Tutorial 03: Control Flow

🟢 Beginner⏱️ 20 min

Difficulty: Beginner
Time: ~30 minutes
Prerequisites: Tutorial 02

Goal

Use conditions and loops to decide what runs and how often.

if and else

The simplest branch:

if (score > 10) {
    say("High score!")
}

With an else:

if (lives > 0) {
    say("Still alive")
} else {
    say("Game over")
}

You can chain conditions:

if (wave == 1) {
    say("Warmup")
} else if (wave < 5) {
    say("Main phase")
} else {
    say("Final phase")
}

while

while repeats until the condition becomes false.

let i: int = 0
while (i < 3) {
    say(f"Loop: {i}")
    i = i + 1
}

Use it when the stop condition depends on changing state.

for

A range-based for is cleaner when you know the number of iterations:

for i in 0..5 {
    say(f"Round {i}")
}

The upper bound is exclusive, so 0..5 runs 0, 1, 2, 3, 4.

break

Exit the nearest loop immediately:

let i: int = 0
while (i < 10) {
    if (i == 4) {
        break
    }
    say(f"i = {i}")
    i = i + 1
}

continue

Skip the rest of the current iteration:

for i in 0..6 {
    if (i == 2) {
        continue
    }
    say(f"Processed {i}")
}

match

match is useful when a value can be one of several cases.

enum Phase { Lobby, Playing, Finished }

let phase: Phase = Phase::Lobby

fn show_phase() {
    match phase {
        Phase::Lobby => { say("Waiting for players") },
        Phase::Playing => { say("Match running") },
        Phase::Finished => { say("Results screen") },
    }
}

This reads better than a long chain of if statements when you are handling named states.

Putting It Together

namespace tutorial03

enum GameState { Idle, CountingDown, Running }

let state: GameState = GameState::Idle
let timer: int = 5

@tick(rate=20)
fn game_loop() {
    match state {
        GameState::Idle => {
            actionbar(@a, "Waiting...")
        },
        GameState::CountingDown => {
            if (timer > 0) {
                title(@a, f"{timer}")
                timer = timer - 1
            } else {
                state = GameState::Running
                say("Go!")
            }
        },
        GameState::Running => {
            actionbar(@a, "Game is running")
        },
    }
}

@on_trigger("start")
fn start_game() {
    state = GameState::CountingDown
    timer = 5
}

This tutorial uses:

• match for the high-level mode
• if for the timer condition
• @tick(rate=20) to step once per second

When to Use Which Form

• use if for one-off boolean decisions
• use match for named modes or enum cases
• use for for known iteration counts
• use while when the exit condition is dynamic

Practice

1. Add a Paused state and handle it with match.
2. Write a for loop that gives a player 5 apples.
3. Write a while loop that counts down from 10 to 1.

Next: Tutorial 04: Functions