craftstudio-wiki

ScriptedBehavior component API

A scripted behavior is a component you can add to your game objects that allows adding custom behavior to it. A scripted behavior component lets you choose which script to use.

Scripts can expose a few functions that will be called by CraftStudio at various times during the game loop . Those functions aren’t meant to be called by you, but rather serve as hooks for you to make your game objects do stuff through code.

A single script can be used on many different game objects at once. Each of the Behavior functions you expose will be passed a variable named self when called, referencing the scripted behavior component.

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Game object properties

The scripted behavior component, passed as self to your script’s Behavior functions, holds a property named gameObject, which is a reference to the game object the scripted behavior is attached to. You can access it like so: ​self.gameObject.

The game object itself holds various properties & functions to access other components and manipulate them. You can attach your own properties to self or self.gameObject so keep around object state (health, current status, damage, etc.) between calls to your script functions.

Example: Keeping track of time alive

​function Behavior:Awake()
    self.aliveTicks = 0
end

function Behavior:Update()
    self.aliveTicks = self.aliveTicks + 1
    print( "I've been alive for " .. self.aliveTicks .. " game ticks" )
    print( "That's " .. ( self.aliveTicks / 60 ) .. " in seconds" )
end

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Behavior functions

Behavior:Awake should be used to do your one-time setup (if any) and Behavior:Update will contain your script’s logic as time passes by. A third function called Behavior:Start can also be added to your script. If it exists, it will be executed after all Awake functions have been executed but before the first Update of any object happens. It might come in handy when you need to initialize stuff in a specific order.

Behavior:Awake()

function Behavior:Awake()
    -- Your initialization code
end

The Behavior function named Awake will be called when a game object featuring this script comes to live. Game objects can be created when a scene is loaded or on demand while the game is running.

Behavior:Start()

function Behavior:Start()
    -- Your late initialization code
end

Executed once for all newly-added behaviors just before all the Update calls start.

Behavior:Update()

function Behavior:Update()
    -- Your code which will be run 60 times a second
end

The function named Update will be called 60 times a second for each game object featuring this script.