Xna Platformer Update

Hey guys here is a quick update on my platformer game. I've been able to add in some decent player physics, modeled after the Platformer Starter Kit on the Xna website. I've also spent most of my time on the editor lately, getting it up to speed with my engine and designing it in such a way that I will be able to create platformer games much quicker than just hard-coding in the levels for this one game.

 

Thanks for taking the time to check up on my game. I'm really looking forward to developing the engine and editor even more. One of the things I'm in the process of adding is a dedicated object layer for the maps. Right now, the only thing on that object layer (which is loaded in from a file by the way) is the player. Most likely, the next thing I will add to the layer is an exit tile, which will load up the next level (tile map in my case). This, I feel, will make the game start to feel more like an actual game than just a level demo.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Prospectus Xna Relaunch

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!

The Progress of My Platformer

Hey guys, it's been a few days and I thought I would update you on my current project, a classic platformer modeled after that oh so famous plumber we've all heard about before. Again, I'm back to using Xna for this project. For me, it's the simplest and quickest way to make a game the way I want to...through programming. I thought I would show you some video of the game so far. I'm also making an editor for the engine. Both of these started with Nick Gravelyn's Tile Engine series and have since branched off, as he made his engine for an rpg and mine is for a platformer.

On to the good stuff!
Here's a quick demo of the "game" so far (this is more of a tech demo than anything ;) )

I've done quite a few things with this game so far and I plan on going over some specifics with you soon, but for now I leave you with the flashy eye-candy that you've just seen. If you would like for me to cover something specifically that I'm doing in this game, please let me know in the comments. I like writing about game making and I like helping you guys out when I can.

That's all for now!

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!

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...

Prospectus Alpha 1.0 Is Here

Hello everyone, I am pleased to announce that I have chosen to name my game Prospectus, as it was the most popular in the poll. I appreciate everyone who voted in the poll and am excited about uploading Prospectus for you to download and play!

I have been hard at work creating a basic website for Prospectus for you to get your free copy of the Alpha 1.0 version. It's been a long time coming that I would distribute a game online and I am very excited to get feedback from the community about Prospectus. I have set up an email address as well that I would like you to direct any comments, feedback, bugs, issues, etc. of any kind to so that I can better organize my Prospectus-related traffic.

Again, I really appreciate everyone who reads this blog and look forward to hearing what you think about Prospectus. Please understand that right now, there is only basic mining and inventory in the game and it is very similar to early versions of Terraria and Minecraft, but rest assured I will be adding unique gameplay features very soon.

There will be detailed instructions on how to install Prospectus on the web site, along with a Read Me text file to assist with installation, basic gameplay, and controls.

You can find Prospectus here and feel free to contact me with any comments and feedback here. Thanks again everyone and have fun!

Boring Work Before First Build

Hey guys, I know it's been a couple of days since my last post and I wanted to say that I'm still here and still working on the game, though I'm now in the boring part of cleaning up the code that I have before I make this first version ready for download.

I would like to apologize because I do not like to go this long between posts. I'm making minor tweaks to the code that will hopefully make it less buggy when it's ready for download. I'm getting very excited to see what everyone thinks about it up to this point. I would like to say to everyone who intends on downloading it to keep in mind that at this point it is basically a straight clone of Terraria. My plan is to make this game more of a Zelda-style game than a Terraria/Minecraft-style game before I'm done with it.

What do I mean by Zelda-style? I mean more intricate dungeons with bosses in the dungeons, different levels (as opposed to biomes), more NPC interaction with special items awarded (similar to Zelda games), and many more features to come! I hope that everyone appreciates this game and I would ask that anyone who decides to download it and has any type of comment (positive or negative) about it to let me know in a comment or in an email (I'll have an email address set up just for this game by Friday).

Thank you to everyone who follows this blog and game!

Alpha 1.0 Preview

Hey guys I'm just giving you a quick update about the latest addition to the game...updated, custom sprites for the player! I am very excited about this latest addition, mostly because I am not really an artist, just ask my wife :)

I'm getting even more excited about launch day, which I am glad to announce will be this next Friday, July 15. I will be uploading the first build of the game, mostly bug-free probably after I get back from the midnight showing of Harry Potter.

I will leave you now with a preview of my player:

And don't forget to vote for what the name of the game should be.

Player Animation Is Here

Hey guys it's been a few days since my last post, but I've been busy adding in one of the last things before my very first release of my game, player animation! I've been busy getting the game ready for it's first release and am pleased to announce that I now have a player in the game instead of just a rectangle.

I will say here that the sprite that I currently have in the game is just a dummy sprite I made for an rpg I was making and will definitely not be the final version of what the player will look like. I'm also including a poll on the blog for some names for the game to see what the popular choice will be for a name.

As for what I did to include player animation, I used a modified version of Nick Gravelyn's AnimatedSprite class and FrameAnimation class in his Tile Engine series for my game. I will likely have to modify those classes even further as the game progresses, but for now it works and that's good enough for me.

The features that you have to look forward to in the first build are,

1. Basic mining and placing of blocks
2. Basic inventory that shows the blocks the player has mined (scrollable)
3. Random map and terrain generation with basic caves
4. Player sprite with walking animations
5. Dirt and Rock blocks

I would like to say 'Thank You' to everyone who reads this blog and I hope that you find my game entertaining. I am very excited about where this game can go in the future and look forward to hearing what you guys think of it as well.

Thanks again,

Jeff

Revamping the Terrain and Caves

Hey guys I've been busy reworking the terrain and cave generation code to give smoother and less rigid results. I've also cleaned up the HUD to show less things and not clutter up the screen as much. Enjoy!

Game Demos on YouTube

Hey guys I figured it was about time I upgraded my presentation quality with this game and starting recording some actual "gameplay" for you to see. So without further ado, here is the first in-game video for my Adventure Resource game:



I apologize for the low framerate, I'm still getting use to this new video capture program. I assure you the game runs plenty fast.