User Guide

Appendix 4. Creating a scrolling game

Scrolling games are fun to play and it is very easy to create a scrolling game in Multimedia

Fusion. Here are the different steps to follow.

Simple scrolling game

• Change the size of your application window (in the application properties) to a reasonable

size, like 640x480 or 320x200 for fast scrolling.

• Set the size of your frame larger than the window of the application. For example, if your

application window is 320x200 you can set the size of the frame to 960x200 and you will

enough space to create a horizontal scrolling three times the size of the window.

• The scrolling starts at X position zero (the far left edge of the frame): position your characters,

scores, number of lives in the top left of your frame.

• In the event editor, create an “Always” condition, and enter the next action: open the

storyboard object’s pop-up action menu and choose the action “Scrolling / Center Window

position in frame”, and choose to center the position on your main character.

Voila! If you run the frame, you will see that the screen automatically scrolls and follows the

character.

Static objects

As a default, active objects will follow the scrolling: their position will remain static relative to

the scrolling background. But for certain objects, like the score and lives objects, you need

them to stay at the same position on the screen and ignore the scrolling. This can be done

by un-checking an important property of the objects. To access this property, click in the

frame editor on the object, and in the property toolbar click on the “Runtime options” tab.

Uncheck the property name “Follow the frame”: your object will ignore the scrolling from

now on.

Parallax scrolling game

Parallaxing is best described as distant object moving slower than close objects. Imagine

you are driving down the road and looking out a side window. Objects in the far distance

(mountains, the moon, stars) appear to move very slowly or not at all. Objects at a mid

distance (hills, buildings, trees) move by more slowly than close objects such as the road

signs. This perceived appearance of movement is called Parallaxing. You can create

parallax scrolling with Multimedia Fusion quite simply.