Monkey game development : beginner's guide : create monetized 2D games deployable to almost any platform

402 Pages·2012·4.36 MB·English

by  Michael Hartlef

Monkey Game Development
Beginner's Guide
Create monetized 2D games deployable to almost
any platform
Michael Hartlef
BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
Monkey Game Development
Beginner's Guide
Copyright © 2012 Packt Publishing
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First published: April 2012
Production Reference: 1130412
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
Livery Place
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Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.
ISBN 978-1-84969-203-8
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Cover Image by J.Blaminsky ([email protected])
Credits
Author Project Coordinator
Michael Hartlef Alka Nayak
Reviewers Proofreader
Nikolas Kolm Aaron Nash
Meri Morganov
Indexer
Acquisition Editor Hemangini Bari
Kartikey Pandey
Graphics
Lead Technical Editor Manu Joseph
Shreerang Deshpande
Production Coordinator
Technical Editors Melwyn D'Sa
Apoorva Bolar
Arun Nadar Cover Work
Melwyn D'Sa
Priyanka S
Copy Editor
Brandt D'Mello
About the Author
Michael Hartlef has been into game development for a long long time, starting in 1984,
at the early age of 18, with this great hobby called developing computer games, on the
Commodore C64. After developing for this machine, he has worked on most other well-known
computers, such as the Amiga 1000 and 500, the Atari 1024 STFm, and of course various PCs.
These days it is mostly his iMac that he uses.
Over the years, he has become very knowledgeable about general and specific concepts
for developing games and has worked on a large range of game development tools/
programming languages, such as thinBasic, Delphi, 3D GameStudio, Blitz3D, BlitzMax,
DarkBasic Pro, App Game Kit (AGK), Corona SDK, and of course, Monkey! Besides working on
games, Michael has developed various add-ons for tools such as command library extensions
and programming editors.
During the day, Michael works for a utility company where he maintains the billing system
(SAP IS-U). Michael is also the founder of an independent game developer startup called
Whitesky Games (http://www.whiteskygames.com). There, he spends a lot of his spare
time working on game development tools (IndeED), add-ons and games for friends and
clients, and his own projects.
First, I'd like to thank my wonderful wife Katherine and my great son Marc
Justin for having so much patience with me during the time of writing this
book and giving me all the support I needed. Without you guys, I would not
have made it. I love you!

Also, I would like to thank the people at PacktPub for giving me the
opportunity to write this book, which has been a great experience in my
life. Next, I send a big thank you to Jayant Varma from Oz Apps, who hinted
to me that PacktPub was looking for an author for this book. Also, I want to
thank Lee Bardsley from GameLab3D for being my friend and talk buddy.

And finally, a big thank you goes to Mark Sibly, the creator of Monkey, for
providing such an awesome tool for the people and me.
About the Reviewers
Nikolas Kolm has been active as a Level Designer, World Builder, and Interactive Storyteller
for a long time, in capacities ranging from community Mod projects, to student work, to
indie production. During this time, he has gathered a lot of experience in different editors
and production settings, most commonly the Unreal Editor, the NWN2 Toolset, and the
Dragon Age Toolset as well as Game Maker, and recently, Unity 3D.
During his time along with the Mod team responsible for a persistent world server for
Neverwinter Nights 2, Nikolas was responsible for the creation of interesting areas and levels
for players to traverse and live in, which needed to adhere to a common theme with the rest
of the world, and also had to offer challenges for groups of players out for an adventure.
This included setting up encounters with enemies, setting up the ambient effects, creating
dialogue for scripted encounters, and ensuring that the area supported the environmental
storytelling of the module.
While working on the indie title AVOID, as Lead Game Designer, Niko also had to fill in as
Level Designer from time to time, which allowed him to practice his skills with the Unity
editor. It also allowed him to work in a leadership capacity with a team of over 30 other
team members, to experience a complete production cycle.
His unique background, living in Japan, traveling the world, and studying many cultures and
history, has given him a wealth of experience from which to draw when designing believable
characters, dramatic encounters, and immersive worlds.
Meri Morganov has been playing video games for most of her life and has always
wondered what the magic behind them was. She took game programming courses at the
Art Institute of Vancouver to learn more on the topic and worked with big student groups to
make games. From high-level scripting to low-level programming, she worked hard to learn
the art of the trade.
After college she has been working on indie projects with friends and small companies. She
loves working in teams and staying in close contact with her teammates to get the job done
right. Unity3D and Visual Studio have been her favorite tools to use.
I'd like to thank my teachers and friends who made it possible for me to
learn such a great skill.
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Table of Contents
Preface 1
Chapter 1: Monkey—Huh? 7
Game development for the rest of us 8
Cross-platform development 8
Compiler or translator? 8
The Monkey toolbox 9
Time for action – installing Monkey 10
Please welcome… Monk 10
MSERVER—Monkey's own web server 11
Let's have a little playtime 12
Time for action – playing Pirate TriPeaks 12
Time for action – playing Surviball 14
Playing to have fun, playing to study 15
So let's go for something big? No! 15
The alternative 15
Time for action – read the manual 16
The Trans tool and the supported target platforms 16
HTML5 16
FLASH 17
iOS 17
Android 17
XNA 17
GLFW 18
The Monkey standard modules 18
Lang 18
Lists 18
Map 19
Math 20
Random 21
Set 21
Stack 22