Making sprites follow the player?

Phaser 3
1

Hi there, i’m currently making a basic platformer game as part of a college project and one of the features I wanted to implement was having the player collect certain items, which would then follow the player.

I have been looking into followers but I cant seem to figure out how to get something to follow the player.

Any help is appreciated!!

2

Hi,
Not sure to understand what you want to do:
Does the item follow the player like a weapon?
Or does the item act like a dog and follow the player?

3

Hi,
Sorry if i wasnt clear enough before.
The item is supposed to act like a dog and follow the player.
The idea is that the player could collect multiple ‘dogs’ throughout the game which would all trail behind.

4

I guess I would just store the player position, and use that as the ‘dogs’ position, with a delay.

5

What i usually do is (based on this phaser2 tutorial https://gamemechanicexplorer.com/#follow-3):
In player Class:
this.history = [{ a: x, b: y }];

and in player

update(){
  // Positions history for the bodies
    if (Math.abs(this.body.velocity.x) > 0 || Math.abs(this.body.velocity.y) > 0) {
      const { x, y } = this;
      if (!Number.isNaN(x) && !Number.isNaN(y)) {
        this.history.push({ a: x, b: y });
      }

      // If the length of the history array is over a certain size
      // then remove the oldest (first) element
      if (this.history.length > 5) {
        this.history.shift();
      }
    }
}

in Dog class:
this.target = this.scene.player;

and in dog update

let t = {};
    this.targetMoving = false;

    if (this.target.history !== undefined && this.target.history.length) {
      // This target has a history so go towards that
      t = this.target.history[0];
      this.setTargetAngle();
      if (this.target.body.velocity.x !== 0 || this.target.body.velocity.y !== 0) {
        this.targetMoving = true;
      }
    } else {
      // This target doesn't have a history defined so just
      // follow its current x and y position
      t = { a: this.target.x, b: this.target.y };
      this.setTargetAngle();

      // Calculate distance to target
      // If the position is far enough way then consider it "moving"
      // so that we can get this Follower to move.
      const distance = Phaser.Math.Distance.Between(this.x, this.y, t.a, t.b);

      if (distance > this.MIN_DISTANCE ) {
        this.targetMoving = true;
      }
    }

    // If the distance > MIN_DISTANCE then move
    if (this.targetMoving) {
      // Add current position to the end of the history array
      const { x, y } = this;
      if (!Number.isNaN(x) && !Number.isNaN(y)) {
        this.history.push({ a: x, b: y });
      }

      // If the length of the history array is over a certain size
      // then remove the oldest (first) element
      if (this.history.length > this.HISTORY_LENGTH) {
        this.history.shift();
      }

You must adapt this code, as it was extracted from an old game