Hello everyone, I have exciting news to bring you today! I finally have discovered a way to make Prospectus available to everyone and utilize the ClickOnce feature which will allow for Prospectus to automatically update itself whenever a newer version is available.
My solution actually came about because I recently have been poking around on the dreamincode.net site and have become involved in a project that is hosted on CodePlex.com. Ironically enough, I was digging through their web site today and discovered that ClickOnce applications actually work on that site (my guess is because it is owned by Microsoft, but that may be incorrect).
Anyway, setting up the project was easy and I have uploaded the Alpha 1.0 version here. If you are a fan of the game, please stop by and download a copy (for free) of Prospectus, and it will update itself whenever I provide updates (pretty cool, huh?). Again, thanks for everyone who has followed along with this project and I do apologize for going so long without an update...and yes, for those of you wondering, this does mean that I'm back to using Xna for the development of Prospectus (let's face it, I love programming in C#)
Until next time!
Showing posts with label Prospectus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prospectus. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Basic Menu System Using Slick2D
Hello everyone, just wanted to write a quick post to let you all know that I'm still working hard on Prospectus and I haven't given up on it yet. I've been having a bit of trouble finishing the port of the current version of the game over to Java, so I decided to set it aside for a few days and focus on something else that will keep me encouraged about Prospectus.
With this in mind, I've quickly put together a very simple main menu system which makes excellent use of the Slick2D java library. It is so well put together that I was able to get a basic menu system up and running in a matter of 5 minutes!
The general idea is that your game extends a class called StateBasedGame, thus allowing you to be able to make use of different states easily and effectively. Once you have created this basic game structure, the idea is that you create different classes that extend BasicGameState to represent your different states (MainMenu, Gameplay, PauseScreen, etc.).
The awesome thing about extending BasicGameState is that you are forced to implement three abstract methods. These methods are very similar to methods found in almost every XNA game created today (init, render, update). This allows us access to a familiar game loop that we, as XNA programmers, are comfortable with. This also allows us to use a global input manager that is maintained by our generic gameContainer (created by the StateBasedGame class). From here we can display our menu image, and check for user input, telling us either to enter the game, exit the game, or do whatever we tell it to do.
This is just a quick and easy example of how Slick2D is helping us develop and grow Prospectus into a great game. Here is a short video of the menu test in action.
Thanks for reading and check back for more updates!
With this in mind, I've quickly put together a very simple main menu system which makes excellent use of the Slick2D java library. It is so well put together that I was able to get a basic menu system up and running in a matter of 5 minutes!
The general idea is that your game extends a class called StateBasedGame, thus allowing you to be able to make use of different states easily and effectively. Once you have created this basic game structure, the idea is that you create different classes that extend BasicGameState to represent your different states (MainMenu, Gameplay, PauseScreen, etc.).
The awesome thing about extending BasicGameState is that you are forced to implement three abstract methods. These methods are very similar to methods found in almost every XNA game created today (init, render, update). This allows us access to a familiar game loop that we, as XNA programmers, are comfortable with. This also allows us to use a global input manager that is maintained by our generic gameContainer (created by the StateBasedGame class). From here we can display our menu image, and check for user input, telling us either to enter the game, exit the game, or do whatever we tell it to do.
This is just a quick and easy example of how Slick2D is helping us develop and grow Prospectus into a great game. Here is a short video of the menu test in action.
Thanks for reading and check back for more updates!
Friday, August 5, 2011
Java 2D TileMap Code Optimization
Hey guys, just thought I would give you guys a quick tip on 2D tile map optimization that's been helping me in this transition from Xna to Java. Normally what I do in this kind of a game is have a 2D array of tiles (Tile class) which make up the contents of the map. I then set each tile to be the appropriate kind of tile (i.e. dirt, grass, rock, etc).
With this new Java version of Prospectus though, I thought I could do a little better than that, so I set off to find a different way to get the same result. I came up with the idea of using a 2D array of characters instead of tiles. I then use that character map to decide what tile I need to draw in my draw method, as I need it. I then use a few different methods that allow me to retrieve the correct type of tile to draw/do calculations with for a specific x and y coordinate on the map, solely based on what character is that the x and y coordinate.
This, I believe, saves me time and speeds up the execution of my code. Instead of having to keep each tile on the entire map in memory, now I only care about the tiles that are on the screen (plus a couple rows and columns for cleanliness). This also helps with start-up time because I'm setting character literals instead of user-defined class instances.
I hope this has given some of you ideas on how to improve your own games in Java or C#/Xna (this method will work for either language). As I near completion of the port to Java, I'm getting more and more excited about where Prospectus can and will go in the future. Thanks for reading and be sure to check back soon for more updates.
-Cheers
With this new Java version of Prospectus though, I thought I could do a little better than that, so I set off to find a different way to get the same result. I came up with the idea of using a 2D array of characters instead of tiles. I then use that character map to decide what tile I need to draw in my draw method, as I need it. I then use a few different methods that allow me to retrieve the correct type of tile to draw/do calculations with for a specific x and y coordinate on the map, solely based on what character is that the x and y coordinate.
This, I believe, saves me time and speeds up the execution of my code. Instead of having to keep each tile on the entire map in memory, now I only care about the tiles that are on the screen (plus a couple rows and columns for cleanliness). This also helps with start-up time because I'm setting character literals instead of user-defined class instances.
I hope this has given some of you ideas on how to improve your own games in Java or C#/Xna (this method will work for either language). As I near completion of the port to Java, I'm getting more and more excited about where Prospectus can and will go in the future. Thanks for reading and be sure to check back soon for more updates.
-Cheers
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Extreme Makeover: Prospectus Edition
Hey guys I am very excited to bring you more news about Prospectus. I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post, but I have been busy making some changes that I hope will benefit more people down the road. Over the past few weeks I have been struggling with developing Prospectus only for .Net capable machines. I feel like I would be able to reach more people with Prospectus if I was not tied down to .Net machines. I have therefore decided to migrate the existing version of Prospectus (as well as continue on from here) to the Java language using Netbeans and the Slick2D Library.
It is my intention that more people will be able to play this game because I'm making it more platform-independent than before. I hope this does not upset too many people who were using this as an Xna-specific learning tool. I will do my best to make any code-related posts as generic as possible in order to continue to be useful and informative for the Xna community.
As always I want to thank everyone who reads this blog as it is a huge motivational tool for me to keep working on Prospectus. I will be bringing you new posts as soon as I finish porting the existing version of the game to Java, but in the meantime I hope you take the time to try out Prospectus for yourself and don't lose faith in me...I'm going to keep building this game into something great.
Until next time!
It is my intention that more people will be able to play this game because I'm making it more platform-independent than before. I hope this does not upset too many people who were using this as an Xna-specific learning tool. I will do my best to make any code-related posts as generic as possible in order to continue to be useful and informative for the Xna community.
As always I want to thank everyone who reads this blog as it is a huge motivational tool for me to keep working on Prospectus. I will be bringing you new posts as soon as I finish porting the existing version of the game to Java, but in the meantime I hope you take the time to try out Prospectus for yourself and don't lose faith in me...I'm going to keep building this game into something great.
Until next time!
Monday, July 18, 2011
Thoughts on the Future of Prospectus
Hey guys it's been a few days now since I released the first Alpha of Prospectus and I must say 'Thank You'. I've seen a great response from you, the community, toward my game and I'm very excited about the future of this game. I've been working hard on adding in new features to the game to make it feel more like a game than just a blank sandbox world and I will be posting on here my updates as I make them.
I am also working very hard to come up with an effective way to make the newer versions of Prospectus automatically download and update your installed version, without requiring you to manually install them each time. I really appreciate everyone who has visited the Prospectus website and I would love to hear any feedback you may have at prospectus.game@gmail.com.
Until next time...
I am also working very hard to come up with an effective way to make the newer versions of Prospectus automatically download and update your installed version, without requiring you to manually install them each time. I really appreciate everyone who has visited the Prospectus website and I would love to hear any feedback you may have at prospectus.game@gmail.com.
Until next time...
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