Counting Animals Main Script

Overview

The Counting Animals main script (main.gd) manages an educational counting game where players watch animals spawn on screen, then answer how many they saw. Features progressive difficulty, multiple animal types per round, and score-based progression. Script Path: minigames/counting_animals/scripts/main.gd Extends: Node2D

Signals

finished_moving

signal

Emitted when animal movement animations complete.

Node References

UI Components

@onready var instruction_label = $CanvasLayer/instruction_label
@onready var number_buttons = $CanvasLayer/number_buttons
@onready var animal_preview = $CanvasLayer/AnimalPreview
@onready var animal_container = $CanvasLayer/animal_container
@onready var score_label = $CanvasLayer/score_label
@onready var intro_panel = $CanvasLayer/intro_panel

Game Over Panel

@onready var panel: Panel = $CanvasLayer/GameOverPanel
@onready var title: Label = $CanvasLayer/GameOverPanel/Title
@onready var points_label: Label = $CanvasLayer/GameOverPanel/Score
@onready var back_btn: TextureButton = $CanvasLayer/GameOverPanel/Buttons/BackButton
@onready var retry_btn: TextureButton = $CanvasLayer/GameOverPanel/Buttons/RetryButton
@onready var backButton: Button = $CanvasLayer/backButton

Game Logic

@onready var spawner = $AnimalSpawner

State Variables

score

int

default:"0"

Current player score. Increases based on difficulty level and rounds completed.

difficulty_level

int

default:"1"

Current difficulty (1-3). Determines how many different animal types spawn per round.

rounds_completed

int

default:"0"

Number of rounds completed at current difficulty level. Used for progression.

correct_streak

int

default:"0"

Consecutive correct answers. Used for alternate difficulty progression.

current_targets

Array

default:"[]"

Array of animal type IDs to count in the current round.

correct_count

int

default:"0"

The correct answer for the current round (total animals of target types).

counting

bool

default:"false"

Whether animals are currently being counted (spawning phase active).

is_paused

bool

default:"false"

Whether the game is currently paused.

last_coins_gained

int

default:"0"

Coins earned in current session for game over display.

Animal Type Mapping

var animal_names := {
    "foca": "focas",
    "nyuron_azul": "Nyuron Azules",
    "nyuron_lengua": "Nyuron con lengua",
    "nyuron_soda": "Nyuron Soda",
    "tortuguita": "Tortuguitas",
    "tortuguita_estrella": "Tortuguitas Estrella"
}

Core Functions

Initialization

_ready

void

Initializes game state and UI.Key Actions:

Sets process_mode to ALWAYS for pause functionality
Sets up number button connections
Connects spawner signals
Adds animal_preview to “AnimalPreviewGroup”
Shows intro panel
Configures UI visibility

setup_number_buttons

void

Connects press signals for numbered answer buttons (btn1-btn10).Logic: Extracts number from button name (“btn1” → 1) and binds to _on_number_pressed

Round Management

start_round

void

Begins a new counting round.Flow:

Clear current targets
Determine number of animal types based on difficulty (1-3)
Select random animal types from spawner’s available animals
Show instruction with target animal images (4 seconds)
Display “¡Empieza!” message (1.5 seconds)
Start spawner with first target type
Wait for spawn_finished signal

_on_spawn_finished

void

Called when spawner finishes spawning animals.Actions:

Set counting = false
Wait 1 second
Calculate correct_count by summing counts for all target types
Show answer choices (number buttons)

Display Functions

show_instruction

void

Displays which animal(s) to count.Parameters:

animal_type_or_types (String or Array): Animal type ID(s) to display

Behavior:

Sets instruction text to “Animal/es a contar:”
Clears and populates animal_container with TextureRect nodes
Each animal gets 64×64 texture preview
Shows animal_container

_get_texture_for_animal

Texture2D

Returns the preview texture for a given animal type.Parameters:

t (String): Animal type ID

Returns: Loaded Texture2D from presentation assets, or null if unknown typePaths: res://minigames/counting_animals/assets/Presentacion/c{AnimalName}.png

show_answer_choices

void

Shows number buttons for player to select their answer.Sets instruction: “¿Cuántas viste en total?”

Answer Handling

_on_number_pressed

void

Processes player’s answer.Parameters:

num_str (String): The number selected (“1” through “10”)

Correct Answer:

Increment correct_streak and rounds_completed
Show “¡Correcto! Eran en total.” message
Add score based on difficulty
Check difficulty progression
Wait 2 seconds
Start next round

Incorrect Answer:

Show “Fallaste eran en total.” message
Wait 2 seconds
Trigger game over

Scoring System

add_score

void

Adds points based on difficulty level and rounds completed.Point Formula:

Level 1: 10 + ((rounds_completed - 1) × 5)
Level 2: 40 + ((rounds_completed - 1) × 20)
Level 3: 150 + ((rounds_completed - 1) × 30)

Updates: score_label with “Puntaje: “

Difficulty Progression

check_difficulty_progression

void

Checks if player should advance to next difficulty level.Progression Rules:

Level 1 → 2: After 3 rounds completed
Level 2 → 3: After 5 rounds completed

On Advancement:

Resets rounds_completed to 0
Shows transition message
Increases number of animal types per round

show_transition_message

void

Displays a temporary difficulty advancement message.Parameters:

text (String): Message to display

Duration: 2.5 seconds

Pause System

pause_game

void

Pauses the game.Actions:

Disables spawner processing
Calls spawner.pause() if available
Pauses all spawned animals
Disables UI element processing
Shows pause panel
Hides animal preview and instruction

resume_game

void

Resumes from pause.Actions:

Re-enables spawner processing
Calls spawner.resume() if available
Resumes all spawned animals
Re-enables UI element processing
Hides pause panel
Shows animal preview and instruction

pause_all_animals

void

Pauses or resumes all animals in the “spawned_animals” group.Parameters:

pause (bool): True to pause, false to resume

Effect: Sets process_mode and AnimatedSprite2D speed_scale for each animal

Game Over

show_game_over

void

Displays game over screen and saves progress.Flow:

Stop spawner
Set counting = false
Pause scene tree
Hide all UI elements
Clean up animal preview nodes
Save high score to ScoreManager (“counting_animals” key)
Calculate and award coins (score × 2.0)
Show game over panel with results

_on_play_pressed

void

Starts game when intro play button is pressed.Animation: Fades out intro panel over 0.8s, then shows score label and starts first round

_on_back_pressed

void

Returns to main menu.Actions:

Unpauses tree
Resets is_paused flag
Resets screen orientation to portrait
Changes to main menu scene

_on_retry_pressed

void

Restarts the game by reloading the scene.

_on_backButton_pressed

void

Toggles pause state.

ScoreManager Integration

var score_manager = get_node("/root/ScoreManager")
if score_manager:
    score_manager.save_high_score("counting_animals", final_score)
    score_manager.add_coins(coins_earned)

Game Key: "counting_animals" Coin Conversion: Final score × 2.0

Integration with AnimalSpawner

The script relies on an AnimalSpawner node with these capabilities:

spawner.animals

Array[PackedScene]

Array of available animal scenes. Script instantiates them to read type_id.

spawner.start_spawning

void

Begins spawning animals of specified type.Parameters:

type_id (String): Animal type to spawn

spawner.stop_spawning

void

Stops the spawning process.

spawner.get_correct_count_for

int

Returns the number of animals of specified type that were spawned.Parameters:

type_id (String): Animal type (lowercase)

Returns: Count of that animal type

spawner.spawn_finished

signal

Emitted when spawning phase completes.

Common Patterns

Progressive Difficulty

Difficulty increases both number of animal types and points per round:

var num_types = clamp(difficulty_level, 1, 3)
current_targets = all_types.slice(0, num_types)

Multi-Type Counting

Player must count total across multiple animal types:

for t in current_targets:
    correct_count += spawner.get_correct_count_for(t.to_lower())

Answer Button Setup

Buttons are named “btn1” through “btn10” for easy extraction:

var num = int(btn.name.replace("btn", ""))
btn.pressed.connect(_on_number_pressed.bind(str(num)))

The game uses process_mode = PROCESS_MODE_ALWAYS on main node and CanvasLayer to allow pause menu interaction while game is paused.

Animals must have a type_id variable to be properly identified and counted. Spawner must track counts per type.

Core Scripts

Minigame Scripts

Counting Animals Main Script

Overview

Signals

Node References

UI Components

Game Over Panel

Game Logic

State Variables

Animal Type Mapping

Core Functions

Initialization

Round Management

Display Functions

Answer Handling

Scoring System

Difficulty Progression

Pause System

Game Over

Navigation

ScoreManager Integration

Integration with AnimalSpawner

Common Patterns

Progressive Difficulty

Multi-Type Counting

Answer Button Setup

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Core Scripts

Minigame Scripts

​Overview

​Signals

​Node References

​UI Components

​Game Over Panel

​Game Logic

​State Variables

​Animal Type Mapping

​Core Functions

​Initialization

​Round Management

​Display Functions

​Answer Handling

​Scoring System

​Difficulty Progression

​Pause System

​Game Over

​Navigation

​ScoreManager Integration

​Integration with AnimalSpawner

​Common Patterns

​Progressive Difficulty

​Multi-Type Counting

​Answer Button Setup

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Overview

Signals

Node References

UI Components

Game Over Panel

Game Logic

State Variables

Animal Type Mapping

Core Functions

Initialization

Round Management

Display Functions

Answer Handling

Scoring System

Difficulty Progression

Pause System

Game Over

Navigation

ScoreManager Integration

Integration with AnimalSpawner

Common Patterns

Progressive Difficulty

Multi-Type Counting

Answer Button Setup