UI Wave Counter and Pause Menu (Coding) – Week 3

One of the things on my plate for a while now, was the UI for displaying the number of waves in our game. While i had been trying to make it into a separate script (and getting other necessary variables from other scripts) i would always find a few errors that i could not get passed. Those errors would usually be that i could not make an integer become a string variable. While this is probably something that i need to learn, sooner rather than later, i was not able to figure it out. In the end i had to go into an already existing script, that contained most of the variables needed, and wrote the wave counter there. The only thing that i can keep from this experience, would be to be willing to ask for help (from the teachers or anyone for that matter), just so the time spent, doesnt become too much without yielding anything. Since i have done this, i have ended up not being able to provide much to the team, and even to myself. Wasted time and effort.

Another thing i was tasked with, was the pause menu. For starters, we wanted something simple. As in every pause menu, you select a button and make it pause the game. In this case, since we are already using the most used button for that, which is the “Escape” button, we decided to use the button P. The pause menu would also contain a few buttons.

Resume : Resumes the game whenever it is clicked (also possible with the keyboard letter P)

Exit Game : Closes the game

The ones stated above where the ones that have been used for now. The plan is to follow with an option that allows the player to lower or raise the volume, which i was not able to implement earlier, because we did not have any sound in the game yet. Another possible button to follow, would be to go to the main menu. The last two, have been suggestions and will probably be implemented next week.

To conclude, i believe that wasting too much time on something, as i have the last week or so, does not put you in the best position. You should always strive to keep going ahead, even if sometimes that brings you down. In short, makes sure you are good with the tasks you are given, and dont be too proud to get input on them, because that should in turn help you become better as well as make you not look like you are being lazy.