Hints and Tips about the Started To Tile

By Wertandrew (Oct 2014)
Copied from Project Spark.com on Wayback Machine

1. Some logic only needs to happen once when triggered, this is what the [Started to] tile does.
2. [Started to] tile can be used on its own in the WHEN side to make the DO side only run once per activation of the parent.
3. [Create] tile: Always use it with [Started to]
4. Most of the sounds and visual effects in prop gallery will play once when used with the [started to] tile. This page lists which can be used with it (PS Wiki).
5. The [started to] tile is equivalent of 1 game frame, which in duration is WHEN [Duration][1][in frames].
6. If used inside a boolean, it will activate the DO section once every time the section is activated:
   WHEN [Test Boolean]=[true] DO
   WHEN [Started to] DO [Jump]

   which will make the player jump once every time the test boolean is true. In short: WHEN [started to][Test Boolean]DO[jump] will have the same effect.

7. [Once] tile only runs once per created brain that contains it and cannot be reset in that brain. This is useful, for example, at the start of a game to initialize variables.
8. If you are having trouble with music not changing properly, use [started to] every time you switch.
9. [Started to] needs to be embedded into a child line when using timers:
   WHEN [countdown timer][3] DO
   WHEN [started to] DO [play sound][etc]
10. [Started to] works best for custom events and cutscenes, in combination with switching pages:
    PAGE 1:
    WHEN [In trigger zone][player] DO [switch page][2]
    PAGE 2:
    WHEN [Started to] DO [Create][Goblin]
    which creates one goblin when the player is in the trigger zone of the prop.
11. Always use [Started to] to toggle variables and avoid them being left constantly at a state (True/False) as it may break your logic later on.