Glossary: Behaviors

Action: These are behaviors that are not meant to fire continuously, such as movement, changing image, color, or size, or accepting keyboard input; they are best used when governed by a rule.

Behaviors: Behaviors are actions or states of being that apply to actors; they can change how actors move, look, sound, and act.

Accelerate: Specifies the speed and direction of acceleration for an actor. Actors will continue to accelerate unless drag is applied or another movement behavior takes precedence.

Accelerate Toward: Allows user to specify the precise location an actor will accelerate toward.

Animate: Displays a series of images in rapid succession to create animation.

Change Attribute: Allows user to set or change a game, scene, or actor attribute. For instance, users can create score-keeping systems, instructing the game to add points (or remove points) to a specific actor, or remove health/life from a player or actor.

Change Image: Change an actor’s image to a new image – useful for showing damage or other changes to an actor without having to create multiple actors.

Change Scene: Goes to a specific scene – useful for moving to the next level, a credits scene, or the game menu.

Change Size: Grows or shrinks an actor (use a negative number to shrink). Insert a timer container to control how long the growth or shrink should take.

Change Velocity: Specify movement changes relative to another actor or to the scene.

Collide: Use this behavior in conjunction with a tag to control which actor or groups of actors the primary actor will bounce against.

Constrain Attribute: Continuously updates an attribute – for instance,constraining the actor’s location to that of the mouse. Essentially ties two attributes together.

Control Camera: Allows users to cause the camera to follow an actor – keeping it in view.

Destroy: Removes the ACTOR from the scene – apply this rule to objects that can be destroyed, like the blocks in Breakout or the bricks in Mario. Best used with a rule – for instance, contact with the ball in Breakout.

Group: Creates a group container that holds a set of rules or behaviors.

Interpolate: Allows you to cause an attribute (location, value) to go from A to B in a set amount of time – for instance, from 100 to 1 (a countdown) or from position X to position Y (for pre-programmed movement). Note: Interpolating an Actor’s size does NOT change the size of its collision box to match.

Load Attribute: Loads the value stored by a custom key name from persistent storage. Allows users to change an attribute upon specific input or events.

Log Debugging Statement: Logs a statement in the debugging window. Statements can be attribute values for error-checking or text entry to flag an event when your game is running for testing purposes.

Move: Specifies movement in a particular direction relative to the actor or scene. Movement is perpetual unless stopped by some other rule or object.

Move To: Specify movement towards a particular X&Y coordinate; upon arrival the actor stops moving, or resumes any prior movement that the Move To behavior overrode.

Note: Allows users to write a note to self or other creators about a particular behavior, rule, actor, or group – useful or explaining why something is done a particular way.

Open URL: Only available to individuals with a Professional-level membership, this option allows the developer to specify a specific URL to open when a certain action takes place (we recommend a button being clicked or pressed). The URL will open in the user’s default browser.

Particles: Create an explosion! Radial or fountain of particles – can also set an image, color, lifetime, and other parameters.

Pause Game: This behavior will pause the scene by freezing all activity in a given scene and opening another scene that you specify. Use this to open up in-game menus or simply pause the action. Use “unpause” to resume the scene.

Pause Music: Pauses a currently playing music file upon a particular event.

Play Music: Triggers a music file to play – can play once or loop.

Play Sound: Triggers a sound file to play – can play once or loop

Prototype (Actor): A prototype actor is an actor that possesses all the overall governing behaviors, but does not possess some of the specifics that an Instance Actor possess (such as spawning location).

Replicate: Creates copies of an actor based on an attribute or integer. Useful for displaying the number of lives a player has left, having an item duplicate itself, and much more.

Reset Game: Resets the game and all scenes (best used with a rule to specify WHEN or HOW this happens)

Reset Scene: Resets the current scene and all actors in it (best used with a rule to specify WHEN or HOW this happens)

Rotate: Alone, this causes consistent clockwise or counter-clockwise rotation. Can also cause an item to only rotate when an event happens, such as pressing a keyboard key or collision with another actor.

Rotate to Angle: Causes rotation to an angle relative to another actor or to a scene.

Rotate to Position: Causes rotation to a specific XY coordinate on the screen or relative to actor.

Rule: Creates a condition or set of conditions to check for player input or an attribute change.

Save Attribute: Save a particular value into persistent storage with a custom name. Allows users to save games (see “Load Attribute” for information on loading saved information)

Show iAd: Shows an ad whose text and destination is determined through Apple’s iAd system.

Spawn Actor: Creates a new actor instance in the scene – useful for projectiles, dropping items, etc.

Stop Music: Causes a music file to stop playing.

Timer: Timer allows you to perform behaviors or rules at specified intervals. These intervals are defined as after a certain number of seconds, every couple of seconds, or for a certain number of seconds.