XNA, Managed DirectX and Game Programming

Pixel Art Tutorial on Game Dev

Rich Grillotti has put together a good introduction tutorial on Pixel Art on Gamedev.net. The article goes though the basics of what is pixel art and wat can be done with it. He also talks about setting up your Photoshop application to make the job easier.

At the moment he has posted Part 1 of the series and will soon release the second part. For all those working on some sort of Retro game and would like to get your own Pixel art into the project, this article is a good start to get to moving.

Direct Link to the Article, if you have any questions you can post in the Forums on Gamedev.net.

XNA - Domination

 John Sedlak has been working on a small game for the Dream Build Play Warm Up Challenge, now that the entries for the comp have finished he has posted the game he has been working on.

Domination is a game of Global Domination.

Domination is my entry into the Dream Build Play 2.0 Warmup. It is a simple boardgame based on global domination. You are given control over a large amount of armies placed in regions all over the world with the ability to take over neighboring territories. Utilizing a good strategy is key to winning.

Included on the page is a link to the binaries and the source code for the project, here is a direct link to the Domination page.

Creators Site - More Updated Content

The XNA Team have been busy and have again release a new round of Updated Content. Included in this release is 1 new sample, a conversion and updates to a Starter Kit, as well as a new tutorial series.

Today we have released two new and four updated pieces of educational content.  We are targeting next Thursday to finish updating all content to XNA Game Studio 2.0, as well as continue to deliver new content.

New Samples

• Fuzzy Logic Sample

Updated Starter Kits

• Ship Game
• Ship Game - 3D Collision using the BoxCollider Library
• Ship Game - Adding New Content

Updated Utilities

• Curve Editor

New Tutorials

• Beginner's Guide to XNA Game Studio Express

At this time that is all of the content converted except for the Racing Game.

Nazeeh talks Game Design and XNA

Nazeeh has put together a really good article on Game Design. This article is just the begriming but it will give you enough to get started on before his next post "When he puts it into Practice"

This is the first post in my “Building a game” series! The aim of this series is to walk through building a game from scratch and try to include as much of the thought process involved as possible. So how about you grab yourself something to drink and let’s sit and chat about game design!

Before I sat down to write this post, I walked to Shawn Hargreaves and Eli Tayrien’s office and talked about game design with them. These guys know a whole lot when it comes to game development and I highly value their input. The question I asked was “How does one go about designing a game?”

During the article Nazeeh Talks about a small game that was put together by the Rare team. I wonder if this is a game that we could see released for the community.

Here’s another example for you, I am just so full of them today :) We had a game internally developed by some dude from Rare studios while we were working on version 1.0 of XNA Game Studio. The game just couldn’t be simpler than it was. You and up to 3 other people control 2D ships on the screen and you all have to work together to destroy all the asteroids on the screen. Every level, you have to destroy more asteroids. The hook though was when one of your buddies died. You can bring them back to life if you collect a randomly spawning star that is the same color as their ship. Once your buddy would die, they would instantly start yelling “BRING ME BACK!!! QUICK!!” and everyone would be searching all over the screen waiting for their resurrection star to show up. Once it did, we would ALL rush to it to bring them back and more often than not, we’d all ram into an asteroid and die together. Such a simple concept but it was so fun that we played that game for hours! Probably caused us to delay the release a little bit ;)

Creators Site - Updated XNA Content

Last week we were given an update to the Creators site, and told that for the next 3 weeks we would be receiving more.

The Next update has arrived, included in this update is 1 new sample and several updates to some old favourites.

New Samples

• Lens Flare Sample

Updated Samples

• Chasing and Evading
• Color Replacement Sample
• Custom Model Effect Sample
• Custom Model Importer Sample
• Picking Sample
• Picking with Triangle-Accuracy Sample
• Primitives Sample
• Sprite Effects Sample

Updated Starter Kits

• COMING VERY SOON: Marblets

Updated Mini Games

• Minjie

Here is an update on the current state of the Updates,

As of this time, all existing Samples and Mini Games have been converted, joining Tutorials and Articles. There are still a few Utilities, and Starter Kits to be converted and released.

Our next content release is planned for January 24th, 2008.

Very Silly Games

Rob Miles has put together a new Web Site called VerySillyGames, with this site he plans to put together a collection of Very Silly Games that you can download that will include the full Source code.

Over time we are going to build up a "Library of Gameplay silliness" from which you can pull down fully working XNA games you can play instantly on your computer or, once you have joined the XNA Creators Club, on your Xbox 360.

Currently there are 4 games online that you can look at and try.

Gamepad Racer

"Perhaps the ultimate example of a Zero Graphics Game, with nobody watching the screen but all eyes on the gamepads as they jostle for position, using the mysterious, ancient power of gravity to traverse a treacherous course at the end of which there can only be one winner".

Mob Reaction Timer

"Recreate the gladiatorial thrill of warrior against warrior in this game in which the very essence of human competition is exposed in a test of one of the fundamental survival skills. Sixteen players can take part in a single game, each straining to hear the distinctive sound of wooden spoon on pan half full of water, and respond in the briefest possible time. To the winner go the bragging rights, writ large in well formed white letters. To the loser goes the bitter taste of absolute defeat. Until next time....."

Slider

"The cool hypnotic mood squares provide a colourful, ever changing backgrop to the crisply rendered text with perfectly formed shadows behind each ivory letter which is lovingly rendered to three dimensional perfection. The time, obtained from a precision quartz mechanism which ticks to an atom-synchronised beat, is also provided at no additional cost and take this remarkable application to an even higher plane of wonder."

Pelmanism

"Stretch your mind and test your perception at the very bounds of endurance. The simple premise of picture matching finds its ultimate realisation as you struggle to connect each picture with its mate against a steadily ticking clock. With a huge number of different images and more possible combinations than there are atoms in the universe, truly this is a game that only those with the strongest mental capacities can grapple with."

Go a head and try them, look at the source code and please give Rob your feedback. Also remember that Rob is also putting a book together, maybe this site is a good indication of what is coming up in his book.

XNA Game State Menu System

For those of us who like the Game Stare Sample that you can Download from the Creators Site, RandomChaos has made some adjustments and developed his own. At the moment the source is not available but there is a cool video showing what the system can do.

Inspired by the Example on the Creators Club I decided to write my own so it would do the stuff I needed it to. As always the one on the Creators is great and a nice starting point.

This is written from scratch and instead of releasing the code I might just put it up as a binary for you to bolt into your projects, naturally you will be able to inherit from it and create the menus you want from it.

As the image I put up does not really show what is going on I have put up a short vid (here) to demonstrate some of the things it can do.

Features:

• Based on GameComponent so you can just add it to your game via Component.Add

• Ability to texture your fonts

• 2D shader effects on both the menu, fonts and cursor

• Menu cursor driven by the keyboard or 360 Controller

There are only a few effects at the moment but I plan to add more, still much to do, but once done I think it will be useful.

I had a quick look at the video and it looks good, keep up the work and I hope to see it in a releasable state soon.

Here is a Direct Link to the Post.

XNA Theme for your Windows Mobile Device

Here is a link to an XNA Based Theme for your Windows Mobile 5 Device, now all we need is for the XNA Framework to run on the Device.

Direct Link to the Theme, thanks Stuart.

XNA Challenge Brazil 2008 Final Results

Yesterday I posted about the XNA Challenge Brazil and the top 5 entries, well today I have the final Results.

"Recicle" was given the First Place Position

"Recicle" (portuguese word for "recycle"), by Vitor Antonioli from UNICAMP. In the game, you should control a series of recycling baskets in order to collect specific gargabe in a flowing river. The game innovates by providing a very ambitious input system: in some advanced stages, you control the baskets by using both Xbox controller sticks, the D-pad and the triggers... at the same time! Sounds simple and insane at the beginning, but it is actually fun and challenging.

The winner was awarded with an all-paid trip to the the Third Annual Microsoft Academic Days Conference on Game Development in Computer Science Education, that happens in a cruise leaving from the States towards Cozumel, Mexico. The game also won the "People's Choice" award, whose prize was a kit containing a Xbox 360 wireless controller with a PC wireless receiver.

In the second place, the game City Rain, by Guilherme Campos from UNESP. It is a creative mix of Tetris and Sim City, in which available constructions fall from the sky and you have to properly select and place them in an isometric grid, considering key environmental aspects such as pollution. The prize was a kit containing Windows Vista Home Premium, a Microsoft mouse and 5 Microsoft games for PC.

Finally, the third prize winner was the game "Alice, os Parasitas e o Livro do Tempo" (Alice, the Parasites and the Time Book), by Bruno Evangelista from UFMG. This is a very beautiful game in which Alice, the main character, should free the population of small villages from evil environment-destroying monsters, using special powers. The prize was a kit containing a Microsoft mouse, a finger print reader and 5 Microsoft games for PC.

With the entries that I have seen for this event it looks like there will be some good examples of XNA Programming coming up in this years Imagine Cup.

XNA Challenge Brazil - Top 5

I have been trying to follow and read about the Brazil Challenge for a while (Language Barrier), but the finalists have been announced and the winner should be announced soon. Good luck to all of the Entrants...

Here is a link to a Video that has been put together to show the Top 5 Entrants.

Here are the links to the Sources of the Information.

• XNA Challenge Brazil 2008: top-5 finalists
• Conheça os finalistas do 2o. XNA Challenge Brasil

Novaleaf Release Tech Preview of Biology Wars

The Novaleaf guys have released an Open Alpha/Tech Preview of their Biology Wars Game for the PC.

Biology Wars "Open Alpha / Tech Preview"

BiologyWarsSetup.exe (15.3MB)

Prerequsites

• DirectX 9.0c or later (configured by default on Windows XP SP2 and Vista)
• .NET 2.0 Framework Redistributable

You shouldn't have to install Biology Wars prerequisites yourself unless you are having problems or are informed to do so by Biology Wars Setup as your system very likely has some or all of them already configured.

Get the retail version free!

When you try the tech-preview, please fill out the feedback form (displayed on game exit). People who give good feedback about gameplay improvements or bugs will receive the retail version of biology wars free!

Privacy Note

This tech-preview collects usage information. This information is used for quality feedback purposes only, and will not be used for any other reason.

Novaleaf talk about Performance Tuning XNA Applications

The guys from Novaleaf have posted a quick article on their blog that talks about the performance problems that they have been having with their Biology Wars game.

What they found is that the game ran fine on the windows Platform, but it was another story on the Xbox 360. While doing the testing they have documented some of the things that they have changed. But in the end the moral is...

WRONG! Turns out that our BiologyWars Tech Preview runs fine on PC (aside from needless use of shader 2.0, but that’s another story), but perf tanks on the XBOX360. Granted it’s just a tech preview, but wow, my developers learned it’s important to frequently test the development bits on all “supported platforms”.

Here is a Direct Link to their Blog Post, If you are working on a Large Project (Or a Small one) this post is worth the read.

TileMap Template

Over the last few weeks I have been throwing around the idea of putting together a small RPG along the lines of the the old Ultima 4 and 5 games, but to do this I needed to get some artwork together. I know that there are several different sources that you can down load from the net, but as I actually like drawing and producing artwork I thought I would put it together myself and publish what I have done.

To start with I needed to get some base tiles drawn so that the tile engine could be started. I did start with the basic full tile textures but thought about adding some transitions to the tiles.

To do this I have put together a simple Photoshop file that has several layers in it. The first layer is just a normal Transparent Background, the second layer is a checker board image to separate the different tiles. And the last layer is a Template to assist in the drawing of the different transitions that are needed.

With this template I should be able to draw up the different layers that I need and then overlay them against some base textures to get all of the different map tiles that I am going to need.

Here is a link to the TileMap Template.

Doomsday - Commercial XNA Game

Going through my normal Sunday morning Blog search and I came across a reference to a Commercial game that lists one of the requirements as the XNA Framework 1.0 Refresh. Is this one of the first commercial games that use the XNA Framework.

"Doomsday"

About the game..

Doomsday is a classic "Shoot'em up" game. Our task is to defend our planet from attacks of terrifying aliens. The task is not easy - at the beginning we have only small arsenal of weapons and small amount of ammunition. It is right to mention that the interesting element, which makes Doomsday different from other games of that kind is evolutionary system of increasing pilot skills. During the game player can choose 3 ways of evolution. He can upgrade ship with 18 unique skills. Action takes place on 48 unique, photorealistic maps, which we have to clear from hundreds of space invaders.
Features
- 48 unique photorealistic maps
- 7 kinds of basic weapons
- 2 special weapons
- system of pilot evolution
- screen resolution from 1024x768 up to 1920x1200
- variety of enemies
- growing degree of difficulty
- no erotic scenes, violence, vulgarisms

System Requirements

Minimum game requirements
- Windows XP SP2/Vista
- 1.5 GHz CPU
- 1024 MB RAM
- DVD-ROM Drive
- 900MB of free space on hard disk
- 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible video card with Pixel Shader 2.0 and the latest drivers
- 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
- 100% Windows XP/Vista compatible mouse and keyboard
- Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 (comes with Doomsday)
- Microsoft XNA Framework Redistributable 1.0 Refresh (comes with Doomsday)
- Microsoft DirectX 9.0c Redistributable (comes with Doomsday)

There is a video Download on the site and it looks impressive, I will have to download the Demo to see how it runs.

New Content on the XNA Creators Site

Microsoft has released a new batch of Updated and New Content on the Creators Site, we have also been informed that there will be more released each Thursday for the next 3 weeks. If you have any questions or suggestions on Content you can post in the Content Forums on the Creators Site.

Today we have released four new and twelve updated pieces of educational content, all designed to support XNA Game Studio 2.0.  Each Thursday for the next three weeks, we will release more updated content until our entire catalog has been converted, as well as continuing to deliver new content.

New Content Included

• Collision Series 5: Heightmap Collision with Normals
• Sprite Sheet Sample
• WinForms Series 1: Graphics Device
• WinForms Series 2: Content Loading

Updated Content

• Billboard Sample
• Distortion Sample
• Particle Sample
• Tiled Sprites Sample
• Shader Series: Introduction
• Shader Series 1: Vertex Lighting Sample
• Shader Series 2: Textures and Colors Sample
• Shader Series 3: Per-Pixel Lighting Sample
• Shader Series 4: Materials and Multiple Light Sources Sample
• Shader Series: Fixed-Function to Programmable Pipeline
• Shader Series: Coordinate Systems

Updated Tutorials

• Authoring Particle Systems Using XML and the Content Pipeline

Updated Mini Games

• Minjie
• Pickture

With this release all of the Existing Tutorials and Articles have been converted. There are still a few Samples, Mini Games, Utilities, and Starter Kits to be converted and released.

The next content release is planned for January 17th, 2008.

Self-Paced Online Blender Course

I came across this great resource today, "Blender 3D Design Online Course". This site has a huge collection of Tutorials and Guides to get you started with Blender 3d. If you are starting to use the Blender 3D application, or are having trouble with one or two of the functions check out the site.

I have finally created my own new permanent web site for the online Blender 3D Course. It is located at: http://www.gryllus.net/Blender/3D.html

The new course site contains all of the material on the old "Open Courseware" site as well as some additional material. I updated all of the tutorials to reflect Blender Version 2.45.

The new site includes:

Syllabus - 13 Learning Units - A complete listing (over a hundred) of my Blender video tutorials in Real Media streaming format, QuickTime format and downloadable QuickTime video - A complete listing (24) PDF tutorials with associated Zip files - 5 suggested Blender design projects and examples of project work done by my students.

I will be adding additional content to this site over the next 6 months. I think layout of the new site is much more user friendly allowing students to quickly find specific information.

Tutorial - Using Google Sketch-Up Models in XNA

Here is a quick tutorial that will take you through a process to export your Google Sketch-Up models into your XNA Applications.

*GASP* That’s a long title, but there’s really no way of shortening it. It is what it is. Today I will give you a step by step tutorial for creating a model in Google Sketch-up, importing it into Blender, and then using it in XNA.

To start, download Google Sketch-Up, Blender, follow this tutorial to enable Google model importing into Blender, and make sure that XNA is properly configured and working.

Here is the Direct Link to the Tutorial.

Tutorial Series - Creating a Game Engine in XNA

RoeCode over at Running on Empty has started a series of Articles that go through the process of creating a Game Engine using the XNA Framework.

This series of articles is all about building an Engine using the Microsoft XNA Framework.  I am very excited about this series and hopefully you will be as well.  These articles are not about development practices in C#, coding standards, or even how to use the XNA framework.  Rather, it is my goal to build a small practical engine using the XNA Framework and to have fun.

In this first article he starts of with the base classes to get the program running, this includes some helper classes that utilize the XNA Storage system for saving the game settings.

I had a quick look at it this morning and it looks promising, well worth taking a look at and giving it a go.

Introduction to Blender 3D

Over the last few years I have been using a wide range of 3D modelling tools, but one of the main ones is Blender 3D. Over that time several people keep complaining that they only reason that they do not use it is because the interface is hard to use. Today I came across a small collection of Videos that may assist those people in getting used to the interface. This videos could also be used to the first timer getting used to it for the first time.

Here is a list of the Included Videos.

1. Terms and Concepts used in 3D Graphics
2. The Blender Interface
3. The Blender Viewport
4. Manipulating Objects in Blender
5. Blenders Datablocks
6. Blenders Edit Mode

Here is the Direct Link to the Videos.

3D Studio Max - Repetitive Animation Tutorial

For those of you who are using Max for your XNA Applications or just for general Artwork, here is a link to a great small tutorial on Repetitive Animation in 3D Studio Max.

A lot of people asked me how I created rotor rotation of Apache helicopter in Desert Chase tutorial. The answer is simple. I used tool available in 3dsmax to create repetitive animation. Sometimes animation need to be repeated, like rotor rotation, wheel rotation, pendulum swing and other case of animation. Instead of using manual animation, we can create those type of animation easily in 3dsmax. Here's how.

Here is the link to the Tutorials.