How can I locate in the Game World a sprite that appears in the library (other than with a visual search)? Is there a way to “highlight” or return the game level and coordinate position of a sprite that I find in the library? Similarly, is there a good way to determine whether more than 1 sprite occupies a given coordinate position (i.e., find out whether one or more sprites are hidden under another sprite)?
Context –
My middle school students tend to populate their games with dozens of look-alike sprites, all “New Type …”. I’m teaching the kiddos to manage their libraries, label their sprite types, and regularly delete unused sprites. Our problem is that we often can’t find a sprite in the game to confirm where it is and what function it serves – often the case with sprites like Ground blocks used to create the game environment. We also run into sprites stacked upon other sprites, occupying the same coordinate position, often due to cloning mayhem. I’m hoping there’s some way to identify stacked sprites without individually moving each and every visible sprite in the game or adjusting the display order of each visible sprite.
The easiest way to locate your character is set the Display Order to a very high number to make sure it will be seen ontop of your game. Just make sure to set the layer back when your done.
Another method is opening the game in incognito and deleting objects in the library. For if your signed out, all edits will not save. Just BE SURE your not signed in before breaking your game apart like that. This method is good for locating an object that keeps crashing your game.
Also cloning doesn’t clone the object in the same grid cell, you have to manually click that cell with cloning to clone the object in the same cell.
One simple and neat trick to check if there are overlapping objects is to switch to the background layer. The game objects become faded out and you are able to see if there’s multiple overlapping if a spot has a different color.
I do like the idea to see how many copies an object has in the game, and be able to locate them
But yes naming your objects is really important.
Another nice trick to avoid having too many small blocks to make out the ground level is to instead have big shapes (you can make sprite area bigger in the sprite editor).
That helps with building the levels easier, faster and with less objects.
