Creating Excel Game (or something similar for fun)
Article
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.
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 IntegerDeclare Sub GetCursorPos Lib "user32" (ByRef lpoint As POINTAPI)Declare Function ShowCursor Lib "user32" (ByVal bShow As Long) As LongType POINTAPI x As Long y As LongEnd 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 1End SubSub 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").ValueEnd 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 :-)
