2007/07/22 - alpha release
The code needs some cleanup, but everything is here.
Suggestions welcome in the forum.

The Paddle: Our First Sprite

Creating a sprite and moving it manually with firebug.

Define the Coordinate System

#console {
  position: relative;
  width: 400px;
  height: 300px;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
  overflow: hidden;
}

<div id="console">
</div>

All this really does is set up a coordinate system for us.

Coordinates for the game will be relative to this window, which means we can move the entire game around in the browser without having to recalculate a bunch of coordinates.

Create a Container to Hold Game Assets

  <!-- main screen of the game -->
  <div id="game" class="screen">
  </div>

.screen {
  position:absolute;
  top: 0px;
  left: 0px;
  margin: 0px;
  padding: 0px;
  height: 100%;
  width: 100%;
  background-color: #FFFFFF;
}

Display the Paddle

    <div id="paddle" class="sprite"></div>

A sprite is basically a 2D image that can be moved around on screen.

Now we add the CSS.

.sprite {
  position: absolute;
  padding:0px;
  margin:0px;
}

#paddle {
  background-image:url(../../sprites/paddle.png);
  left: 168px;
  top: 250px;
  height:16px;
  width:64px;
}

And the image itself:

Why DIV? Why not an IMG tag?

We certainly could use an img tag for the paddle, but using a DIV with a background image allows us to keep all the look and feel code in one file.

For example, the mini version of the game to the left will use a smaller image set. The only difference between it and the game on the main page is the stylesheet.

@TODO: either use ALL css background images or all IMG tags

Firebug: Move the Paddle

>>> $('paddle')

>>> $('paddle').offsetLeft

just press up to retype

You might think you can just change this value, but you can't.

>>> $('paddle').offsetLeft = 5

@x setting a property that only has a getter

you have to set through the stylesheet instead:

>>> $('paddle').style.left='200px'

if you're changing multiple styles, prototype provides a shortcut:

>>> $('paddle').setStyle({'left':'10px'})

there's also getStyle('left'), but it gives you a string with "px"

>>> inspect($('paddle'))

you can even type .set TAB TAB until you get setStyle

Now that we know how to move things, let's write some code to do it for us.

Create a Generic Sprite Class

// Sprite ////////////////////////////////////////

var Sprite = Class.create();
Sprite.prototype = {
    initialize : function(id) {
        this.id = id;
        this.node = $(id);
    },
    
    getX : function() {
        return this.node.offsetLeft;
    },
    
    setX : function(x) {
        this.node.setStyle({'left' : x + 'px'});
    },



};

?: does it make sense to store the node?

?: does it make sense to be a class?

    getY : function () {
        return this.node.offsetTop;
    },
    
    setY : function(y) {
        this.node.setStyle({'top' : y + 'px'});
    },    
    

    moveBy: function(dx, dy) {
        this.setX(this.getX()+dx);
        this.setY(this.getY()+dy);
    },

alternative: put setX and setY in Element

Create the Paddle Sprite on Load

onload, or code at bottom of page

<!-- code to run when the page loads -->
<script language="javascript">
  initGame();
</script>

function initGame() {
    paddle = new Paddle('paddle');
}

var paddle;

// Paddle ////////////////////////////////////////

var Paddle = Class.create();
Paddle.prototype = Object.extend(new Sprite(), {

    initialize: function(id) {
        this.id = id;
        this.node = $(id);
        this.speed = 5;
        this.friction = 0.5;
        this.velocity = 0;
    },
    
    center: function () {
        this.setX(game.getW()/2 - this.getW()/2);
        this.velocity = 0;
    },
   
});

Firebug: Move the Paddle using the Sprite Class

>>> paddle = new Sprite('paddle')

>>> paddle.moveBy(10,-10)

In the next step, we'll hook it up to the keyboard.