Okay, so I wanted to make a simple golf leaderboard, you know, the kind you see on TV during tournaments. I figured it would be a fun little project using Creator Classic. I’m no coding expert, but I like to tinker, and this seemed like a good way to learn a bit more.
Getting Started
First, I fired up Creator Classic. I decided to start with a basic scene, just a plain green background to represent the golf course. I figured I’d add more details later if it worked. Then I needed a way to display the player names and scores. I went with simple text objects for this, figuring I could arrange them in a column later on.
My initial thought was to have each player’s name and score as a separate text object. So I created a few, like “Player 1 – 72,” “Player 2 – 68,” and so on. I just made up some scores for testing.
Making it Look Decent
Now, this looked pretty messy at first, just a bunch of text floating around. So, I spent a bit of time manually positioning them. I lined up the names in one column and the scores next to them. I realized I could use different colors for the text to highlight the leading score, like making it red or something.
Adding Some Basic Functionality (My ‘Aha!’ Moment)
The real challenge was how to actually update the scores. I didn’t want to have to manually change the text every time. I poked around the documentation, and I found a section about variables. It’s basic stuff. I figured that I could create the “score” of each player and have the “score” be used in the text object.
So, I tried to make it so each text object would display the value of its corresponding variable. It took me a few tries to get the syntax right, lots of trial and error, really. I was clicking “Update” on the text object to get the changes to show. Finally, I saw the updated score on my “leaderboard”!
Sorting the Leaderboard (The Tricky Part)
Of course, a leaderboard isn’t very useful if it’s not sorted. This is where I hit a bit of a wall. I knew I needed some way to compare the scores and rearrange the text objects accordingly. Honestly, I’m still figuring this part out. My first clumsy attempt involved a lot of “if” statements, like “if player1Score is less than player2Score, then swap their positions…” You can imagine how messy that got, especially with more than a couple of players.
My Current Status (Work in Progress!)
Right now, my leaderboard is functional, but it’s definitely not pretty or efficient. I can update the scores, and they display correctly. But the sorting is still a manual process. I’m researching better ways to do this, maybe using some kind of array or list to store the player data and then sorting that. I’ve seen some examples online, but I haven’t quite cracked it yet.
So, it’s a work in progress! It’s been a fun learning experience, though. Even though it’s not perfect, I’m proud of what I’ve managed to put together so far. It’s definitely given me a better appreciation for how much work goes into even seemingly simple things like a golf leaderboard!
