AS3 How to reload a game? - actionscript-3

Question

This code is an attempt to reset the stage to the original setup and start the game over, however it would only delete everything of the stage and leave it blank, it wont load the items on the stage. what am I missing here?
playLvlAgn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, doLevelAgain);
function doLevelAgain(event: MouseEvent): void {
stage.removeChildren();
gotoAndPlay(1);
}

Answer 1

Just because things visually go away, it doesn't mean the objects in memory are magically purged.
You would need to handle this resetting yourself. As others have pointed out, to do this, it highly depends on your game's code and how it is organised. We simply can't provide any meaningful help as the possibilities for a game can be near infinite in the ways it is written.
As a somewhat related side thing:
If you are going to stick with frames (which others may be against, but I personally see them as useful in a variety of situations), I'd advise you to not start everything on frame 1. Again, I don't know how you've written your game, but it might be helpful to separate out certain functionality on certain frames.
Just an example:
Maybe asset loading can be on one frame (let's say frame 1)
Then on the next frame perhaps global persistent ui is created, such as help/settings menus. (frame 2)
Then the game level itself such as maps and layout + stuff that survives a reset can be built on the next (frame 3)
Then perhaps game play specific data + stuff that does not survive a reset, say player score and game time (frame 4)
Then the game starts (frame 5)
Then for a reset, if you want to just reset that level, you can do all your resetting/clean up logic, then jump to frame 4 and avoid reloading assets, recreating persistent ui + the physical game level.
It can get quite hairy if you weren't planning for this and in some cases, you may need to rethink/reorganise/rewrite some of your code. This is not a bad thing.

Answer 2

OK I found the solution. all removeChilds had to be inside the button function. I also had to sent it to frame2 and stop just in case someone attempted to reload the game before it was even started to play.
playLvlAgn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, doLevelAgain);
function doLevelAgain(event: MouseEvent): void {
gotoAndStop(2);
for (var i: int = 0; i < 3; i++) {
if (balls.length > 0) {
ball = balls.pop();
ball.parent.removeChild(ball);
trace("if--0c")
}
}
if (stage.contains(playLvlAgn)) {
removeChild(playLvlAgn);
trace("if--1")
}
if (stage.contains(yesh8DoorA)) {
removeChild(yesh8DoorA);
trace("if--2")
}
if (stage.contains(yesh8DoorB)) {
removeChild(yesh8DoorB);
trace("if--3")
}
if (stage.contains(yesh8DoorC)) {
removeChild(yesh8DoorC);
trace("if--4")
}
if (stage.contains(yesh8allBuckets1)) {
removeChild(yesh8allBuckets1);
trace("if--5")
}
if (stage.contains(yesh8allBuckets2)) {
removeChild(yesh8allBuckets2);
trace("if--6")
}
if (stage.contains(add8bigGrayBall6)) {
removeChild(add8bigGrayBall6);
trace("if--7")
}
if (stage.contains(yesh8wall5)) {
removeChild(yesh8wall5);
trace("if--8")
}
if (stage.contains(yesh8step)) {
removeChild(yesh8step);
trace("if--9")
}
if (stage.contains(yesh8bomb26)) {
removeChild(yesh8bomb26);
trace("if--10")
}
if (stage.contains(yesh8bomb27)) {
removeChild(yesh8bomb27);
trace("if--10")
}
if (stage.contains(yesh8bomb28)) {
removeChild(yesh8bomb28);
trace("if--10")
}
if (stage.contains(yesh8bomb2)) {
removeChild(yesh8bomb2);
trace("if--11")
}
if (stage.contains(yesh8bomb3)) {
removeChild(yesh8bomb3);
trace("if--12")
}
if (stage.contains(yesh8gBall21)) {
removeChild(yesh8gBall21);
trace("if--13")
}
if (stage.contains(yesh8gBall24)) {
removeChild(yesh8gBall24);
trace("if--14")
}
if (stage.contains(yesh8redHalfSwing)) {
removeChild(yesh8redHalfSwing);
trace("if--15")
}
gotoAndPlay(1);
}