Dwarfsoft [GPA]

I’ve started having a look back at some of my gtd-php project ideas and made some progress since the last time I looked at them. Turns out that one of the bugs I was experiencing was a result of a funny session issue (by running a dev and prod instance from the same browser).

I’ll need to look into it further but it does appear that at least some of my ideas can be implemented as part of the standard addon scheme.

Cheers, Chris.

It has again been some time since my last update. I have been quite busy getting used to balancing my new life with my daughter now nearly 3 months old. Fatherhood has obviously taken a lot of my time that I previously used for development, and learning.

The past few months have also seen my University Graduation 3 days after my Daughters Birth, Family Visits, Job Applications, Job Interviews, and finally Permanency in my Servers Position.

Aside from that I have been working with some friends on converting the old TA Server to the C# .Net/Python version (PyTA). I have also been busy in mapping out my development goals and objectives for the coming months and years.

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So I started attempting to write a game within a Day and blogged about it in “XNA in a Day… Almost“. Firstly I feel the need to explain some of the decisions that were made: I really didn’t have any preparation time, no prior experience with the Framework or the Language. I came in hacking things together instead of planning what I was going to do. I tried not to refactor code too much once it was in place.

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.

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So, after starting my look into XNA under the guise of “Forays in XNA”, I was able to determine that the core code for developing a Breakout clone was achievable within a day. Considering that I work full time, and currently my wife is heavily pregnant, the fact that I can achieve this within a day should motivate the rest of you to do the same, or at least work harder ;).

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.

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.

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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.

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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.

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