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

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

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

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

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

Been writing the next tutorial

Welcome back!

I have been working on the next tutorial for the Tile Map Editor program. I've got quite a bit accomplished and I do hope to have it on the web site soon for download. I may add in the ability to add another layer to the map. The reason is that much of the code I've added to the editor was pretty much copied and pasted from other classes that you have seen the code to before.

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

Was working on the map editor

Welcome back!

I did some work on the map editor this evening. I have the map editor being able to load in a map from disk now. There was a lot of code to do this so I think I will write a tutorial on what I have done so far and then go from there.

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

Was working on editor

Welcome back!

I was working on the editor last night. I've been working on being able to read in a map to the editor and I will also be working on adding layers to the map. I encourage you to either keep visiting this blog for the latest news on the game or you can visit the news page of my site.

It was also brought to my attention that the link to tutorial 31 on my site was broken. I have updated the site and the link goes to the proper tutorial.

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

New RPG Tutorial!

Welcome back!

I finished writing the new tutorial on reading a tile map into the game. You can find the link to the tutorial on the RPG Tutorials page of my web site.

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

Been working on the new tutorial

Welcome back!

I was able to get all of the coding that I wanted to get done and on reading a map into the game. The tutorial is not quite complete yet but it will be a short tutorial. I do hope to have to tutorial up very soon. So keep visiting the blog or my web site for the latest news.

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

New RPG Tutorial!

Welcome back!

I'm sorry it has taken so long but I have uploaded a new tutorial on creating a role playing game with XNA 3.0 called Eyes of the Dragon. In this tutorial I have the ability to create and write a single layer tile map. I'm already onto reading in a single layer map into the game. You can find a link to the tutorial on the RPG Tutorials page of my web site. There is a screen shot of the editor on the Screenshots page.

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

Will keep you updated

Welcome back!

At the moment I am in the middle of a family crisis. I'm not sure how much work I will be able to get done on the game. I will also be going away for a little while and since the monitor on my laptop died I will not be able to do any coding or writing while I am gone. I will keep you up to date on what is going on.

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

Been working on the editor

Welcome back!

I have been working on the tile map editor today and I've started writing the next tutorial on it. I have been able to get the editor to write out the tile map, with a single layer at the moment. I will soon be adding in the ability to create other layers, save layers and read in layers. In the tutorial after this one I will be adding into the game being able to read in a map from disk but not with the Content Pipeline. I want to be fully finished the editor before I add in that ability. So check back soon as I do hope to have the tutorial up on my site shortly.

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

Had a busy day

Welcome back!

Today has been very busy for me. I didn't really get to the writing I wanted to. I will have time tomorrow and I will also add in the code to write a single layer map to the editor.

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

Some coding done but no writing

Welcome back!

Well, I got a fair bit accomplished today on the Tile Map Editor. You can now draw a single layer map with the editor. At the moment the cursor control the scrolling of the map. In a future tutorial I will add in being able to scroll the map by having the mouse cursor at the edges of the map.

Tile Map Editor

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

Added a new tutorial on the tile map editor

Welcome back!

I just finished uploading the newest tutorial on the tile map editor to my web site. In this tutorial I made a change to the editor because I made a bad design decision when I created the editor. The tutorial is a little on the long side and I'm sorry about that. In the next tutorial I will get to actually editing maps with the editor and I will also try and add in writing them out as well if it will not make the tutorial too long. If I get to writing them out in the following tutorial I will get to reading them in to the game. Later I will get to creating Content Pipeline importers, processors and writers for the maps. You can find links to the tutorial on the RPG Tutorials page of my web site.

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

28th tutorial is online!

Welcome back!

I have uploaded the 28th tutorial on creating a role playing game with XNA 3.0 to my web site. Like I mentioned yesterday I have been working on a tile map editor for Eyes of the Dragon as being able to load in a map at run time is an important aspect of a role playing game. You can find the link to the tutorial on the RPG Tutorials page of my web site.

This is a screenshot of what the editor looks like at the moment.

Tile Map Editor

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

Been working on the next tutorial.

Welcome back!

I have been coding today as well as writing about that code. So far the editor is coming along nice. I have been able to read in a tile set and have the current tile display in the PictureBox. That might not sound like a lot but it was a fair amount of code. The explanation of it has taken quite a while though as it is pretty complex.

What I will work on next is implementing a tile engine into the tile display. That shouldn't be near as hard as what I have been doing today.

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

New RPG tutorial is on my web site!

Welcome back!

I have just uploaded a new tutorial on my web site on creating a role playing game with XNA 3.0 called Eyes of the Dragon. In this tutorial I got started on adding a tile map editor to help with the game. I added the map editor to the solution so when you want to work on the map you can just right click the tile map editor project and select Set As Startup and you will be able run the project directly from the same solution. In this tutorial I just got the form created and a control on the form that can be rendered using XNA. You can find the link to the tutorial on the RPG Tutorials page of my web site.

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

Had other work I had to do today

I was wanting to get to Eyes of the Dragon today but I had other work that I had to do today and I always have much to do on Wednesday afternoons. I will try and get what I want done on the Tile Map Editor tomorrow and hopefully have the tutorial up on it as well.
Jamie McMahon
-----------------------------
Proud member of Dream.In.Code

Tile Map Editor

Welcome back!

An important part of a role playing game is being able to create maps for the player to explore. At the moment the map is being generated by the program. It would be better if there was a way we could read in a map at run time. I have started the process of creating a tile map editor for Eyes of the Dragon. I will be writing tutorials on how to create the editor. I am hoping that I will have the first tutorial on creating the Tile Map Editor on my website tomorrow evening.

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

New RPG Tutorial!

Welcome back!

I have uploaded a new tutorial on creating a role playing game with XNA 3.0 to my web site. In this tutorial I have added the Tile Set Generator project to Eyes of the Dragon and I did a little bit of refactoring. You can find the links to the tutorial on the RPG Tutorials page of my web site. I am hoping to do some more work on Eyes of the Dragon this afternoon when I get home.

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

New Tile Engine tutorial!

Welcome back!

I have written a new tutorial in my tile engine series. This is a short tutorial but it increases the efficiency of the tile engine. You can find the link to the tutorial on my XNA Tutorials page.

I will be working on Eyes of the Dragon this afternoon. I hope to have a new tutorial up on Eyes of the Dragon soon.

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

Took the day off coding

Welcome back!

Since it is Sunday and in Canada this is Thanksgiving weekend I have taken the day off of coding and writing. I will be doing come coding tomorrow though. I will post links to the source code of the Tile Set Generator program on my web site so you can download it and look at it. I am thinking of writing a tutorial on it. It is just there are a lot of controls on the form and I'm not sure how to go about the placing of the controls and such. The code is pretty straight forward and I don't think there is anything really all that complicated.

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

200th post and 25th tutorial is ready!

Welcome back!

This is officially the 200th post I've made to this blog. I have added in the newest tutorial, number 25, on creating a role playing game with XNA 3.0 to my web site. I didn't get to the Tile Set Generator in this tutorial. I will write up a quick tutorial on doing that though in the near future. In this tutorial I finished up adding a sprite to the game for the player to control.

I have also added in a debugging feature to the game. This is completely optional and you do not have to do this. I have a message box that will pop up and ask if you want to run the game in full screen mode. If you choose yes the game will run in full screen mode. If you choose no the game will run in windowed mode. This is a useful debugging tool as if you are running the game in full screen mode and the game crashes sometimes you can not get back to the debugger to see where it was that your game crashed.

You will find the links to the tutorial on the RPG Tutorials page of my web site.

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

Will be working on next tutorial today

Welcome back!

I am going to try and finish up the tutorials on adding a sprite to the game today. Most of the code is already done. It will just be a matter of writing it up. In this tutorial I will include the creation of the Tile Set Generator and how the program works. I hope to have the newest tutorial ready in the next couple of days if not today.

One of the next things I will be working on is tile map format and a tile map editor. The tile map format is important to the game. This might be a strange restriction but I will probably limit the map layers to being the same size. I will also work on adding in portals that will transfer the player to different maps so that the map isn't incredibly huge. Doing this will make rendering the maps a little more efficient.

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

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

Thought I would post a screen shot

Welcome back!

I just thought that I would post a screen shot of the sprite on the game screen. Like I had posted in the last entry since I had done so much coding I decided to break it up a little and do things bit by bit. I will definitely have a tutorial up later on the 8th of October, which I guess is today now. This tutorial will go over creating the animation classes and rendering the sprite to the screen. This will not cover getting the sprite to move however. That will be in the tutorial after this one.

Animated Sprite

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

Progress on current tutorials

Welcome back!

I have been doing quite a lot of coding on this tutorial and I'm afraid that it will be rather long. I'm thinking of splitting it up but everything is kind of integrated now and I'm not quite sure where to start. I created two classes, similar to the ones Nick uses is his tile engine tutorial series as I do like the method he uses, for sprite animations. There are a few differences however as I added in my own coding style to these. I got the sprite on the screen animating with out much difficulty. The problem was I was trying to simplify adding in the logic to having the map scroll with the sprite. Again, I like what Nick did in his tile engine series in using the matrix to transform the map instead of having to use the camera object to draw items on the map. You could just give them the position and set the transformation matrix. So it ended up that I had made quite a lot of changes to the game in order to do all of this and there is really still a fair amount that I want to do.

What I think I will end up doing is going back to the last version of Eyes of the Dragon and just focus on one item at a time, in interest of keeping the tutorials short and not throwing a lot at you at once.

One of my readers has been having some problems typing the code from the tutorials into his program and has been finding some minor errors that escaped my attention. I would really like to thank him for bringing them to my attention. I've been keeping track of any that he has found and making the proper changes to the tutorials and uploading them to my web site.

So, since I was away for most of the day today it looks like it won't be until tomorrow that I will have the next tutorial on the site for download.

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

What am I working on?

Welcome back!

I'm in the process of adding in a sprite for the player character to control. I made a slight alteration to the sprite that I put up yesterday. I put the character walking down in the first two frames, the second two are down, the third left and the fourth right.

I am using a method similar to the one that Nick Gravelyn used in his tile engine series for animating sprites. There will be differences of course. Instead of using a Dictionary and strings for the keys I will be using a List with an enum. I feel that this is simpler and easier to implement.

I hope to have the tutorial finished tomorrow but I can't guarantee that as there is a lot I have to do tomorrow.

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

Will be working on the rpg tutorial

Welcome back!

I will be working on the next tutorial for Eyes of the Dragon, the role playing game that I am working on with XNA. Like I said I am trying to add a sprite for the player to control. I downloaded the sprites that Nick Gravelyn used in his tile engine series. They are from the site evilmana.com for the game Last Guardian. I have finished modifying the one that I will be using for the tutorial. Just thought I would post what it looks like with the modifications I made.



It looks like it will fit well with the updated tile set I will be using. I hope to have the next tutorial finished by tomorrow evening or Wednesday evening by the latest.

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

New XNA tutorials!

Welcome back!

I have just add three tutorials to my web site on creating a tile engine with XNA. These are general XNA tutorials and should work with both XNA 3.0 and XNA 3.1. They aren't very long but I they introduce the concepts of creating a tile engine. The first one concentrates on the tiling process. It takes an array of integers and 4 tiles and renders them on the screen. The second deals with scrolling the map in cardinal directions. What I mean by cardinal directions is the map will only scroll left, right, up and down. It will not scroll on diagonals. The third one implements a 2D camera system and allows the map to scroll at a constant speed in all eight directions, cardinal directions and the diagonals. I hope to have a fourth ready in the next couple of days as well as another on my role playing game series, Eyes of the Dragon. You can find the links to the tutorials on the XNA Tutorials page. (You will have to scroll down to the bottom. I will be adding pages specifically for tutorial series soon.)

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

Changes to the tile set

I made a change to the tile set. I really didn't have to but while I was looking for sprites to use with the game I couldn't find any 32 bit sprites to go with the tiles that I created. I know it is a minor thing but I thought I would try and at least have things that match. I downloaded the sprites from evilmana.com, the ones that Nick Gravelyn used in his tile engine tutorials. I will be making some changes to them. I also made another small change to the game. I increased the HUD to be 64 pixels high and the size of the tiles to be 64 pixels by 64 pixels. When I write up the next tutorial I will be adding that in. In any case this is what the map looks like now.

Updated Tile Engine

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

Tutorial is finished

The good news is I got the tutorial finished. I don't think that I will be able to have it up on my site this evening. It will definitely be up tomorrow though. I also know what I am going to work on next. I will be adding in a sprite that the player can control. Since I'm not a great artist I will have to go with what I can find on the web. So I encourage you to check back tomorrow for the newest tutorial on creating a role playing game with XNA.

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

Been writing the next tutorial

Welcome back!

I finished the coding that I wanted to do for the next tutorial and I have been busy writing it. I would like to have it finished this evening and up on my web site. There really isn't a lot of writing left to do so I'm hoping that it won't take too much longer. I will keep you posted on when the next tutorial is up and on my web site.

I'm also going to try and have a couple general XNA tutorials on my web site soon as well. Again, I will keep you posted on the details.

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

Got some coding done

Welcome back!

I was working on some coding that I thought needed to be done. This was in the hope of making it easy for you to take the tile engine out of the game and drop it into another one. I got most of what I was hoping to do accomplished. I'm hoping to write up the tutorial on it tomorrow.

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

Introducing XNA Game Programming Adventures

Welcome back!

As I mentioned in an earlier post I've been updating my web site that hosts my XNA RPG tutorials. I am calling this new site XNA Game Programming Adventures. This site will host many XNA tutorials as well as the tutorials on creating a role playing game with XNA called Eyes of the Dragon. The new site is online now. I would recommend that you visit the sub domain that I created instead of the old URL. You can find XNA Game Programming Adventures here:

http://xna.jtmbooks.com/

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

Trying to finish updating my site

Welcome back!

I did a lot of work on the new updated site to host my XNA tutorials. I just have one page left to finish and then I will put it up online. I will try and have a couple general XNA tutorials on the web site as well. I will have the first three in the series of creating a tile engine. I think I will have one other as well.

I might not be able to get to it tomorrow but I will try to.

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

Making changes to my web site

Welcome back!

I have been working on giving my web site a nice clean fresh look. I like the design so far. I would like a better graphic for the image in the header. I will see what develops. I'm hoping to have the new version online tomorrow.

I have been busy the past two days with things not related to Eyes of the Dragon but I will be doing some coding on Eyes of the Dragon tomorrow. I have decided to find some simple sprites and add them into the game soon. I am thinking of making a change to the game itself. I have been thinking about it for a while now and the more I think about it the more I think it needs to be done.

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

21st tutorial on creating a role playing game!

Welcome back!

I have just finished adding the 21st tutorial on creating an RPG with XNA 3.0 to my web site! In this tutorial, like I've been mentioning, I created a custom Content Pipeline import, processor, writer and reader for Tileset objects created by the Tileset generator. I was going to go over how I created the Tileset generator but decided to do that in a separate tutorial. You can find the links to the tutorials on this page of my web site http://xna.jtmbooks.com/project.html

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

Not quite finished the tutorial

Welcome back!

I'm sorry to say I'm not quite finished the latest tutorial on creating a role playing game with XNA Game Studio 3.0. I was hoping to finish it today but it looks like it won't be finished until tomorrow. It will definitely be finished tomorrow though. I will have it up on the web site shortly.

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

Been busy writing the next tutorial

Welcome back!

I've been busy coding and writing the next tutorial. It is about 75% finished. I am hoping to have it finished and up on my web site for download shortly. I've mentioned before that in this tutorial I will be going into creating a Content Importer, Content Processor, Content Type Writer and Content Reader for the Tileset class. I made a generator to generate an XML file for the Tileset object. I was going to add into this tutorial creating the generator but instead decided to just describe the format of the XML file and write a separate tutorial on creating the generator later. I will make the source code for the generator available on my web site for download.

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

Working on next tutorial

Welcome back!

I have the Tileset generator finished pretty much. It will create an XML file that has all of the information needed to create a Tileset object. I'm going to work on creating the components needed to implement this in Eyes of the Dragon. I'm hoping to have it up and on my web site tomorrow evening.

I have a blog on Dream.In.Code where I am writing basic tutorials on XNA. At the moment I'm working on a tile engine system that would be able to be added to any game that would need a tile engine. This one I'm not making with Drawable Game Components. It will be an object-oriented tile engine though. You can find this blog here.

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

Finishing up the Tileset object generator

Welcome back!

I will be finishing up the Tileset object generator today and incorporating it into the game. I have decided to have the generator export everything to an XML file. I chose XML because there are great methods of importing and exporting XML documents with C#.

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

Will finish up the generator

Welcome back!

The program that will create the rectangles for tile sets is almost finished. I am thinking of writing up a tutorial on how it works but not entirely sure on that. When I have it finished though, I will be writing a tutorial on how to use the output with the content pipeline.

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

Going to finish up the tile set editor

Welcome back!

I don't really like coding or writing on Sunday but I think I will try and finish up the tile set editor. What I mean by tile set editor is that given an image, like the tile set I've been using for Eyes of the Dragon, and the width and height of the tiles with the number of tiles wide and high, generate a list of rectangles for the tiles. I am planning on creating content pipeline processors, importers, etc for the rectangles and such.

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

Made a little program this evening

I started work on one of the editors for the game this evening. It is a program that will generate tile sets so they can be loaded in at run time instead of being declared at compile time. This will help you with your games. I will be creating a custom content pipeline importer and such for the tile sets.

This is a thumbnail of an early alpha version.



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

Got some feed back on the screens

Welcome back!

I got a bit of feed back from some people who's opinions I respect on all of the screen. I've made a few changes to the screens. I made a few of them simpler and got rid of a lot of the textured back grounds. I kind of like things with a texture to them but I will go with the new versions. I also found a free font that I like on http://www.dafont.com that I will be using for the game. I will be placing it into the Graphics.zip file on my web site. To use the font you will have to install it. I don't use Vista but for Windows XP you just have to place it into the C:\Windows\Fonts folder. I believe you can double click it in Vista and it will install it for you.

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

Finishing up the newest tutorial

Welcome back!

The writing of the tutorial is taking longer than I thought it would. I had done a lot of work again and some of the things I did require a little more explanation than I thought. I am about 90% done. I'm just finishing writing up the new screen. Once that is done I just have to write about a few changes I had to make to the Game1 class. I will have the tutorial done today for sure though and have it available for download.

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

A screen shot from my coding

Welcome back!

I finished all of the coding last night. I tried to make things look at least a little nice but I didn't obsess over the little detail. I managed to get the pop up screen that displays the player character's statistics up and going. Just thought that I would post a screen shot of it.

Character Stats

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

Haven't been feeling well

Welcome back!

As many of you have read in my blog I have been kind of sick lately. Yesterday was no exception. I will be writing the next tutorial this evening and try and have it available for download tomorrow. If I have it done and I have the time I will actually try and have it up tonight.

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

Did a fair bit of coding today

Welcome back!

I did a lot of coding today but it hasn't produced any visual results. What I did was add in the difficulty level system to the player character class. You have all seen that there are four difficulty modes: Easy, Normal, Hard and Ultimate. I'm not sure how many of you remember how I planned on implementing this.

Easier mode characters gain more experience per battle but they are not as strong as the harder mode characters. So if you are playing in easy mode the character will level up faster but the character wouldn't be as strong as an ultimate mode character.

I use two float variables to work this system. To have a character level up faster I multiply their experience by a value greater than one. I had chose 1.25 for easy, 1.0 for normal, 0.75 for hard and 0.5 for ultimate.

The reward for playing a hard or ultimate mode character is that each level the player gains they get more points to distribute to their stats. An easy mode character has a 0.75 multiplier to their stat bonus, normal 1.0, hard 1.25 and ultimate 1.5. I have chosen 4 as the base value. That means an easy mode character only gets 3 points per level while an ultimate mode character will get 6.

There will be other things that difficulty levels will work on as well. I may make the monsters, a generic term for all enemies, easier to kill in easy mode and harder to kill in the harder modes as well.

Tomorrow I hope to add in the screen to display the player's stats.

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

Don't like to code or write on Sundays

Welcome back!

Like the title says I don't really like to code or write on Sundays, has to do with my faith. I'm hoping to have a new tutorial up Tuesday evening though. Like I said I was wanting to add in a new screen to the game to display the player's stats. I have a nice background texture for pop up windows like that. I thought I would post it.

Pop Up Window Background

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

Working on a new game screen

Welcome back!

I am working on adding a new game screen to the game. It is nice for the player to be able to view the stats of their character. This will be relatively easy to accomplish in Eyes of the Dragon because of the way I've been designing things up until now. First I will have to create a graphic for it. I will not fuss too much over the graphic, as most of you seem to want functionality over appearance. I will try and at least make it look a little nice. It might be Monday before I will have the tutorial up on my web site though. So, I encourage you to either visit this blog or you can visit my web site for these tutorials for the latest news on Eyes of the Dragon.

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

New tutorial is up on my web site!

Welcome back!

I have just uploaded the newest tutorial on my series of creating a role playing game with XNA 3.0. In this tutorial I focused on cleaning up the project and working on functionality of the game. You can find links to the tutorials on my web site at XNA 3.0 RPG Tutorials.

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

Working on Eyes of the Dragon

Welcome back!

I am working on Eyes of the Dragon at the moment. I am cleaning the code up a bit and organizing things a little better as well. I am also making a new screen for the game to display the player character's statistics. This tutorial will be kind of long but these are things that need to be done and I thought they should be done now instead of later because it would be even longer down the road.

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

Was away yesterday

Welcome back!

I unfortunately away for pretty much the whole day yesterday. I had an early appointment in the morning, another in the afternoon and an over night appointment last night. I will be trying to do some coding this afternoon. I know what I want to code today and I should be able to get it done with out much problems.

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

Was in the hospital again

Welcome back!

I had to go back to the hospital yesterday. I'm sorry about this. I am hoping that this problem will get cleared up very soon. Like I mentioned the other day I'm planning on adding in a sprite for the player's character and have the sprite move with the map. I will start with just animating the sprite. After that is working I will get the sprite to move with the map.

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

Was in the hospital again

Shortly after I got up this morning I had to go back into the hospital so I didn't really get any programming done today. I have the plan laid out for the next tutorial though. I will be adding in a sprite for the player's character. I was looking for some nice sprites online but didn't really find any that I liked. What I am going to do though is I have links to a lot free sprites. I will find a couple and set them up for use in the game.

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

What I am working on

Welcome back!

I am going to be adding in a sprite for the player character now. I will remind you all that I am not a pixel artist so I pretty much have to go with what I can find on the Internet. I do have the sprites from Nick Gravelyn's tile engine tutorial series and I could use those easily. I wanted to find something a little nicer but you, my readers, have said that you would rather I add functionality to the game instead of appearance. I'm writing these tutorials for you so I will try and do what you are asking.

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

Was in the hospital again

Welcome back!

I had to go to the hospital again and I'm having problems sitting up again. I am going to try and work on things but I'm not having all that much success at it so far.

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

Been away all day

Welcome back!

I have been away from the house all day today so I haven't gotten to any work on Eyes of the Dragon. I will try and some work this evening.

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

Coding finished, not the writing

Welcome back!

I was able to finish all of the coding that I wanted to do but I wasn't able to finish writing the tutorial yet. It should be finished tomorrow though and I will start coding the next tutorial in the series on creating a role playing game with XNA 3.0. I decided to add a small bar to the bottom of the screen for displaying short messages. This is the thumbnail of the screen shot.

Tile Engine Thumbnail

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

Quick post of screen shot

Welcome back!

I did a fair amount of work on Eyes of the Dragon on the 30th. I just thought that I would post a quick screen shot of the visual results. Like I was saying the other day it was suggested to me to create a floating bar for the player's hit points and spell points by one of my readers and I went with it.

New Thumbnail of Tile Engine

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

Will be coding today, hopefully writing too

Welcome back!

I will be doing some coding on Eyes of the Dragon this afternoon. What I am planning on doing is making a couple changes. First I want to improve the screen management system. I will also be changing the HUD to have a small floating HUD that display's the character's stats. I will be making a few changes to the PlayerCharacter class as well.

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

Tutorial is finished but not online yet

Welcome back!

I have finished the next tutorial on creating a role playing game with XNA 3.0 but it isn't online yet. I will get to work on uploading everything to the web site in the morning.

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

Just about finished tutorial & received suggestion

Welcome back!

I am just about finished writing the next tutorial on creating a role playing game with XNA 3.0. It should be finished shortly then all I will have to do is update the web site and the tutorial to my web site.

I got an email from the contact form on my web site. The person suggested that I make a floating HUD. If you have ever played Shaiya for the character there is a nice little floating HUD that displays the character's HP, SP and MP. I am going to take the suggestion and create a small floating HUD for character stats giving the player the entire window/screen to view the game world. Thanks for the suggestion.


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

Two thirds done writing tutorial

Welcome back!

Just thought that I would let you know that I'm about two thirds done writing the next tutorial on creating a role playing game with XNA 3.0. I am just finishing the changes to the ActionScreen and TileEngine. I will try and have another tutorial available soon as well. In that tutorial I will be adding a popup screen to display the character's statistics and update the screen manager to make things a little easier to work with.

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

Working on next tutorial

Welcome back!

I will work on writing the next tutorial today and stop fussing over the graphics at the moment, at least until voting on the poll is over and I have better idea of what my readers are interested in. I will be adding a new screen in this tutorial on creating a role playing game with XNA 3.0. This will be a pop up type screen that will display the player character's statistics.

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

Got report card on Space Raptor

Welcome back!

Well, I got my report card back on Space Raptor today. For technical skills I got top marks. The rest of the game I didn't do so well. Of course, I didn't have the time I would have liked to add in all of the features I would have liked. For next one I will be better prepared and I hopefully won't have near as many personal problems to deal with.

As well, I have been trying hard to get the next RPG tutorial finished but there was a lot that I ended up having to do today. The HUD is giving me no end of grief as well. I am trying to create something that is attractive.

I am adding a new poll to the blog. I'm going to ask a question. Would you rather have a game that works 100% or a game that looks great or a game that looks great and works 100%. If all you are interested in is a game that works 100% then I will stop worrying about trying to make things look good and just go for something functional. I will have to poll up for one week. Voting will end on September the 3rd at 11:59PM.

In the mean time I will try to concentrate on functionality instead of appearance. Appearance is imporant to a game though and when you are creating your own I encourage you to put a lot of effort into appearance.

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

Redesigning the HUD

Welcome back!

I'm in the process of updating the HUD again. I'm still not really happy with it at the moment. I will update you as it progresses. I am hoping to have the latest tutorial on creating a role playing game with XNA 3.0 ready and available for download from my web site tomorrow.

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

New thumbnail of the HUD

I managed to finish a new version of the HUD this afternoon as well as update the start screen to what I think is a much nicer screen. These are thumbnails of both the screens. I will be continuing to write my next tutorial on creating a role playing game with XNA 3.0 tomorrow afternoon or evening. I do hope to have my next RPG tutorial available on my web site soon. Very soon I will be making an upgrade to the screen manager as well. Be sure to check back soon as I hope to have new tutorials and screen shots available.

Tile Engine With HUD

The Main Game Menu

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

Updated the introduction screen

Welcome back!

I'm still trying to design the interface for the game and take the feed back I've been given to make it look nice. I did take a break and update the introduction screen graphics. I will make another post on Eyes of the Dragon a little later on today.

New Introduction Screen

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

I have received a little feed back

Welcome back!

I have received a little feed back on the HUD for the game. Many don't like such a small viewing area for the map. I have made made two new versions. I'm waiting on a little feedback on them to see what others like. These are screen shots of the two new HUDs. One of them allows for a bigger area for character stats and the other allows for a large map. I just made a third, it wasn't hard because of the way I designed the tile engine. All I had to do was change the graphic and update the size of the view port.

Version 1

Version 2

Version 3

I am thinking that for now I will go with version 3. (I just modified it a little but I am not posting a new thumbnail.)

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

Did a fair bit of programming on Eyes of the Dragon

Welcome back!

I did a fair bit of programming on Eyes of the Dragon, the project that I am building for the tutorial series on creating a role playing game with XNA 3.0. I just thought I would post the latest screen shot that I have. The game HUD still needs to be designed to look good but it is a good start I think.

Latest Screen Shot

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

Uploaded tutorial 16

Welcome back!

I just wanted to let you all know that I have uploaded that 16th tutorial on creating a role playing game with XNA 3.0, Eyes of the Dragon, to my web site. I haven't updated the mirror: http://xna.jtmbooks.com yet. I will do that later.

You can find the links to the latest tutorial on at this link:
http://www.jtmbooks.com/rpgtutorials/xnarpgtut16.pdf

The source code for the project is at this link:
http://www.jtmbooks.com/rpgtutorials/New2DRPG.zip

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

What is going on with Eyes of the Dragon

Welcome back!

I had a few things to do yesterday. I was promoted to moderator on Dream.In.Code. That means I have responsibilities on that web site. I will still be working on Eyes of the Dragon though. I've been working on it for most of the afternoon. This tutorial isn't so much about XNA though, but I am doing a few things with XNA. Basically I am improving the character generator and starting with the player character system. I was going to make the base class an abstract class but after further consideration I decided against it. You will see why in the up coming tutorial.

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

What happened to Jamie?

Well, I have been a little sick of late. I haven't had the time I would like to work on Eyes of the Dragon or more appropriately I haven't been able to. I saw my doctor yesterday and he gave me an extra week's worth of antibiotics for my problem. I also see a specialist on Thursday and I truly hope that he will be able to do something about my problem. I really do want to work on Eyes of the Dragon but it is hard with the problems I've been having. I won't be home for most of tomorrow but I will try and at least get some coding done and hopefully even some writing on the coding.

Jamie McMahon
-----------------------------
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

Was in hospital again today

Welcome back!

I had to go to the hospital again today. I'm feeling better now but the doctor wants me to go back if the symptoms don't get better. I was thinking of starting work on a tile map editor. I know there are a few like Mappy and TilED but I don't really like the format they save their maps in. Writing my own will make writing a Content Processor, Importer and Writer a little easier.

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

Got home and have my lap top set up

Welcome back!

I made it home this evening and I have my lap top set up so I can do some programming with just a little difficulty.

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

Still pretty sick

Welcome back!

Just wanted to add a little update. I'm still pretty sick and sitting at the desk is a little hard to do at the moment. I will be returning home shortly, probably Thursday. Once I'm there things will be a little easier. So I will try and do a little work on Eyes of the Dragon this evening but I can't make any promises at the moment.

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

Been in the hospital (as a patient!)

Welcome back!

For most of the 9th and 10th of August I have been in the hospital, not as a visitor but as a patient this time. I hate to say it but I've been rather ill since the 8th. My dad was released this morning so I don't have unlimited Internet access at the moment either. I will be returning home in the next few days, when I feel well enough to travel. I will keep you up to date on the latest news and what I have been working on. Tonight I will be turning in again shortly, I just had a moment and thought I would post a quick note.

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

Got programming done but no tutorial

Welcome back!

I got the programming I wanted to get done but I didn't get to writing the tutorial on creating a role playing game with XNA 3.0 today. I switched the tile engine to use a view port instead of the whole screen. The gray area you can see is what will eventually be where the stats and such of the character will go. I just picked a random texture from Genetica Viewer 3 and cut out an 800 by 600 rectangle that will serve as the view port for the tile map. I will more than likely have the tutorial written tomorrow but I can't guarantee it as there are many, many things that I have to do with my dad being in the hospital. The things I had to change to accomplish this were the tile engine, the camera, the tile map and the action screen. I've added in a screen shot of the tile engine. So, I suggest checking back tomorrow and I hope to have a new tutorial up and on the web site.

I have removed the poll from the left as voting has ended and turn based strategy games has won. When Eyes of the Dragon is finished I will start on a strategy game series, both turn and real time based.

Tile Engine using a view port with overlay of what will be
the HUD eventually.

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

Working on the next tutorial

Welcome back!

I will have most of tomorrow to actually get some work done on Eyes of the Dragon. I should have done some today and I wanted to but with everything that is going on here I just couldn't get to it. Plus I have to actually work sometimes as well. Anyway, I will try and have something new on Eyes of the Dragon either tomorrow (Friday August 7thEST) or the next day (Saturday August 8thEST). My dad seems to be getting better, which is good, and may be home from the hospital soon. Once he is I will have a lot more time again.

Just as a side note, I am starting work on a new book. It is for 8-11 year old children to help them cope with the loss of a grandparent.

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

Links for Space Raptor

Welcome back!

I just thought I would make a quick post before leaving to visit my father and run a few errands that need to be done. I have uploaded the source code, along with the necessary content, for Space Raptor to my web site. You can find it here: Space Raptor Source Code. Any way, I have to leave and attend to some business but I will try and get some work done this afternoon and possibly post a tutorial tonight if things go well.

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

Finished Space Raptor

Welcome back!

Well, I didn't get to Eyes of the Dragon but I did submit my final version of Space Raptor to Game Institute for the latest game programming challenge. I have been dealing with my father being really sick and having to make trips to the hospital and run errands. With Space Raptor put to bed and not having to worry about it any more I will be able to work on Eyes of the Dragon and hopefully get more work done. I will post a link to the source code for Space Raptor for those of you who will like to see it. I used a modified version of the particle engine from XNA Creator Club's 2D getting started in the game. I had to make a few changes to the way it worked to integrate it into Space Raptor though.

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

Was barely at home on the 3rd

Welcome back!

I was barely at home on the 3rd. Well, at my dad's house, which I guess you could call home at the moment and really had no chance to do any programming or writing. I've been having to do a lot of extra stuff because he is in the hospital and there is really nobody else to do the things that need to be done. I just wanted to at least make a post before going to bed. I really hope to be able to do some work on Eyes of the Dragon tomorrow.

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

Sorry I missed a post

Welcome back!

Well, I wanted to post yesterday but I was quite busy to tell the truth. I have actually for the most part finished with Space Raptor. I managed to get the particle system working with out much too much of a head ache. There is only one more thing that I want to add to the game and that will be over with.

I am still at my father's house as he is in the hospital and he needs somebody here to look after things. I'm hoping to get some work done on Eyes of the Dragon in the morning and get a new tutorial up on the web site.

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

Voting is now over on the poll

Welcome back!

Voting on what type 2D XNA game you would like to see a tutorial series on is now officially over. The winner was turn based strategy games. Since real time stratagey games was pretty close I am thinking of actually doing a series on both of them. Right now I am getting ready to visit my father in the hospital. I will post an update later on today.

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