C#/XNA - Brick

It has been a while since i have had a chance to sit down and program or write a blog post. Life has been kind of getting in the way the last couple weeks but hopefully that is past now and i can get time to finish these c# tutorials I'm working through.

I was attempting to work through the tutorial for creating a tile engine but for some reason that doesn't seem to be going too well as my code is super buggy and doesn't actually run, So i searched google for some other XNA tutorials and i came across this one http://xnagpa.net/xna4beginner.php by Jamie McMahon for making the game brick.

It was a Really good beginner tutorial to sit and work through, it was super easy to understand and the code was well explained. If you are looking to start working with XNA i would recommend working through this tutorial as it gives you a basic game that you can easily expand and add to as you start to learn more and become more confident with XNA.

Next post will hopefully be about the working tile engine if i can figure out what i am doing wrong but until then Thanks for reading and be sure to share with friends if you enjoyed this post.

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C#/XNA - Space Invaders

Tutorial 2 of the series that i have been working through was making space invaders. The majority of this was very similar to what we done with the c++ tutorial although there were a few differences that i noticed but i think this could be down to xna or c# but I'm still not 100% sure hopefully working through the next few tutorials i will be able to figure it out.

The biggest difference though is just how the game actually looks compared to the c++ version. I'm sure the c++ version would look better if i had better meshes but i struggled to find suitable meshes when i was working through the c++ the first time.

The xna version was also a lot more simple to code there wasn't really anything that was difficult to understand but I'm not sure if this is because i learnt a lot from already having done it in c++ or if it is just cause c# is simpler.

i have also added a few extra features to the xna version that weren't in the tutorial and that i didn't have in the c++ version. I added the ability for the invaders to move down the screen to the player, displaying the number of invaders left for the player to kill and a winning and loosing state to the game.

One of the next tutorials i have is for creating a messaging system for the game engine and remaking space invaders to work with this system. Once i have done this the game will include a "boss" invader, the invaders shooting back at the player and i will also try and add in some sound and possibly even cover for the player along with a few other things. 

Anyway time to start properly building the tile engine!

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C#/XNA - Pong

After a couple days off from doing any real work and just sitting playing Mass Effect 3 i decided that it is time to start working through all these c#/XNA tutorials i have and start building up a tile engine.

The first tutorial was just making pong and going over the basics of creating an xna game. This was all pretty straight forward and mostly the same as how we done in it in c++ and irrlicht except this was actually easier as it gives you all the initialise, load content and update methods that you need and already has support for the keyboard where as we had to do all that manually in c++ when we started to create our engine.

XNA left and irrlicht on the right

The main thing i have noticed is just how much nicer and more "polished" the xna version looks compared to the version we done in irrlicht. The xna version actually looks like pong compared to the irrlicht version that we made a few months ago.

Anyway time to go make space invaders now! this should be fun. I will post another blog post when I'm finished and I'll compare it to the irrlicht version which gave me a massive amount of trouble to try and get working when we started.

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Games Engineering Project Part 4: ILLDAO!

Okay so This really should have been done months ago but i have had quite a lot of uni work which has just taken over my life the past few months and well here is why.

So if you have have been reading over the other posts you will see that mark and I have been tasked with designing and implementing a game using c++ and Irrlicht and the game we have decided to create is called Illdao.

Illdao logo

Illdao plays as a strategic, team-based tactical shooter. Each player takes turns to both move and shoot whilst negotiating their character within a compact space.

Illdao is set on the mysterious planet ‘Illdao’. Ruled by an evil, oppressive race of space squid called The Damned Squid of Bora Bora. Their primary rivals are The Wandering Buffalo of Mimosa who travel through space, righting wrongs which are the main reason they have come here. 

The core gameplay involves two teams, the Damned Squid of Bora Bora and the Wandering Buffalo of Mimosa. Both teams will compete in a death match style arena where the objective is to kill opponents to score points.

Both teams will take turns to move their characters a certain distance. The characters will be controlled primarily through the mouse with context sensitive instructions. If moving a character they will left click where they wish to move them, if shooting they will left click on the target they wish to shoot.

Illdao is aimed at players who are interested in strategy games that combine tactical squad based gameplay with the action of a shooter, primarily between 16 and 38 and of either gender.

Illdao will be developed for the PC

Screen Mock-up

So that is just a quick idea of what Illdao is and what we are aiming to achieve when it comes time to hand our project in and with a lot of hard work and a bit of luck! we should be able to do this!

Thanks for reading and be sure to pass it along to your friends! Check back soon for part 6 and to see how we are getting on!  

Email: 10004794@napier.ac.uk - Please put blog in the subject.
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Some Lovely Pictures...

So my dad got a new camera a while back and has been getting into photography and since im a little bored here are some of the pics he has taken. 

thanks for reading!
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Battlefield 3 Beta

Now I have been excited about this game for a long time and my main goal when i finish uni is to do everything I can to work for Dice even if it involves doing things I wont be particularly proud of...

When I woke up this morning the first thing I done even before I left my bed was switch on my 360 and download the Battlefield 3 beta and for the next 30mins I sat and stared at the screen while the download progress slowly went up. Finally it reached 100% and I could begin!

The very first thing i noticed once i got into a game was the graphics and the level of detail that was in the face's and body's of my squad mates as we waited to go and destroy some M-COM stations. I clicked the stick in to crouch down and ended up in prone, I was surprised as i had totally forgot they were bringing it back into the game and couldn't wait to try it out with a sniper and maybe be able to kill people.

"pretending that i was free running" 

After the 30second countdown the game began, i immediately ran forward heading straight for the objective and went to jump over a wall. The animation that played as I jumped made the simple action really fun and I then spent the next 5 minutes running around and jumping over the walls pretending that i was free running. Eventually i was killed and brought back into what the game is all about, killing people and blowing shit up!

As i respawned on my squad mate i was met with a group of enemies firing at me, In my panic i threw a grenade into the middle of them and luckily managed to find some cover before a huge explosion went off sending parts of a wall and statue flying every where and gaining me my first kill when suddenly from behind I am grabbed by an enemy and spun around as he swiftly plunged his knife into my neck! i was left in awe in the beauty of the animation and again in the detail of the graphics in my killers face and have never before in a game been left wanting to die again!

Over the next 20 mins or so me and my squad continued to battle through against the enemy working our way forward destroying their M-COM stations and working our way towards victory. Finally we got to the last objective and I was the one sitting in front of the M-COM station ready to plant the charge my squad having sacrificed themselves to get me this far, pressing B i sat watching the circle fill and what felt like forever it eventually reached the top and the alarm started sounding. This was it i had done it! with the help of my squad we had won the game! or so I thought... from the left of my screen i see someone sitting aiming an RPG right at my face and before i could fire BOOM! im dead and they have disarmed the charge and won the round, I couldnt believe it!

Overall my first experience with Battlefield 3 beta was awesome and I couldn't wait to get into the next round and get my revenge on the enemy team this time defending the M-COM stations.

over the next few games I played I came across a few problems, every so often the sound kept cutting out which started to become a little annoying at times and the same was happening with my mates aswell. Another problem was squads when me and my mates created a squad and then attempted to join a game it kept sticking us in different squads or even different teams. The biggest problem though is that at the time of writing this the servers are down and i cant play! I'm sure it is just for maintenance but I'm having withdrawal symptoms already!

I cant wait to play this on the PC when I finally get mine fixed and until the 28th of October when they full game is released, I have high expectations for it and I'm sure it will exceed them!

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