Errolian’s Bits and Pieces

Well here’s the latest game produced from the awesome XNA 101 class.

I’ve been testing this for a few days now and ironing out all the bugs that I could find. Please let me know if you find any I have missed or not encountered to date.

It’s 2 games for the price of 1:

Download from HERE (670K, Windows Only)

Battle Blocks

• Based on the class VTM’s
• Play against another player, or against the computer
• Computer has 3 levels of Difficulty (affecting paddle speed and opponent awareness)

Araxnoid

• Based on the classic Breakout game

Features

• Play against another player, or against the computer
• Computer has 3 levels of Difficulty (affecting paddle speed and opponent awareness)
• If you hit your opponents ball, they will score for you until that ball is re-hit again by your opponent. This of course, also works in reverse
• If your game score changes to your opponents paddle colour, then at least 1 of your active balls is currently scoring for your opponent
• Game is over when both players have run out of lives
• Capture your opponents ball to score points when your game is over, and try to get a MultiBall or Extra Life power-up to get back into the game
• Combo scoring for quick multiple collisions with blocks
• 9 Power-Ups (each block has a chance to spawn a power up when hit… type of power-up spawned based on a probability table)
• 4 x Input Methods (GamePads (1 and 2), and 2 Keyboard control sets
• Sound Effects
• Arcade style paddle collisions
• Stalemates negated as after 30 seconds of no destructible blocks being hit, a random block is removed from the game board.
• Highscore tables for each game (only human player scores count)
• 8 Levels included for each game

TO DO

• Add Sound Effects for Power Ups
• Add extra Power Ups
• Add Effect timer meters for the Power Ups (easy to do, just not sure where to put them)
• Improve on Computer AI (e.g make them aware of power-ups)
• Code clean-up
• Level Editor (did I say that out loud?)

I have updated the Brainstorm version to 1.1 following some comments I received over on 3D Buzz.

Change Log v1.1

• Reduced the starting sequence from 3 to 1
• Adjusted stats update routine to now run for every game played
• Removed the user input pause between sequences
• Darkened the game screen to show the lighting of buttons more clearly
• Increased the base time allowance for user input of sequences
• Fixed a bug that failed to turn off the lightning effect when the game starts

Download from Here (Windows Only 4Mb)

This is a simple game based on the classic Simple Simon games. This was produced as part of the 3D Buzz XNA101 class, which is a superb game production in XNA video tutorial series, as well as teaching the fundamentals of C# and OOP.

Simply repeat the coloured code back for every sequence played back to you.

Controls (Xbox 360 Controller)

Buttons marked with a ‘I’ - Face Buttons representing the colour of the buttons.

Buttons marked with a ‘II’ - Face Buttons + Left Shoulder Button

Download from HERE (Windows only - 4 Mb)

I should have realised some time ago that I never updated Elves Revenge to be compatible for the Version 1 release of XNA (although all it needed was a recompile).
Anyway, here it is:

Downloads:

• Game Only (6.84Mb - Rar format)
• Source Code (7.01Mb - Rar format)

Requirements:

• Microsoft DirectX End-User Runtime 9.0c
• Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0
• Microsoft XNA Framework Redistributable (Version 1)

It’s well before the deadline, but here is my entry for the 3D Buzz Xmas Game Programming contest.

This is my first ever attempt at writing a game of any kind. I entered to see ‘if I could do it’ rather than ‘can I win?’. Now lets see some other entries please, so I don’t come last by default.

Title: Elves Revenge
Players: One
Genre: 2D Platform Shooter
Levels: 20 Random Levels
Language: English
Platform: Windows PC x86
Code: Microsoft XNA Beta 2 (C#)

Downloads:

• Game Only (6.82Mb - Rar format)
• Source Code (7.01Mb - Rar format)

Requirements:

• Microsoft DirectX End-User Runtime 9.0c
• Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0
• Microsoft XNA Framework Redistributable (Beta 2)

If the game errors, it’s likely you need to re-check you are running the latest versions of the above.

The Game:

You control Santa, who needs to gather back all the presents that have been scattered around by the Elves who have rebelled against Santa. Santa must get back as many presents as he can before the bad elves take them for good.

Score points for killing the elves, and finding the presents. You lose points when the elves get to presents before you,and when you lose a life. You are also slightly penalised if you get stuck on a Xmas tree.

Xmas trees have prickly branches and will hinder you for a short time if you touch them.

Hop onto your reindeer for a short speed bonus.

You are Invulnerable for 2 seconds at the start of each Level - use it to get away from close spawning elves.

Some elves are faster than others!

Player Score in red is a Negative score.

Win game by staying alive through all 20 levels.

Lose game by losing all 3 lives.

Hint: You advance to the next level when all elves are dead, so try to keep 1 elf alive while you grab the remaining presents to maximise score.

Read the rest of this entry »

So here is a game play demo of my game, now titled Elves Revenge.

Hi-res version available for download here (18.6Mb).

The actual game and the source code should both be available from here later today.

Here are some menu screen shots from my simple 2D XNA game currently in development.

Working on some sounds right now, and I should have it out for the 3DBuzz and elsewhere within a week.

Screens after the break –>

Read the rest of this entry »

Here is stage 2 of my progress. This is basically just showing how I want my loading screen to look. Graphics will be updated throughout closer to the submission date.

Hi-res here (472K)

There is currently a contest going on over at http://www.3dbuzz.com to write a game with a Christmas game.

I’ve never written a game before, so thought I would use the opportunity to do some learning and submit an entry. I chose the Microsoft XNA Framework using Game Studio Express (Beta 2).

Here is stage 1 of my progress, which was purely a test of getting sprites on to the screen, and to have them moving independently in respect of direction and speed.

Hi-res here (11.4Mb)