[JAVA][Beginning Java 8 Games Development]

Chapter 17
Enhancing Game Play: Creating
a Scoring Engine, Adding Treasure
and an Enemy Auto-Attack Engine
Now that we’ve implemented collision detection for our game, as well as putting the foundation in place for a scoring
engine, let’s finish coding the scoring engine that is called from the .checkCollisions() method, and then add some
more game play elements to take advantage of this scoring engine, as well as to make the game play more interesting.
To implement our scoring engine display, we will create a gameScore integer variable and scoreText Text object in
our InvinciBagel.java class. We will also create a scoreFont Font object, and use it to style the scoreText Text object, to
make it stand out better. We will also learn how to use the Java instanceof evaluator in the conditional if() statement
in the .scoringEngine() method that we will be creating, and use this to determine what type of Actor object the
InvinciBagel has collided with. Of course, we will then increment our gameScore variable accordingly.
We’ll also create a Treasure.java class, so that we can add valuable bounty to the game for our InvinciBagel
character to pick up, while he is evading constant Enemy attacks from the InvinciBeagle, or iBeagle for short, who can
shoot both deadly bullets (iBullets) as well as Cream Cheese Balls (iCheese) Projectile objects. We will also be creating
these Enemy.java and Projectile.java classes during this chapter, so we will be using all of the knowledge that you’ve
learned during this book to create some very advanced Java 8 classes and methods during the course of this chapter.
Once we have the Enemy and Projectile classes in place, the real challenge comes in creating an auto-attack
engine, so the game itself plays against the player, so that we can create a single-player version of this game. We will
do this by wiring the Enemy.java class into the GamePlayLoop.java class, by calling the Enemy class .update() method
from the GamePlayLoop class .handle() method, which will allow us to harness the JavaFX pulse timing engine for
the iBeagle Enemy object. Once this is done, we can code the Enemy object, and give it a life of its own, having it
appear randomly on the screen, and attack the InvinciBagel by shooting deadly bullets, or scrumptious cream
cheese balls.
We will build this auto-attack engine logically and gradually, first by making the iBeagle Enemy appear on either
side of the screen, and flip around to face the iBagel character correctly. Then we will add programming logic that will
animate the iBeagle onto the screen, and then back off of the screen. Then we will make him shoot a bullet or cream
cheese ball, and then we will add some timing code in order to make his movement far more realistic.
After that, we will add randomization to the appearance, locations, and movement, so that the game player
cannot tell where an iBeagle attack is going to come from. After that we will add physics simulation so that the bullets
and cream cheese balls are affected by drag and gravity, all of which will make the game play more and more realistic,
as the chapter progresses on, through the end of the book!
I hope that you have enjoyed your learning experience during the book, as much as I have enjoyed writing it for
you. Now let’s get into making our game play more and more challenging and professional, as we learn even more
about Java 8 and JavaFX classes and programming techniques.
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