Monday, December 28, 2009

I`m back

Welcome back!

I got back yesterday afternoonn but I`ve been pretty busy catching up on things. I did get a new laptop for Christmas from my sister. It is a pretty good laptop and I`ve been trying to get it up and running. I`ve also had a few other things that I`ve had to do. I hope to get back to Eyes of the Dragon this week, as well as other tutorials that I would like to write.

I`ve also been busy trying to set up shop as and Indie developer with XNA. This will cut into the time I can spend on my tutorials but I will be working on them. I will not be working on the game programming contests at Game Institute any more freeing up the time that I was spending on those projects. I hope to have a new tutorial up on the site in the very near future.

Bixel, a reader of my tutorials, has made a couple suggestions on the tutorials on creating a role playing game with XNA. One was to have an editor for creating dialogs for the game. That is something that I will be working on eventually if I ever find the time for that. I also have some plans for the tile map editor for the game. Bixel also pointed out a problem with that editor. If you click outside of the right or bottom edges of the map the editor will throw an exception. I will add in the fix for that in the next tutorial and also make a fix for moving from XP to Windows 7 in an upcoming tutorial.
Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code
XNA Game Programming Adventures

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Got the editor working

Welcome back!

I was able to get the map editor working. I won't be writing any more tutorials on the editor. I will make the source code available for download. I said it before but I'm going to have two versions of the game. The first one will be with XNA 3.0 and the other will be with XNA 3.1. The reason is that XNA 3.1 allows you to work on both XNA 3.0 and XNA 3.1 projects. I will make a copy of the XNA 3.0 game and I will update it work with XNA 3.1. I will be working with XNA 3.0 first for the tutorials and then I will apply the necessary changes to the XNA 3.1 version of the game. I hope to get the coding for the next tutorial finished today.

Just to let you all know, I will be away for Christmas, from the 22nd to the 27th. I will be visiting my sister. I still don't have a laptop so I won't be able to work on things while I'm away.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code
XNA Game Programming Adventures

Friday, December 18, 2009

Problems with map editor

Welcome back!

I've been having problems with the map editor. For whatever reason since I've moved to Windows 7 I can't get it to work. What I am going to do is leave the map editor out of the tutorials. I will make a map editor and make it available for download as a separate application. I am busy for pretty much the whole day today so I don't think I will have time to work on the tutorials today. I did get a bit of the coding done, as well as a nicer image of a chest made. I am hoping that tomorrow I will be able to work on this more. I will also be creating a XNA 3.1 version of the game.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code
XNA Game Programming Adventures

Thursday, December 17, 2009

What is happening

Welcome back!

Well, I've got this new computer up and running pretty good. I've transfered all of the files that I need to it as well. I was able to get Eyes of the Dragon up and running with no problems. Both in XNA 3.0 and XNA 3.1. I'm having a problem getting the map editor to work though. I will work on that but until then I think I will get back to the tutorial that I was working on, having the player to be able to interact with items in the game. I will also write a short tutorial on how to upgrade the game from XNA 3.0 to XNA 3.1 if you would like to do that. You should have to if you don't want to. I will try not to do anything that would require XNA 3.1 if you do not want to use it.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code
XNA Game Programming Adventures

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

The move to Windows 7

Welcome back!

I have been making the move to Windows 7 and installing of the programs that I usually use for development and other things. So far it is going pretty well. I have XNA 3.1 installed on the computer with Visual C# 2008 Express edition. I created a tested the Platformer Start Kit last night and it worked perfectly. I'm amazed at how much faster this computer is compared to my old ones. I'm hoping this evening to get all of the important files I need for working on my tutorials onto this computer. They are on a network drive, I just have to copy them over to this one. I hope to get back to work on my tutorials tomorrow.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code
XNA Game Programming Adventures

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

What happened to Jamie???

Welcome back!

Sorry I haven't made any posts in the past few days or done any work on the tutorials. I've had a few issues that I had to deal with. I hope to get back to this project very shortly.

On another note, I treated myself to an early Christmas present. I bought a new desktop computer. My other one still works, I just thought it was time to make the move to Windows 7 and get a faster computer. What I'm planning on doing is using my new computer and upgrade the game to use XNA 3.1 and on the other one I will use XNA 3.0. I will also be getting a laptop in the not too distant future. Right now I'm installing all of the programs I need to get Visual Studio and XNA going. I will probably be adding the files I need for the tutorials and such tomorrow.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code
XNA Game Programming Adventures

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Second screen management tutorial!

Welcome back!

I have finished the second tutorial on adding screen management to your XNA games. This tutorial actually covers creating separate screens for different parts of your XNA game. Separating the screens of your game into different classes will make your game easier to manage. It will also allow for code reuse down the road. If you have a screen management system in one game you can easily transfer it to a new game. You can find the link to the XNA screen management tutorials on the XNA Tutorials page of my web site, XNA Game Programming Adventures.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code
XNA Game Programming Adventures

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Finished the tutorial I was talking about earlier

I have finished writing the tutorial I was talking about this morning on creating a role playing game with XNA. I have upload the tutorial to the RPG Tutorials page of my web site. In this tutorial I added in collision detection between the player's sprite and the sprites for the NPCs so that the player can not walk through them. In the next tutorial on creating a role playing game with XNA I will be adding in the player being able to pick up items from the game screen. I encourage you to keep come to this blog for what I am working on in regards to my XNA tutorials, both RPG and others, or you can visit the XNA Blog page of my web site.

Sorry I missed yesterday

Welcome back!

Well, I missed yesterday but I did write a new XNA tutorial and I have uploaded it to my site for download. This isn't a role playing game tutorial though. I'm writing a two part, might add a third part, tutorial on handing screen management with XNA. I'm also working on the next tutorial in the creating a role playing game with XNA tutorial series. In this tutorial I will be making it so that the player can't walk through NPCs, which they can at the moment. It won't be a terribly long tutorial so I may add a few other things in that have been bothering me that are easy to fix.

You can find the link to the tutorial on the XNA Tutorials page of my web site.

This is a list of a few things that I have planned for the near future:
  • Multiple maps
  • Items
  • Shops
  • Actual combat
  • Quests
  • Game mechanics

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code
XNA Game Programming Adventures

Monday, December 7, 2009

New XNA RPG Tutorial!

Well, I have just added the latest tutorial on creating a role playing game with XNA to my web site! As I mentioned this tutorial was about adding some visual elements for the player's character to the game. 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
XNA Game Programming Adventures

Started writing next XNA RPG tutorial

Welcome back!

I have started writing the next tutorial in my Creating a Role Playing Game with XNA tutorial series. Like I mentioned in my previous post I didn't like just having one sprite for the player to control. There are after all 4 classes and 2 genders and just the one sprite. Well, I fixed that. I used an online sprite tool for RPG Maker to make some sprites for the player's character. I made eight of them in total and added them into the game. Now in the character generator when the player is creating their character there is a little picture of the sprite for that character class and gender. Also, when you go to the actual game with a generated character the appropriate sprite will appear on the screen. I hope to have this tutorial on creating a role playing game with XNA on my site for download this evening or tomorrow at the latest. Just thought I would post a couple screen shots of what I did.

Character Generator


Game With Sprite


Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code
XNA Game Programming Adventures

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Visual aspects

Welcome back!

What I am working on at the moment is adding sprites for the different characters. Since there are four classes and two genders there will be eight sprites in total. What I would like to do is have a different sprite for each of the classes and genders. In the character generator when the player is selecting creating their character a picture of the appropriate sprite will be on the screen as well. While a minor thing it has been bugging me for a while.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code
XNA Game Programming Adventures

Friday, December 4, 2009

Third post in one day, new tutorial is online!

Wow! Three posts in one day. That must be close a new record for me. Just wanted to let you all know that the latest tutorial on creating a role playing game with XNA is now on my site for download. You can find the link to the tutorial in PDF format on the RPG Tutorials page of my web site. If you want the zipped version so you can download it and read it at your convenience you can find it on the RPG Tutorials ZIP page of my web site.

Got combat screen displaying properly

I have been busy this morning on my creating a role playing game with XNA project. I have the player and the creature attacking the player going to the combat screen when the player gets with in the range of the attacking creature. The actual combat isn't working yet but if you press the escape key the game will return to the action screen. Just thought that you might be interested in a screen shot of what I got working.

Combat Screen



Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code
XNA Game Programming Adventures

New page on my site!

Welcome back!

I've added a new page to XNA Game Programming Adventures! This page will be a blog of sorts that I will be adding what I am working on for my tutorials and short little tutorials on general XNA or snippets that you might find interesting or helpful. The URL of the page is http://xna.jtmbooks.com/xnagpablog.html.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Screen shot of what I got accomplished

Welcome back!

I have been working on the creating a role playing game with XNA tutorial series. I've added to the game the ability to to add in monsters for the player to fight. I might write a tutorial on getting to this point and then in a second part get to the actual screen where the combat will take place. That might be a good idea thinking about it. It won't be finished today but I do hope to have it finished tomorrow, Saturday at the latest.  In any event, this is the screen shot of the game with monsters on the action screen.

Monsters on the Screen

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

Working on combat

Welcome back!

I will be working on combat today. I hope to get the code and tutorial done today. I won't be doing the full combat system as it is going to take quite a bit of code to do it. What I hope to get working is have it so that if the player gets close to an enemy it will go to the combat screen and if you press escape in the combat screen it will return back to the game.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Working on getting to combat

Welcome back!

I have started working on adding in enemies for the player to fight in the game. They way that I'm going to handle it is there will be enemies on the map. Is the player gets with in a certain radius of them the player will be taken to a combat screen. To handle to this new screen I will be using a new screen that is derived from the GameScreen class. Adding the new screen will not be all that hard. The way I'm going to implement it will be different than the other screens I've added so far. The concept is the same though. While it is active the other screens will not update or draw themselves.

I've also started working on some sprites for the player's character. I found a good tutorial on spriting and I've been working with it. This is not something that I expect to finish in the near future, it is more something that I will work on now and again. Just thought I would show you the first sprite sheet that I completed.



While I was working on the screen for the combat to take place on I found out why there were lines in the tile engine. Tile tiles that I have been using aren't the greatest tiles. They will work for the tutorials but you would probably want to find or make some tiles of your own for your game.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code