24th tutorial is not online!

Welcome back!

I have finished and uploaded the 24th XNA Role Playing Game tutorial to my web site! This is the second part on adding a sprite for the player to control to the screen. I also had a request to add in the ability for when the player presses Escape on the action screen to display a pop up screen to ask if they really want to quit. It wasn't a hard thing to do so I added that in as well. I hope to have the third part on adding a sprite to the game on the site very soon October 12th, GMT, at the latest.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

New RPG Tutorial!

Welcome back!

I have uploaded the newest tutorial on creating a role playing game with XNA 3.0 called Eyes of the Dragon to my web site. In this tutorial I added in an animated sprite to the game. At the moment the sprite doesn't move with the map. If you scroll the map the sprite disappears off the screen. In next tutorial, which I already have most of the code for, I will cover moving the sprite on the screen and changing the animation when the sprite changes directions. I hope to have the next tutorial available on the 10th of October, GMT.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

22nd tutorial on creating an RPG!

Welcome back!

Well, I just finished uploading the newest tutorial on creating a role playing game with XNA 3.0 to my web site. I also fixed a few typos in in tutorials 4 and 6. In 4 I had spelled Components wrong in one of the using statements. In 6 I forgot to up the constructor of the ActionScreen class. When I created the new tile engine it required four parameters, the last two being the height and width of the map. I made that change. I will also let you know that the project.html page has been renamed to rpgtutorials.html. I just wanted to give the page a more descriptive name.

You can find the links to the tutorial on this page:
http://xna.jtmbooks.com/rpgtutorials.html

Good luck with your game programming adventures.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

20th tutorial available on my web site!

Welcome back!

I have just finished uploading the 20th tutorial on creating a role playing game with XNA 3.0 to my web site. You can find links to this tutorial, and all tutorials on creating a role playing game called Eyes of the Dragon on this my site http://xna.jtmbooks.com.

I have already started coding the next part and I hope to have the tutorial up very soon.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

Uploaded tutorial #18!

Welcome back!

I just finished uploading the 18th tutorial in my series on creating a role playing game with XNA 3.0 called Eyes of the Dragon. In this tutorial I made a couple of changes to the game. I changed the HUD to a small texture at the bottom of the screen and I changed the PlayerCharacter class to be responsible for drawing itself. I made it a DrawableGameComponent. You can find the tutorial as .zip and .pdf format at these links:
http://www.jtmbooks.com/rpgtutorials/xnarpgtut18.pdf
http://www.jtmbooks.com/rpgtutorials/xnarpgtut18.zip

The latest version of the source code for Eyes of the Dragon is at:
http://www.jtmbooks.com/rpgtutorials/New2DRPG.zip

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

17th tutorial is on my web site

Welcome back!

I have uploaded the new tutorial on Eyes of the Dragon to my web site. You can find the PDF and the ZIP files at these links.
http://www.jtmbooks.com/rpgtutorials/xnarpgtut17.pdf
http://www.jtmbooks.com/rpgtutorials/xnarpgtut17.zip

The latest version of the project is at this link.
http://www.jtmbooks.com/rpgtutorials/New2DRPG.zip

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

Finished writing the tutorial, no XNA though

I have just finished writing the latest tutorial on creating a role playing game with XNA 3.0, Eyes of the Dragon. I did not get to the XNA part of it though. There was a lot of C# coding done though as well as adding in some game elements like starting with the player character system. A lot goes into a game other than just graphics and stuff. The tutorial was already 14 pages long. So I thought any more would be a little excessive at the moment. I am in the process of updating my web pages and packaging the project and creating the PDF for the tutorial. I hope it will not take too long. I will make another post when I have everything available on the web site. In the next tutorial, which shouldn't take all that long, I will be modifying the game to display the player character's statistics and add in a couple interesting things for displaying the statistics. So, I encourage you to check back soon.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

Writing the tutorial is taking longer than I tought

Welcome back!

I have been writing the next turoial on creating a role playing game with XNA 3.0 called Eyes of the Dragon. The writing is taking a little longer than I thought it would. It is to help those who are new to C# and the concepts of object-oriented programming, especially the idea of polymorphism. Polymorphism is perhaps the hardest topic to understand in object-oriented programming. I will be writing a separate tutorial on the concepts of object-oriented programming: Encapsulation, Inheritance and Polymorphism.

The writing is taking so much time that I haven't gotten to adding the XNA features I wanted to yet. Those, I don't think, will be as hard as what I have been working on so far. I do hope to have the tutorial up on the web site very soon.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

Most of the coding is done, working on the tutorial

Welcome back!

I got most of the coding done and working. There are two or three things that I want to add to the latest tutorial on creating a role playing game with XNA 3.0. I have started writing the tutorial on the coding I've done as well. So far the writing is going rather well. I've done quite a bit of coding so there is a lot to write this time. I will try and post some screen shots from Eyes of the Dragon, the game I'm basing these tutorials on soon.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

Started coding today

Welcome back!

I started doing some coding on Eyes of the Dragon this evening. I am in the process of creating a set of classes for the player character. I am planning on using inheritance for the different character classes: Fighter, Priest, Wizard and Theif. To do this I will be creating a base abstract class and then inheriting the other character classes from this class. If you are unfamiliar with abstract classes they are classes that you can not create objects with directly, you must inherit other classes from them. It is much like I did with the GameScreen class. You inherited the various screens from this class instead of using the GameScreen class.

Jamie McMahon
-----------------------------
Proud member of Dream.In.Code

New tutorial is online!

Welcome back!

I have just uploaded the new tutorial on Eyes of the Dragon to my web site! Like I mentioned previously, this new tutorial has the tile engine using a view port instead of the entire screen. You can find the latest tutorial on creating a role playing game with XNA 3.0, in PDF and ZIP format at these links:
http://www.jtmbooks.com/rpgtutorials/xnarpgtut15.pdf
http://www.jtmbooks.com/rpgtutorials/xnarpgtut15.zip

The latest version of Eyes of the Dragon can be found at this link:
http://www.jtmbooks.com/rpgtutorials/New2DRPG.zip

You can find the latest news on Eyes of the Dragon here on my blog or on the news page for these tutorials:
http://xna.jtmbooks.com/news.html

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

Tutorial is finished but not uploaded

Welcome back!

I finished writing the 15th tutorial on creating a role playing game with XNA 3.0 called Eyes of the Dragon but I will not be able to upload it tonight. I will have it available on my web site very soon though. Like I said yesterday, I changed the tile engine to use a view port instead of the entire screen and I limited the tile engine to just drawing the visible portion of the map. I ask you to be patient as this is a very hard time for me.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

13th PDF tutorial on creating a role playing game with XNA 3.0

Welcome back!

I managed to finish writing the latest tutorial on creating an RPG with XNA 3.0, update my web site and upload it to my web site. You can find all the XNA 3.0 role playing tutorials and the latest source code at this link:
http://www.jtmbooks.com/rpgtutorials/project.html

If you just want the latest tutorial on creating a RPG with XNA 3.0 you can find the PDF and the zip files at the link below:
http://www.jtmbooks.com/rpgtutorials/xnarpgtut13.pdf
http://www.jtmbooks.com/rpgtutorials/xnarpgtut13.zip

The graphics for the tutorials can be found at this link:
http://www.jtmbooks.com/rpgtutorials/Graphics.zip

The latest source code for the XNA 3.0 Role Playing Game tutorials is at this link:
http://www.jtmbooks.com/rpgtutorials/New2DRPG.zip

If you have any questions about these tutorials or would like to make a suggestion on what you would like me to work on you can use the contact form on the tutorial web site:
http://www.jtmbooks.com/rpgtutorials/contact.html

Or you can leave a comment here on the blog or you can email me at:
simplyjamie613 at gmail dot com

Voting on what genre of game you would like to see a tutorial series on ends at midnight July 31st. So far turn base strategy games and real time strategy games seem to be the most popular. Be sure to cast your vote!

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

Player character system

Welcome back!

I am going to write up a document this afternoon on the player character system. This document will detail the different character classes I will be using for the game. I know some may want to concentrate solely on XNA but to make a good role playing game, in my opinion, you have to have decent characters. There are role playing games where the character never gains experience and advance in levels but I'm of the believe that growing your character is half the fun of a role playing game. I'm not entirely sure if I will be able to have it available for download today but I am hoping to.

Jamie McMahon
-----------------------------
Proud member of Dream.In.Code

New RPG Tutorial is available on my web site!

Welcome back!

I just finished writing and uploading the newest tutorial on creating a role playing game with XNA 3.0, Eyes of the Dragon, to my web site. You can find it on my web site at this link:
XNA 3.0 Role Playing Game Tutorials - PDFs and Project

Like I mentioned yesterday, this tutorial is about adding a textbox to the game. I posted a screen shot on this yesterday so I won't be adding one today.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

New RPG Tutorial is available on my web site!

Welcome back!

I just wanted to let you all know there is another tutorial available on my web site for creating a role playing game in XNA 3.0. In this RPG tutorial I have made the character generator a lot nicer and a bit better to use. There are two screen shots of what I have added to the game below. You can find the tutorial and the latest version of the project on my web site:

Eyes of the Dragon - XNA 3.0 Role Playing Game Tutorials - Project Page

You can go directly to the PDF at this link:
XNA 3.0 RPG Tutorial 10

I have zipped the PDF as well. You can find it at this link:
XNA 3.0 RPG Tutorial 10 (Zippped)

Character Generator Screen Shot

Character Generator Screen Shot - With Name Pop Up

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

New RPG Tutorial is available on my web site!

Welcome back!

Just letting you all know that there is another tutorial on my web site about creating a role playing game with XNA 3.0. In this tutorial I've added in a pop up menu to the game. Very often you will need to ask questions of the player. Pop up menus are good ways to do this. I made a drawable game component for the pop up menu. Unlike other components, instead of hiding the previous screen, I just set the Enabled property of the previous screen to false. What this does, is draw the previous screen but does not update it.

You can find the tutorials on this page:
XNA 3.0 RPG Tutorials PDFs and ZIPs

I will try and have a new tutorial up soon. It may be a few days because summer is here and I'm trying to enjoy it. I'm also trying to finish my entry in the game programming challenge at:
Game Institute. I have posted a couple screen shots from that game as well. I've combined them into one image and scaled them to help make this page load faster. I'm thinking of writing a tutorial series on creating this game for the XNA 3.0 section.

Eyes of the Dragon Start Page with Pop Up Menu

Screen Shots from Space Raptor, my entry into the
game programming challenge at Game Institute.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code

My bags are packed and I'm ready to go

Welcome back!

Well, I'm all packed and ready to go. I won't be leaving until around three PM, (GMT-5:00) and I'm not sure when I'll get in this evening. I will hopefully have the time to update my web site and post a new tutorial on creating a role playing game with XNA 3.0. Creating an RPG is a lot of work but I love doing it. What is better is I love writing the tutorials on how you can do it.

Any how, I will be home this evening and I will try and get the next tutorial up on the Internet for download.

Jamie McMahon
-----------------------------
Proud member of Dream.In.Code

New RPG Tutorial available on my web site

Welcome back!

I have just finished upload a new tutorial to my web site on creating an RPG in XNA 3.0. Below is a screen shot of the updated tile engine. In this tutorial I've add a new game component to the project, a sprite component. This component is meant to be inherited from not used by itself. I create a small class to test the component by adding 10 chests to the map. The chests will scroll with the map, not just float on top of it. You can find the tutorial and the project at these links:

XNA 3.0 RPG Tutorial 7 - PDF

Eyes of the Dragon

Tile Engine Sample

Tiles made with help of Genetica Viewer 3 by Spiral Graphics.

Jamie McMahon
-----------------------------
Proud member of Dream.In.Code

Given the project a name!

Welcome back!

I was going to make a poll on my web site on what I should name the xna rpg tutorial project but I've decided to go with Eyes of the Dragon. I'm going to make the story line of the game this:

Graynar, the great stone dragon, stood over the village of Hartsward, protecting the village from the hordes of monsters that lived to the east. A daring thief has stolen the precious emeralds that were the dragon's eyes. A hero has be dispatched to find the lost gems before the monsters that live to the east gather and crush the village.


I think this will be a pretty good place to start. I'm going to create some nice screens based on this. I will be continue to post updates and let you know what is going on with Eyes of the Dragon.

Jamie McMahon
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Proud member of Dream.In.Code