Point and Click Tutorial: Chapter 10 - Point and Click Menu Views
This chapter explains what all views we are currently going to need in order to get this whole point and click menu off the ground. Basically, this time all we are really going to need are the menu buttons. I'm not going to go into a whole lot of detail, if you've done Chapter 4 of the point and click inventory, you should pretty much know what to expect. So here goes.
Our Point and Click Menu Views (View950)
First off, we are going to need the "action" menu buttons which will allow us to actually interact with the rooms. This time around though, I am not going to ask you to make any additional inventory buttons, I have thought about it and I have decided it would be too much of a drain on the memory resources to continuously check and update a current item block. So, there's a few dozen images you won't have to draw. Instead I just have the backpack which simply highlights if your cursor is set to an item. Besides that, we are also going to need the rest of the action buttons both highlighted and un-highlighted. I have placed the whole slew of them in loop 0 of view 950.
- Cel 0 ... Walk ... Un-highlighted
- Cel 1 ... Walk ... Highlighted
- Cel 2 ... Talk ... Un-highlighted
- Cel 3 ... Talk ... Highlighted
- Cel 4 ... Hand ... Un-highlighted
- Cel 5 ... Hand ... Highlighted
- Cel 6 ... Look ... Un-highlighted
- Cel 7 ... Look ... Highlighted
- Cel 8 ... Inventory ... Un-highlighted
- Cel 9 ... Inventory ... Highlighted
Next we need the "system" menu buttons which are used to handle things like saving or restoring a game, restarting, changing the speed and volume, or quitting. The good news is that these do not need to highlight, so there are only half as many of them.
- Cel 0 ... Levels (speed & volume)
- Cel 1 ... Restart
- Cel 2 ... Restore Game
- Cel 3 ... Save Game
- Cel 4 ... Quit
This is going much faster than last time. Now I'm not entirely sure why I placed these next two views in different loops, I think I was going to try to add some animation to them but never got around to it, that is something that I will leave for you to do if you want. Anyway, the cels in loop 2 and 3 are the menu's header and footer.
 Loop 2, cel 0 |
 Loop 3, cel 0 |
Which brings us to the final loop of the point and click menu bar. Basically these little buggers are indicators and buttons which allow us to quickly switch between the "action" and "system" menus as well as access the help dialog.
Loop 8
- Cel 0 ... Action ... Un-highlighted
- Cel 1 ... Action ... Highlighted
- Cel 2 ... System ... Un-highlighted
- Cel 3 ... System ... Highlighted
- Cel 4 ... Help ... Un-highlighted
That's it, all of the views we need to get us going.
That sums up the Point and Click Menu Views, Moving Right Along!
< Previous: Chapter 9 - Prepare the Text for our Point and Click Rooms Next: Chapter 11 - Creating the Point and Click Script >
