Monday, November 30, 2009

Next XNA RPG tutorial is up!

Welcome back!

I have just uploaded the latest tutorial on creating a role playing game with XNA to my web site! This tutorial continues on with adding in dialog for the NPCs. I've also split the RPG Tutorials page in two. There is now a RPG Tutorials ZIP page. On the normal RPG Tutorials page there are the links to the PDF tutorials. On the second page are the links to the zipped tutorials. I also added a screen shot of the game in dialog mode to the Screenshots page.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Got the scripting code finished!

Welcome back!

I have been working on getting a script into the conversation bubble and responding to the player's input. I've got it working. I wrote three scripts to test it with. The sprites that I chose were of a knight, ninja and skeleton. I wrote a small script for each of them and tested it. This is a screen shot of what the dialog looks like. (I will have to make a bigger bubble because the text does not fit nicely into the bubble I'm using.)

 

I hope to have the tutorial on my web site on Monday. I don't think that it will be ready tonight and I don't think I will be working on it tomorrow.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

Friday, November 27, 2009

Was working on the game

Welcome back!

I have been working on the XNA role playing game today. I got a lot accomplished and I hope to work on the writing of the tutorial tomorrow. What I did a little more refactoring and I also got a start on being able to move next to an NPC and press the space bar to start a conversation with them. I have it so that if you are near an NPC and you press the space bar a conversation window will pop up and if you press it again the conversation window will close. This is what the action screen looks like with a conversation window on it.

Eyes of the Dragon
Dialog Window


I have also been working on an entry to the latest game programming challenge at Game Institute. It is, of course, an XNA game. The theme of this game is a tower defense game. For the title I've gone with Defender of the Crown. It was a game I used to play a long time ago. Just thought I would post a couple screen shots of that as well.

DotC Main Menu


DotC Game With Wave


Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Next RPG tutorial is up!

Welcome back!

I have finished writing the next tutorial in the creating a role playing game with XNA. In this tutorial I added in custom Content Pipeline classes to import, process, write and read tile maps. I also fixed an error that had to do with the tile engine. You can find the link to the tutorial on the RPG tutorials page of my web site. I hope to have another tutorial up in the very near future. So keep visiting this blog for the latest news on how these tutorials are proceeding.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Finished the coding but not the writing

Welcome back!

I have finished coding the next tutorial on Eyes of the Dragon, the tutorials on creating a role playing game with XNA. This is still part of the refactoring but I also added in the ability to use the Content Pipeline to import, process, write and read maps. I also fixed a huge error in the design related to that. Using a DrawableGameComponent for the TileMap class seemed like a good idea but it actually wasn't. The reason is that it requires you to pass as a parameter a Game object to the constructor. There really wasn't a way to do that and have a custom Content Pipeline project. What I did was create a TileMapComponent and a TileMap class. So, this tutorial will be rather long. I hope to finish it up tomorrow.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

Monday, November 23, 2009

New RPG Tutorial!

Welcome back!

Well, I've added in the next tutorial on creating a role playing game with XNA 3.0 to my web site. In this tutorial I did a little refactoring because something has been bothering me for a while now. I've found that having an action screen is good for smaller games but with everything that I'm wanting to implement into this game it is going to end up being a major pain eventually. I've started refactoring things a little to make it better to add in what I am wanting to or possibly even remove it completely. You can find the link to this tutorial on the RPG Tutorials page of my web site.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Have been busy

Welcome back!

I have been working on this project but other projects as well. There is a new game programming contest at Game Institute. The theme for this one is a Tower Defense game. You do not have to be a student to enter but you do have to register as a visitor. If you are interested in participating you can find more information at http://www.gameinstitute.com/challenges.php. You will have to register before you can go to the challenges area.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

Friday, November 20, 2009

Second collision layer tutorial is online!

Welcome back!

Well, I finished writing the second tutorial on the collision layer this afternoon and have uploaded it to my web site. The collision works perfectly, even on the diagonals. The one thing that I might add in later is for the sprite to be able to enter the transparent parts of tiles that can not be entered. That is another really complex topic as it would involve per pixel collision detection and since I'm using a tile set instead of individual tiles that would make things a little more difficult. As always you can find the link to the tutorial on the RPG Tutorials page of my web site.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Coding done but not the tutorial. Response to comment on the blog.

Welcome back!

I have got the tile collision working pretty well. I have it so that the player cannot walking into the water tiles on the map that I made. I wasn't able to get the writing of the tutorial done. I should have it up on the site sometime on the 20th, Eastern Standard Time.

There was a comment on the blog asking if I could explain the ProcessCollisionLayer method. What this method does is loop through all of the tiles in the layer. In the switch statement I get what the current tile is passing the x and y loop variables. The switch statement takes the tile id returned and compares it to the tiles that can not be walked in. I will update the tutorial and try and explain it better in the tutorial. If there are any other questions or comments about this feel free to post them on the blog or use the contact form on my web site.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Another RPG tutorial is on my site!

Welcome back!

Well, I have added yet another tutorial to my web site on creating a role playing game with XNA. This tutorial is a little short but it paves the way for the next one which will be a little complex. I've gotten started on adding a collision layer to the game. The collision layer is an important topic. What the collision layer does, for one, is keep the player from walking through impassable tiles like trees or water. The actual collision detection is a little more complicated to deal with. Collision detection itself can be a complicated topic, especially when you are dealing with transparency and animation. You can find the link to the tutorial on the RPG tutorials page of my web site.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

New RPG Tutorial!

Welcome back!

I have just uploaded another tutorial in my creating a role playing game series. If you read in the comments on this blog there was a minor problem with lines around the tiles in the tile engine at times. This is a problem with the tiles that I am using. I made a fix that will greatly reduce this problem but not solve it completely. To solve it completely you will need better tiles. I also worked on the map editor. The editor now works with just the mouse. The map scrolls when the mouse cursor is at the edges of the tile map display. The editor will paint while the left mouse button is down. You can find the link to the tutorial on the RPG Tutorials page of my web site.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

Monday, November 16, 2009

Issue with lines in the tile map of the game

If you saw the comment here on the blog there is an issue with lines when the tile map is rendering in the game. The problem is the tiles in the tile set. There is a minor error with them. I've reduced the lines as best I can with the tile set. If you use better tiles than the ones I have chosen for the game you will not see this problem. In the next tutorial I will add in how to reduce the problem with the lines. I will also look for better tiles for the game or try and make some better ones that will stop this problem.

The latest tutorial is online!

Welcome back!

I have uploaded the newest tutorial on creating a role playing game with XNA to my web site. In this tutorial I have added in the a few more sprites. You can find the link to the tutorials on the RPG Tutorials page of my web site.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Screen shot of what I have been working on

Welcome back!

 I have been doing some coding and writing on the next tutorial for Eyes of the Dragon. What I did was add in a few sprites pointing in different directions and animating. I changed a bunch of the sprites from Philipp Lenssen's site EvilMana.com for use in the game. I changed them from 32 by 32 pixel sprites to 64 by 64 pixel sprites. I also put them into separate sprite sheets with all of the sprites on the same row. Instead of switching them all to have the down animation as the first animation I just changed the order of the animations in the enum.

Game Screen With Sprites




Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Tutorial is on the site!

Welcome back!

I have finished the latest tutorial and have updated my pages and you can find it on the site. The link to all the role playing game tutorials is on the RPG Tutorials page.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

Hope to have new tutorial up this evening

Welcome back!

I am finally home again and have some time to work on the latest tutorial. I have it almost done but since I have been away for a while now I need to go over it again and make sure that I have included all of the changes I've made in the code.

I want to thank you all for your patience in these trying times for me.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Something terrible happened

Welcome back!

My father passed on. I'm not sure how much I will be able to work on tutorials for the next week as I will not be home and I no longer have a lap top to take with me to work on. Don't be surprised if there are no posts on the blog for a little while.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Have been busy coding and writing

Welcome back!

I have been busy coding and writing the next tutorial. I now have the Tile Map Editor being able to edit multiple layers. I've also tested the multilayer maps in the game. Just thought I would post a screen shot of a map in the editor and in the game.

Tile Map Editor




Eyes of the Dragon

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Finished the new tile set image

Welcome back!

I finished making a new tile set for the game. They are fairly simple tiles but there are 64 of them in the tile set now. These are the new tiles for the game.

Tile Set


Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

Monday, November 2, 2009

New RPG Tutorial!

Welcome back!

I have added another tutorial on creating a role playing game with XNA to my web site. In this tutorial I added in to the map editor the ability to read a map that was saved to disk. The editor still only works on a single layer but I will add in the functionality to work on multiple layers in the next tutorial on the map editor. You can find the link to the latest tutorial on the RPG Tutorials page of my web site.
Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Hopefully will have next tutorial online tomorrow.

Welcome back!

Being Sunday I don't really like to work on coding or writing. I do plan to try and work on things tomorrow though and I hope to have the tutorial available online for download.

If any of you would like to send screen shots of what you are working on in your own game I would like to create a show case on my web site of what you are doing. You can contact me at: simplejamie613 at gmail dot com

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code