GB Studio - UI Health System - Zelda Combat

In this video I show you my creative process while teaching you how to make a UI Health System for GB Studio.
#GB Studio #GameBoy #Tutorial
GB Studio Docs: www.gbstudio.dev/docs/
My Patreon: / robertdoman
My Twitter: / robertldoman
Thank you for the continued support!

[@deepx77]

Thank you so much, very good. Can't wait for your next tutorial. GB Studio is amazing.

[@ruegenthedragon]

love seeing your tutorials :3

[@RobertDoman]

Thank you so much!

[@Katzenha]

Very clear and helpful tutorial, thank you a lot! :)

[@Sir_Bone-Head]

Nice, I'm gonna get this added in as soon as I can. I do want to get a build of my game up as soon as I can, but my job schedule is annoying. There's still a lot for me to work on too. I was gonna see about adding to the script in some way, like killing an enemy can heal you or something, I know someone mentioned auto healing, which was an idea I was thinking about doing as well. Hopefully I can get my bosses up and running, maybe I can see what you showed off in this video and try to make something similar for them.

[@RobertDoman]

Great ideas! I hope my video helps, and I'd love to play your game when it's done!

[@Pc-pp6hx]

thank you

[@admazorca]

amazing, thx guy.

[@RobertDoman]

No problem!

[@islandofmisfitnoise8070]

This is so helpful thank you!! Quick question; how do I make other scenes keep track of reduced health from previous scenes? I.E how do I make my scenes communicate and share updated information

[@RobertDoman]

You need to use global variables. And at the beginning of scenes (in the 'on init', meaning on initiate, tab) you can set things to happen, for example, make sure the health displays correctly based on the global variable of your health

[@cancerculturefl]

For anyone wondering why it resets scene to scene: ut the HEARTS variable to the "on innit" of your games title screen. Then what I did was make an event to go at the beginning of the script of every scenes "on innit" section.. all scenes EXCEPT THE FIRST SCENE. Create new event "variable set to value" Now set the variable to HEARTS and then change where it says value to variable and set that variable as HEARTS as well. Worked for me

[@tylerwatson1452]

Could you explain this a tad better for me? I get the gist of what you were saying but it didnt make total sense. This is where I've been stuck for a few days

[@cancerculturefl]

@@tylerwatson1452 actually after leaving this comment I went back and did some simplifying on my battle system and it was alot easier than I said. That being said a big question i have for you is about your variables. Did you set your health count variable to a local variable or a $variable?

[@cancerculturefl]

Your system should look like this. Under your title screen "on innit" put create a GLOBAL variable for your health and set it to however many hits you want to take. Now for the health decrement, put the script just like he made it in the video, under the "PLAYER HIT" section, but it will need to be set on the script of every single scene. That should keep track of it. My biggest thing stopping me was using a local variable that I couldn't find and then not having the health counter on the title screen instead of the player update

[@lost_exe8591]

Hey first of all thank you for the tutorial. Now to my question is there any way that the ui actors can be displayed infornt of the all tiles because I use tile priority to move behind trees but now if I go around the scene the ui actors apear behind the trees

[@RobertDoman]

Not that I know of, no, sorry I haven't done it myself, but a solution could be to use a partial overlay and use tile switching to display the UI instead Very advanced techniques though Sorry I don't know anything simpler

[@Rodolfofbf]

Hi Robert, thank you so much for your video! I am struggling to make UI elements persist between scenes, would you have any advice on that?

[@RobertDoman]

When you copy and paste the UI actors between scenes, make sure you go back into them to check if they are still directly referencing themselves, or it might break Other than that, I don't know without looking

[@cancerculturefl]

I am also having the same issue. Works flawlessly within the scene and once I switch scenes all my health resets.

[@canari3088]

Hey! Went through this video a few times, but I seem to have an issue with the If Health = 0 event in the Hearts "On Update" - the Change Scene triggers immediately, even with the Scene's On Init having Heart value be 4. This only happens when loading into my first scene upon pressing Play - everything else works as intended afterwards - Press Play - Load into scene with 0 HP - Immediately triggers the Change Scene to Start At back into that first scene - Everything then works as intended Anyways, thanks for these tutorials - really helps gets started with gb studios

[@RobertDoman]

I recommend starting the game in a scene before going into your main game That way you can set the health value before playing and it won't reset at the start

[@Spiderpig865]

Hey i know this was posted almost 5 year ago but when i load into any scene my hearts start depleting and reset to full and depleting again and when i do take damage nothing happens. Also random question when i leave a scene it puts me above the trigger and i cant leave even if the blue arrow thing is halfway across the map (its not but it does do it if it is across the map) Thanks :)

[@RobertDoman]

This sounds like a string of different issues, I recommend reading the docs to familiarise yourself with more up to date things And then breaking down what you've done or want to do into parts and testing it as you go so you can quickly and easily identify what goes wrong Other than that I don't think I can really help you! Sorry!

[@ThereBeGoldInThemTharHills]

Not sure if you're in this for the subscribers, but you got a new one anyway!

[@RobertDoman]

There are many reasons, so thank you!

[@Katzenha]

I use the plattformer sample but cant find the point to input the hearts -1 varibale in the collision script, any tips please? :)

[@RobertDoman]

The player on hit section is probably where you need to put it, you can find that by clicking on the scene. I hope that helps?

[@Katzenha]

@@RobertDoman Thanks for your fast reply, I ended up delete the whole turnip stuff and make my own easy version, based on your video. :)

[@Carloskursh]

hi, i make an sprite 16x48 for example (3 frames) but i dont have the option or event Set animation Frame in my actor. Do you know why i cant see this option? im using gbstudio 3. nice videos, and good explanation even my english.. i can follow you :D

[@RobertDoman]

In GB Studio 3 some of what I say in the video doesn't apply But to help, you will need to use animation states instead of frames GB Studio 3 has changed how it handles actors

[@Carloskursh]

@@RobertDoman thank you. i find that animation states.. i should investigate.. because my main character walks but it appears in animation state "default" and no more options... i will read doc. thanks Robert for your time.

[@RobertDoman]

@@Carloskursh No problem

[@aritzmartinez7892]

I've done this and it "works" but for some reason, first time I appear I do it with 0 life. I immediately dei and then when the scene is changed I appear with al the life and the system works. but then it repeats. If I die, I appear with 0 like, die instantly and came back with full life. and so on. Any idea what it can be? because I really can't wrap my head around it.

[@RobertDoman]

It sounds like until you die, you haven't set your health to any value, so it's just 0!

[@Infini-Toons]

When I add the change scene script the game won't load and stays on a white screen, otherwise everything worked just fine. I followed EXACTLY what you did but I am using 3.0 so maybe that has something to do with it... idk. I need to be able to reset somehow after losing all the hearts.

[@RobertDoman]

Make sure the change scene event is actually sending you somewhere If needs be, you can test small things in isolated scenes. I highly recommend you don't copy things I do exactly. Think about what I was aiming for and how I achieved it, and then think about what you want and how you want to achieve it and plan out the steps you need to get there. As you go, test what you have made against your expectations. That way if something goes wrong you can predict what the problem is and how you might fix it.

[@Infini-Toons]

@@RobertDoman It had something to do with that specific actor. Even though the script was proper, the actual "heart" actor needed to be replaced for some reason. I just copied and pasted on a new on and it solved the issue. I've noticed GB Studio has problems like this sometimes... not sure why but shooooot it be fixed now playa

[@mikemiller7788]

How would you accomplish this with a health UI that requires more than one actor (mine is 64px wide by 16px high)?

[@RobertDoman]

In GB Studio 3 it is easier than ever to make 1 large UI actor If you want to make the Health UI have more than one actor then I think you just need to expand the logic to include the second actor

[@mikemiller7788]

@@RobertDoman Thanks for the tips! Sorry for being a noob here, but how large can I make a "UI actor" in GBS 3? I'm making something similar to the Halo 1 health UI which presents eight health bricks in a horizontal line.

[@RobertDoman]

@@mikemiller7788 in GB Studio 3, and actor can be as big as the screen, but you are still limited by the total number of sprites on screen at once and how many in a horizontal line In GB Studio 3, sprites are 8x16 pixels so you can get more granular than GB Studio 2

[@CatSpaceStudio]

Ok hopefully last question for the week! Lololol. If ui is set to on player hit and the ui reflects the health value, how do you get it to retain that value from scene to scene? When I exit one scene with a health value of 3 and go to the following scene, the health bumps back up to 4, which is full health.

[@RobertDoman]

Make sure you aren't setting the health value when the scene starts. I recommend having a title screen where that is the only place you reset the health value! (That and also when you die you can reset the health value)

[@CatSpaceStudio]

@@RobertDomanso my health value is actually being retained I just found out. But for some reason the sprite showing it isn’t reflecting on entry to a new scene. If I have a health value of 3 the new scene shows 4, but when I take damage and it goes down to 2 the hud then reflects 2. So it’s just the sprite not lining up with the value on entry, yet it looks like everything is correct in my scripts from scene to scene. Would something have to be “on initiate” to help reflect that?

[@RobertDoman]

@@CatSpaceStudio exactly, when the scene starts you want to make sure the actor is displaying the frame equating to the health

[@CatSpaceStudio]

@@RobertDoman right. I had everything set up right but still wouldn’t work, but I managed to find a work around with starting and stop scripts to “check” the value on update. It just runs for 0.1 seconds and corrects the issue. Not sure why it wouldn’t work but at least this does fix it going forward. I don’t know if this is something other people may need but it helped me fix my biggest issue.

[@RobertDoman]

That isn't ideal at all, are you sure that the health UI actor setting frame script doesn't work on initiate!

[@SorceressGamelab]

I know someone asks this below already but I was also wondering how to do this in GBS 3. If I use animation states I have to make 5 (0-4) for each heart? Do I still do the switch statement on the heart object? Thank you!! Btw do you have a discord?

[@RobertDoman]

I think the way of setting the frame based on your health count is probably still the smartest way to do this, but now with GB Studio 3, you can have them all in one actor, so yeah, I don't think you need the switch statement if you do that Good luck! I think it's actually easier now in GB Studio 3

[@SorceressGamelab]

@@RobertDoman okay I will try and see what I can come up with:) I personally prefer switch statements instead of if statements but let's see how this works in GBS 3! Thanks for your reply:)

[@RobertDoman]

@@SorceressGamelab do what works for you! There are always multiple solutions!

[@SorceressGamelab]

@@RobertDoman I tried different attempts but I couldn't get it to work:( can you please give me some guide? I tried the switch statement and then change the actors state depending on the value. I have my initial full heart but when player gets hit it doesn't change. I made sure I added the math function to the player. Also player initial health is 4. I made 5 states for the heart from being full to empty. I double checked that I have the variable hearts and everything. I don't know if the switch statement is not working or what I need to change. Thank you

[@RobertDoman]

@@SorceressGamelab where are these events? are these events 'on player hit'? Setting the player health shouldn't be, but you want to have it update when you lose health You should also check it's actually receiving the hit by adding a display dialogue so you know for sure what the problem is And I still think having multiple frames rather than multiple animation states is a better idea Then you wouldn't need to use a switch at all, you'd just set the animation frame to the health value

[@artmanstudios7037]

can I request a video on how to do a shopping system? like in zelda (and or animal crossing) where you walk up to the item pick it up but is able to carry it around and if you use (or equip it) it like a shirt or gear you can see it on the player and there inventory system? your then be able to store the item anywhere(like animal crossing) including your home like a chest or an amour stand like in minecraft or animal crossing? and to be able to move furniture around the house or in general! this should be a fun lesson!

[@RobertDoman]

Yes, sure! That would be a great video! There are limitations that will make it annoying, but the basics will be useful for sure

[@RobertDoman]

The Animal Crossing furniture tutorial Pixel Pete has already done, but the shop system would be a great idea.

[@artmanstudios7037]

@@RobertDoman I will look into it.

[@atpstudios8075]

Please help with this one last problem! I have the hearts working fully, except when I make the scene change when the hearts fall to zero! When testing the screen just keeps looping repeatedly with the heart container showing its empty. If I disable "on update" "when hearts equal zero" "change scene" I noticed something very interesting, as the screen fades in the heart container is empty, but as soon as the screen shows fully (like 1 second) the full health properly displays as FULL and works as intended, when I watched your tutorial for this I notice in yours as the screen fades in its already showing that your starting with full hearts! To me it seems as if for whatever reason its registering that im starting with zero hearts and thats why its stuck in a continuous loop but it can't register fast enough that your starting with full health! I think this is the case because when disabling that scene change it takes about a half second to show visually that your starting with full hearts! Really weird problem I followed your steps exactly :'( Your help would be greatly appreciated Robert!

[@RobertDoman]

In the instant you load up the scene, the actor will display as it's first frame in the sprite editor, that is unless you set it to a different frame before the fade in (you might want to do that to stop it switching after the second and start as the correct frame) Other problems might be that the script on Update is setting the health rather than just looking at it! I'm not exactly sure what the problem is from the comment, but testing things by disabling stuff is the perfect way to find the root of the cause! Oh and another problem might be that if you don't set the player health before this certain scene, you are just setting it too late, after the On Updates start I really hope you manage to dig deeper to find the issue, it could be multiple things, so only you can find the real one!

[@atpstudios8075]

@@RobertDoman ROBERT YOU ARE THE BEST!!!! I figured it out, I had to set the hearts in "on update" to GLOBAL! and it worked! :D ( I had them as LOCAL and that was the issue!) Also I followed what you said of putting the set heart value in a scene beforehand and it just loads the screen with full hearts and everything works! THANK YOU SO MUCH for your tutorials I have just about everything I need now to complete my game all thanks to you! I am going to credit you as thanks in my game once im done! your the best!

[@RobertDoman]

I'm greatly glad I could help, well done for figuring it out!!

[@duhhhmick9532]

there's something wrong with my code. after i change the scene and get hurt again, the heart animation frames dont change. help!

[@RobertDoman]

Make sure you have all the same code added to each scene you want it to work There is also sometimes a problem when copy and pasting: you need to go back through it and make sure each actor reference is correctly referencing the correct actor For example, when it needs to change frames on the heart, that it is referencing the heart, because when you paste it into a new scene it can't reference the old actors from the previous scene anymore

[@duhhhmick9532]

@@RobertDoman thanks!

[@RobertDoman]

@@duhhhmick9532 I hope it is what it needed?

[@ljgamesandtech]

What was the program you used to make the hearts again?

[@RobertDoman]

To make the artwork, I use GIMP, but you can use any image editing software you like

[@ljgamesandtech]

thanks! @@RobertDoman

[@atpstudios8075]

Do you have to do a new animation state for the different heart frames?

[@RobertDoman]

No, the idea is the health value can equate to a frame number! Different animation states would be good for unlocking more hearts to display though

[@atpstudios8075]

@@RobertDoman In the sprite section though, I noticed for my heart sprites I created it shows idle up, down, left and right and they all have random animation frames on each one? I feel like this may be not making it work :(

[@atpstudios8075]

@@RobertDoman Please look at what im seeing here Robert pastebin.com/ZkxeGXm6

[@RobertDoman]

@@atpstudios8075 set the type to static then, the directions are automatically there because it assumes you want the sprite to be a character

[@atpstudios8075]

@@RobertDoman THANK you Robert!!!!!!! :D It didn't work, so I just copied exactly what you did with GIMP creating everything the same and it worked! I guess my sprite had the wrong dimensions and GB Studio couldn't figure out where the frames were

[@bubbles8990]

Pinning a sprite to screen doesn't seem to work in platformer mode. After starting the game the sprite won't appear in the top left corner. Is there a different way to do it?

[@RobertDoman]

There could be many reasons why it doesn't work, and I don't think platformer mode has anything to do with it. If you look at the sample project, I believe it works, but I could be wrong. How big is the actor you're pinning? What should the sprites look like against the background?

[@bubbles8990]

@@RobertDoman It does work in the sample project but only because the hight of the scene is the same as the amount of pixels on a game boy. When you press pin to screen it takes you to the top left corner of the scene and in my case that isn't visible. Is there a way to change where the actor is pinned?

[@RobertDoman]

When it pins, it highlights the screen space, make sure you put it in that area, otherwise I don't know what's wrong

[@bubbles8990]

@@RobertDoman Thanks i was able to fix it, apparently you don't actually need to put the sprite into the highlighted screen space. The reason it wasn't appearing was also unrelated.

[@RobertDoman]

I'm glad you figured it out? What was the problem?

[@r1ksouza]

Is it possible to make an exit game screen?

[@RobertDoman]

Could you elaborate on this more? I'm not sure I know what you mean by this

[@r1ksouza]

@@RobertDoman make the quit game screen

[@RobertDoman]

@@r1ksouza when playing a Gameboy you can't exactly quit the game or turn off the device from inside the game But you can make a title screen that when you save and exit you go back to the start there Is that more like something you imagine?

[@damjabsco]

yo how to make the health ui persist on another scenes?

[@RobertDoman]

You need to copy and paste in into the scenes you need it in, and make sure the variables and actor references are correct

[@damjabsco]

@@RobertDoman but the health will reset in another scene

[@shadowmookie88]

@@damjabsco hey man, you need to make a separate variable for your player health, like PlayerHealthStart, and put that on your On Init script. do a math function and set to variable. so, PlayerStartHealth set to Variable PlayerHealth, however, youll need this on your scenes, and inventory screens so that it can recall that. I hope that helps.

[@damjabsco]

@@shadowmookie88 lol i've already found it out

[@shadowmookie88]

@@damjabsco alright brother, cheers

[@UltimatePerfection]

Light mode! My eyes! OUCH!

[@RobertDoman]

Hahaha (not recommended for night time viewing)

[@icoglioni123]

ok i'm stupid, sorry again, there is ONE thing wrong, i nkow what is it but idk how to fix it.. It's a problem with the value of the hearts bc if i go into the scene where i placed my hearts the game tp me into the start scene... i tried to fix it but i'm so good with GBStudio

[@artmanstudios7037]

what about regenerating your heart like in minecraft? kinda like your healing, can you make a video on that?

[@RobertDoman]

To heal, you can make a script that adds to the health variable, and it will automatically add the hearts back. But I can definitely make a video on it, thanks for the suggestion!

[@artmanstudios7037]

@@RobertDoman alright thanks man!! is there room for more request? I have another one and that is the ability to teleport behind an enemy or npc or in any spot on the map or screen your in or even the world. this kind a like a magic skill to be able to teleport anywhere something like goku. like? this applies to anything or anyone even the front of your house or inside your house in the bathroom you can even teleport directly on the toilet or bed or whatever. near, behind, close by, far away, no distance is ever too far! only limited by your skill level. I like this to play into something that drains your ability like mana but increases in strength the more you use or train it! also you can save your favorites spots to teleport too for quick and easy maneuver! can be useful during danger or for shopping or anything! you can save via menu with a list and you can assign icon base on the spot you pick. are you able to do something like this in video?

[@RobertDoman]

@@artmanstudios7037 It is possible and I could make a video on the foundation of it, the teleporting part. The most difficult part would be storing all the X and Y variables and which scene want to teleport to, but even that would be quite easy. Maybe I could do a video about a fast travel system that is basically that mechanic. Thanks for the suggestion!!

[@artmanstudios7037]

​ @Robert Doman i don't mine the difficulty of it! however is not about fast travel well you can make it but it's more like an action ability than a fast travel! where you can teleport around or anywhere. just like you would use any item in a game like zelda on the snes! this item or magical skill will change how you travel like a vampire who can teleport around town or characters and sneak behind you and suck your blood! so this is an action button you press it and then maybe time slows down and everything is blue then you can select any spot and teleport now that would be the long way. the short one would be base on the favorite locations you get a list of places you visit and can save that spot and same places you can already interact with such as the toilet and bed like you will already teleport using it! like when you teleport to your bed you can be lying on it. or maybe you want to teleport inside someone house and take there valuables or use there toilet cause yours is out of service. now as an attack you want the ability to customize how you want to attack now all you have to do is hold a button down and you get a quick action select screen then you can choose which action you want such as: attack from behind (in which you will teleport behind the nearest entity and you can also select who or what you can select by range near you and base on skill level). another attack is multiple targets at once base on skill level so I'm looking to make the attacks more dynamic then you can use this same action by pressing a button base on your mana or skill level like from novice to mastery ones a master you can do what you want!

[@RobertDoman]

@@artmanstudios7037 It sounds like you know exactly what you want! It is very specific and I hope if I make a fast travel tutorial you will be able to develop it into that!

[@kaikawanao]

Snoogens broo!!

[@areannarichardson5065]

The sound of the videos is not good

[@RobertDoman]

Yeah, my old videos were very low quality

[@adotaun1194]

The sound of the videos is not good

[@RobertDoman]

I know, I have improved it in my recent videos