Eras of the Renaissance may have to be programmed in XNA.
There's several reasons why I want to tackle it in XNA. First, it's actually pretty easy style of game to keep organized and generally code. The only real complicated stuff is updating everything and making sure certain buildings get the goods they require. So basically, any of the AI stuff might be a little complicated, but it shouldn't be too terrible.
Second, while DBP can have an OOP "feel" to it by using types and arrays, C# has a better system of list creation and much better OOP support through classes and structs. Much, much better, and a whole lot easier to understand!
So, I'm thinking that Eras may be put on hold for just a little while until I can learn a little more C# and XNA. I just ordered a book yesterday on game programming in XNA with C#, so hopefully that'll get me started well and good. I know most of the basics and fundamentals of C#, but I need more examples of game programming so that I can better understand the principles.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Monday, February 13, 2012
Eras of the Renaissance: A new city building game
My dang fancy logo!
Lately, I have been playing a LOT of old city building games because by some small miracle, some of them actually work on 64-bit Windows 7. Granted, the cutscenes don't play well at all, but who cares! Pharaoh, Zeus, SimCity 4, they all work decently enough. And they have inspired me to create my own game of this genre.
Over the last few days, I've been looking into various games such as Dawn of Discovery, Anno 1701, 1502 or whatever, Caesar 4 (although that crashed various times), Children of the Nile... I wasn't really stealing ideas, but just trying to get a feel for making the game in 3D and the best way in which to do so. What I've discovered is that the Anno series probably does it the best. The navigation is easy, the interface is simply gorgeous, and by golly, the graphics are pretty decent!
As my game title suggests, it's yet another history-based city building simulation game! It will start in the early 1500s and span the century to the end of Queen Elizabeth the Ist's reign, in 1603. I even have plans to include an expansion pack later on after the initial release, but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves here...
I've been coding a prototype for the engine in DarkBASIC Pro for about 2 or 3 days now. I've only got about 228 lines of code and that's just experiments with saving arrays with UDTs out to a file and such. Oh the joys of the Matrix1 plugin! So many headaches have been averted simply by using three of its commands.
Anyhoo, I'll post more about the game later. Right now, I've got to go to work! Bills don't pay themselves you know, unless you're on auto-pay. Which I'm not.
Over the last few days, I've been looking into various games such as Dawn of Discovery, Anno 1701, 1502 or whatever, Caesar 4 (although that crashed various times), Children of the Nile... I wasn't really stealing ideas, but just trying to get a feel for making the game in 3D and the best way in which to do so. What I've discovered is that the Anno series probably does it the best. The navigation is easy, the interface is simply gorgeous, and by golly, the graphics are pretty decent!
As my game title suggests, it's yet another history-based city building simulation game! It will start in the early 1500s and span the century to the end of Queen Elizabeth the Ist's reign, in 1603. I even have plans to include an expansion pack later on after the initial release, but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves here...
I've been coding a prototype for the engine in DarkBASIC Pro for about 2 or 3 days now. I've only got about 228 lines of code and that's just experiments with saving arrays with UDTs out to a file and such. Oh the joys of the Matrix1 plugin! So many headaches have been averted simply by using three of its commands.
Anyhoo, I'll post more about the game later. Right now, I've got to go to work! Bills don't pay themselves you know, unless you're on auto-pay. Which I'm not.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Slooooow progress
It's been a month since I've been on here. I've been so busy that I haven't been able to work on much of anything programming-related, and currently I'm pursuing a project that hopefully will benefit a LOT of people.
Anyway, I've figured out DBP and have been coding a small level editing demo for NaGaCreMo. This level editor will enable me to construct levels for "RoboCubez" fairly easily. It uses a type object to store individual blocks' information for things like position, final position/color/some other things for the puzzle to be solved, event triggers, whether or not it's a movable object, and that's about all I have planned out so far. Pretty simple to implement.
I just thought of an interesting concept. Another way players can solve puzzles in the game is to have a certain amount of blocks in their inventory. The player then "drops" one of these blocks down into the level, and they cannot be picked up again. They'll be used to step on switches that otherwise cannot be accessed, and the player has to figure out the right order in which to activate the switches (this will be determined by blocks that change a certain color if you solve the first puzzle). For every 5 switches, there's 5 blocks the player can drop. Choose wisely! The next step after implementing that code will be to model the switches and create the general media. Hooray!
Unfortunately, trying to create a puzzle game with a story isn't proving too good of a concept. Maybe I should just give up on the story seeing as I haven't found one yet and it's been a month. I should go for the "solve the puzzle in two minutes!" concept that's pretty popular these days.
Oh, also, I said in my last post this would be my last game with DBP due to issues I keep having with it, however I've had no issues now for a very long time. I really don't know what that's all about, but hey, as long as it works, I'll use it for smaller projects. :)
Anyway, I've figured out DBP and have been coding a small level editing demo for NaGaCreMo. This level editor will enable me to construct levels for "RoboCubez" fairly easily. It uses a type object to store individual blocks' information for things like position, final position/color/some other things for the puzzle to be solved, event triggers, whether or not it's a movable object, and that's about all I have planned out so far. Pretty simple to implement.
I just thought of an interesting concept. Another way players can solve puzzles in the game is to have a certain amount of blocks in their inventory. The player then "drops" one of these blocks down into the level, and they cannot be picked up again. They'll be used to step on switches that otherwise cannot be accessed, and the player has to figure out the right order in which to activate the switches (this will be determined by blocks that change a certain color if you solve the first puzzle). For every 5 switches, there's 5 blocks the player can drop. Choose wisely! The next step after implementing that code will be to model the switches and create the general media. Hooray!
Unfortunately, trying to create a puzzle game with a story isn't proving too good of a concept. Maybe I should just give up on the story seeing as I haven't found one yet and it's been a month. I should go for the "solve the puzzle in two minutes!" concept that's pretty popular these days.
Oh, also, I said in my last post this would be my last game with DBP due to issues I keep having with it, however I've had no issues now for a very long time. I really don't know what that's all about, but hey, as long as it works, I'll use it for smaller projects. :)
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