Scenes

An ALPACA game exists off at least one scene. A scene (Other engines may name this room or view) is the container for everything you have on screen.

All informations are defined in a .json file. All scene files have to be in data-src/scenes. Here is our example data-src/scenes/test_chamber_one.json.

{
    "items": [
        {
            "spine": "banana",
            "x": "330.0",
            "y": "400.0",
            "scale": 0.3,
            "skin": "normal"
        }
    ],
    "backgroundMusic": "audio/ingame-action.ogg",
    "background": {
        "spine": "scene1"
    },
    "zBufferMap": null,
    "left_border": -1500,
    "right_border": 1530,
    "top_border": -200,
    "bottom_border": 50
}

Items

Here we can define our items in the scene. An item always has a Spine file and a x and y position. It can optionally have an id, scale , skin, layer, animation, cross_scene.

spine

The name of the Spine file. The file must exist in the data folder in a subfolder with the same name. Example: "spine": "banana" accepts an exported spine file at data/banana/banana.json.

x

The x position of the item. The 0;0 point is in the center of the screen. EditMode In a debug build of ALPACA you can press Tab to go into the edit mode. There you can move items around and see their new location.

y

The y position of the item. For more information see x.

id

Optional The id is needed to refer to an item. Per default the spine file name is used as id. But if we have more instances of an item in a scene we have to set id to refer to the items.

Example:

"items": [
        {"spine": "banana", "id": "banana1", "x":"330.0", "y":"400.0", "scale": 0.3, "skin": "normal"},
        {"spine": "banana", "id": "banana2", "x":"155.0", "y":"400.0", "scale": 0.3, "skin": "normal"},
    ],

scale

Optional The scale of the item. Can also be negative.

skin

Optional The Spine skin of the item. Only needed if you use skins in your Spine project.

layer

Optional The normal draw order is based on the y position of an item. With layers we can bring items on top of others. Default layer is 1.

animation

Optional Items play the default Spine animation animation. If you want another animation you can define it here. The animation will be played in a loop.

cross_scene

Optional Items are loaded with the scene and are destroyed when leaving the scene. If you want an item that moves to other scenes as well that you can set cross_scene to true.

BackgroundMusic

We support one background music song per scene. If we move to another scene the music will stop and play this scene music. If boath scenes have the same background music, the music will continue playing and does not start from the beginning.

Example:

    "backgroundMusic": "audio/ingame-action.ogg",

Background

The background of a scene is also a Spine file. It has the parameters like an item.

To define the area where the player can walk, add a bounding box with the name walkable_area to the Spine file. A bounding box with the name non_walkable_area will create a hole into the walkable_area.

Borders

With the 4 border vales we can limit the camera. This prevents that the black background is visible.

Doors

To connect two scenes we have the concept of doors. Normally we want the player to walk towards the door and than switch scenes. In the new scene the player should be where the door is. Therefor ALPACA expects a Spine point near each door with next scenes name. After changing the scene, the player will be placed at the Spine point with last scenes name.

GoToPoint("scene_corridor_right", function ()
    LoadScene("scene_corridor_right")
end)