Games Development Techniques - Project Complete

If you have been following the nlog then you will know that in games development techniques I have been working on a famous five total conversion mod for unreal 2004. Here is a video of the finished product.

I am fairly happy with how the game turned out. Due to the amount of time I had to work on the project I didn’t manage to implement of the gameplay features I wanted to but I guess that is how it is in industry as well. When deadlines must be met features must be dropped.

My favourite thing about the game and that brings most of the games charm is that all the audio in-game is custom made for it. The voice acting within the game was done by my family and some of my sisters friends and they have been eagerly awaiting the final game. The theme tune and in-game music was written and performed by a very good friend of mine, Calvin Hudson. He is a talented musician and his music with-in the game adds atmosphere and provides immersion.

If I were to continue developing the Famous Five game I would add more gameplay and cut down on boring travel time by adding secondary objectives between the main ones.

It took me a large amount of time to get used to the unreal code base and I feel that given a second chance to do this task I would come up with something much better, I am glad that I have had the chance to learn this scripting language. I feel that I have learnt so many languages now that I could easily just pick up any language and start programming with it. For me this whole module was about transferable skills and to learn to appreciate other peoples jobs within a games studio. I live with a first year games artist and the texturing and Maya skills I learnt have meant that I can talk to him about what he is doing and suggest things for his project that he hasn’t explored yet such as bump mapping.

I am glad I did this module because it sets me up for Applied Game Development next semester. The chance to work on a big project with artists and using the amazing Gamebryo engine.

Hiring Networker

I am hiring a networker for a personal project starting in summer 2010. Must have experience with C# and Cisco Packet Tracer. Send CV and cover letter to AJ@ajongamesdev.co.uk with the subject "Jobs".

December is here

And far far far to quickly for my liking. With the hand-in deadline for my course only 2 weeks away tomorrow, the pressure is really on. A few tweaks to my unreal games HUD and some minor game play enhancements today put me 5 cut scenes and 1 game play feature away from completion.

My 3D renderer is coming along nicely but with only 2 weeks to go I feel that I have really run out of times for new features and must turn my attention to optimisation and to making it look nice.

3D renderer as it stands

3D renderer with not so complete but colourful shading

Busy busy busy

All my assignments have been officially set and time is flying by so fast that before you know it, it is Sunday again. I have been working hard since my last update, wrestling with unreal and coding away my own graphics API.

Its all very well me telling you what I have done but what you really want to see is the all important end product of the work. I will start with my 3D renderer. This is the project that I am most enjoying right now because it is very challenging and when something renders correctly it is incredibly rewarding.

Here is a wire frame render of a 3D cube with back face culling active. With the menu that I worked on this week you can turn on and off features from within the software.

This is the renderer with the GDI+ API filling in the polygons.

This is with directional light.

Another feature in the software is the ability to switch between different predefined models. This is a model of Starscream from transformers with directional light.

This is Starscream with point lighting. In addition to this I have been coding my own rasteriser so that I don't have to use GDI+ for my solid shading.

Now I have shown you my 3D renderer progress I will show you something more game-like. Here are some screenshots of my unreal engine game "Famous Five: Five Run Away Together".

Progress

Time seems to be moving very fast lately. I have been practising my MIPS assembly in console development and I was thrilled to hear that in two weeks time we will be putting all our hard work into practice on the PSP development kits.

In Games Development techniques my game is coming along nicely, I have a mini game in place in my level where you must collect mushroom in the forest on my map.

In Introduction to 3D I have written a camera class and a rendering pipeline and my program now renders 3D wire frames of .md2 files. I felt this was a large achievement and I put a lot of time and effort into the program to get it to this point.

Enter The Matrix

In Introduction to 3D graphics programming last week I was playing with the matrix. Ok, so its not as fun as it sounds. A matrix is a array of numbers used in maths to denote objects or transformations.

Last Tuesday I programmed a matrix class that will be used in my 3D rendering program. It is built to use 4 dimensional matrices. As the third dimension is perpendicular to the second , the forth dimension is perpendicular to the third.

Here is a two dimensional representation of a 4 dimensional object, the so called "Hypercube".

In graphics programming you use matrices called "Transformation" matrices to move and change the shape and size of 3D objects.

This week we will be learning about the virtual camera, the way you view the 3D world and the way it is represented as a 2 dimensional image on your screen.

Project Managed

For Game Development Technique this week I managed a 22 person project to recreate "The Hive from the first resident evil film. To manage the team I split them into 5 groups and assigned a group leader for each group. In a meeting at the start of the project we then split The Hive into 5 main sections and then those sections were to be split up and distributed between the group members. We had several meetings over the week and a wiki was created so we could share ideas and resources. To get the final deliverable me and a few of the more hardcore members of the team spent a day in labs making sure everyone's levels worked and fit together.

I presented the final project to John Sear, course leader, this morning with the team looking on. It was a exciting moment because very few members of the team had seen the map all put together.

The project was a success and John seemed to have nothing but praise for the people who put the most work in.

In my time as project manager I learnt a huge amount. The first thing I found out is that lectures are right to not add their students on Facebook. It is fairly discouraging when you set a meeting for 9am and you see people on Facebook saying things like "I'm not going into uni on may day off at 9am!". I feel like I have also gained a grasp of who on the module will succeed and who will fail based on their attitude to work. While most people on the team pulled their weight and offered to help me in any way they could (including going to buy me lunch when I was hungry and busy working) others I had to constantly chase up and pester to get anything out of them at all.

While the week was hard work I do feel enriched by the activity and I am very proud of the team.

Here are some of my favourite parts of the level.

MIPS

In console development we are going to program in assembly language so that our code is optimal. As you may or may not know, there is not one standard assembly language, what language you use depends on the processor of the hardware you are using. In the last lecture I took apart a PlayStation 2 so, as research, I disassembled a PlayStation 2 rom to take a look at the code.

It turns out that PS2 assembly is "MIPS" assembly. I was pleased to hear this as this is the same assembly used to program on the PSP that I will be developing for soon. I read up on a few basic MIPS commands, brushed up on my binary and hexadecimal number systems and had a quick look at some of my A level computing work to do with assembly.

The game I chose to disassemble was "Naruto Uzumaki Chronicles 2". I took a look at the first few lines of code and annotated them to show the command used.

Srlv zero, zero, zero <-- Shift Word Right Logical Variable

subu s6, zero, v0 <-- Subtract Unsigned Word

Mfhi zero <-- mfhi moves the contents of the hi register to register rd.

tge zero, a0 (19e) <-- Trap if Greater or Equal

(dmultu) zero, zero <-- Doubleword Multiply Unsigned

dsrav at, a0, zero <-- Doubleword Shift Right Arithmetic variable

break (00400) <-- Breakpoint

While each line on its own is very easy to understand, looking at the large amount of assembly was fairly daunting. I am looking forward to using assembly. Hopefully it will not be too long before this becomes fully readable for what it is.

Looking forward to developing for one of these.

Week Two

Week two of the year has come and gone, but what have I gained from it?

In Introduction to 3D graphics programming we had a mini test on vectors to make sure we were up to date and then we programmed our own vector class. We tested this class a large amount because it is fundamental to our final task to make 3D model renderer.

Next week we will be doing the same only for a matrix class. I have been reading up on matrices and am fairly confident that I will be able to program this class with few problems.

For console development I have been revising my number systems (Hex, Octal, Binary), I have also been reading up on machine code and having a read of some.

Games Development Technique has featured highly in my week. This week we had a lecture about games engines and middleware. The most interesting bit for me was the story of Renderware.

The work we got set was a team exercise as a class. We would have to build a unreal level as a class. The choice of what we were making was up to us. After a sizable talk I ended up backing the idea of "The Hive" from the Resident Evil film. As the main backer of this idea I was make Project Manager for the class. 10% of the modules mark is on this project so it is a fairly scary concept that I am in charge of it. More info about that project can be found on its wiki.

I still have a lot of work to do for all modules so I better get cracking.

First week of lectures of the second year

Well its Saturday and it has been a fairly interesting week. In Introduction to 3D programming we started working with GDI+ to program windows application with graphics. Off the back of this I have been making a paint application.

In Console Development we took apart some console to have a look at the hardware. My group took apart a PlayStation 2.

This was a fun activity and looking around the room at past consoles ranging from the Sega Megadrive to the Jaguar it was interesting to see the technological advancement from the different generations.

The other big lecture this week was Games Development Technique. In this lecture the course leader, John Sear, drilled it into us how important putting all our effort into this year will be. There are approximately 10,000 jobs in the UK games industry and only about 6,000 of those are programming jobs. In this academic year there are roughly 10,000 students studying games related courses. It doesn't take a genius to work out how competitive getting a graduate job will be. John estimates there there are about 40 undergraduate placement spaces in the UK, about 20 of those are from Derby.

The rest of the lecture was about project management. We learnt about the important decisions that the project manager must make when developing a game. This diagram below graphically shows the decision a producer must make when starting the development of a game.

If you make the game fast the cost will go up and the game will not be as good but if you make a game cheaper then there is a larger amount of time that your company is not gaining any money from the project. As a programmer I want to make the best games possible, the problem comes when I am part of a large company and the bottom line is that the company is there to make money and paying 200 programmers for 10 years to make the best game ever is not economically possible for very many people.

With all this project planning talk I made a spreadsheet with a schedule for my games development technique project as seen in the picture at the top of this article.

Back to work for me, I should have a new portfolio website up soon so watch this space. Also note that you can now get to the blog from www.ajongamesdev.co.uk.

New Academic Year

That's right readers. It is soon going to be the start of my second year at university. I can't wait to get back to lectures. This year the computer games programing course steps up a huge amount in all fields. The last terms work left me being able to program 2D games in C# using XNA and with a basic knowledge of C++ and yet in only one years time I will be going to work for a games company (If I survive this year!).

So, I hear you cry, how are you going to get good enough at C++ and 3D programming in only one year? Well, that's a good question. To make this jump from first year programmer to industry standard will be no easy feat that's for sure. To help us make that jump we are going to need a large amount of programming modules and a huge amount of work out of lectures as well. Guess what guys, that's exactly what we get. John Sear (Program Leader) has, as always, prepared just what we need. I'll give you a short breakdown of this years modules.

In the first term:

Game Development Technique

In this module we are using the unreal engine 2 to make a Famous Five based adventure game. We have already been sat a large amount of work for this.

Intro to 3D Graphics Programming

In this module we will be looking at programming 3D graphics in C++. Lots of lovely calculus. This is the module I am most worried about.

Then over both terms we do:

Personal & Professional Dev

From what i know about this module it looks like some what of a filler module that is there to teach us basic key skills that are not covered in the other modules.

Console Development

I am really looking forward to this one. In this module we get to use the Sony PSP development kits that have been sat there taunting us for a year. I'm looking forward to spending loads of time in labs seeing what I can do with the PSP. This modules is worth twice as much "Units" that go towards your degree (30 instead of 15). This means that it has the same work as two modules.

And in the final term of the year:

Applied Game Development

This is the module i know least about but by the name I would guess it is the module that takes you on after Game Dev Tech. Not sure what we use in this module but I would guess its C++.

Interactive 3D Graphics Programming

This one is a more advanced version of the first term 3D programming module. Pretty self explanatory.

Mobile Devices

This is where we make some really kind of cool games in Java for mobile devices such as PDAs or phones. This is where I am glad I have a android phone. Looking forward to makes some cool Java games.

So that's a awesome line up. I am excited to get back but there is also a element of fear that I won't be able to make it through one of the modules. I'll keep you updated on how its going.

If you are coming to Derby this year then drop me a email and I will get a few programmers together to show you round when you get here and you can ask us questions. I wish be around uni so check the labs for me (when you know where they are) and introduce yourself. Hopefully you will recognise me from my Blogger picture.

Mind Twist

A new game has been announced by Richard Garfield (picture above), creator of Magic: The Gathering. Garfield is working with Mind Control Software, developer of many popular flash games such as Arrrrrr!.
Not much has been said about the game so far but we do know that it will be playable on Facebook,on the iPhone and other platforms after release. The sales model will be micro transition based e.g. you can play for free but you can buy items that will help you from a cash shop.
In a interview with Gamasutra Garfield said the game would be "fairly fast, have a good amount of luck, a good amount of strategy, and something that feels more like a paper game but was still made with a computer".
The game will involve card game like army battles lasting about 10minutes a game and you will be able to use prebuilt army "decks" just like a prebuilt Magic deck to battle with. There won't be deck customisation.
I am looking forward to trying this game out as I love Garfield's previous work so much, not only that but he will be bringing it to the casual masses on Facebook. Perhaps the first in-depth Facebook game I can enjoy playing?

To find out more about the game go to its website or this Gamasutra article.

Aion: The Tower Of Eternity

If you are not familiar with this title then you must check it out. Aion is an MMORPG from NCsoft over in Korea.
Aion is very reminiscent of eastern MMOs such as Lineage II and Priston Tale II in terms of features and graphics, but is very westernised in terms of leveling. Instead of the classic grindfest that we have come to know from games like Lineage, Aion presents the user with a large number of easily assessable quests with built-in quest helper that makes the quests quick and enjoyable. My favorite thing about this system is that it tells you the objective and a very nicely written quest text. If you are struggling you can even press names or items within the text to get extra information on where you might find the person or item. This feature means that you never need to go to a third party quest website to get help and it doesn't ruin the quest, it just nudges you in the right direction.
While Aion mirrors Lineage II is such things as large scale PvP castle sieges, in which is pits legions (guilds/clans) two clans against each other over the occupation of a fortress, it also takes ideas from Guild Wars. This is noticeable in the style of legion cloak that legions can purchase for their members and the way the graphics are executed.

What this game does is it takes what all those free to play games wanted to do with their tiny budgets and actually does them. Instead of crumby slow point and click controls you can run around with WASD and jump with space, nothings sluggish it all just works.
You may have guessed by this point that while this game is good, it doesn't do much thats new. The only truly original feature is the wings that your character gets when it hits level 10. In Aion there are no mounts or vehicles, instead in some areas your character can sprout wings and flight around for a set time before getting tired and dropping out of the sky. The lore behind your wings is very cool and this feature brings so much to the game. On a PvE level the wings can be used as transport or to complete aerial quests. In PvP this means that duals and larger scale fights will include plenty of time in the sky. This means that melee classes must learn to flt well if they want to keep up with a tactical ranger zipping around and barrel rolling to keep you at a safe distance. Most instant and melee skills can be used in flight but longer casts can't. This gives flight very different tactical advantages to different classes.
While testing the game I have been playing a Cleric. The Cleric is advancement on the priest class that you can pick on character creation. The cleric is the closest thing Aion has to a dedicated healer class. I tell you this because I have been amazed how much damage my character does. All classes are made to be able solo PvE content as well have a use in PvP solo to mass PvP. What this means for the cleric is that even though it's the healer for end game raids, it is also fine to level and also does well in duels. I have dueled alot of people at level 13 and almost every one of my duels i have won without the need to heal. The same thing works for "Templar"; the tanking class. The templar's defence abilities cause it to be the best in PvP against heavy nuking cloth wearing classes.
In conclusion, if you love MMORPGs or are getting bored of your current one or you just love large scale PvP then Aion is a must. Aion is available on Steam but i would urge you to shop around because i bought it for cheaper from Amazon. If you order it before Monday the 27th of July they will send you a beta key so you can test the game on the weekend of the 31st.

Back in Derby!

So I have moved into my new house and have started working on some new stuff. Exciting times.

For now I'll dump you with a bunch of work that I promised you after my grades were out, so here we go. I'm not gonna give you the grade I got for the work; I am just posting it so you can get an idea of what the work on the course is like. I will tell you though that I didn't fail anything and everything here is higher than a D.

You are free to use bits or all of this work as long as you reference me (also an email would be nice).

This is my Algorithms and Data structures work. This is the code for a binary tree based address book program, also included is a small report and the tests I ran.

This is my game design document that I made for the Game Design Module.

This is a piece I did for the Computing Environment Module. This is the only bit of the module I enjoyed doing.

This is my Software Development II project. In this piece of work we had to take our lectures information card storing program and write a plug in so that it handled two more types of information.

Hope you can make use of these. All the best if you are doing similar pieces of work.

Results

So i just got some results through, 2 Bs and a C+. I'm pretty happy with that but i feel my game design deserved more than a C+ but oh well. Such is life. Whats important is i got through the first year so now its time to plug out all the stops and being hitting high grades to get my awesome degree :-)

When i have travelled from my parents house back up to Derby (2 weeks time) ill post some work :) have fun people.

Download Festival 2009

This is what i was up to this weekend. Good times!

Project Penguin

Here is a video of my Imagine Cup game.
It has been very good to work on, and I have enjoyed working with Craig (the artist) and the other guys loads, even if we don't make it to the next round I have gained so much from the process. I am glad I have had a chance to take part.

To find out more about Microsoft's Imagine Cup. Go here >> www.imaginecup.com

CGP 2008-2009

So there goes one of the best academic years of my life.

That's a whole year of uni gone and it only seems like I have been here a little while. It went very fast and i enjoyed every minute of it.
Last night we went out and when to Mosh, who should we meet there but our lecturers!
So we rocked and moshed out with the coolest lectures in the world, it was the perfect end to the year.

So what can i tell you about the first year of the course education wise?

First of all ill go about telling you what you need to get through the 1st year.
In terms of prior education you could do with having programmed a bit before but if you are willing to put in the effort then it is possible without.
You need to either know maths to a A level standard or have the brain to learn up to that standard very fast.
The other things you need are dedication and above all, a love for programming.

The modules we had this year on the most part were relevant and very interesting. While i think The computing environment was a waste of my time, the rest of the module were very well taught.

The university itself is a very nice place to be...inside the building of course. Looks horrible from the outside but that's slowly changing because they are cladding the building in solar panels.
The atrium is a nice place to be in as its lively and full of event, market stalls and places to eat. The SU bar is good for a drink in the day although i wouldn't advise going there for the night events after freshers week because it will just be you and the tumbleweed.

Im looking forward to next year, im sure ill be blogging about what i am up to over summer too. Will be fun.

I will be posting some of my work up here over the next few days, need to reprogram some controls stuff so you guys can play with your keyboards then ill post.

Boom Bounce

Here is a quick video showing my game design game.

Hope you like it :-)

Game Design Update

So I have been getting my Game Design ready for the deadline this week and i have been lucky enough to been given permission from my friend Carlito Jay from Aftershock Promotions to use some of his music in my game "Boom Bounce".

If you like trance, dance or anything like that then check out Aftershock Promotions.

I am hoping to have 3 levels of my game uploaded here by next weekend so check back soon. Also since this blog is about giving you, the reader, information on games making then i will also package up all my design documentation so you can see how the game was planned and then created.

Caster

Caster is a fast paced 3rd person run and shoot game.

The main element of the game that draws you in is the fast paced action coupled with the awesome trance music soundtrack. If you have a spare fiver then this game will give you about an hour or twos worth of entertainment.

Fun storyline (although not deep), was disappointed that it was so short but i expect i will pick it up in a few months time and complete it again.

Caster Mod Test Small from Wedge on Vimeo.

Twitter

So i got a twitter account to link to my blog to spread it to the masses :)

Coming soon:
Review of first year
more on the imagine cup
more indie game reviews!

Zeno Clash

Zeno Clash is a game made by ACE Team, a indie games company from Chile. You can grab yourself a copy of this bad ass game from steam for £15 and it truly is worth the buy for any games fan.
The gameplay in the game is relatively simple. With level after level of fist fighting and shooting your way through the levels this fast paced game with blow you away with its combat system.
The story line is awesome although a little weird. It was safe to say i was hooked to the storyline as i sat the other evening and completed the game in one sitting. Just because i completed in one night does not mean the game is short, this game has alot to offer.
Now onto the best thing about that the game! the fantasy world that the characters live in, portrayed amazingly well by the artists.
The truly unique world of strange creatures and varying landscapes make this game very enjoyable to explore.

I will leave you with a screenshot of my favorite creature and a screenshot of my favorite "Corwid" (The Corwids are not slaves to reality ), Oxameter is a guy who thinks that he must walk in a straight line...he is quite clearly mad but you end up following a bit of his story and its both strange and sad :(

Oxameter is indeed inside that suit.

Update

As i work my way through loads of assignments battling their increasingly difficult levels of difficulty i must still remember that on the 8th of may, end of exams, i am by no means finished with hardcore games programming for the year. I cannot rest because i must continue to program my game entry for Microsoft's imagine cup.

The new event relating to this that i wanted to share with you is that my team has indeed been assignment a mentor from Lionhead studios.
As my course leader points out this is not that useful to have this mentor helping us since he has a job to do whereas all the gaming staff at uni are just as qualified and their job is to help us all the time anyway, but it is always good to get contacts in the business.
When next year i am trying to get a work placement contact with my mentor may just get me a placement.

As well as this i am looking forward to the Microsoft Student Celibration in two days time, even if i have to get up around 5am to get there :)

Microsoft Research Student Celebration Day

Doesn't that sound jolly. Me and my team mates from my imagine cup team have been invited to go to Microsoft's student celebration day. I'm not sure what it is exactly but microsoft are paying for my train ticket and have asked for my T-shirt size so im assuming that ill at least get a free T-shirt. Mind you no amount of free T-shirts will ever make UAC on vista a good idea.

Some code that might help you

This code really helped me so i thought i would share it with you.
Throw it into visual studio, try and understand it before you compile.

Get the code here. or here if you are in halls.

All credit 2 Squig

Imagine Cup - Round 2

Great news for me and my team in the 2009 Microsoft imagine cup. We are through to the semi-finals. More work for us.

Here is a link to my team page. Should Be Studying.

We are all really excited to have this chance to show the world what we can do after not even a year of our course. We will do this to promote ourselves as well as our university. I have looked up and down the leaderboard and it is a daunting task when you see competition from countries like Norway, Egypt and as far away as Japan. Wish us luck.

Talk from Marcus Lynn (Lionhead Studios)

Today I was lucky enough to attend a talk by Marcus Lynn, a Lead Programmer at Lionhead Studios.
He took us through the production process behind a game. To show this to use he used the production of Fable 2 as an example.

Here is a audio recording of the talk. There is a little bit of moving, laughing and whispering that i apologise for and alot of the presentation was visual but due to them being secretive i could not record video.

One interesting fact we have learnt from a few leaks in some of the screenshots of documents from lionhead is that Lionhead are working on 2 games at the moment and one of those is Fable 3 (in fact their 2nd development milestone is on the 13th of march)! so if you are a fan of Fable i can confirm that there will be a Fable III. Not that its that ground breaking because you would have thought it was going to happen, but still.

Its exclusive events like this that make me glad i am at Derby. The talked happened because of our lectures contacts and the fact that there is a 3rd year (work placement year) student from Derby working there at the moment and impressing the lionhead staff.
Its thanks to the Staff and the original students that Derby is the best place to be if you want to get into the games industry. Good stuff.

My Game Of Life

Heres my version of the game of life. Changing it from a toy into a game.
Hope you like it :)

DOWNLOAD HERE

The Game Of Life

One of my tasks in game design this week was to make a version of Conway's Game of Life. If you do not know what this is then check out the wiki page here.

By clicking on the spaces you want to make populated you can trigger awesome chain reaction.

In my version you press the space bar to continue to the next stage in the reaction.

Download my spin on "The Game Of Life" here. Have a play around with it.

Took me a few hours in the labs today. I'm pretty happy i have got it done because now i can do other subjects work with the rest of the week.

Programming Gangster Rap Battle

Here is the transcripts to a 3 way gangster rap battle that occured between 3 of my friends all doing computer games programming. This had to be shared.


Luke: Luke 's lyrics are strongly typed, like his XNA crew, return that boolean method 'cause you know it be true.

Matt: Brother you be clownin' if you returning by value, you need it done by reference, you gotta add it to the stack queue, if all of what i'm saying here is getting you annoyed, dawg you know it just because you should return VOID. Brrrrap!

Tom: I see you and him together, theres a compile error,
let me set and get this dictatorship, lets encapsuslate our relationship,
XNA go run home to your mother, the c++ crew will overflow your buffer!
BOOOM

Luke: It's my turn again and I'm comin' in sick, spit some bars initialized with the sizeof(array) trick. But don't be thinkin' that I'm playin' when I referencin' my vars, 'cause the numbers that I've murdered can't be stored in 10 chars.
Bitch

Tom: you better start running cos' ill start to cout << "pain" <<
and ill endl; that shit so you wont be seen again
so just run home done be messing with me
next time yo u wont be so lucky when i #include iostream

Matt: Yo dude,
Your arrays are weak like like your program validation, you better use List(T) to store your information, I'm talking C# baby - Yoda say it ain't plusplus, he say use XNA to program games, you must.
Now listen up here, you just jealous of my flow, no man, not my rap I mean my coding, y'all know.
Long time hustler I take all my dreams in code, I don't get no errors, just compile, link, load.

Tom: Yo there brother, ill use a structure,
then ill use it in my main to switch from one function to another,
You must be insane, to use XNA,
so just go sit in your corner and make your crappy battleship game.
c++ is the way forward, making games are intense
you are so retarded, you have to use intellisense

Matt: I'm nerdcore-X, easy spitting hexadecimal,
Hit you with assembly, comin' in like an animal,
You're out of your depth man, you know it's easy to see,
00, 0F, 5A, 3C,
coming in faster than yo momma at a cake sale,
In the words of James Binge, yo bro, I think 'You Fail.'

*Tom admits defeat*

Luke: Your asm code needs re-thinkin' Bro,
So google a tutorial while I stir up the flow
While you're messin' about learning simple structs,
My multithreading skills are rewriting the books
Yeah, you can't mess with me, sick XNA MC,
Mix it up like a Random, I think you know what I mean?
You tried pretty hard, but it's just how it goes,
So I'll finish this battle with a Fordham.Dispose();




This was truly a nerdcore moment to remember.
Big up the Derby Uni Massive! BRAP!

XNA Pool

Here is what i handed in to my course leader. Its by no means a complete game, just a tech demo of the balls and pockets.

If u wish to play around with it then you will need 2 plug a wired Xbox 360 controller into your PC teh press A to move the white ball around.

Download the game here

I didn't want to carry on making this pool game so it has been ditched witht he rest of the rubbish programs i have made. I am currently working on a XNA game set in space! more news on that soon.

XNA

Ive been playing round with XNA and i have so far come up with this. I thought you might like to see it. The physics was the only issue i had but it did take me a while to get rid of any calculation bugs.

I should point out that all art work is the handywork of one "Matt Pickering".

To control the white ball you will need a 360 controller then uset the A button and the analog stick.

Here is a download link for the tech demo (If the link is broken then please email me or leave a comment)

G1 Review

The G1 is the new smart phone from T-Mobile and I am lucky enough to own one!
So i thought i would tell you guys my opinion of the device.
Since there is really two parts to this phone i will split my review into two different sections and put a small comparison with the iPhone at the bottom. The hardware section (the actual phone)



The phone has a 8.1 cm TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive HVGA screen with 480 X 320 pixel resolution which looks awesome and is very nice to look at both in the sun and at night. The touch sensitivity is very, very nice. As u drag icons and scroll through menus or around websites it feels very responsive and smooth.
The G1 has a full QWERTY keyboard that sides out from the back with great ease. I like the keyboard and the method by which u can get to the symbols just like the keyboard on your computer (i prefer this to the iPhones touch keyboard).
The camera is pretty good, not the best that you can get on a phone I am sure but it is good enough for me. The only downside to it really is that you cannot capture video on it.
The phone stores all your files on a micro SD card (i got a 8GB free with the free) which is by far enough for me. The only way you will use more than this is if you use it as your main mp3 player. If you are going to then you can lay your hands on a bigger micro SD fairly cheaply.
The battery is OK but if you use the phone a for about 12 hours straight like i did the day i got it then it will need charging once a day for its 3 hour charge period.
Other nice things about the phone are the Accelerometer, for senseing movement and which way up the phone is (nice for games developers i think *Day dreams about possible game mechanics*), the digital compass and the GPS. The GPS is awesome. Using your GPS and digital compass and google maps you can find any location and get directions to it. I have already used this to find a pizza place, phone my order ahead (part of the google maps service) and walk there to pick up my pizza. Very, very nice. The GPS has also been used for some game apps on the phone which is an awesome idea but so far all of them require alot of people with G1s in your locale to play (which will of course only happen in cities and only if your lucky) so i think these ideas need to be worked on a little more.
The last hardware item i want to talk about is the audio. The speak is quite loud and can be used to listen to music say when you want to show a track to your friend but is a little tinny for use most of the time. This leads me to the only issue i have with the G1 hardware. That is, the headphones. The headphones plug into the usb jack at the bottom of the phone so if you can say good bye to your skull candy headphones. The headphones provided are not bad and feature a good microphone and call answering button so its not too bad but i would like the option of what headphones to use.

This leads me the the second part of my review. The software.



The G1 runs the Android operating system. Android is an open source operating system developed by Google, it is based on the Linux kernel. The desktop environment is very nice and the software works seamlessly with the hardware.
Android features the "Android Market". A application where you can download applications for the operating system. There are hundreds and hundreds of apps ranging from Games to Tools that enhance even the phones simplest features such as texting. The Android market is full of apps that you will find useful. The great thing about this mobile is that instead of complaining about a thing that's not available on the phone you have the source code for the operating system and full access to all the hardware so just go ahead and program it into your phone (you program G1 apps in Java). Why not make it downloadable yourself on Android market so the rest of the G1 owners can benefit from your awesome idea, and all for free.
I believe you can charge for downloads of your application although i have not yet seen one program you must pay for to download (nice community).
The pre-installed applications include Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Maps, Google Talk, and the YouTube video player, all of which is use frequently.

For me, the nicest thing about this phone is that when i receive a e-mail or a IM my phone plays a tone just like when i get a text message. The reason i love this so much is that if my message is not that urgent then why waste a text message on it? I'll just email the person from my automatically synced with my google account contacts list and why they reply i will know as soon as it happens. If i want to talk people who are at their computer (most of the people i know, sad but true) then i will drop them a IM with google talk (or if u use AIM, IRC or MSN there are apps on the market for you) and talk to them from where ever i am. This is also true of other people with G1s (like my flat mate Harj) who I can constantly talk to for free.

This is the best phone i have ever owned, no doubt about it and for my contract of £30 a month and free phone (£25 is the cheapest option if you pay for the phone) it is well worth it.

Now for my promised section comparing it with the iPhone. I have played with he iPhone a fair amount and held them side by side and i can tell you this. If you are a fashionable idiot who is willing to pay over the top prices for an item that does less but has a slightly sleeker body then get the iPhone then do the rest of us a favour and stop showing it off. The G1 is far far cheaper and for a device with so many more possibilities is well worth buying over the iPhone. On the other hand there will always be people who wear tight jeans, scarfs, gel their hair up and listen to Blocparty who are always willing to pay huge money for a piece of electronics with a apple on it.

Brainpipe

While doings some revision before my Ludology exam, which is by the way 2 hours after this is going to be posted (good time to start blogging), i came across this indie game.
The first thing that attracted me to this game was the art work and how trippy it looked. So i downloaded the demo and gave it ago.




I am going to be honest. This game plays just like a missile guiding that you might find on any flash game portal but at the same time it looks and feels so much better.

"BRAINPIPE is a unique gaming experience. The ultimate objective is to transcend humanity." ~ Brainpipe Website

As this quote would suggest the game was made with so deep meaning in mind or on the other hand the whole game team were all in a strangely lit room taking acid. I vote the latter.