Recommendation: Amendments to the TinyArcade tutorial

[johnbbq]

Hello! I'd like to recommend an amendment to:

https://tinycircuits.com/blogs/learn/how-to-develop-a-game-for-the-tinyarcade-new

Since the start of the tutorial, in the screenshots you can see GameTutorialSprites.h as a tab, but there is no explanation that we need to create the file from scratch. It's also confusing because you are instructed to download TinyArcade.h, but no reference to the other file.

So I would explain that GameTutorialSprites.h will be created later, and then in the "The Header File..." section I would start explaining to create a new tab (pointing to the button where that is), and save the file.

I know this info may be obvious for you Arduino devs, but I'm a gamedev who has never done Arduino before.

[johnbbq]

Another recommendation: where it says "Adding the following lines to the code will make the ball move around..."

I would say "Adding the following lines to the loop function will make the ball move around".

In the next paragraph you mention that it would be a good idea to create a new function, but since in the previous paragraph you were talking about the TinyArcade.h file, it's disorienting as there is no indication you are talking about going back to the main file.

[thesko]

Also those standard beginner tutorials should mention the bootloader key-combo for the specific device.
I had quite a lot of trouble uploading my first sketch to the TinyScreen+ until I found the note on the product page for the reset.

[lennevia]

Thank you for your input!

We are working on updating and adding more content this summer, so I will take some time on this specific tutorial throughout the next week!

[johnbbq]

Another recommendation: In the section about random, please mention the open pins in the TinyArcade (as 0 is cannot be used, and that's what's recommended in the Arduino reference).

[lennevia]

I added a note about the Tiny Arcade hardware being different than the Arduino, and I mentioned which pins are unused by the Tiny Arcade. I hope that helps future users!

Thank you!
-Réna

[johnbbq]

Hi again. I just finished the Pointers section. Fun stuff!

One recommendation: where it says "*NOTE: We have effectively used the spriteList[ ] array...", it would be good to have the final spriteList[] array under this paragraph, to make it super clear how it should be in order for the game to work.

[HunterHykes]

I have added a visual for the final version of the spriteList array following the mention of additional bricks.

Thanks for the feedback!
-Hunter

[johnbbq]

Hi there! I'm almost done with the tutorial. Another recommendation: In the Splashscreen section, it is not mentioned that start should be a boolean. The if condition did not work for me as an int.

[johnbbq]

And I'm done! The last part about getting the livesprite was a little bit confusing, as I had a hard time understanding how it works in the Tiny Brick source code. If you guys can expand that part, I think it would be great. However, the tutorial can live off without it as it is understandable that this is the tutorial for the lite version of the game.

This was really fun. Thank you guys. I will now start working on our first game.

Cheers.

[HunterHykes]

Hi John,

I'm excited to see the progress you make on the game you're developing! Here is a link to a freshly published tutorial on an RPG-style gameplay. This may not pertain specifically to your project, but it's possible that some of the concepts may come in handy so I figured I'd let you have a look.

https://22myj377d5l0kqpr-11252198.shopifypreview.com/blogs/games/creating-an-rpg-style-tile-grid

Good luck!
-Hunter

[johnbbq]

Awesome Hunter, thank you! I'll check this out and I'll let you know how it went.

Cheers,