Hello! I'm new here and hoping my first issue isn't a huge one to help with.
I have experience with MS Small Basic, Visual Basic, and C#.Net; I'm fresh to Lua and now diving in since I bought a PlayDate mainly to develop for it. It's so nifty!!
I followed SquidGod's YouTube tutorial on getting set up and writing a simple rock-avoidance game using the A button and crank. I have since expanded on this with a few other small features and the one I'm having issues with is saving the highscore.
I'm using VSCode on MacOS 15.3.1.
My code is as follows:
import "CoreLibs/graphics"
import "CoreLibs/sprites"
local pd = playdate
local gfx = pd.graphics
local playerX = 40
local playerY = 120
local playerSpeed = 3
local playerImage = gfx.image.new("images/capybara")
local playerSprite = gfx.sprite.new(playerImage)
playerSprite:setCollideRect(4, 4, 56, 40)
playerSprite:moveTo(playerX, playerY)
playerSprite:add()
local obstacleSpeed = 5
local obstacleImage = gfx.image.new("images/rock")
local obstacleSprite = gfx.sprite.new(obstacleImage)
obstacleSprite.collisionResponse = gfx.sprite.kCollisionTypeOverlap
obstacleSprite:setCollideRect(0,0,48,48)
obstacleSprite:moveTo(450, 240)
obstacleSprite:add()
local gameState = "stopped"
local score = 0
local hs = pd.datastore.read("high_score")
local highscore = 0
if hs ~= nil then
highscore = hs["highscore"]
end
function pd.update()
gfx.sprite.update()
if gameState == "stopped" then
gfx.drawTextAligned("Press A to Start", 200, 40, kTextAlignment.center)
if pd.buttonJustPressed(pd.kButtonA) then
gameState = "active"
playerSprite:moveTo(playerX, playerY)
obstacleSprite:moveTo(450, math.random(40, 200))
end
elseif gameState == "active" then
local crankPosition = pd.getCrankPosition()
--if crankPosition <= 90 or crankPosition >= 270 then
-- playerSprite:moveBy(0, -playerSpeed)
--else
-- playerSprite:moveBy(0, playerSpeed)
--end
local playerChange = pd.getCrankChange()
playerSprite:moveBy(0, playerChange)
if pd.getButtonState() == pd.kButtonLeft then
playerSprite:moveBy(-2, 0)
if playerSprite.x < 0 then
playerSprite:moveTo(0, playerSprite.y)
end
elseif pd.getButtonState() == pd.kButtonRight then
playerSprite:moveBy(2, 0)
if playerSprite.x > 100 then
playerSprite:moveTo(100, playerSprite.y)
end
end
local actualX, actualY, collisions, length = obstacleSprite:moveWithCollisions(obstacleSprite.x - obstacleSpeed, obstacleSprite.y)
if obstacleSprite.x < -20 then
obstacleSprite:moveTo(450, math.random(40, 200))
score += 1
obstacleSpeed += 0.5
end
if length > 0 or playerSprite.y > 270 or playerSprite.y < -30 then
gameState = "stopped"
if score > highscore then
highscore = score
end
score = 0
obstacleSpeed = 5
end
end
gfx.drawTextAligned("Score: " .. score, 390, 5, kTextAlignment.right)
gfx.drawTextAligned("HI: " .. highscore, 390, 25, kTextAlignment.right)
--gfx.drawTextAligned("(" .. playerSprite.x .. "," .. playerSprite.y .. ")", 10, 10, kTextAlignment.left)
end
function pd.gameWillTerminate()
if hs ~= nil then
hs["highscore"] = highscore
pd.datastore.write(hs, "high_score", true)
end
end
function pd.gameWillPause()
if hs ~= nil then
hs["highscore"] = highscore
pd.datastore.write(hs, "high_score", true)
end
end
gameWillTerminate() does not appear to be getting called when going home from the system menu so I copied my saving code into gameWillPause() which does get called.
I did a Run Build Task to compile and launch the game. Within the simulator, I sent the files to my connected console.
So, now, when I press the menu button on the physical console, the game crashes with the error:
main.lua:98: Couldn't open file at high_score.tmp:
Access denied
stack traceback:
[C]: in field 'write'
main.lua:98: in function <main.lua:95>
I played around with changing the highscore value inside of high_score.json, recompiling, and resending to the console and it is successfully reading the file. It just won't write and I cannot figure out what's getting in my way.
Does anyone have any thoughts? All help and suggestions are massively appreciated 
I guess I'll create it programmatically on launch if it doesn't already exist and all should be well from there. Would this be best practice?
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