Creating Modular Powerup Systems
Day 16 — Aspiring Game Creator
2D Game Dev: Galaxy Shooter
Objective: Create a powerup class which uniquely identifies each power-up class and communicates that power-up back to the player class.
Pseudo Code:
- Define an enum for each power-up type
- Modify existing variables & method names to generic names
- Create a method to pass power-up type to player class
After creating the Triple Shot power-up & starting to work on the Speed power up it’s clearly evident that EVERYTHING in the Triple Shot class would be in the Speed Power-Up class so it’s time to create a Power-Up class which will contain more generalized variable names and methods names to work with both power-ups and any additional power-ups down the road.
To easily define the power-up type an enum will be used:
After creating the Speed power-up game object and adding the PowerUp script the enum will allow an easy drop down selector for assigning the power-up type.
And finally, the OnTrigger collision detection on the power-up will simply destroy the power-up game object.
Where the communication between classes happens is in the Player class colliding with the Power-Up class.
The Player class will pass the power-up string type to the generic ActivatePowerUp method — sure, the numerical representation of the enum could be used as well, but this was the chosen technique — and the appropriate power-up will be enabled on the player.
