How Can I Improve My Code?

Comments

• dave1707 Mod

  January 2015 Posts: 8,579

  You need to learn about tables. That will cut down the size of the program a lot. What is the game supposed to do.
• AIDENCODER123

  January 2015 Posts: 4

  The game is a first person shooter (2d of course) with dots as the enemy. You have thirty seconds to eliminate as many as you can. As soon as you kill all 5 and new 5 pop up moving faster. You control your "gun" using the accelerometer.
• dave1707 Mod

  January 2015 Posts: 8,579

  Interesting game. I replaced the sprite I don't have with a small circle. One problem, if you tilt the iPad too far, the screen rotates. You need to lock the screen.
• AIDENCODER123

  January 2015 Posts: 4

  Thanks @dave1707 ! Do you have any idea how to fix the scoring?
• Ignatz Mod

  January 2015 Posts: 5,396

  you can put your code on Github
• dave1707 Mod

  January 2015 Posts: 8,579

  @AIDENCODER123 Before worrying about why the scoring isn't working properly, I would spend the time learning about tables. You have so much repetitive code and tables could eliminate a lot of it. Once you reduce the code, it would be so much easier to fix the scoring. You have a very interesting game and you should continue to learn more coding. You could then make the code easier to update or fix errors. After learning tables, you should then look into classes. Classes can also eliminate a lot of repetitive coding.
• AIDENCODER123

  January 2015 Posts: 4

  Thank you both!
• Ignatz Mod

  January 2015 edited January 2015 Posts: 5,396

  @AIDENCODER123 - I've written an ebook on Lua that tries to explain tables, among other things. I also have a bunch of blog posts on tables.

  You can find all of them here, ebooks at the top

  http://coolcodea.wordpress.com/2013/06/19/index-of-posts/
• dave1707 Mod

  January 2015 edited January 2015 Posts: 8,579

  @AIDENCODER123 Here's an example of what tables can do. I took your example and wrote something similar. I think you should look at this example and learn what you can from it and then try to modify your code. Your code is a great start and I think you can learn a lot by trying to condense it. That's the quickest way to learn.

  
  displayMode(FULLSCREEN)
  supportedOrientations(PORTRAIT)
  
  function setup()
      bullets=15
      fontSize(40)
      score=0
      rectMode(CENTER)
      ellipseMode(CENTER)
      createTargets()
      cx=WIDTH/2
      cy=HEIGHT/2
      dx,dy=0,0
      gameOver=false
  end
  
  function createTargets()
      bullets=bullets+5
      targets={}
      for z=1,5 do
          table.insert(targets,{x=math.random(WIDTH),
          y=math.random(HEIGHT),spX=math.random(-1,1),spY=math.random(-1,1)})
      end
  end
  
  function draw()
      background(0, 255, 187, 255)
      fill(255,0,0)
      text("SCORE  "..score,WIDTH/2,HEIGHT-50)
      text("BULLETS  "..bullets,WIDTH/2,HEIGHT-100)
      fill(255)
      if gameOver then
          background(0)
          text("   GAME OVER\ntriple tap to restart",WIDTH/2,HEIGHT/2)
          return
      end
      for a,b in pairs(targets) do
          rect(b.x,b.y,10,10)
          b.x=b.x+b.spX
          b.y=b.y+b.spY
          if b.x>WIDTH or b.x<0 then
              b.spX=-b.spX
          end
          if b.y>HEIGHT or b.y<0 then
              b.spY=-b.spY
          end
      end
      cx=cx+Gravity.x*20
      cy=cy+Gravity.y*20
      if cx<0 then
          cx=0
      end
      if cx>WIDTH then
          cx=WIDTH
      end
      if cy<0 then
          cy=0
      end
      if cy>HEIGHT then
          cy=HEIGHT
      end
      noFill()
      stroke(255)
      strokeWidth(2)
      ellipse(cx,cy,30)
  end
  
  function touched(t)
      if t.state==BEGAN then
          if gameOver then
              if t.tapCount==3 then
                  gameOver=false
                  createTargets()
                  bullets=20
              end
              return
          end
          bullets=bullets-1
          if bullets==0 then
              gameOver=true
              return
          end
          for a,b in pairs(targets) do
              v1=vec2(cx+dx,cy+dy)
              if v1:dist(vec2(b.x,b.y))<10 then
                  table.remove(targets,a)
                  score=score+1
              end
          end  
          if #targets==0 then
              createTargets()
          end
      end     
  end