Build an Apple Catcher Game – Tuts+ Premium

In this tutorial series, you’ll learn how to create an Apple Catcher game. The objective of the game is to grab the apples that fall on the screen by dragging the basket. Read on!

Tutorial Teaser

Step 1: Start Button Listeners

This function adds the necesary listeners to the TitleView buttons.

function startButtonListeners(action)
	if(action == 'add') then
		titleBg:addEventListener('tap', showGameView)
		creditsBtn:addEventListener('tap', showCredits)
	else
		titleBg:removeEventListener('tap', showGameView)
		creditsBtn:removeEventListener('tap', showCredits)
	end
end

Step 2: Show Credits

The credits screen is shown when the user taps the about button. A tap listener is added to the credits view to remove it.

function showCredits:tap(e)
	creditsBtn.isVisible = false
	creditsView = display.newImage('credits.png', -130, display.contentHeight-140)
	transition.to(creditsView, {time = 300, x = 65, onComplete = function() creditsView:addEventListener('tap', hideCredits) end})
end

Step 3: Hide Credits

When the credits screen is tapped, it’ll be tweened out of the stage and removed.

function hideCredits:tap(e)
	creditsBtn.isVisible = true
	transition.to(creditsView, {time = 300, y = display.contentHeight+creditsView.height, onComplete = function() creditsView:removeEventListener('tap', hideCredits) display.remove(creditsView) creditsView = nil end})
end

Step 4: Show Game View

When the Start button is tapped, the title view is tweened and removed, revealing the game view. There are many parts involved in this view, so we’ll split them in the next steps.

function showGameView:tap(e)
	transition.to(titleView, {time = 300, x = -titleView.height, onComplete = function() startButtonListeners('rmv') display.remove(titleView) titleView = nil end})

Step 5: Add Basket

This code places the basket on the stage.

-- Basket
basket = display.newImage('basket.png', 203, 240)

Step 6: Info Bar

Next we add the Info Bar image and create the corresponding TextFields that will display the current score and time remaining.

-- Info Bar
infoBar = display.newImage('infoBar.png', 280)
score = display.newText('0', 65, -2, native.systemFontBold, 14)
score:setTextColor(0)
timeLeft = display.newText('20', 175, -2, native.systemFontBold, 14)
timeLeft:setTextColor(0)

Step 7: Add Physics

Now we add physics to the basket and call the function that will add the game listeners.

-- Add Physics
physics.addBody(basket, 'static')
-- Game Listeners
gameListeners('add')

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