DaCocoBrova
Finally bought a new PSP, but then pushed the demon onto someone else. Jesus.
Umm... What happened w/ Last Alarm?
GAFs Amateur Devs Chronicles
- Thread starter Gowans
- Start date
The Friendly Monster
Member
Here's a shot of my current project.sspeedy said:wow. what a cool thread. I've been so unmotivated to do this on my own after work, but I know I need to. Had been thinking of learning XNA, maybe this will be encourage me to get on that path again.
Anyone have any screenshots from any XNA games/demos they've created before? That'd be fun to see
FFChris said:
IIRC for XNA its code once, compile twice.
In other words you only have to write the code once, then you can either compile out to windows or to xbox 360.
When I worked on Winterbottom for our "xbox" version we used TorqueX. With TorqueX you code it up and then when you're ready to throw it on the 360 you run it through a little converter that converts your solution and some related files into the right format, then you load it up in VS and compile again. Then you transfer it over to the 360 via Cat5.
Transferring it seemed kind of slow to me, I think it got better after the intial transfer but it was still kinda meh. Then again we also had some huge ass sound file and a lot of unused art assets that we were transferring over. I think the whole build was around ~200mb on my laptop with code, sound and art.
Anywho if anyone wants advice on TorqueX and the TorqueX platform starterkit I'm willing to answer questions when I have time.
I also have experience with the Torque Game Engine Advanced, which I think you can put on 360 but not as an amateur but I'd have to double check.
Since people will ask, TorqueX is probably better for you if you're a designer and not a coder as its kind of a bitch to modify too much but the level designer tool it provides is pretty nice (once you learn their stupid system). TGEA is probably more for people with an actual team of coders (or people with a lot of time) as there's just too much to it for one person to handle.
TX for small projects/teams, TGEA if you have a bigger project/more engineers. Our 360 demo for Winterbottom was done with myself, one other sort of engineer, and a technically minded level designer (plus art from the lead designer). So yeah you can do stuff that will impress industry people with the right combo of talent, ideas and art (and personally I think art is what really separates the low end indie games from the better ones).
Durante said:
I worked on a decent 3D platformer in Ogre in school. You can make some good stuff with it if you know what you're doing. We had a lot of engineers on the project (8-9) plus some really nice custom code written by our instructor (a long time games industry vet). If you want I can post a screen shot or two from it. I don't think I can provide too much of the code though for legal reasons.
The Friendly Monster
Member
I've been messing around with audio today, decided to use XACT despite its flaws, might change later if I want to add anything particularly weird. I didn't want a beat to be played to the player, rather thinking that the beat and tempo of the game should be dictated by the button pressing.
Since the sound has to be played as the ball strikes a surface without a gap, then only a percussive sound with a short attack would be any good. There's no point having a drumroll to sound in time with a collision. I decided to go for woodblocks for the lines and a marimba for the pistons. I liked the idea of different notes for each collision.
My first idea (which I had in bed last night) was to have the notes be part of the whole tone scale, they're the ones which you have going up and down when entering a dream sequence. They have an ethereal quality, there's no "home" note. This also meant that between levels I could shift the scale by a semitone, to the complementary notes of the previous level. This part worked really nicely, the new notes made you feel a sense of progression. Unfortunately the rest of it sounded like shit. Plus I had no idea what to do for the ending or failing a level.
Usually when I'm playing it I'm listening to music, so my dream idea for the game was to have a tone played (perhaps a woodblock or xylophone) in time with a collision, but also in harmony with the music you are listening to at the moment. I had a scout around on the internet to see if anyone else had written a tool I could nick, but to no avail. I decided that this would have to be shelved for this game. I really love the idea though and hopefully will come back to it some time.
I decided to ditch woodblocks and had another think about percussive sounds. I'm a cello player so the idea of pizzicato came to me. I have a pretty good classical music selection and scoured through it for good pizzicato samples. I eschewed the dark and wonderful dissonances of Bartok for a couple of fantastic orchestra pizzicato hits from Britten's Simple Symphony and three nice chords from a progression in Johann Strauss II's Pizzicato Polka. Messing around a bit I was able to separate the sounds out and make the Britten chord the correct cadence for the Strauss chords. At the moment the sounds cycle randomly between the two chords that weren't played last and the volume of each chord is dependent on the velocity of the ball. I still have the line collisions to consider. I'm quite pleased with the results, although I'm sure I'll get irritated with it soon enough.
Keep posting dudes and dudettes.
TFM.
Jolt 0.1.3
- basic audio added
http://rapidshare.com/files/96046359/Jolt_0_1_3.zip.html
http://gcoope.googlepages.com/Jolt_0_1_3.zip
Since the sound has to be played as the ball strikes a surface without a gap, then only a percussive sound with a short attack would be any good. There's no point having a drumroll to sound in time with a collision. I decided to go for woodblocks for the lines and a marimba for the pistons. I liked the idea of different notes for each collision.
My first idea (which I had in bed last night) was to have the notes be part of the whole tone scale, they're the ones which you have going up and down when entering a dream sequence. They have an ethereal quality, there's no "home" note. This also meant that between levels I could shift the scale by a semitone, to the complementary notes of the previous level. This part worked really nicely, the new notes made you feel a sense of progression. Unfortunately the rest of it sounded like shit. Plus I had no idea what to do for the ending or failing a level.
Usually when I'm playing it I'm listening to music, so my dream idea for the game was to have a tone played (perhaps a woodblock or xylophone) in time with a collision, but also in harmony with the music you are listening to at the moment. I had a scout around on the internet to see if anyone else had written a tool I could nick, but to no avail. I decided that this would have to be shelved for this game. I really love the idea though and hopefully will come back to it some time.
I decided to ditch woodblocks and had another think about percussive sounds. I'm a cello player so the idea of pizzicato came to me. I have a pretty good classical music selection and scoured through it for good pizzicato samples. I eschewed the dark and wonderful dissonances of Bartok for a couple of fantastic orchestra pizzicato hits from Britten's Simple Symphony and three nice chords from a progression in Johann Strauss II's Pizzicato Polka. Messing around a bit I was able to separate the sounds out and make the Britten chord the correct cadence for the Strauss chords. At the moment the sounds cycle randomly between the two chords that weren't played last and the volume of each chord is dependent on the velocity of the ball. I still have the line collisions to consider. I'm quite pleased with the results, although I'm sure I'll get irritated with it soon enough.
Keep posting dudes and dudettes.
TFM.
Jolt 0.1.3
- basic audio added
http://rapidshare.com/files/96046359/Jolt_0_1_3.zip.html
http://gcoope.googlepages.com/Jolt_0_1_3.zip
The Friendly Monster
Member
Ah I think it is C# only. Sorry, I thought you were under then impression that XNA was a game engine.dfyb said:
Slavik81 said:
I'm in the same boat. I created a very simple test where I had 2 characters that you could control via both analog sticks (and jump with their respective triggers), and thought it would be cool to make a platformer where you played as two characters simultaneously. Like yourself, I wanted to create the engine myself.
To do that, I'd also have to create an editor (easy in Visual C#) for Windows.
But I have to learn more about 2D engines in general. I've tried scouring the web, but couldn't find any place with all the info in one spot. It almost seems easier making a 3D engine than a 2D one (as far as graphics are concerned, physics are another thing).
My issue is time. I'd LOVE to pursue this, but at this point in my life I have to choose one thing and stick to it to get somewhere, rather than trying everything and making marginal progress in many different areas. Decisions, decisions...
that was freakin awesome!m0dus said:
was that giant bosses name BlimBlim! LOL
I played your 0.1.2 and 0.1.3 builds for a good while. It's good stuff, kinda reminds me a little of the incredible machine games.The Friendly Monster said:Here's a shot of my current project.
there were a few occasions I stopped the ball completely and was in desperate need of a reset ball button.
I have recently started dabbling into the realm of XNA. being a complete newcomer to programming I was surprised how easy it really is.
The Friendly Monster
Member
Thanks a lot, Left Ctrl resets the ball, along with a pretty animation. Not done any work on it today I'm afraid, except added a mute sound button, hehe.pCeSlAyEr said:
The Friendly Monster
Member
Jolt 0.1.4
Changes
- changed from using XACT to IrrKlang for audio, all audio files now .oggs.
- added individual pizzicato notes for line collisions
- added little visual effects when collisions occur
- option to mute audio added (press M to toggle)
- option to remove visual effects added (press N to toggle)
gcoope.googlepages.com/Jolt_0_1_4.zip
edit: IF YOU ARE GOING TO PLAY MY GAME PLEASE READ THIS:
you can reset the ball with left ctrl
Changes
- changed from using XACT to IrrKlang for audio, all audio files now .oggs.
- added individual pizzicato notes for line collisions
- added little visual effects when collisions occur
- option to mute audio added (press M to toggle)
- option to remove visual effects added (press N to toggle)
gcoope.googlepages.com/Jolt_0_1_4.zip
edit: IF YOU ARE GOING TO PLAY MY GAME PLEASE READ THIS:
you can reset the ball with left ctrl
If anyone needs inexpensive (and imo awesome!) music, I'm willing to help.
Here's my website:
http://vgcomposer.blogspot.com/
Here's my website:
http://vgcomposer.blogspot.com/
Zombie James
Banned
I'm working on a game idea... sort of a cross between Mass Effect, Snatcher, and Radical Dreamers. Not going to be working on XNA, though. I plan to use HGE for graphics but I have to find something else for audio, BASS's license is too restrictive if I ever want to sell it independently without paying.
I've been thinking about this idea for almost a year but it's never really gotten off the ground due to work and motivation, plus i'm not much of a writer. Current progress is that i'm working on building a framework with HGE, and it's coming along. Sloooowly coming along...
This thread serves as good motivation.
I've been thinking about this idea for almost a year but it's never really gotten off the ground due to work and motivation, plus i'm not much of a writer. Current progress is that i'm working on building a framework with HGE, and it's coming along. Sloooowly coming along...
This thread serves as good motivation.
The Friendly Monster
Member
I don't know of any free to use audio libraries but irrklang is only £100 for a single use license (I'm assuming that you'd be charging less than £15)._leech_ said:
Anyway good luck with the project, it sounds like a large undertaking, keep us informed.
wow, this is a lot of fun. You can easily ramp up the difficulty too by just simply adding button to make other pumps go in and out :lolThe Friendly Monster said:Jolt 0.1.4
Changes
- changed from using XACT to IrrKlang for audio, all audio files now .oggs.
- added individual pizzicato notes for line collisions
- added little visual effects when collisions occur
- option to mute audio added (press M to toggle)
- option to remove visual effects added (press N to toggle)
gcoope.googlepages.com/Jolt_0_1_4.zip
The Friendly Monster
Member
That's a fucking fantastic idea. Expert mode. Although I think you'll find the difficulty ramps up quite a bit anyway! Still yet to see anyone do levels 20 or 21.rhfb said:
edit: it might need a bit of extra thought though, like you can only press one set at once, otherwise you'd just press them all.
Zombie James
Banned
The Friendly Monster said:
Right now i'm thinking of using the audio portion of SDL.
I only got to 7 and gave up after 15 mins, but I'll try to beat it all later tonight.The Friendly Monster said:
But pressing all of the buttons would make the ball not go on the correct path. You have to play it like a piano, certain switches down at certain points, up at other times, ect :lol
The Friendly Monster
Member
You can skip past a level by pressing + and - to move back if a certain one is annoying you. You get two passes only though.rhfb said:
What I mean is that if I changed the levels at the moment to have two buttons, each controlling different pistons, then you could play exactly the same way as it is, but pressing both down as oppose to just one.
Slavik81 said:
Are you talking about my game? I've never seen the movie so I don't get the reference, glad you like it though, I'm going to think through how to mix it up a little bit level by level tomorrow.
Yes. It just reminds me of the string plucking they occasionally used in comical sections. It's an older technique than that, I'm sure, but it was just used to such great effect in the old TMNT movie.The Friendly Monster said:
~1:30 http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=EuNUR5vKMKQ
The Friendly Monster
Member
Ah that's awesome, I want to play a drinking game to that film sometime.Slavik81 said:
electricpirate
Member
Nice job Gowans and Friendly, you guys got me inspired to get going on a game
Saturday I was on my own at my Inlaws while my Fiancee and her mom went shopping for bridesmaids dresses, so It was basically "Hey Char, Build TETRIS"
I didn't get the whole thing out, mainly I'm drawing the board, and I have the pieces rotating in the correct manner, and drawing to the right place, and moving around, there are also parts of the line clearing logic in place. I still need to do Collision, but I'm really happy with what's coming together so far. I haven't had this much fun programming since college (all of 2 years ago).
I should have a basic Tetris game by the end of the week, then I'll take a couple of weeks to polish off some of the features to make it actually fun, and add in the necessary Compile directives and input pieces to put it on the 360.
So far I really like the XNA Framework and C# for 2D development. I get frustrated with ASP.net because it tries to do to much for me, then does it wrong, but so far the framework is a bit more "Hands Off." Though I'm sure that will change, and I'll get horribly frustrated right as I'm trying to finish this off :lol
Saturday I was on my own at my Inlaws while my Fiancee and her mom went shopping for bridesmaids dresses, so It was basically "Hey Char, Build TETRIS"
I didn't get the whole thing out, mainly I'm drawing the board, and I have the pieces rotating in the correct manner, and drawing to the right place, and moving around, there are also parts of the line clearing logic in place. I still need to do Collision, but I'm really happy with what's coming together so far. I haven't had this much fun programming since college (all of 2 years ago).
I should have a basic Tetris game by the end of the week, then I'll take a couple of weeks to polish off some of the features to make it actually fun, and add in the necessary Compile directives and input pieces to put it on the 360.
So far I really like the XNA Framework and C# for 2D development. I get frustrated with ASP.net because it tries to do to much for me, then does it wrong, but so far the framework is a bit more "Hands Off." Though I'm sure that will change, and I'll get horribly frustrated right as I'm trying to finish this off :lol
The Friendly Monster
Member
Sounds cool, how are you planning on doing the visual style?electricpirate said:Nice job Gowans and Friendly, you guys got me inspired to get going on a game
Saturday I was on my own at my Inlaws while my Fiancee and her mom went shopping for bridesmaids dresses, so It was basically "Hey Char, Build TETRIS"
I didn't get the whole thing out, mainly I'm drawing the board, and I have the pieces rotating in the correct manner, and drawing to the right place, and moving around, there are also parts of the line clearing logic in place. I still need to do Collision, but I'm really happy with what's coming together so far. I haven't had this much fun programming since college (all of 2 years ago).
I should have a basic Tetris game by the end of the week, then I'll take a couple of weeks to polish off some of the features to make it actually fun, and add in the necessary Compile directives and input pieces to put it on the 360.
So far I really like the XNA Framework and C# for 2D development. I get frustrated with ASP.net because it tries to do to much for me, then does it wrong, but so far the framework is a bit more "Hands Off." Though I'm sure that will change, and I'll get horribly frustrated right as I'm trying to finish this off :lol
The Friendly Monster
Member
Sorry I meant for commercial use. FMOD, BASS and IrrKlang are all free for non-commercial use.bluemax said:
The Friendly Monster
Member
Jolt 0.1.5
Changes
- remade audio samples from individual pizzicato samples, much less hiss
- key changes between levels
- different cadence for failure
- changed fail/goal logic so you can enter from each side, still needs a little work
- added new levels 8, 13, 20, I hate them all
- minor alterations on levels 2, 3, 11 following feedback
- changed the order of a couple of levels
http://gcoope.googlepages.com/Jolt_0_1_5.zip
Changes
- remade audio samples from individual pizzicato samples, much less hiss
- key changes between levels
- different cadence for failure
- changed fail/goal logic so you can enter from each side, still needs a little work
- added new levels 8, 13, 20, I hate them all
- minor alterations on levels 2, 3, 11 following feedback
- changed the order of a couple of levels
http://gcoope.googlepages.com/Jolt_0_1_5.zip
The Friendly Monster
Member
C'mon ye bastards! Anyone want to ask any questions about 2D XNA development/my game in particular?
The Friendly Monster
Member
It depends how deep you want to get I think. I went from C++ to C# and had very little difficulty, then again I am not coding at a high level. Object oriented programming seems more intuitive to me in C#, most of the changes when starting to work with XNA was with using the XNA libraries though, previously I'd only done algorithm coding.JavaMava said:
How's about some advice on motivation? I've got a handful of small concepts that I could do in XNA, but for some reason I can't get motivated to actually try coding them. Even figured out much of the logic, made a little bit of art assets, just.... can't be arsed. :/
The Friendly Monster said:
Before C++ I used to use Turing which is kind of similar to Java, but a bit simpler. I was making side scrollers with tile engines, level editors, simple pattern based AI, all that fun stuff. Then college came and I had to move into C++. It's all string manipulation and math for the last year.
If C#'s got something like load.sprite("sprite.bmp") and draw.sprite(x, y) then thats awesome.
The Friendly Monster
Member
Yeah, not part of C# but the XNA framework. I think you should definitely give XNA a try, you can get something up and running in very little time.JavaMava said:
Code:
ballTexture = Content.Load<Texture2D>("ball");
spriteBatch.Draw(ballTexture, ball.position, Color.White);The Friendly Monster
Member
Haha, well my motivation comes from wanting to build a portfolio for jobs.Charron said:
I think with a lot of things in life it's a matter of the huge initial step of getting started on something. It's more rewarding than I would've thought to see your ideas actually working on screen, I'm a person who usually hates what they draw, compose, etc.
An idea might be to get other people involved. Either by working in a small group on a game or having other people test your stuff, knowing that other people are expectant on your work is a real motivator. This is half of the reason I participate so much in this thread, the other half being that I can get feedback, hopefully having this thread gets a lot of people in your position to start making.
I would certainly like to see game coding competitions on GAF, that'd be a great incentive for a lot of people here I imagine.
In any case best of luck, and start with something simple, you'll never overestimate the length of time you'll spend on finishing a project.
The Friendly Monster said:
Well, I want a portfolio for jobs too. In fact, I think I have a co-op all but ready, aside from my lack of portfolio. Hell, I've also got something started- an adventure game engine, in Java, that's making small bits of progress. But even with a friend of mine aware and on board with it (albeit not very enthusiastically), I can't get myself to work on it. I'd rather play Forza 2 and Worms all day. x_x
It's a real problem, I think, and it's a bit bigger than just game-making. I don't even know why I asked since I'm sure even with your best intentions it won't be much help.
The Friendly Monster
Member
I'm afraid I have no experience of using Java, although I hear Java and C# are very similar.rhfb said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_C_Sharp_and_Java
I wouldn't recommend reading books though aside from a reference or on a very specific subject, e.g. physics engines or AI algorithms. I think you learn far faster from playing around and making the errors yourself. I read a book on C# for hours on end, taking little in, before giving up and plunging into XNA. I think for every 5 hours reading I would've been better spending an hour trying to code, this is particularly true given that you'll have a strong grasp of all the terminology and be able to understand the errors well.
The Friendly Monster
Member
Sounds good, how about posting a bit about your game here, a couple of screenshots perhaps? There might even be someone who wants to get involved with it.Charron said:
Well if you have that attitude you aren't going to get anywhere. Everyone gets stuck in ruts sometimes, it's totally normal, but you have to believe you can get out of it.
a good trick for getting shit done on your own time is to set up smaller chunks of time to do things, but keep at them.
Your likely going to get burnt out if you sit down for 4 hours a day trying to make a game on your own time. Instead agree to do 20 minutes before noon, 20 minutes after noon of work every day. Even if all you do draw a single frame for a sprite, or fix a minor bug it's still progress and in 3 months you'll be amazed just how much you actually got done.
Also keep it simple.
Your likely going to get burnt out if you sit down for 4 hours a day trying to make a game on your own time. Instead agree to do 20 minutes before noon, 20 minutes after noon of work every day. Even if all you do draw a single frame for a sprite, or fix a minor bug it's still progress and in 3 months you'll be amazed just how much you actually got done.
Also keep it simple.
The Friendly Monster
Member
Yeah, something likeJavaMava said:
Code:
if (GamePad.GetState(PlayerIndex.One).Buttons.A == ButtonState.Pressed)
{
ball.position.X += 1;
}I watched a few of these video tutorials, 6-10 before starting coding. The guy makes a lot of mistakes and isn't the best at explaining stuff, but the videos are high quality and seeing someone go through the basics of the game loop might be worth your time.
Also I was coding with notepad and gpp before switching to Visual Studio. The amount of time I save by not making spelling mistakes, better debugging, automatic completing my words, etc. is astronomical.
The Friendly Monster
Member
Nice, is the art all yours?sprocket said:This is a mere glimpse of my super secret project... sshhhh!!
