Build an Air Hockey Game – Adding Interactivity

In this tutorial series, you’ll learn how to create an Air Hockey game. The objective of the game is to hit the puck using the paddles to raise the score. Read on!

Tutorial Teaser

Step 1: Start Button Listeners

This function adds the necesary listeners to the TitleView buttons.

function startButtonListeners(action)
	if(action == 'add') then
		playBtn:addEventListener('tap', showGameView)
		creditsBtn:addEventListener('tap', showCredits)
	else
		playBtn:removeEventListener('tap', showGameView)
		creditsBtn:removeEventListener('tap', showCredits)
	end
end

Step 2: Show Credits

The credits screen is shown when the user taps the about button. A tap listener is added to the credits view to remove it.

function showCredits:tap(e)
	playBtn.isVisible = false
	creditsBtn.isVisible = false
	creditsView = display.newImage('credits.png', 0, display.contentHeight)
	lastY = titleBg.y
	transition.to(titleBg, {time = 300, y = (display.contentHeight * 0.5) - (titleBg.height + 50)})
	transition.to(creditsView, {time = 300, y = (display.contentHeight * 0.5) + 35, onComplete = function() creditsView:addEventListener('tap', hideCredits) end})
end

Step 3: Hide Credits

When the credits screen is tapped, it’ll be tweened out of the stage and removed.

function hideCredits:tap(e)
	transition.to(creditsView, {time = 300, y = display.contentHeight + 25, onComplete = function() creditsBtn.isVisible = true playBtn.isVisible = true creditsView:removeEventListener('tap', hideCredits) display.remove(creditsView) creditsView = nil end})
	transition.to(titleBg, {time = 300, y = lastY});
end

Step 4: Show Game View

When the Start button is tapped, the title view is tweened and removed, revealing the game view. There are many parts involved in this view, so we’ll split them in the next steps.

function showGameView:tap(e)
	transition.to(titleView, {time = 300, x = -titleView.height, onComplete = function() startButtonListeners('rmv') display.remove(titleView) titleView = nil end})

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