Snapping to an Edge in Game Development

Here’s how it works: first, you need to identify all the edges (or walls) in your game world. This can be done by creating a grid system or using collision detection to detect when two objects collide with each other. Once you have these edges identified, you can then create a function that checks if the player’s position is close enough to one of those edges and snaps them onto it.

For example, let’s say your game has a grid system where every tile in the world is 10 units wide by 10 units tall. If the player tries to move left but they are already at the edge of the screen (i.e., their x position is less than or equal to zero), you can use this function:

// This function snaps the player's position to the nearest edge of the screen
function snapToEdge(player) {
  // Calculate the left and right edges of the player's position
  const left = Math.floor(player.x / 10) * 10;
  const right = (Math.ceil(player.x / 10) + 1) * 10;
  
  // If the player's x position is less than or equal to zero, snap them onto the left edge
  if (player.x <= 0) {
    // Return an object with the new x position snapped to the left edge
    return { x: left };
  }
  
  // Calculate the maximum x position of the screen
  const maxX = canvas.width / 10;
  
  // If the player's x position is greater than or equal to the right edge of the screen, snap them onto the right edge
  if (player.x >= maxX) {
    // Return an object with the new x position snapped to the right edge
    return { x: right };
  }
  
  // If neither condition was true, return an empty object with no changes to the player's position
  return {};
}

In this example, we first calculate the left and right edges of the screen based on the current tile that the player is in. We then check if their x position is less than or equal to zero (which would mean they are at the very edge of the screen) and snap them onto the left edge by returning an object with a new x position set to `left`. If the player’s x position is greater than or equal to the right edge, we do the same thing but return an object with a new x position set to `right 10` (which will move them off of the right edge and onto the next tile).

And that’s it! With this function in place, your player will automatically snap onto any nearby edges instead of just floating through them like some kind of ghost.

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