1. Breakout in Greenfoot Barb Ericson ericson@cc.gatech.edu
Georgia Institute of Technology
Feb 2010
Breakout

2. The Breakout Game Open Breakout-Start
There are Bricks, a Message that says we are starting with Ball 1, a Ball, and a Paddle
But if you click on act or run nothing happens
Give your students the Breakout-Start and Breakout-export folders. The complete game is in Breakout.
Breakout

3. Game Rules Use the left and right arrow keys to move the paddle
Use the paddle to hit the ball into the bricks to get rid of them
Get rid of all the bricks to win the game
The ball will bounce off most of the walls, paddle, and bricks
You get up to three balls to use
If you still have bricks after using 3 balls you lose
If a ball hits the bottom wall it is removed and a new ball is added
Use the exported applet of Breakout to show them the final game working.
Breakout

4. Moving the Paddle (act method)
Check if the left key is down
if (Greenfoot.isKeyDown("left"))
if it is move the paddle left
setLocation(getX()-moveAmount, getY());
Check if the right key is down
if (Greenfoot.isKeyDown("right"))
if it is move the paddle right
setLocation(getX()+moveAmount, getY());
moveAmount is a field in Paddle.
Breakout

5. The Ball's Act Method Move the ball Check if hit any actors
Set the location using the current x and y and velX and velY (amount to move in X and Y)
Check if hit any actors
If hit an actor and that actor isn't the message
Bounce off the object
Check if the object was a brick
if it was a brick remove the brick from the world and have the world check if the player won (no more bricks)
Check if at any walls
Bounce off top or side walls
If at bottom wall remove ball and create a new one
Breakout

6. Move the Ball The ball's y velocity is 3, but it is a field
velY
The ball's x velocity should be a random value between 1 and 3 or -1 to -3
set in the constructor
velX
To move the ball
setLocation(getX() + velX,
getY() + velY);
Breakout

7. Checking if hit any Actors
Get an actor (an object of the class Actor) that intersects with this one
Actor actor = this.getOneIntersectingObject(Actor.class);
If the ball did hit an actor and the actor isn't the message (object of the Message class)
if (actor != null && !(actor instanceof Message)) {
Breakout

8. Bounce the Ball off an Actor
The actor must be a paddle or a brick (if it isn't a message)
So negate velY to make it switch direction in Y
velY = -velY;
Breakout

9. If the Ball hit a Brick Check using If the ball did hit a brick
if (actor instanceof Brick) {
If the ball did hit a brick
remove the brick from the world
world.removeObject(actor);
check if won (last brick was removed)
world.checkIfWon(); }
Breakout

10. Checking Walls If the ball hit the left wall bounce in x
if (getX() - radius <= 0)
velX = -velX; // negate velocity in X
if the ball hit the right wall bounce in x
if (getX() + radius >=
BreakoutWorld.WIDTH)
if the ball hit the top wall bounce in y
else if (getY() - radius <= 0)
velY = -velY; // negate velocity in Y
Breakout

11. Checking Bottom Wall remove the current ball from the world
if (getY() + radius >= BreakoutWorld.HEIGHT) {
remove the current ball from the world
world.removeObject(this);
add a new ball to the world
world.newBall();
this also checks for the end of the game }
Breakout

12. Additional Ideas Add sounds
bounce sound and win or lose sounds
If the ball hits at the edge of paddle then bounce in x as well as y
if the distance from the center of the ball to the left or right edge of the paddle is less than or equal the radius of the ball
Speed up the velocity
after each 7th hit with the paddle
double the x velocity
Make the paddle smaller over time
Change the ball color to match the last hit brick's color
Add a getColor() method to Brick
See the documentation for the Greenfoot classes
Breakout

13. Ideas for Breakout
Introduce object-oriented analysis using Breakout-export
Have them name the classes shown and describe the methods needed
Give students Breakout-Start
Have them create the full code for Breakout
Breakout