Creating Excel Game (or something similar for fun)
Awhile back I saw really interesting article: Microsoft Excel: Revolutionary 3D Game Engine?
After that I was forced to do small test on that and that of course resulted to this post :-)
I just grabbed the idea and made small “car game” (but in reality it just vaguely reminds of car game) on top of Excel. And here is the result: 
My car (or just blue box if you wish) can be controlled with mouse. If you press left mouse button it increases the speed of the car (a.k.a. gas pedal). I was too lazy to “invent” brake so car just slowly slows down if user isn’t pressing the left mouse button. User can control the “car” by moving mouse from left to right. Right mouse button quits the game.
Click here for the video.
Since I just wanted to test basic input and drawing mechanisms I didn’t even bother to think of creating any physics. I’ll leave that to you! But here’s the source code for my example:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
|
' WinAPI stuff:
Declare Sub Sleep Lib "kernel32" (ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long)
Declare Function GetAsyncKeyState Lib "user32" (ByVal vKey As Long) As Integer
Declare Sub GetCursorPos Lib "user32" (ByRef lpoint As POINTAPI)
Declare Function ShowCursor Lib "user32" (ByVal bShow As Long) As Long
Type POINTAPI
x As Long
y As Long
End Type
Sub GameLoop()
' Input related variables:
Dim mouseLocation As POINTAPI
Dim mouseLocationPrevious As POINTAPI
' Get & Set original mouse position:
GetCursorPos mouseLocation
mouseLocationPrevious = mouseLocation
' Initialize the system:
ActiveSheet.Range("Xdiff").Value = 0
ActiveSheet.Range("Ydiff").Value = 0
ActiveSheet.Range("SteeringWheel").Value = 90
ActiveSheet.Range("Pedal").Value = 0
ActiveSheet.Range("CarX").Value = 250
ActiveSheet.Range("CarY").Value = 250
' Hide mouse cursor:
ShowCursor 0
' We're going to loop until mouse click:
While GetAsyncKeyState(vbKeyRButton) = 0
' Magic:
Sheets("GameBoard").Range("Z_SortArea").Sort _
Sheets("GameBoard").Range("NormalZ"), xlAscending
GetCursorPos mouseLocation
DrawCar "car1", mouseLocation, mouseLocationPrevious
ActiveSheet.Range("CarX").Value = _
ActiveSheet.Range("CarX").Value - ActiveSheet.Range("SpeedY").Value
ActiveSheet.Range("CarY").Value = _
ActiveSheet.Range("CarY").Value - ActiveSheet.Range("SpeedX").Value
mouseLocationPrevious = mouseLocation
' Let’s take a nap:
Sleep(10)
If GetAsyncKeyState(vbKeyLButton) <> 0 Then
' User is pressing the gas pedal => More speed:
ActiveSheet.Range("Pedal").Value = _
ActiveSheet.Range("Pedal").Value + ActiveSheet.Range("Accelerate").Value
If ActiveSheet.Range("Pedal").Value > ActiveSheet.Range("MaxPedal").Value Then
ActiveSheet.Range("Pedal").Value = ActiveSheet.Range("MaxPedal").Value
End If
Else
' User isn't pressing the gas pedal => Take of some speed (if moving):
ActiveSheet.Range("Pedal").Value = _
ActiveSheet.Range("Pedal").Value - ActiveSheet.Range("Brake").Value
If ActiveSheet.Range("Pedal").Value < 0 Then
ActiveSheet.Range("Pedal").Value = 0
End If
End If
End While
' Bring back the mouse cursor:
ShowCursor 1
End Sub
Sub DrawCar(carID As String, _
mouseLocation As POINTAPI, _
mouseLocationPrevious As POINTAPI)
Dim diffX As Double
Dim diffY As Double
Dim Points(1 To 5, 1 To 2) As Single
Dim carX As Double
Dim carY As Double
Dim carWidth As Double
Dim carHeight As Double
carX = ActiveSheet.Range("CarX").Value
carY = ActiveSheet.Range("CarY").Value
carHeight = ActiveSheet.Range("CarSize1").Value
carWidth = ActiveSheet.Range("CarSize2").Value
' Get input and store current values to sheet:
ActiveSheet.Range("Xdiff").Value = mouseLocationPrevious.x - mouseLocation.x
ActiveSheet.Range("Ydiff").Value = mouseLocationPrevious.y - mouseLocation.y
ActiveSheet.Range("SteeringWheel").Value = _
ActiveSheet.Range("SteeringWheel").Value + ActiveSheet.Range("Xdiff2").Value
Points(1, 1) = carX - carWidth
Points(1, 2) = carY + carHeight
Points(2, 1) = carX + carWidth
Points(2, 2) = carY + carHeight
Points(3, 1) = carX + carWidth
Points(3, 2) = carY - carHeight
Points(4, 1) = carX - carWidth
Points(4, 2) = carY - carHeight
Points(5, 1) = Points(1, 1)
Points(5, 2) = Points(1, 2)
' Draw this car:
On Error Resume Next
ActiveSheet.Shapes(carID).Delete
Err.Clear ' Deleting Shape that doesn't exist => Error
ActiveSheet.Shapes.AddPolyline(Points).Name = carID
ActiveSheet.Shapes(carID).Rotation = ActiveSheet.Range("SteeringWheel").Value
End Sub
|
I did my tests on Excel 2007 and I used .xlsm format (Macro enabled). You can grab my file from here.
So if you want to open that example it gives you this security warning:
You need to click Options... button just below ribbon. And then check Enable this content and click OK:
And if you want to run the game you can just press Alt-F8 and then hit enter (or click Run):
Well I have to say that I enjoyed playing with Excel. Maybe some day I’m going to use this for some serious thing or not :-)
Anyways... Happy hacking!
J
Comment Notification
If you would like to receive an email when updates are made to this post, please register here
Subscribe to this post's comments using
