Game Development
XNA on the Second Day
by dwarfsoft on Mar.05, 2009, under Game Development, XNA
The reason for this was that no matter how bad the game ended up, it would do mostly what it was told, and in the process I would have completed the project and have gained some valuable insight into both my own programming methodology, and into the XNA framework from start to finish.
XNA in a Day… Almost
by dwarfsoft on Mar.03, 2009, under Game Development, XNA

A screenshot of Breakout during development

My fantastically crafted White Block
So, the first thing I did was I went out and created my images. I used the template from the previous image, which was created by creating some shapes in MS Paint, and then making the background transparent and saving as a PNG using The GIMP.

My fantastically crafted White Ball image

My fantastically crafted White Paddle image
I have also created a blank project as before and from the main project Window in C# I create a couple of classes. The first class is called Sprite.cs, the second is Wall.cs, and the third is Collision.cs. The biggest issue I had out of the creation of my Breakout game was the Collision detection. I used some primitive collision detection algorithms that just failed to rebound the ball correctly when it hit the side of an object, and as I am also using blocks with transparencies (and the ball has transparencies as well) the collision detection needs to account for that also.
Forays into XNA – First Impressions
by dwarfsoft on Mar.02, 2009, under Game Development
I have started thinking about my possible development opportunities, and have decided that in order to document from 0-100mph I should start with a framework that I have never used, and a language which I have rarely used, in order to give me insight into the newbie mind. By starting from scratch I feel that the articles will cover some of those smaller aspects that we usually quickly learn and forget about. Coming from another language will allow me to document the differences from what I was expecting to what is presented and why this is so.
So, the installation of the XNA Game Studio 3.0 has completed, as has the installation of Visual C# 2008 Express Edition. The first place I was sent to was the XNA Creators Club Online. I set up my profile there, although this wasn’t really necessary.
Microgames
by dwarfsoft on Feb.26, 2009, under Authoring, Game Development
It seems that the idea of microgames and progressive development is a little in vogue at the moment. Andrew Russell, a long time friend and colleague from the early GameDev.Net and Tiberia days, has embarked on a game development project where he is seeking to develop a game every two weeks, and produce reusable components of each to ease into the development of the next. The Origin of Sketchable explains in a little more detail how he is attempting to achieve this. Strangely enough, he is already in a race against Trapper Zoid who is working on a project called The Lab.
As it turns out, this is an idea I was contemplating starting as well. My release intervals would have to be significantly longer, however, as I am incapable of committing a lot of time due to my hectic schedule of Work and Wife. The idea I was considering was to do with the book mentioned in the last post. By developing games and documenting the entire process from start to finish, it would help aspiring young developers understand the trials and tribulations of making even the simplest of games, and how much can be learned and applied to future developments. There are a few concepts I am looking forward to exploring, such as some advanced scripting in games, as I have been re-reading the Dragon Book gleaning a lot of things about language design that could be useful, as well as my general scripting experience in a variety of languages.