys quickly:

  • The snake is facing right.

  • Any arrow key other than the left or right is pressed.

  • The direction of the snake gets set to something else, let's say up.

  • The right key is pressed before the game has a chance to update.

  • Since the snake's direction is no longer set to right or left, if statement in...