Hi, in this tutorial we will explore how to  create a windows form game where you can move the player left, right, up and down, spawn other items picture boxes in random positions inside of the form, move the player collide with the other picture boxes and finally remove the item picture boxes from the windows form application. We want to do all of this from the C# programming script. As a added bonus lets also code in how to change the back colour of dynamically created picture boxes in the app.

Lesson objectives:

1. Create a randomly spawning picture box app in windows form application
2. Work Picture Boxes, Timer and Label in the form
3. Code in Key Down, Key Up and Timer event#
4. Create custom function to add the picture boxes
5. Work with Arrays and Lists
6. Add and move items from lists and from the main windows application
7. Create a spawn time counter that controls how often the objects are spawned in the form

Full Video Tutorial –

Code From the Project –

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace Spawn_Objects_Randomly_in_the_Form_MOO_ICT
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {

        List<PictureBox> items = new List<PictureBox>();
        Random rand = new Random();

        int x, y;
        int playerSpeed = 8;
        int spawnTime = 20;

        Color[] newColor = {Color.Red, Color.Turquoise, Color.Gold, Color.LimeGreen };

        bool goUp, goDown, goLeft, goRight;
        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        private void MakePictureBox()
        {
            PictureBox new_pic = new PictureBox();
            new_pic.Height = 30;
            new_pic.Width = 30;
            new_pic.BackColor = newColor[rand.Next(0, newColor.Length)];

            x = rand.Next(10, this.ClientSize.Width - new_pic.Width);
            y = rand.Next(10, this.ClientSize.Height - new_pic.Height);

            new_pic.Location = new Point(x, y);

            items.Add(new_pic); // add to the list
            this.Controls.Add(new_pic); // add to the form
        }

        private void TimerEvent(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            // do the player movement below

            if (goLeft)
            {
                player.Left -= playerSpeed;
            }
            if (goRight)
            {
                player.Left += playerSpeed;
            }
            if (goUp)
            {
                player.Top -= playerSpeed;
            }
            if (goDown)
            {
                player.Top += playerSpeed;
            }

            // end of player movement

            lblItemsCount.Text = "Items: " + items.Count();
            // show the total number of items available inside of the list

            spawnTime -= 1;

            if (spawnTime < 1)
            {
                MakePictureBox();
                spawnTime = 20;
            }

            // collision between the player the items picturebox

            foreach (PictureBox item in items.ToList())
            {
                if (player.Bounds.IntersectsWith(item.Bounds))
                {
                    // if the collision happened do the following
                    items.Remove(item);
                    this.Controls.Remove(item);
                }

            }

        }

        private void KeyIsDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
        {
            if (e.KeyCode == Keys.Left)
            {
                goLeft = true;
            }
            if (e.KeyCode == Keys.Right)
            {
                goRight = true;
            }
            if (e.KeyCode == Keys.Up)
            {
                goUp = true;
            }
            if (e.KeyCode == Keys.Down)
            {
                goDown = true;
            }
        }

        private void KeyIsUp(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
        {
            if (e.KeyCode == Keys.Left)
            {
                goLeft = false;
            }
            if (e.KeyCode == Keys.Right)
            {
                goRight = false;
            }
            if (e.KeyCode == Keys.Up)
            {
                goUp = false;
            }
            if (e.KeyCode == Keys.Down)
            {
                goDown = false;
            }
        }
    }
}