Creating Excel Game (or something similar for fun)

jannemattila — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 22:47:33 GMT

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:

' 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

Janne Mattila's blog : Excel

Creating Excel Game (or something similar for fun)

Click here for the video.