Small Game

I'm working on a smaller game by myself because for one I would like to hurry and get my foot in the door and get a game on XBLIG. Also I'm hoping that I can do all of the programming myself and so far I have with good results so I'm happy about that.

I usually just do art but I'm trying to become a little better than amateur at programming, but I am still doing all the artwork as well.


So far the basic game mechanics work. I have a turret at the bottom center of the screen. This base code is from the 2D game tutorial. But I have done some programming myself though. In the original tutorial the cannon was positioned at bottom left of the screen and it could only rotate 90 degrees...It could shoot from straight up to anywhere inbetween to straight right. I've moved the cannon to the middle of the screen and made it where the cannon can rotate from full left to full right without turning a whole revolution.

You have to change the PiOver2 to just Pi. And to get the cannon in the middle of the screen you just have to set it's position to half of the screen width which would be 400 since the entire width is 800. I have also just implemented the Game-management-state to the game. But to make sure when you enter "Play Game" on the menu and it not go to the cornflowerblue screen you have to go to the bottom of the transition code and just delete the Graphics color line that includes the cornflowerblue in it and when you enter play game it shows the "fake" loading screen and then there's your game.

I'm glad there's all these samples, tutorials, and mini-games on XNA letting us use the base codes for our games because it makes it much easier I'm not much of a programmer yet but the art should be pretty vibrant and I hope to include gameplay mechanics that I cant find source code for. Like extra levels and enemy's who shoot back.

Break from Design

I've decided to create a small game while I'm still designing my other game.

The multiplayer platforming shooter art is still in the works but for a game like that would probably take a better programmer than me. But all of the art is still in design a lot of it already finished. Instead of drawing each animation frame by hand I'm going to be using ToonBoom Studio 5 to import my art and create cutouts for them so I can animate them piece by piece instead of drawing something different for each frame. You cant export an animation from toonboom directly to xna but what you can do is create all of the animation frames with cutout and rigging and then I can save each frame of say, a cutout running animation and then merge all of the frames for an animation into a spritesheet ready for a game. Using this technique will save me a load of time and will enable me to create a lot more animations then a first intended to. Before I try to even ask for a programmers help on this game I want to have all of the art assets totally complete. This will show the programmer that hey all the art is done I just need to do all of the programming.

Control Layout

This is the control layout so far for my game. So far more of a concept I'm not exactly sure about some of the buttons layouts because I'm not sure how the mechanics of my game are going to be working yet. But for now this is it.

CLICK FOR HIGHER RESOLUTION.

Stealth Recon and Juggernaut Gunner

Here is the other 2 classes the Stealth Recon and Juggernaut Gunner. They dont have guns because I haven't done the concepts for them yet. But they'll have guns one day.

I'm sure you can tell which one is which I would hope.

Another concept final

Here is another one of the four classes this is the first one. He is the Assault Riflemen.
And yea thats a jet pack on his back. Imagine how much work its going to be to animate all 4 classes.

A Concept Final

Here is one of the four classes the only thing thats not really final is the gun. It's not complete there is no color, no shadowing and the lines aren't even cleaned up yet but I thought it would be cool to show some people. This guy is the Combat Frontier the 4th out of the 4 classes...The other 2 classes is the Stealth Recon and the Juggernaut Gunner. They all have unique disadvantages and advantages.

A game I'm designing

Well there's this game I am designing but I cant tell you much about it.

It's currently in concept and design mode. What I can tell you though is it's a 2D platforming shootem up. Also I'm aiming for multiplayer.

But how many people have seen a 2D Multiplayer Shooter? I personally never have. And I could understand why though think about making multiplayer maps in 2D! Well I think I have found a way around it and hopefully It should have multiplayer maps supporting 2-8 players in game modes like team deathmatch and free for all.

Also the art should be very nice. Up to 4 different classes and a ranking system. All this screams good successful indie game.

I already have about 30 pages of artwork that is not concept but is final once it is polished.

 The game also has a great name and fantastic box art.

    "It's year 2097 and  *** ***** ** ** ***, take advantage of your superior technology."

Look forward to seeing some more information on this project...Much isn't getting done though because my game creating computer's hard drive is finallly dead and I'm not going to start doing work on this shitty laptop.