My brain makes things explode.
Samantha
I've been developing games, websites, and software as a hobby since I was twelve years old, and I'm enjoying the continuation of the hobby. I plan to pursue a career in networking, while maintaining my development hobby. I have experience in several programming languages, on several platforms, with several APIs, including C, C++, C#, VB.NET, Java, JavaScript, DirectX, XNA, OpenAL, FMOD, Lua, and Windows Forms.
Homepage: http://www.minalien.com
Jabber/GTalk: minalien@gmail.com
AIM: Minalien
Posts by Samantha
Lights, Camera, Action/RPG! Initial Design Plans
Jul 29th
This is going to be the first of several “Thinking Out Loud” entries. In these, I’m mostly going to just put my thoughts down in a retrievable area, in a place where people can read them.
This first piece will be my initial design plans for my Lights, Camera, Action/RPG project (or rather, projects) – discussing some thoughts, some initial ideas on gameplay and development, etc. Readers will notice that my development style is very iterative – I don’t like to plan things out too detailed ahead of time, because it screws me up in the end, when I find a more efficient way of implementing a system. I prefer to focus on certain portions at a time, building on and optimizing what was present before.
Here is the first part of my build process – determining my initial plans.
As far as the design of the game goes, I intend to make the prototype an isometric, third-person 3D Action/RPG, much in the style of Titan Quest, Diablo, Torchlight, and similar games. I plan to use a cel-shaded graphics style, and will be using bright, stylish colors for characters, items, monsters, and spells along with dark, murky environments and static geometry to give a slightly contrasted mood in the game.
Character Classes
I’m planning on implementing three classes, each with a specific role in the game. These are Wizard, a ranged caster class that focuses on controlling/restricting enemy movement and area-of-effect damage spells, Warrior, a melee fighter that brings large blades to bear against hordes of enemies, and the Scout, whose focus on stealth and fast attacks allows him to quickly eliminate targets.
Multiplayer
I am planning on implementing a cooperative, multiplayer game mode. It will be a party-based gameplay system, played with two to four players over either remote internet connections or a local LAN. The Torque 3D version of the prototype will utilise the internal networking library, while the in-house engine will likely use the RakNet Multiplayer Game Network Engine.
Lights, Camera, Action/RPG!
Jul 28th
Well, I’m back. With the return of the Internet to my computer, it is time for me to return to my development. Unfortunately, I’ve been away from writing my tutorial series for too long, and I’m not going to be continuing it. I intend to release some one-shot tutorials for a while, and I’m working on developing two 3D Point-and-Click Action/RPG prototypes – one with a custom C++ engine using OGRE 3D for rendering, the other using Torque 3D. Both prototypes are pretty much going to be the same thing – but each of them is intended for me learning/touching up on different systems.
Upcoming lack of Internet
Jun 1st
Yeah, another “Yes, I’ve been dead, forgive me” post. I’ve been dead, and have had next to no interest in doing much of anything. Who knows, maybe this will be a good thing for me? Anyway, barring Time Warner waking up and no longer being assfucks, I’m not going to have any internet access beyond when I can be assed to go to one of the wifi hot spots here on base.
Bye-ni~!
ZuneHD – Virtual D-Pad Component for XNA 3.1
May 16th
Sample use of the Virtual D-Pad Component
Just finished working on a pretty basic virtual d-pad for the Zune HD/XNA Framework 3.1. It’s really rough around the edges, and certainly isn’t optimized, but it works.
Download
Source
DPadHD.dll (Managed Library)
Description
A simple, kind of messy virtual d-pad for your ZuneHD games. You can feel free to add it to your games, with or without crediting me, just don’t distribute the D-Pad or modifications of it without at least giving word that it came from me. It’ll need a fair bit of optimization and editing before it’s ready for any game that you wish to distribute, however.
Features
Position can be configured
Works similarly to the default XNA input systems
Built as an XNA DrawableGameComponent
Usage Sample
dPadManager = new Segfault.DPadHD.DPadManager(this); dPadManager.Landscape = true; this.Components.Add(dPadManager);
Creating the system is easy. First, you create it as you would any other component. You can set whether or not you want to use it in Landscape mode (which merely rotates the inputs counter-clockwise – I assume a “back-button-to-the-right” landscape view) by setting a simple boolean value, and then you add the D-Pad Manager to the components list. It will update automatically, just as the XNA input managers do by default.
Its position can be set on screen with the following code:
dPadManager.Position = new Vector2(50.0f, 12.0f);
And finally, the state of the D-Pad’s four cardinal direction buttons can be checked by retrieving the current game state:
if (this.dPadManager.GetState().IsButtonDown(Segfault.DPadHD.DPadButton.Up)) pos.X += (gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.Milliseconds); if (this.dPadManager.GetState().IsButtonDown(Segfault.DPadHD.DPadButton.Down)) pos.X -= (gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.Milliseconds); if(this.dPadManager.GetState().IsButtonDown(Segfault.DPadHD.DPadButton.Left)) pos.Y -= (gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.Milliseconds); if (this.dPadManager.GetState().IsButtonDown(Segfault.DPadHD.DPadButton.Right)) pos.Y += (gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.Milliseconds);
Enjoy. :D
