Rewrite it.
You can see the result even in something as small as the Dusk Engine vs. Ceramic. Ceramic was an early version of Dusk, all in one file. When Dusk came along, it was split into multiple ones. The investment of time was certainly worth it, as now the layout of the engine is easily understood (layer building files go in the “layer” folder, runtime things go in “run”, etc). It did take a while to “break” it out, but it was worth it.
-
Put all your single-file libraries (that are in the form of “library.lua” without a directory) into a folder named “libraries” or something like that. It’s important not to nest libraries like CBEffects or Dusk, because they all require() things within them.
-
Create a new folder named “components” or something like that
-
Grab your static functions (things like math calculations, that have no dependencies) and put them in a separate file, “functions.lua”, into the components folder
-
Grab your level data files (exported from Tiled, written by yourself, whatever) and put them into a “level_data” folder
-
Put images into an “images” directory (or “graphics”, whichever you like most)
Now your file tree should be a bit easier to understand. Now comes the trickier part, which may take some time.
- Create a class system
6.1. Identify your major classes (= object types, if you don’t know any OO languages) like perhaps your player, basic enemy, level map, etc.
6.2. For each major class, find the classes that could go “inside” them, like maybe “house object” could go in “level map” or “motorbike” could go in “player” or “sentient poisonous purple spot” could go inside “evil slug sorcerer”
6.3. For each major class, create a new file named the class name and put it in a new folder named “components/objects”, for example, “objects/player.lua”, “objects/level_map.lua”, “objects/evil_slug_sorcerer.lua”
6.4. As much as possible, detach each object’s creation code and put it into the class file for each object, under a method called “new”, “createObject”, or something like that
6.5. Everything that that object directly does should go inside the class definition and be added within the .new() function. I’ll give an example of this at the end.
6.6. Put the minor class definitions (that you found in step 6.2) within their “parent” class file, if the result won’t be too big (otherwise, create a new class file for them). Put the code that creates them into a local function named something like “newMotorbike”, “newHouseObject”, or “newSentientPoisonousPurpleSpot”.
6.6-b. If you had to create a new file for the minor class definition, require() it inside the “parent” class file, not your scene file
- Put the code that creates your level (not that which runs it, just the code that positions the ground and such) into a “load_level.lua” file inside the “components” directory. If you use something like Dusk or Lime that builds your level for you, you can skip this step
Example for this:
File tree:
[lua]
main.lua
config.lua
build.settings
maingame.lua – Your scene file
components/
functions.lua
load_level.lua
objects/
evil_slug_sorcerer.lua
player.lua
images/
slug.png
spot.png
player.png
motorbike.png
[/lua]
evil_slug_sorcerer.lua:
[lua]
–[[
Class: Evil Slug Sorcerer
Notes about the class go here in the header.
–]]
local class_evil_slug_sorcerer = {}
– New Sentient Poisonous Purple Spot
local function newSentientPoisonousPurpleSpot()
local spot = display.newImage(“images/spot.png”)
function spot:squish()
print(“Sentient Poisonous Purple Spot is squishing!”)
end
return spot
end
– New Evil Slug Sorcerer
function class_evil_slug_sorcerer.new()
local slug = display.newImage(“images/slug.png”)
slug.life = 100
slug.power = 10
slug.spot = newSentientPoisonousPurpleSpot()
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
– slug:sploosh()
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
function slug:sploosh()
print(“Evil Slug Sorcerer is splooshing!”)
end
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
– slug:castSpell()
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
function slug:castSpell(player)
print(“Evil Slug Sorcerer says, “Muhahaha! You are spellified!””)
– Animate slug, etc.
player:getDamaged(slug.power)
end
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
– slug:getDamaged()
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
function slug:getDamaged(lifePoints)
print(“Evil Slug Sorcer says, “Sniffle, sniffle.””)
– Animate slug, etc.
slug.life = slug.life - lifePoints
end
return slug
end
return class_evil_slug_sorcerer
[/lua]
class_player.lua:
[lua]
–[[
Class: Player
Notes about the class go here in the header.
–]]
local class_player = {}
– New Motorbike
local function newMotorbike()
local motorbike = display.newImage(“images/motorbike.png”)
function motorbike:vroom()
print(“Motorbike is vroom-ing!”)
end
return motorbike
end
– New Player
function class_player.new()
local player = display.newImage(“images/player.png”)
player.life = 100
player.power = 10
player.motorbike = newMotorbike
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
– player:runAround()
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
function player:runAround()
print(“Player is running around!”)
end
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
– player:attackSlug()
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
function player:attackSlug(slug)
print(“Player says, “Back, you evil thing!””)
– Animate player, etc.
slug:getDamaged(player.power)
end
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
– player:getDamaged()
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
function player:getDamaged(lifePoints)
print(“Player says, “Ow! Something pinched me!””)
– Animate player, etc.
player.life = player.life - lifePoints
end
return player
end
return class_player
[/lua]
Hope this helps! You might also look at this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-Coupling_/_High-Cohesion_pattern
