Congratulations! You have just finished creating your first side-scrolling shooter. We covered quite a lot in this chapter. We have applied all three methods of movement: manually adjusting the X and Y coordinates, using hspeed and vspeed, and setting the speed and direction variables. We are now able to add and remove instances from the game world dynamically. With the bullets, we learned to transfer information from one instance to another, such as the direction to move, by capturing the ID of the instance and accessing it through the dot operator.

We discovered the wonderful with statement that gave us the ability to affect a single instance, all instances of an object, or even the other instance involved in a collision. We took a look at global variables, such as lives and score, and used the Draw event to display it. Waves of enemies were spawned using Time Lines. The illusion of movement was created by scrolling the background image. Sound was applied and the volume adjusted to create a fade out effect. We even used a bit of trigonometry!

With the skills and knowledge developed in this chapter it is now your turn to take this game and extend it even further. Try adding your own enemies, collectible items, and weapon power-ups. Have some fun with it!

In the next chapter, we are going to learn more about collision and player controls by making a spooky adventure game. We will also take a look at artificial intelligence and using paths to make the enemies appear to think and act on their own.