AS3 How to make separate menus/windows with heavy data? [closed] - actionscript-3

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Closed 9 years ago.
In games it's usual to be able to access some kind of menus.
A list of things with descriptions, a menu of upgrades, anything that's pretty heavy with pictures, text etc.
So what is a convenient way to organize it all?
As I tried classes, it seems like they don't share variables between them.
I need a way of sharing data between these windows/menus. And it shouldn't be overweighted with data, meaning each time I close a menu it's parts disappear to not make Flash calculate MovieClip positions, alphas, effects and other values that I don't need, working with another menu.
As an example to better understand, what if I make 5 games in one and need to share variables between them?
Say, first I play Arcanoid, then switch to Tetris and use Arcanoid score as a number of blocks I can get, then switch to Pinball and use the number of lines scored in Tetris as a number of balls, then switch to Gradius and my ship attack power is Pinball score divided by 1000, then I see a window of overall scores with heavy victory firework effects.
I'd need each game to work separately, otherwise they will go very slow overloaded with graphics and the length of code to find functions.
How is that achieved?
Thanks moskito, I'm a bit messy ^_^'

Answer 1

How is that achieved?
You create the architecture to make it happen. Your particular example could be approached like this:
Firstly, you want to define the foundation that these mini-games or separate batches of content will run on. This foundation will deal with running the mini-games, as well as tracking their state and information associated with them that you want to pass off to subsequent mini-games.
Secondly, you want to define the base class that will represent one of these mini-games. This class will be extended for each of the new games you want to create and have run on the platform. This base class will deal with notifying the platform of changes.
Lastly, you want to create some models represting a state in change within the mini-game. The inbuilt Event system is a good way to approach this, but you can easily create your own data models in this instance which you pass off to the platform directly.
Code samples.
The basics of your platform could be something along the lines of:
public class Platform
{
private var _game:MiniGame;
private var _recentGameStateData:GameStateData;
public function loadGame(game:MiniGame):void
{
if(_game != null) game.unload();
_game = game;
_game.start(this, _recentGameStateData);
}
public function update():void
{
if(_game != null) _game.update();
}
internal function manageStateChange(gameStateData:GameStateData):void
{
_recentGameStateData = gameStateData;
// Do stuff with the new game state data, like save the current score
// to use in your next game.
//
}
}
Your mini-game:
public class MiniGame
{
private var _platform:Platorm;
private var _score:int = 0;
public function start(platform:Platform, previousGameStateData:GameStateData):void
{
_platform = platform;
// Use previous GameStateData here.
//
}
public function update():void{}
public function unload():void{}
public function notifyPlatform(gameStateData:GameStateData):void
{
_platform.manageStateChange(gameStateData);
}
protected function get score():int{ return _score; }
}
Your game state data for the platform to manage:
public class GameStateData
{
private var _game:MiniGame;
private var _score:int;
public function GameStateData(game:MiniGame, score:int)
{
_game = game;
_score = score;
}
public function get game():MiniGame{ return _game; }
public function get score():int{ return _score; }
}
And then an example of sending that information up to the platform in your own mini-game:
public class TetrisGame extends MiniGame
{
override public function unload():void
{
// Let the Platform know about the current score when this game is
// being unloaded.
var state:GameStateData = new GameStateData(this, _score);
notifyPlatform(state);
}
}