I am back.

I have finally decided to get back to a bit of game programming every now and again. I am just going to concentrate on 2D games for now as I can't be bothered working on all the complicated 3D game things. I am going to remake classic games such as pong, tetris, breakout... etc.

These games, upon completion will be available on my website. So if you want to play my creations then feel free to do so! 

I haven't had much time to program games lately as I have been working on my website. 

Anyway I have to go I have got school to go to!

Day 6 : 2D game

So guys I haven't had time to do anything on the game this day because of other things. But I did manage to find an artist whom is keen to do some free art work for my game. This is great as it means the game will look a lot more professional by the end. But I am currently creating a game menu. Which will incorporate my first ever use of buttons in XNA and C#.

however I am thinking that I might start work on a second game. A city builder. This should be challenging, but I am going to try and plan it. It is going to be a tile based game but I am thinking about a way to do this. My main idea is to create so many buttons up and down the screen. Query the mouse position and whether it is clicking and when it clicks on one of the appropriate tiles then bring up a small UI so that you can choose what to build on it.

But I will start it tonight. As well as work more on my first game.

Anyway Cya later!

Day 5 : 2D Game

So I have been working on the menu feature as I mentioned in the last post but I am also looking into ways of creating buttons. I am going to go for a clicking interface to cast spells. For instance I will have a row of small buttons at the top of my UI which will have images corresponding to their spell. I will also have an in game menu.
With these in place I can then implement a new level system. This would be good as it would add a lot more to the game.

With this project just about finished I have been thinking about my next game. I am thinking about going for a city builder. It will be a 2D game similar to Civilization. But right now I don't have much time to tell you about it. But I will update you tonight.

day 4 : 2D game update

So guys I have started working on the main menu. I am going to get some placeholder graphics up and running and then hopefully get an artist to draw me up some cool things for my buttons and my backdrop for the menu. This is quite easy.

What I am doing is I am using an integer value named GameState. This is initially set to 1 which happens to be the main menu state. This right now shows up the basic blue screen. But when I then set the GameState to 2 it draws everything the game usually shows and takes input as normal. I can then take this further by having a GameState 3 which I could use as a pause state etc. This is a very simple solution to my main menu problem and it is one that I used in my First game of Pong. Although for the way I have coded this I do not like it. It means I have weird if statements everywhere whereas if I had everything set in appropriate public voids. Then it would be a lot better/cleaner.

For instance I would rather have

if ( GameState = 2 )
{

takeinput();
drawgame();
setlevel();
docombat();

}

whereas for the most part I have

if ( GameState = 2)
{

Then quite a lot of code.

}

So in my next game I am going to resolve this at the very outset. Then hopefully I can utilize this to a greater extent in my next games.

Anyway a quick screenshot to show you how the game is progressing. This contains placeholder graphics so try and use your imagination when looking at it. I will however have a download within the next 2 weeks so that you guys can have a shot at my game :D

More updates tomorrow!

Bye for now!

Day 4 : 2D game

For those that don't know I am currently in the process of creating a 2D game which I will add to my website GamerCity.co.uk for download when I am finished. This 2D game will be programmed in C# and XNA and shouldn't take longer than a week or two to finish.

Throughout the process of programming the game I will be giving daily updates as to how the game is coming along and what things I am going to add and other things like that!

So today I am working on adding placeholder sprites. "What?!" you say? Well I managed to find an artist that is willing to work for nothing in order to create decent looking art work for my game. This will hopefully come to fruition in the next couple of days and hopefully I will have some nice art to add to my game. I think the art will definitely add to the game as a whole but right now it isn't very fun to play. Although I have had some ideas.

Firstly I will make it a sort of boss type level found in games like devil may cry. For instance I will make it so that after the boss reaches 25% health I will have some sort of flying bat fly down and try to attack you. I will have it so that it is a sort of quick fire click fire. Then you have to click on the bats before they reach you. Hopefully this will bring a bit of fun to the game.

So today I have added a couple of things like

A sprite which travels across the screen to hit the enemy.  AKA a fireball
I have also added sprites which represent the player and the enemy
Also I added a timer function so that if you press the H button you can rejuvenate some health at the cost of some Magic Power.

More updates tomorrow

Day 3 : 2D game

So today I added quite a few things. For instance I set up a basic combat system. Which allows the player to fire  a spell at the enemy. This is all just numbers at the moment but I think I will steal the ball used in the 2D XNA tutorial and use that as my spell.

As for the sprites I need I have put up a thread in the help wanted section of GameDev.net and am currently waiting for a reply. Hopefully that will come soon.

Anyway I am still on the hunt for decent 2D sprites to fill the void. When I get them in it will look like a proper game!

I have also been thinking of a couple of new things to add to my game. Like for instance a floating health bar at the top of a character. This wont really be much use in the game its just that it will give me the knowledge of how to program one in.

So I thought I would give you a little screenshot to show you how the game is coming on!

As you can see I have added a few more stats to the game as well as put up the enemies stats in the top right corner. Currently I have added a few options:

Space to shoot a spell

P - makes you drink a Magic Power potion which allows you to fire more spells

thats all so far. But the combat system works. I am going to add a random number generator to see whether or not the spells hit the monster. And I am going to make it so that the monster attacks you right after you have attacked it. It will all be quite random. But I want to be able to add some sort of skill to the game. For instance. I could limit the number of potions you could drink to 1 per 3-4 turns. Which means you could try to finish the monster off with the magic power you have left or you could drink while the monster heals itself.

Another thing I need to add is the Magic Power regeneration feature. Which lets you rejuvenate so of the Magic Power used whenever you successfully hit the monster with a spell!

Anyway I need to go school time but more will come tonight!

Day 2 : 2D game

So guys this is my second day working on my latest game. I must say it will be complete fairly soon. Its not been that hard to do so far but this time I really want to spend a lot of time polishing it so that on the exterior it looks fairly professional. For instance I want to have decent artwork this will take me a while even if I do it myself. But it is more than likely that I will ask a newbie game artist to get it all done for me. This should be fairly easy as game artists are a dime a dozen for semi decent ones and also it gets me started networking. Which might help me get a job in the future. Anyway now I am looking at possible candidates for sprites.

I am simplifying the game so that I can get some practice on the more technical side of things. Like animation and  sound and things like main menus and in game menus. If i get all these in my game then I can then reuse them in my other games. This is me just building up my library. Then I can concentrate on other games to add to my website!

2D Side Scroller

Today I managed to get quite a few things up and running with little trouble. I thought I would give you a quick preview of what the game looks like after the first day in development.

As you can see programmer art leaves a lot to be desired. But I am happy as I have gotten the viewport set up as well as health. I am going to have the enemies stats in the top right of the UI. and all the rest at the bottom. The bottom right will play host to the backpack to which I have no idea as to how I will get that implemented.

I haven't got round to getting a decent sprite for my character, nor my enemy character. I will also need to get a couple of sprites for attacks such as fireballs and arrows. Close quarter combat will have to wait until I learn animation and how to use character sprite sheets.

Any way time to have my sleep so that I can continue to work on my latest game tomorrow.

Remember to become a follower so that you can track how my game is coming along!

XNA side scroller

Ok guys so I am going to try my hand at creating a RPG XNA side scroller. This will hopefully be good fun as I really want to try my hand at 2D games. I have a few Ideas in the pipeline but this game will be my number one priority.

My main ideas for the game will come from other 2D rpg's for instance I have had a wee look at the RPG that XNA creators website gives you. This is a complete game so if I get stuck I can easily just check out how they did it.

Anyway I am currently looking for a good sprite that will be used for testing. As well as a good background for my game.

I haven't quite decided whether I will try a pokemon-ish type top down scroller. Or just a classic side scroller. I think side scroller would be best at the moment as a full top down scroller would be a big drain on my resources.

Todays tasks:

Get a decent sprite
get a decent background
program in movement for sprite chosen
find enemy sprite
work on Human computer interface( get a main menu, in game menu)

Also I need to get the basic lay down for the game interface. This will have things like health and backpack information

Anyway I need to get working. Lots to do!

Im back

So recently a lot of things have been happening which has meant I have not had a lot of time and effort to put into game programming, But now that has changed. I still have to focus on my school work, but I can find time to program games again. I miss the feeling of joy when you realize that you have solved a problem and that when you complete your game you have achieved something.

Its gonna be different this time though. I am going to use purely C# and XNA and I will work on larger and larger 2D games to begin with. This will mean that I can easily put the finished product onto my website and I can move onto 3D quite easily when the time comes.

I just hope that I will be able to create the 2D games that I have in mind quickly so that people will come to my site and play these games because they enjoy them.

Nothing new

Well guys my mum has just had her liver transplant so I haven't been doing much over the last week or two. The operation was a success. Which is great! I can't wait to have her back. I was incredibly nervous today at school as it was so sudden. But programming will be put on hold for a while as I will be busy working on my site. Its new layout is in place and I am currently trying to get it up and running so that every page up has decent content on it. Read more about my new website at my entrepreneur blog which I will put a link for in my link section.

anyway need to get back to work.

bugs

Hello. Right now I am currently working on making the tank fire, but the problem is that the rotation matrix for the missile does not take the tanks current rotation into perspective. So I have to find a way to fix this, as this is causing the missiles to fire upwards. They do go in the right direction that I would like. Also I have downloaded a new tank model and I am currently working on implementing it.

Hopefully though I will have the enemies working so they start to move toward the tank. Then I just have to set up some collision detection and scoring system and then thats all the gameplay I wanted to add. Although I might add more.

I still have to create a model that has a decent grass texture on it as the one I have right now Is incredibly boring. Anyway I need to get back to work.

Camera working!

Ok guys so I haven't being doing much game programming lately. I have been busy building up my website.

Although tonight I have managed to get my camera working. I did this by using matrices. Firstly I created a camera rotation matrix using the following lines


Matrix rotationMatrix;
            Matrix.CreateRotationY(MathHelper.ToRadians(cameraYaw), out rotationMatrix);

as you can see I first initialize the matrix using Matrix rotationMatrix then I go onto create a value for how much I would like to rotate. cameraYaw is a const variable set to 2.0f.

and using input I then determine whether or not I would like to set this rotation matrix into effect.
Like so...


    if (keyboardstate.IsKeyDown(Keys.D))
            {
                cameraYaw -= spinRate;
              
            }

So thats all working. Now I am going to work to make it so that the camera goes in the direction of the target. Hopefully that shouldn't be to hard.

Anyway once I get that up and running I will definitely get some missiles firing. I have decided that since this is my first 3D game I am not going to go into to much detail and just get the thing finished. For instance I was going to split the tank model into 2 models so that I could rotate the top of the tank like a turret on a real tank would but that would be too much work. And I am probably going to change the model again as I am not quite happy with it. Anyway right now the missiles will only fire towards whichever direction the tank is facing.

After getting this set up I will find a way to make the terrain solid. And set up some collision boxes around the tank and the terrain. Having done this I will find a way to add gravity to my game to make sure that my tank is constantly on the ground :D

Anyway back to work!

progress?

So guys recently I have been working a lot on my new website. Putting most of my efforts into it. Right now I am writing some articles for it that will hopefully bring a few more people to the site.

On the programming side of life, I have blitzed through all the tasks my computer teacher gave us in class. I am his favorite programming student :D. So I am learning something after all :D.

Anyway right now I am going to work my way through the new book that came.

Microsoft XNA game studio 3.0 unleashed. And by the end of it I will have a cool 3D game. Learning how to do a couple of things on my way that will eventually lead me to creating my own game.

Please remember to check out my new site and sign up for the forums! :D

http://www.gamercity.co.uk and if you like what I am doing with the site please tell me in the forums :D

Study time

Hi

I cannot really do much work today as I really need to study for my computing and chemistry test that I have coming tomorrow and the next day. So all the things I have lined up for today will have to wait. I am just going to try and add a skybox then probably call it a night. anyway more info tomorrow as well as a small update on how my debut at training has gone at the new club I am going to! :D

Bye for now!

Enter the Matrix..

Hi guys so I have just found out that to fix my model I need to create a matrix for it which is similar to that in the Chase camera sample from the XNA website

So I need to figure out how I would port that to my engine. I am happy though as I managed to fix the problem

that the models center was not where I wanted it to be. Although hopefully when I get back from school I can

quickly find someway to create a matrix for my model. After that I am going to force myself to create a skybox because

the background looks a little dull. I might also texture the flat terrain model I have with something that resembles

grass. And also find a way to texture the tank that I have downloaded.

So my list of tasks for today is as follows:

texture ground

create skybox

create matrix for tank model

texture tank model.

research how to make solid ground

- this should be easy as I think I know what I am doing here. Just a quick bit of collision detection and

if this returns true then I will simply move the models position up a bit.

anyway time to get ready for school.

Yet another update :D

Hi guys Just thought I would show of a picture of my current game engine. As you can see its still very primitive but that will hopefully change soon. There is a small bug with the drawing of the tank that I need to correct but other than that its coming along pretty nicely(although a bit slow) But since this is my first proper 3D game I am just thinking that any progress is good progress. Hopefully tonight I will be able to fix the object center point bug and I will get some cubes attacking you and some missiles firing from the tank. After that is done I will probably change the terrain to something that resembles grass. Its going to be flat though but to make it more interesting I might add some bill-boarded trees. The skybox as you can see is not up and running yet. I have been too busy helping my dad dig up the garden. All in all I have gotten less than I would have liked to this weekend.

Anyway time to go Cya later!

Small update

I have just joined technorati to try and get a few more people to my blog. I will keep you updated as to whether or not this is any good. Hopefully it will be :D

Anyway I am having a tough time figuring out how to make it so that the model goes in the right direction. Hopefully I will find something good and useful in the sample I just downloaded from XNA. I am actually astounded that XNA have such high quality samples which allows a lot of beginners the ability to dive straight into game programming. It has lots of samples ranging from animation to networking and beyond! I should have the basic gameplay mechanics up and running soon though :D

Stay tuned!

Update

I changed the model in my game engine to a cool looking tank model, which I downloaded from turbosquid.com- This is a great site that any game creator should use when trying to look for models(free or otherwise). Anyway right now I am trying to figure out a way to make my tank move in the direction it is facing. Right now I only have the option to move in a positive or negative direction along the X and Z axis. I also fixed a minor bug which caused my model to load facing downwards. Thank god we learned about radians in school last week or else I would not have had a clue!

While I am waiting for some help on the model direction problem. I am going to get the tank firing missiles out its turret. Then I can set up some targets(boxes) which I can try to shoot at! :D It will start to look like a game really soon! I hope :D

Also since getting a new tv yesterday and finding that nobody really needs my old one. I am going to get 2 birds with one stone. My little brother is quite addicted to the PS3 but since it is in my room and connected to the screen my computer is connected to then that means he doesn't get to play it as often as he likes. So It will allow him to play next to me while I am on the computer. And also I have not found a way to record movies of my PS3 on my new screen so by keeping my old screen it will essentially let me get that second bird I was talking about earlier.


anyway it is morning here so I better go grab my breakfast.

More updates Soon as well as a link to download the current version of my game engine.
Although you must have the C# express edition downloaded :D More details to come!

Birthday

Hi guys Its my birthday today and I got a great TV which is a 32" 780p LG from the lh2000 series. I am using it right now and the picture is insanely good I love it. It so big as well. I am just about to try it out with the PS3 and see how much better the picture is. Already I am noticing a difference. Hopefully I will be writing games soon that test the resolution of this thing :D. Anyway I am going to try it out and get a new video walkthrough of another game level so that I have more and better content to put onto my website.

The game I am creating is coming along well I have gotten the forwards and backwards left and right camera working as well as up and down so that I can change my view to see things better. Although I need to add a rotation functionality to it which should be pretty easy. Then I can finally get to work on setting up the animations or importing a new model. I haven't quite decided.

Anyway I will talk to you later I have alot fun to do! :D

Sucess!

I have gotten my camera and movement to work so I can cross of the first thing on my list. Now I am working on getting the animation to work and look good :D. Hopefully with this addition I will start to have the beginning of a decent looking game :D. Remember all the games I make will hopefully be added to my website for free download. How I am going to do this is beyond me but if there is a will there is a way. Also It is my birthday tommorow so happy birthday me! :D Although it will be a working birthday as I am helping my dad dig up the garden so we can lay down some foundations for our new extension! We decided that doing most of it ourselves will be good character building and will also teach us alot about building a house. Which I think is one of my dads dreams. Also it is nice to be working with my dad on a project like this. Although I wish we could just stick to kiteboarding. I am hoping that tommorow will bring a new tv which I can put up in my room. It will be alot better than the one I am currently working with now. Which is about 16" I have had it for years now, and I am thinking that a new tv would be nice. As a celebration me and my friends are going to the cinema. Not this week but next week(jewish new year for some of them)

Anyway back to programming. Right now I am working on getting some basic animations for tiny.x(my model that I use as placeholder) I am thinking that maybe I will need to hire/ask a decent modeller to build me some good(hopefully free) models. I think that the first game I make will be a space game as it will be rather easy to create. Atleast compared to a FPS or something similar. And once I have made it feature complete I am hoping to add networking so that if my friends download it they will be able to play each other. This should hopefully bring a bit of fun to the game and will teach me alot about networking! :D

So tommorow my main goal is to create a skybox for my game and put in some collision detection so you cannot go past it :D I will also add a new spaceship model which I am thinking of stealing from a game example courtesy of XNA game studio. So I better not talk to long or else I will get very little done tonight!

More updates tommorow!

XNA game engine update

Hi guys I am currently working on lots of little things that might make this project remotely interesting, heres a list of things I want done before the end of september:

camera working
animation working
decent level model created and loaded in to scale
decent skybox up and running
maybe add a weapon to the tiny.x model I am using as my test model.
get some sort of physics up and running so I can jump about the game.

Thats all atm as I think this will be more than enough for me to try and accomplish! after all I am still only starting out at this. Although I do have help in the form of the new book I recently purchased which I have to say is quite good. It is providing me with alot of helpful ideas on which I will hopefully expand upon.

Right now in my game/engine I am using a model known well to all directx users as tiny.x which I dont think is that good a choice for me as it will be hard to get it looking quite good with a human model. I am thinking that I will create a small spaceship model which I can make a flying fps with. Or I could try and create a truck with a movable turret which will fire missiles :D

anyway I will post later tonight If I get much done!

XNA latest

So guys I have gotten my new book. microsoft XNA game studio 3.0 unleashed. I have to say it is pretty good. It will help me with alot of things that I had no clue on how I was going to do them. I am currently working my way through the book. I am starting on an unofficial game engine of mine which I have ingeniously called game engine v0.01 which will basically be fps game but it will have lots of things like water rendering and particle systems which I can take on with me to other projects. I would really like to have a game up and running which I will be able to put on my site by christmas :D That would be awesome and hopefully it will bring a bit of traffic to my website. I am thinking that my website's main attraction will be the free games I will provide. But first I need to get some free games so I need to start working on that.

Anyway I will update you later tonight depending on how much I have done to my engine!

update

Hi guys tommorow is the big day! The day I get my video capture card. I can finally start recording my own video reviews of games! I will have decent content to put on my site. I am going to do lots of different reviews of all the latest games and then let you chat amongst your selves on my forums:D My goal right now is to get atleast 3000 page impressions per day but thats like 6 months down the line. And then who knows? 10,000 page views per day is my goal by the time I start applying for Uni. That would be sweet!

Anyway I got the model I created in blender up and running in my game project. Although I need to find out what a decent view matrix would be for a FPS. I am thinking about getting one for XNA and C# as it will also teach me networking. I think it would be awesome to invite my friends on for a game and they can tell me how to improve it. Also it pretty much tells me all the important stuff that I need like view projection matrix and stuff like that. I am going to try and do all the buildings and guns myself but I will have to get someone to model the characters for me as I am terrible at humans. I haven't really tried but I am still learning and the building and cars and guns will be a challenge as it is. I am getting most of the day off tommorow so I can go and start recording some videos for my website :D

I downloaded microsofts free accounting package and it seems pretty cool Although I will have to learn how to use it in a way that is quite professional. I want to run this website as a mock business. As it will be good to learn how everything works. I also want to make sure that I do-not exceed my maximum £200 mark on investment into the site. I want to make it so that this website pays for itself. right now I have bought the domain name and the video capture card. So I want to pay that off. Then I will allow more investment into the site.

thanks for reading!

Update

So guys I ordered a dazzle dvd recorder yesterday and it is going to come tommorow! This will be great as it means I will be able to put my own video reviews of games onto both my site and youtube. This will mean people have a reason to come to my new site as right now it basically doesn't have anything on it. I am hoping that I will be able to complete my first video review by tommorow night and upload it to my site. I also hope that I will be able to get some people to actively visit my new forums which are up and running on my site now! There are only 3 categories but that will change very soon.

Anyway back to game programming. Right now I am going to start work on a sort of FPS which will feature boxes as enemies and rectangles as bosses! It is going to be the next wow-killer I swear. Nah it will be very simple and graphically unappealing but its the technical side of it that will teach me alot! And hopefully if I get most of it coded in I can find a free artist to spice it up a bit. Either that or I will go onto turbosquid.com and just download some free models. This "game" will be in C# and XNA as they are the new loves in my life. I think it will be awesome to complete a game that is mine and not some tutorials or some classic game clone. Although Pong was fun :D This will also be great to show off in computing when I bring in CD's of my game and hopefully get the class to playtest it lol! They would like that if I made it fun enough. A period off school work would be great.

I am hoping I will get the basic terrain and camera up and working tonight so that I have something to work with :D I will also try and get the collision detection working. I am thinking it will be the same as the pong clone I made but I will use 3D things.

Finally partly completed!

So today I switch all my website to one new design which I have been told is alot nicer than the last one. It makes for a more professional website although it took me hours! to get up and running. Even now I dont think that its all fixed and ready but its time for bed :(. I also shattered my previous page impression record today. Over 450 already and America has yet to come online :D Usually when i go to bed i get around 50-100 more page impressions. So hopefully 500+ by tommorow 8 AM :D. I am also hopefully going to get a video capture card tommorow so once I get my playstation set up in my "office" I will be able to provide all my sites viewers with hopefully enjoyable and informative game reviews which hopefully they will go on to talk about in my forums. I want my new site to be a community of people who come together often to talk about the latest games and movies as well as just being social.

Anyway hopefully I will be able to get my first video review up by tommorow or the day after that. At the very latest by next monday :( But if I give quality game reviews hopefully more people will come back again and again.

why???

Why is it that when I switch over from one website layout to the other my website becomes a lot busier than normal? None of the good things are up yet. Its basically an empty shell but its not even midday and I have had nearly 200 impressions already. Granted people might not think that it is alot but my goal is 3 thousand page impressions this month because I am only a couple weeks into this project. Hopefully they will come back when the new website is better and keep coming back to just check out the latest games. But it looks like I am set on getting atleast 3000 page impressions this month. With 800 in the first 6 days I think that I will hopefully hit 4k impressions.

Anyways Right now I am getting the forums up and running. And also I am going to figure out a way to set up the PS3 so that I can easily screen capture gameplay. If I get that up and running it means that when I buy a new game I can easily start reviewing it and let you see what it is like. I think Fifa 10 will be my first video review but thats almost a month away so I have plenty of time to work on my site :D Please check it out at http://www.gamercity.co.uk you might as well everyone else seems to be going on it when it isn't ready.

New Website!

I have got my new website layout up and running now I just need to start adding content to it! I will have a long day ahead of me trying to get this all running. Right now I am working on adding the tutorials and book reviews so that people have a reason to come back to my site. So I will give you an unpdate later tonight I need to get everything up and running!

cya for now!

XNA and C#

Hi guys sorry for not updating in about a week but I have been really busy working on my website and trying to add more content. It will be months before I can compete with the bigger websites but I will do it eventually :D right now I am looking at better designs for my website. I will hopefully get it all sorted by tommorow and have it all transferred and uploaded by tuesday hopefully.

Back to the game development. I am not currenlty working on anything in particular I am just merely modding the games I made with the XNA and C# tutorials. This is fun and it helps me get to grips with the C# syntax which is pretty easy I have to say. Right now I am thinking of buying one of the new XNA books out.

Anyways more tommorow! :D

cya for now

Still working on website

Hi guys quick update

My new computer is down. Without the thought of installing virus protection I picked up a serious virus and now I am restarting every time I get on(if i get on) So tommorow I will look into getting another copy of the windows 7 OS from some of my sources. Failing this I dont know what I will do. I will definately save up for Windows 7 when it comes out in October. But that is ages away and I don't think I can live that long without it.

I am still currently working on my new website gamercity.co.uk. Right now I am adding new tutorials in C++ so if you would like to go there and check them out I would be really grateful. Also I am working on adding wordpress software to the website so that I can continue blogging on my own domain name. The forums are up and running on my new website as well so if you would like to go and check them out and maybe post a thread or two I would be delighted. Although please do-not spam my forums.

On game dev side of life I am just about finished my documentation of the rpg game which I will start work on as soon as my new computer is back up and running. Right now I am using my little brothers computer although I do-not think he will mind as he never goes onto it. Anyways please feel free to check out my new website http://www.gamercity.co.uk if you would like to see something that is the work of a complete newb at website programming. Although I cannot take credit for the art and layout as I "stole" that off a free template site. It was much better than my previous version which had an awful color scheme and looked very unprofessional. Atleast with this design I think I look at least semi-professional. Although the layout is much different to normal game sites I still think that it is cool.

anyways back to work on writing tutorials. My third one is well under way. It shall be called Simple calculator :D check it out!

New website

Hi guys quick update. I am still working on the layout and design for my new website- Gamercity.co.uk and i do believe that i have submitted my site to google although i will have to check. Check out my site and tell me what you think. I am not doing much in the way of games atm :( as i would like to get this site looking semi-proffesional before the end of september.

New website

Hi guys I have gotten my website - Gamercity.co.uk up and running I can now import my own .html files and images for my site although It is pretty bland at the moment i am looking into making it look a wee bit more professional looking. Please check it out!

Source code

hi guys here is the my main.cpp source code just to let you guys see it. Notice the poor coding style and bad practice but if you see any coding tidbits you like feel free to use them

//The headers
#include "SDL.h"
#include "SDL_ttf.h"
#include "SDL_image.h"
#include "ball.h"
#include "Paddle.h"
#include "Button.h"
#include "timer.h"
#include "computerpaddle.h"
#include
#include
#include



//The screen attributes
const int SCREEN_WIDTH = 800;
const int SCREEN_HEIGHT = 600;
const int SCREEN_BPP = 32;

//The frame rate
const int FRAMES_PER_SECOND = 20;

//The dimensions of the dot
const int playerpaddle_WIDTH = 20;
const int playerpaddle_HEIGHT = 80;

const int ball_WIDTH = 20;
const int ball_HEIGHT =20;

const int CLIP_MOUSEOVER = 0;
const int CLIP_MOUSEOUT = 1;
const int CLIP_MOUSEDOWN = 2;
const int CLIP_MOUSEUP = 3;


int gamestate = 0;

bool isWinner = false;


SDL_Color textColor = { 255, 255, 255 };

//The surfaces

SDL_Surface *buttonSheet = NULL;
SDL_Surface *Mainmenu = NULL;
SDL_Surface *score = NULL;
SDL_Surface *score2 = NULL;
SDL_Surface *scorepoints = NULL;
SDL_Surface *scorepoints2 = NULL;
SDL_Surface *playerpaddle1 = NULL;
SDL_Surface *ball1 = NULL;
SDL_Surface *paddle1 = NULL;
SDL_Surface *background = NULL;
SDL_Surface *screen = NULL;
SDL_Surface *victory = NULL;

TTF_Font *font = NULL;
//The event structure
SDL_Event event;
SDL_Rect box;
SDL_Rect paddlebox;
SDL_Rect compbox;




SDL_Rect clips[ 1 ];


SDL_Surface *load_image( std::string filename )
{
//The image that's loaded
SDL_Surface* loadedImage = NULL;

//The optimized surface that will be used
SDL_Surface* optimizedImage = NULL;

//Load the image
loadedImage = IMG_Load( filename.c_str() );

//If the image loaded
if( loadedImage != NULL )
{
//Create an optimized surface
optimizedImage = SDL_DisplayFormat( loadedImage );

//Free the old surface
SDL_FreeSurface( loadedImage );

//If the surface was optimized
if( optimizedImage != NULL )
{
//Color key surface
SDL_SetColorKey( optimizedImage, SDL_SRCCOLORKEY, SDL_MapRGB( optimizedImage->format, 0, 0xFF, 0xFF ) );
}
}

//Return the optimized surface
return optimizedImage;
}

void apply_surface( int x, int y, SDL_Surface* source, SDL_Surface* destination, SDL_Rect* clip = NULL )
{
//Holds offsets
SDL_Rect offset;

//Get offsets
offset.x = x;
offset.y = y;

//Blit
SDL_BlitSurface( source, clip, destination, &offset );
}

bool check_collision( SDL_Rect A, SDL_Rect B )
{
//The sides of the rectangles
int leftA, leftB;
int rightA, rightB;
int topA, topB;
int bottomA, bottomB;

//Calculate the sides of rect A
leftA = A.x;
rightA = A.x + A.w;
topA = A.y;
bottomA = A.y + A.h;

//Calculate the sides of rect B
leftB = B.x;
rightB = B.x + B.w;
topB = B.y;
bottomB = B.y + B.h;

//If any of the sides from A are outside of B
if( bottomA <= topB ) { return false; } if( topA >= bottomB )
{
return false;
}

if( rightA <= leftB ) { return false; } if( leftA >= rightB )
{
return false;
}

//If none of the sides from A are outside B
return true;
}


bool init()
{
//Initialize all SDL subsystems
if( SDL_Init( SDL_INIT_EVERYTHING ) == -1 )
{
return false;
}


screen = SDL_SetVideoMode( SCREEN_WIDTH, SCREEN_HEIGHT, SCREEN_BPP, SDL_SWSURFACE );

background = load_image( "PongBackground copy.png" );
//If there was an error in setting up the screen
if( screen == NULL )
{
return false;
}

if( TTF_Init() == -1 )
{
return false;
}

//Set the window caption
SDL_WM_SetCaption( "Pong v1.0", NULL );

//If everything initialized fine
return true;
}

void set_clips()
{
//Clip the sprite sheet
clips[ CLIP_MOUSEOVER ].x = 0;
clips[ CLIP_MOUSEOVER ].y = 0;
clips[ CLIP_MOUSEOVER ].w = 320;
clips[ CLIP_MOUSEOVER ].h = 240;


}

bool load_files()
{
//Load the dot image
playerpaddle1 = load_image( "paddle.png" );
paddle1 = load_image( "paddle.png" );
ball1 = load_image( "ball.png" );
buttonSheet = load_image( "Start button copy.png" );
Mainmenu = load_image( "Pong main menu copy.png" );


font = TTF_OpenFont( "lazy.ttf", 28 );

//If there was a problem in loading the dot
if( playerpaddle1 == NULL )
{
return false;
}
if( paddle1 == NULL )
{
return false;
}

if( ball1 == NULL )
{
return false;
}

if( font == NULL )
{
return false;
}
if( buttonSheet == NULL )
{
std::cout << x =" 0;" y =" 0;" w =" 20;" h =" 80;" y =" 80;" xvel =" 0;" yvel =" 0;" type ="="" type ="=""> SCREEN_HEIGHT ) || ( check_collision( box, paddlebox ) ) )
{



paddlebox.y -= yVel;
}




// check for collision between ball and paddle. if true add score


}

void playerpaddle::show()
{
//Show the dot
apply_surface( paddlebox.x, paddlebox.y, playerpaddle1, screen );
}





//The timer




ball::ball()
{
//Initialize the offsets
box.x = 400;
box.y = 200;
box.w = 20;
box.h = 20;



playerscore = 0;
playerscore2 = 0;
//Initialize the velocity
xVel = 20;
yVel = 10;
}


void ball::move()
{
//Move the playerpaddle left or right
box.x += xVel;

//If the playerpaddle went too far to the left or right
if( ( box.x <> SCREEN_WIDTH ) || ( check_collision( box, paddlebox ) ) || ( check_collision( box, compbox ) ) )
{
//move back
box.x -= xVel;


xVel *= -1;
}
if( ( box.y <> SCREEN_HEIGHT ) || ( check_collision( box, paddlebox ) ) || ( check_collision( box, compbox ) ) )
{
//move back

box.y -= yVel;



yVel *= -1;

}

if(box.x == 0)
{
playerscore2 += 5;
}
if(box.x == 780)
{
playerscore += 5;
}
//Move the playerpaddle up or down
box.y += yVel;

//If the dot went too far up or down


}

void ball::show()
{
//Show the dot
apply_surface( box.x, box.y, ball1, screen );
}
void ball::get_score()
{

std::stringstream stream;
stream << text =" stream.str();" ptr1 =" text.data();" scorepoints =" TTF_RenderText_Solid(" text2 =" stream2.str();" ptr2 =" text2.data();" scorepoints2 =" TTF_RenderText_Solid(" playerscore ="="" victory =" TTF_RenderText_Solid(" iswinner =" true;" playerscore2 ="="" victory =" TTF_RenderText_Solid(" iswinner =" true;" screen_width =" 640;" screen_height =" 480;" x =" 780;" y =" 200;" w =" 20;" h =" 80;" xvel =" 0;" yvel =" 0;" type ="="" type ="=""> compbox.y)
{
yVel = 9;

}
if(box.y < yvel =" -9;"> SCREEN_HEIGHT ) || ( check_collision( box, paddlebox ) ) )
{



compbox.y -= yVel;
}



}

void paddle::show()
{
//Show the dot
apply_surface( compbox.x, compbox.y, paddle1, screen );
}

Button::Button( int x, int y, int w, int h )
{
//Set the button's attributes
box.x = x;
box.y = y;
box.w = w;
box.h = h;

//Set the default sprite
clip = &clips[ CLIP_MOUSEDOWN ];
}

void Button::handle_events()
{
//The mouse offsets
int x = 0, y = 0;

//If the mouse moved
if( event.type == SDL_MOUSEMOTION )
{
//Get the mouse offsets
x = event.motion.x;
y = event.motion.y;

//If the mouse is over the button
if( ( x > box.x ) && ( x <> box.y ) && ( y < clip =" &clips[" clip =" &clips[" type ="="" button ="="" x =" event.button.x;" y =" event.button.y;" gamestate =" 1;"> box.x ) && ( x <> box.y ) && ( y < clip =" &clips[" type ="="" button ="="" x =" event.button.x;" y =" event.button.y;"> box.x ) && ( x <> box.y ) && ( y < clip =" &clips[" quit =" false;" counter =" 0;" quit ="="" type ="="" quit =" true;" gamestate ="="">clip_rect, SDL_MapRGB( screen->format, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF ) );
apply_surface(0,0, Mainmenu, screen);
button1.show();

}

if( isWinner == true)
{ gamestate = 0;
}
if(gamestate == 1)
{
counter += 1;

score = TTF_RenderText_Solid( font, "score:", textColor ); //If there was an error in rendering the text
if( score == NULL )
{
return 1;
}

score2 = TTF_RenderText_Solid( font, "score:", textColor ); //If there was an error in rendering the text
if( score2 == NULL )
{
return 1;
}



apply_surface(0, 0, background, screen);

apply_surface( 0, 0, score, screen );
apply_surface( 600, 0, score2, screen );



gameball.get_score();
myplayerpaddle.show();
mypaddle.show();
gameball.show();

if(counter >= 30)
{

if(isWinner == false)
{

mypaddle.move();
gameball.move();
myplayerpaddle.move();


}
}


}

//Update the screen
if( SDL_Flip( screen ) == -1 )
{
return 1;
}

//Cap the frame rate
if( fps.get_ticks() < 1000 / FRAMES_PER_SECOND )
{
SDL_Delay( ( 1000 / FRAMES_PER_SECOND ) - fps.get_ticks() );
}
}

//Clean up
clean_up();

return 0;
}


I wont include the header files as they are basically just the file classes and they are quite literally the same

PONG postmortem.

Hi guys heres the postmortem of the pong game i recently finished.

the good:

I got it finished within a week of starting SDL and it has given me a fairly solid grasp of the language. I managed to implement all the features I was primarily hoping to implement like the main menu. The AI and a semi decent background. It showed me how long it would take me to create alot bigger games and it also showed me that if i keep working at something I can get it done pretty quickly. I am also glad I seperated the main.cpp into seperate files, mainly .h files that held all the class information. All in all i learned alot! and hopefully I can build on this so that in the future I can only create better and better games.

the bad:

I really wish I had spent alot longer on the art but as this was only my first game I thought it would be best to focus on the programming side. If it looks absolutely amazing but it doesn't work then whats the point? I also wish I had added some music so that it was a little less bland. The AI i wish was better as it was basically just a quick hack to get it working. Also I wish I had looked into better .ttf styles rather than just using the ones of the lazyfoo tutorials. I think it would have polished it up a bit. The time it took to code this all in could be greatly improved upon though. And hopefully with my next game it will take me alot less time to get all the fundamentals down so i can concentrate on things like art and gameplay.

overall:

A good first project that i managed to finish and understand all of it fairly well. All the bases were covered here and i think that for my first game using SDL it went well. I will be adding my source code in the next post so you can see how big a hack it was.

Finished PONG!

I have finally finished my first game. I have added all the paddle ai and a new title screen and set the paddle ai fairly high but its still quite easy to beat. I think that overall looking back It was all a big hack lol. But it is playable so its an achievement! I will include the source code soon maybe tommorow after school just so you guys can see how big a hack it was. I will also get it hosted on some hosting site or maybe even my own if I figure it out. Anyways i will post a postmortem tommorow :D

Oh and on the blog side of things I shattered my original record of page views its in the hundreds now :D so i am going to have to start to up the quality of the content i am putting on. After a full week of advertising and posting everyday on this blog I am pretty happy with what i have achieved. Over 400 views and £0.30 in the bank i think i have really achieved something. And funnily enough coinciding with the resurgence of this blog I have also completed my first game. Funny that...

anyways alot more tommorow: source, postmortem and maybe a download. ENJOY!

cya

Finishing pong

Hi guys i am just finishing off my first game :D

I have added a main menu but right now i am just getting the buttons to be nice :D and I am going to look into audio so that its not that boring and it will also let me see what audio programming is like.

I am thinking of adding different backgrounds. When you start the game you will start off with one screen but if you play it again you will get a different background and maybe a different sound track if i can swing it. But i added a win condition to the game but it is still a 2 player game but that will change soon.

I just have to implement a couple of things so that it will be single player. I am at the moment also waiting for my new website www.gamercity.co.uk to get up and running. Once it is on the web i will be able to add forums and a blog and tutorials and game reviews and... well just about most things game related. It will be a good portfolio site when i get to the stage that i will be looking for a job.

I am hoping also that I will have another game to add to my site in the next week or two. Still working on the design for it though :D

cya for now

New project

hi guys so i have started doing the design brief on a new rpg which i will be making using SDL and C++ right now i am just programming in the all the SDL technical stuff for things like loading all the images and things like that.

I am going to fully plan it out so that I am getting into good habits. I was thinking a sort of mage vs mage game or a variation off magic ranging and melee but i am undecided. I was gonna add shops so that players can buy and sell things and i am going to have to do graphics for items which will take a while and also i should have my new website up and running by tonight. I am also planning what sort of things i am going to put on it. Although i already have a rough idea of what i am putting on.Thankfully with the package i am going to go with i will be able to add forums and a blog and other things like that fairly easily so that is good.

my general plan for the website is that it will be for tutorials and on basic game development as well as a blog similar to this and it will have a forum so that users of the site can talking about new games and my current projects and also talk about programming itself. I will also be putting game reviews and things like that. anyways i will give you an update on my second game tommorow but if i get my website up and running i will start to be using that as my blog although i will be updating this one just as much.

cya for now

Pong update

hi guys

just thought i would update you as to how i am doing with my pong project. a screen shot is at the top. right now i am working on getting the ball moving and making sure it doesn't disappear of the side of the screen and then i have to add some sort of way i can make the computer paddle move towards the ball. I am thinking i am going to have to do some of that maths that i have learned today to get it working.

my thoughts so far is that i will take the X velocity and the y velocity and find the hypotenuse using pythagoras' theorem and find where the hypotenuse intersects the Y axis on the right hand side of the screen and move the computer paddle towards that. But i will only implement this once i get the collision detection working for the ball and getting the ball to move around the screen so it bounces of things. Should hopefully complete the first working version by tonight or tommorow :D then I can start adding things to it like a main menu and credits at the end and even different difficulties. This is going to be my first real game so i can't wait to get it done :D

cya for now

error checking

ok guys hello.

today i want to talk to you about error checking in your programs. I have been learning programming for a while now and i haven't really looked into error checking until today. I now realize the importance of error checking even when you are creating very simple programs.

for example today i tried to load up some images in an SDL application and it didn't work but I didn't know what was going wrong so i nievely asked in my forums what i was doing wrong not knowing or disregarding anything about error checking. I used to think it was for more advanced programmers but really it is for everyone! You should really get into the habit of checking for errors when writing your code.

In SDL for example in your main function writing something like this

    if( init() == false )
   {
       cout << SDL_GetError() << endl;
       return 1;
   }

could save you a hell of along time when it comes to looking for errors.
i didn't realize that something so easy to implement could save
me so much time. Its crazy. Having your errors output to the console is
an incredibly useful way of debuging your apps. SDL_GetError() is incredibly
useful because it tells you the problem in a really simple and easy to understand
way! seriously for me it said

paddle.png failed to load.

and i immediatly knew what the problem was. And now i can get around to fixing it.

Overall for any new game or just regular programmer for that matter, Error checking is
and absolute must!

School and other things

ok guys so i have been looking at the SDL tutorials and i am thinking i could do a hell of alot of different things if i really stick at it. I am quite liking the idea of creating a small rts once i complete a few games.

My new computer is working amazingly. Its great i can play alot of my games at ultra ultra settings and the frame rate will stay high! I recently tried empire total war and set up a huge battle and everything ran so smoothly i was really impressed.

an update on the book - it should come tommorow which will be great because its before the weekend. Giving me lots of time to concentrate on my website if the weather stays like it is at the moment. if i am able to make my site even a bit proffesional looking then i will be happy.

Pong is getting there it should be complete by next week. Its going to be the next wow-killer lol.

anyways i have to go cya later

update

so guys just about to head off to bed.

I did some work on pong and looked into web development and i am still waiting on a html book i ordered off amazon. Once i have worked my way through that i will look into php so i can add forums to might site and so on.

I am delaying my website design weekly task into some time next week maybe even longer as I am going to write it all myself as i learn html. It will be challenging but it will be just another thing i can add to my resume. Hopefully the book will come before the weekend so i will have lots of time to spend on producing the site. I will let you all know when i am switching to my site but i will still keep posting on this site as well. Hopefully i will have the pong game up and running in time for the launch of my site :D anyways time to hit the hay. school in the morning :D

SDL pong

hi guys i am currently working on an SDL version of pong in which i have already implemented collision detection. I am trying to create a cool art background right now but i am struggling as its the first time i have used photoshop. this will be my first game completed and i will be very excited when it gets finished. Right now i am also working on how to show the score using SDL_ttf.

I will post a screen shot of when i am done and i will find some way to let you guys download it :D

bye

HTML

hi guys quick update here as i want to get working. I have decided i am going to learn HTML and CSS so that i can create my website. I have already started tutorials and am going to purchase a cheap sams teach yourself book off amazon.co.uk. I will be reviewing this book after I have read it(possibly the best time to review it but i am unsure) Hopefully by the end i will be able to create an piece of artwork as a site.

anyways i am off to work on my site and i will update you later tonight.

hi guys today i am working on getting an in game menu up and running. I have a rendered 3d Quad but i am trying to convert it so that its in 2d and i need to get a semi decent texture for it. Hopefully soon i will be getting my hands of some wysiwyg web page designers. That way i can get a template up and running for game website. After i get the website design all laid out i can purchase the domain name. Which i think i have decided upon but im not going to give it away incase it is snapped up. And after which i will proceed to buying the webhosting so my website will be online! Also today i am going to hopefully get the jumping physics up and running. And get my menu up and running without buttons though. I intend to add buttons to the menu soon but for the moment it will just be a plain texture.

anyways hopefully i will get all that done before the big match on tv starts(celtic vs arsenal) if i do i can sit down and watch the game in the knowledge i progressed at least a bit today :D If i dont then i will just do some SDL instead and start getting a few games up and running with that :D

anyways cya for now i will post an update maybe later tonight

weekly tasks

ok guys so i am going to post a weekly task list that i will hopefully complete by this time next week.

here goes:

Get a basic layout of my website down
Buy a decent domain name
Buy webhosting
Get some of my reviews down on the website
Get my blog up and running.
Get all of my website set up so that its online.


programming task list

implement some jumping physics into my game
get the model loader up and running so that i can import a car model or placeholder.
develope a decent car model with blender3d
try to texture it
implement camera translations that correspond to the movement translations(aka get camera to move with the model)
look into collision detection so i can get solid terrain working.

thats about it for this week as i do now have school every week day. I think my top priority will be the website and then the model loader. Getting those up and running will be a huge step forward in terms of motivation and progress. If i don't manage to model a decent car model ill just use a placeholder model.

But to update you on what i am doing right now

i just finished implementing a game timer. which now gives you how many seconds you have played for. and also a pause feature which toggles on when 'P' is pressed.

thats all for today but tommorow i should have some good updates. cya

first day over...

So my first day of 5th year is over. It was fun though and a bit hectic. But now i can start getting into the swing of things.

Anyways i managed to get my multiple viewports working thanks to a very kind person at gamedev.net. And i have worked through some of the SDL tutorials which include sprite sheets. which i thought was quite interesting as i didn't know how they did it before lookin at this tutorial.

heres a screen shot of the now working dual viewport working as well as a nice grass texture rendered onto the grid. Hurrah! anyways right now i am starting to work on my own website. Hopefully i will have it up and running soon so i can bring you my blog posts and games(hopefully soon) and other reviews

Todays the big day - my first day of 5th year. this is the big one this is going to decide what university i go to and will hopefully get me into the best in scotland. Right now though i am feeling shattered. I wasn't tired enough to go to bed last night as i am used to prolongued nocturnal activities(read - programming). It took be roughly 2 hours to get to bed last night but i finally made it and hopefully i will be ok to play football by 3rd period.

anyways today i am going to work through some of the lazy-foo tutorials on SDL and hopefully get a small menu screen going and start work on an actual game! its will be quite exciting to get my first game underway and it will hopefully teach me alot! but i was thinking like a small sidescroller game (fighting style)

so the aim of the game is to fight your way from right to left and claim your treasure. But first i will have to familiarize myself with a good drawing package as i currently only have paint on my machine. I am going to try out a few free pieces of drawing software and give you a review of what i think is the best for a newbie game programmer just starting out like myself.

Wish me luck guys, more updates on programming coming soon.

Progress

ok guys so i kinda got the split screen working thanks to the people at gamedev.net although i need to find a way to make it so that the screen doesn't flash. Also i just hacked together the rest of my gun model. Although i am not very happy with it so i will start again. And i determined that i will use the .obj model format for my games and since the directx sdk has a model loader ready and working i will incorporate that into my programs.

the physics that i added work although i will have to find a way to incorporate acceleration into the game so i will have to read up on timing in programmes and then incorporate this.

anyways i will keep you posted on how my first day of 5th year starts tommorow. This is the year we start all the complicated math(wohoo?) that i need for my games and also we will be learning java in computing. and in physics - well hopefully alot of physics :D

P.s i am going to do start doing SDL as a side project because it looked rather simple and plus it will help me iron out my C++ and get me into good habits for 3d game programming and also once i get enough decent 2d games i will get my own proper games site up and running which will be a good way to show off my portfolio and also hopefully generate me some income from google adsense :D i will start tommorow on SDL.

cya

todays tasks

today i will be getting all my things ready for school as this is my last day of the summer holidays. This task is pretty much done so the rest of the day i can be lazy and program. Other than that i might go out and play football with my new football boots and ball. but today will be a nice and relaxed day.

my programming tasks today are to get the multiple view ports working on my multiplayer game. As you can see above my previous attempts have been a little unsuccessful. I have been thinking about making an exploration game where both players will be in cars/jeeps and will be able to go up hills and jump of them. So i have started to create a split screen to allow this. In one of my books there is a good procedural terrain generation formula in it so i will be trying to implement something similar. or i might just go for height maps as then i have full control of things like jumps and stuff.

someone on the Gamedev.net forums directed me to a great article about how to implement simple physics into my game so i will be looking into that today as well.

I might even try to get a model loader up and running so that i can start implementing cool looking cars and things.

And also i will be trying to finish off a gun model i started work on last night. I am just polishing up the handle right now but i need to add the barel and trigger. once that is done i might have a bash at texturing it provided i find a good tutorial on how to texture with blender.

this is me signing out. Will keep you posted on my progress.

introduction to 3d game programming with directx 10

first thoughts

at first i thought this was going to be quite a good book. The score it has posted on amazon suggested to me that it was a great. But me being a pessemist i thought it would just be ok. To start off it went through all the 3d math concepts which was great as i didn't have a clue on this sort of stuff as i am only going to learn about this in my next academical year. It then goes on to show the reader how to create a simple dx 10 blank application which shows the frame rate and milliseconds per frame. So basically it teaches everything from an absolute beginner level it assumes no knowledge of dx 10 which is great because i had no previous knowledge of dx 10. The book then takes you on an easy to read journey through the magical land of directx 10. It then goes on to teach you far more advanced topics like terrain rendering and particle systems. All in all its a course by its self it teaches you everything and gives great detail into everything.
Also the authors coding style is brilliant far better than some other books i have seen.
I recommend it to any budding game programmer who would like to start making 3D games.

directx 10

hi guys i am sorry i haven't posted in a while i have been trying to enjoy my summer holidays. Which as of monday(2 days away) will be over. So i would like to update you on my progress so far.
right now i am working through the book 'introduction to 3d game programming with directx 10' and i must say its a great book i would thoroughly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn directx 10.

Right now i have been working on a program which will allow me to view my meshes in an interactive environment. So it will be good when i finally go into animation and things like that.
I also added a fog effect to this program just because i thought it would look cool. right now i have rendered a box using the textures from the book(a.k.a the wirefence box) and i am going to add the ability to move this box depending on the input. right now i have added forwards and backwards movement but i am going to try and add some sort of speed effect. Like the one seen in the SDK where you are a ball and movement is dependent on things like physics collisions and other things like that :D

Also i think you will notice i have the windows 7 OS. this is because i recently purchased a new computer the specs are as follows:

8GB RAM Corsair
500GB harddrive
1GB ddr2 graphics card


and today i also had a great time at a local beach kitesurfing! :D we recently purchased a new kite and we utilized the strong wind and had some fun :D

hope you enjoyed my blog post.

directx 10

hi guys i have recently purchased 2 directx 10 books which are helping me to progress towards my goal of creating a game. So far i have learned how to make a simple Win32 app and a directx app which features an amazing rectangle R as i call it and gives me FPS and milliseconds per frame info
The book i am currently reading as introduction to 3d game programming with directx 10 a shader approach which i would highly recommend to anyone. I hope to have my own model loader by the end of the summer holidays and be able to move a character around :D should be fun! but for now i am trying to familiarize myself with the fundamentals. They seem quite difficult to start off but as i am progressing the starting stuff is quite easy now :D

hopefully i will have some screenshots up soon about how my graphics programming ability is coming on. :D

Talk to you later.

Graphics programming:

Hello guys after a long decision and one accidental buy of a book. i have finally chosen to buy ultimate game programming with directx. hopefully this will get me on my way to graphical game programming. i will post a review of the book as soon as i have it in my possesion. I ordered it today so hopefully it will be here by Tuesday but Wednesday by the latest. Anyways i have started creating a library of models for my games in blender.

Game Engine Programming Book

hi guys. i recently acquired a copy of beginning game programming sams and have started to work through it. and i thought i would give you a review.

Beginning game programming (sams teach yourself)

at the start the author talks about what you need in a simple game engine, which i thought was helpful as i had never seen an engine before, and then goes on to explain small snippets of the code to you. And how he names his variables and functions which is all good. further through the book he shows us how to implement keyboard and mouse input and joystick movement, which is quite insightful, although one downside is he spends a whole chapter on joystick input, which for beginning game programming i thought was not very helpful. he then shows you how to put a simple "game" together. although it is not actually a game it is more of an animation. it basically shows a blank window with snowflakes appearing in it. This i thought was quite good although there was not much support if the code did not work. For example i had trouble with the resource file (which is basically a file like any you make in VC++ but it provides links to images sprites and other things like that.) The only solution to this problem was too look on the internet in some forums. Fair enough he is teaching us about your first simple graphics program to quite a wide audience, and not everybody in that audience uses VC++ to code. So help was not really expected.

The author goes on further to teach us about simple games. Like the classic game Light Cycles. which utilizes all you have learned so far. and provides quite detailed explanations to certain features.

Final Thought:

Pros:

this book has some promise as it shows you a simple game engine. although i was hoping that they would break this down into a sort of primer and then ask you to build one like C++ primer plus did. But one feature that i liked was how he shows us how to make a wandering game which has a similar feel to Pokemon.

Cons:

the book simply threw you into code to fast. i feel that for a beginner it is easier to digest smaller chunks of code before moving onto a complete game engine. The fact that the game engine isn't explained line by line like other books is a bit of a downer as well. The author also started to go into to much detail about unimportant things. This knowledge is pretty much already know to anyone who plays games and would have been better if it had instead gone into detail about the code itself.

Verdict for Beginners:

Buy it if you want to learn how to make a game engine and build upon it. but a good knowledge of C++ is required Prerequisites i would recommend are C++ primer plus. But this book will not show you how to make 3D games so don't buy it if you think it will. The author recommended to us that Teach yourself game programming with directx in 21 days so that is the next book i will Review :D

talk to you later :D

heres a very insignificant update. i bought beginning game programming, because i feel i have made enough progress with game deving text based games to move onto 2d games. i cant wait!. the only downside is that it will take about 2 weeks to get here. which will give me more time to get my c++ skills up to a higher level.

and i hope that transition from text games to 2d games will help to encourage me to learn more and faster. i will give you an update when i finish my next game i am going to work on

A text based gang game. should be fun :D

bye!

C++ primer plus

i recently purchased C++ primer plus, since my exams are now OVER!!!. anyways i have started working through the chapters and i have gotten to about chapter 6 which include logical operations and the like. So far the book is really good and i was impressed by how much i have learned from it already.

Anyways, i have started developing a simple text based rpg to which i am going to be implementing alot more new things.

for instance

the ability to choose your own class e.g warrior, mage, archer
hitpoints - which will of course include making it so that the monsters you face will damage you with number and not just the text saying oh dear you are dead.


once i have finished the C++ primer plus book i will let you know my thoughts and i will also keep you up to date with my text based rpg and if i am getting any books in the for see-able future

p.s got my PS3 at the weekend and it is awesome i love it so much and have been playing none stop for ages now :D anyways talk to you later

C++

not much to report here guys as i have been out playing football.

on the non programming side of life. my dad bought 2 racing bikes for us and we have been going quite alot of miles on these glorious beasts. We brought a small device which tells us our mileage how fast we travel and how high our heart beats when we are cycling. And we clocked in at almost 40 miles an hour on one certain road. Its insane!

anyways this is me signing out

C++ continued

i have been continuing my studies into C++ and things are relatively easy. Everything is quite simple to understand and things are progressing nicely. I completed my text based game and I have been learning lots of other cool things for my game programming portfolio.

Right now i am trying to create a text based rpg which features many of the skills i have thus aquired since my dwelving into game programming.

This game will sadly not be up for sale as it is probably a wee bit on the boring side. And after all this was only an excersize for me to help me learn the programming language that is C++.

programming - my first entry

hello i am a newbie programmer and i am going to document my life as i gain more knowledge in the field of game development(covers everything)

Right now i have started to learn C++ using the book C++ primer plus which is really a great book and i would highly recommend it.

My goal is to start creating a portfolio good enough so that i can get into the game industry.

anyways right now i am making this blog in order to keep myself motivated and focused on this goal.

i also have my little nine year old brother thinking up cool stories and maps and monster names because i am hoping that it will bring us closer together.

anyways my current programming level is very basic. that off simple calculators in c++ and text games. but once my exams are finished in about 2 weeks then i will be able to spend alot more time focusing on getting my knowledge up to a suitable level.

Right now i am trying to focus more on the graphical side of game development. And i have downloaded the modeling softare blender 3d which looks quite complex at the onset but as i keep using it its becoming quite a bit easier. throughout the course of this blog i will be hopefully showing you some of the models i make.

This is me signing out from my first blog post. Hope you enjoy this and the many more installations to come :D