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Ship Evader

about 10 hours 16 chapters

A whole portrait arcade game in an installed Rengy, from an empty project to a folder a friend can run: fly, fire, dodge rocks, beat your best.

The finished game playing in its tall window: the ship near the bottom firing a column of blue lasers up the field, rocks tumbling down, orange divers diving, three layers of stars drifting down, and the score, the best and the lives along the top
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The game

Ship Evader is an arcade shooter that plays upright, in a window shaped like a phone held in portrait. Your ship sits near the bottom: W, A, S and D, or the arrow keys, fly it, and Space fires lasers up the field. Divers dive straight down, gunners weave and fire shots aimed at you, and rocks that no laser can break have to be dodged.

You have three lives. Every second alive and every enemy shot down adds to your score, and your best is saved between launches. Every 20 seconds the game moves up a stage, and things come sooner and faster, up to stage 10.

Around the game are the screens a finished game has: a title, How to play, Settings with a music and an effects volume, Credits, a pause menu and a game-over screen. It has music, sounds, a flame under the ship, explosions, a drifting starfield, and a glow on whatever is brightest.

You build all of it in the editor you installed, from scenes and Rengy Script, and finish by exporting it as a game a friend can run without Rengy. Nothing is compiled, and nothing is needed but the editor and the downloads below.

What you need

  • Rengy, installed, on Windows or Linux. Getting started installs it and shows you round the editor. This tutorial assumes you have made a game before, though not in Rengy.
  • Seven free downloads, for the game’s pictures, sounds, music and font. All seven are CC0: you may use them in anything, and nobody has to be credited, though the game’s Credits screen names them all.
DownloadByWhat the game takes from itLicence
Space Shooter RemasteredKenneyThe ship, the enemies, the lasers, the rocks, the flame, the stars, the background, the lives, the buttons, the font, and the hit and gunner soundsCC0
Smoke ParticlesKenneyThe explosions’ fireballCC0
Sci-fi SoundsKenneyThe laser, the two explosions and the spark’s tapCC0
Interface SoundsKenneyThe menus’ tick, press and backCC0
Music JinglesKenneyThe game-over and new-best jinglesCC0
8-bit Epic Space Shooter MusicHydroGeneThe music while you playCC0
Menu MusicwipicsThe music on the title and its screensCC0

Download each from its own page, and unzip the five packs somewhere outside your projects. Chapter 1 walks through it, and chapter 3 copies the 32 files the game uses into your project.

How long it takes

About ten hours at the keyboard, over sixteen sittings. Every chapter ends at a place you can stop, with a Check it works box that says what you should see, and from chapter 2 on, with the game working.

Chapters 2 to 4 make a tall window and a ship that flies. Chapters 5 to 7 bring lasers, rocks and enemies, and 8 to 10 lives, the score and the stages. Chapters 11 and 12 add the effects, the sound and the music, 13 to 15 the screens, game over, the pause and the settings, and chapter 16 exports the finished game.

The chapters

  1. 1 What you’ll build A portrait arcade shooter in an installed Rengy: fly, fire, dodge rocks, beat your best. 10 min
  2. 2 A tall window A new project, a 540 × 960 window, and a camera that keeps the field 9:16. 15 min
  3. 3 Bringing the art in Copy the packs’ files into the project, and paint the field with the pack’s dark sky. 20 min
  4. 4 The ship Name the controls, put the ship in, and fly it with a first script. 25 min
  5. 5 Firing A laser made once, and copied by the ship while Space is held. 25 min
  6. 6 Meteors Three sizes of rock that tumble down, and lasers that spark on them. 45 min
  7. 7 Enemies Divers, weaving gunners with aimed shots, and groups that tell one hit from another. 50 min
  8. 8 Lives Hits cost lives: a flash, a blink, a shake, and a fresh start on the last. 35 min
  9. 9 Score and HUD A heads-up display: the score, the saved best and three lives, in the pack’s font. 45 min
  10. 10 Getting harder A director that moves the game up a stage every 20 s, and a banner that says so. 40 min
  11. 11 Effects A flame, explosions, sparks, a drifting starfield, and bloom. 75 min
  12. 12 Sound and music The laser, the hit, the gunner’s shot, and music that plays on through a new game. 25 min
  13. 13 Screens A title, How to play and Credits, with buttons that answer the keys and the mouse. 90 min
  14. 14 Game over A game-over screen with a jingle, the score, a saved best that pulses when beaten, Retry and Title. 45 min
  15. 15 Pause and settings Esc pauses everything under a menu, and a settings screen saves the music and effects volumes. 60 min
  16. 16 Export Turn the project into a folder a friend can run, and see where its saves live. 20 min

Start with chapter 1, What you’ll build →