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TwoBrothersSoftware

Member

Posts: 141
From: Janesville, Wi USA`
Registered: 08-05-2006
If no one else will start it I will.

I wished I could have gotten more done - the puzzle game almost works and I plan to finish the whole thing an post it (although we changed the trivia game to make it more stand alone).

What I did wrong
I started just coding - and should have thought routines through for cleaner code that cose me time in the end.

What I did right
Picked something simple enough that if life got out of hand (which it did) we could finish. I'm glad I made the change to SDL it's really quite powerful for 2-d graphics, and of course having a partner (my real life brother ) to handle artwork and graphics - was a huge help.

What I wish I could change. Any other two weeks during the competition my 2 1/2 year old son was to the ER twice, and I had minor? surgery. I worked 13 hours more than my normal full time schedule during those two weeks. My brother's wife had fairly major surgery. Although it's a good test of your faith to see how you handle juggling things - does it impact your attitude - or can you really count all things joy

graceworks
Member

Posts: 455
From: Corvallis, Oregon, USA
Registered: 03-03-2001
Wow Bro.

We pray that all in your family recover quickly and remain healthy! It sometimes is hard to count it all joy. Keep praising Jesus until the joy returns.

Tim

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Called by God. The passioned plea of a father. The journey awaits at Jarod's Journey.
Participate in the Parables, The Interactive Parables

Jari

Member

Posts: 1471
From: Helsinki, Finland
Registered: 03-11-2005
Wow indeed. But Jesus heals!

You made good game btw.

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2Co 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

[VoHW] (Help needed) [Blog] - Truedisciple (mp3)

TwoBrothersSoftware

Member

Posts: 141
From: Janesville, Wi USA`
Registered: 08-05-2006
quote:
Originally posted by jari:
Wow indeed. But Jesus heals!

You made good game btw.


Thanks - my sister already wants me to talk to her church's childrens Pastor as they have a computer lab. (I think I need more question sets).

SSquared

Member

Posts: 654
From: Pacific Northwest
Registered: 03-22-2005
Wow! What a time you guys had. Sorry to hear all the troubles. Hope everything is settled down now.

The Good - Having never written a game, this was obviously a big learning experience for me. Learned about tiles/tilesets. Got familiar with XNA. Got into basics of computer AI. Got to know members on this site a little better. Learned to never use XNA again...or at least until the final release. Got me to start looking at SDL.NET.

The Bad - Creating a game requiring computer AI. Learning everything (XNA, computer AI, tilesets, game development, etc.) all during the contest.

The Ugly - XNA...what a pain. No fonts, drawing routines (circles, rectangles, stuff like that), everything MUST be a bitmap. XNA forcing judges to install C# Express and XNA just to run the game.

For next time - I plan to be more familiar with game development and using a graphics/gaming API so I can be ready for coding when the contest begins. Plan out a game which will better fit the expected time period.

SSquared

Member

Posts: 654
From: Pacific Northwest
Registered: 03-22-2005
Along the lines of my Good stuff above, I have started converting my game to SDL.NET so you can all play it without having to download and install so many applications.

I am also going to change it to use .NET 1.1 so you won't need to install .NET 2.0. Hopefully, you can download the EXE and folder and voila! It should work.

I was able to convert about 90% of the game to SDL.NET quite easily in under an hour. I have found two or three things do not translate very easily, so it will require some extra work. I was hoping I can turn in the SDL.NET version for the contest if it contains NO fixes/updates other than the conversion, so the judges won't all need to install extra things. If you can't tell by now, I am really feeling bad about forcing an install of C# Express and XNA. In any case, I will upload a new version once I am done with the conversion, but don't hold your breath. Perhaps I can get back to it this weekend, but I'll see what I can do today.

ArchAngel

Member

Posts: 3450
From: SV, CA, USA
Registered: 01-29-2002
yeah, I downloaded the XNA but didn't get the visual studio 2005 express. it seems redundant to me to have to get express, while I already have Visual Studio 2005.

why does express have more than the full version? why do we drive in parkways and park in driveways?

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"Patience, my good citizen, patience. It's bad enough to rob a man of his dream"
-Sydney Carton, Tale of Two Cities
Soterion Studios

SSquared

Member

Posts: 654
From: Pacific Northwest
Registered: 03-22-2005
For whatever reason, MS chose to have the beta of XNA work with Express. I guess because it is really XNA Game Studio Express (GSE) version. Not the professional version. I know, it only works with C# Express. Someone may have actually figured out a way to use it in VS 2005 Pro, but I have not kept up with that particular thread as I keep to C# Express.
Jari

Member

Posts: 1471
From: Helsinki, Finland
Registered: 03-11-2005
quote:
Originally posted by ssquared:
Along the lines of my Good stuff above, I have started converting my game to SDL.NET so you can all play it without having to download and install so many applications.

Thanks! Im looking forward to test your game, its the another one of the two games I havent been able to test yet.

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1Jo 2:9-10 He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. 10 He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.
Joh 17:26 And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.

[VoHW] (Help needed) [Blog] - Truedisciple (mp3)

SSquared

Member

Posts: 654
From: Pacific Northwest
Registered: 03-22-2005
I have one last thing to convert. I got most everything else done during lunch today.

I can't find a way to shade a sprite in SDL.NET. This is how I made the opponent and player pieces look different. The player was the actual PNG and the opponent is a darker shaded version. XNA just let me say what shade I want.

I think with SDL.NET I will need to create a 2nd batch of Opponent avatars (PNG files) with the shading I want. Not ideal, but will be fairly simple to change.

I still need to convert to .NET 1.1 which I may not get to until tomorrow.

SSquared

Member

Posts: 654
From: Pacific Northwest
Registered: 03-22-2005
Finished converting to SDL.NET and .NET 1.1. I used SharpDevelop 2 (my first time) to compile against .NET 1.1. You can find more information on the contest thread.


...goodbyyyeeeeeee XNA!!!!!


Helloooooooo SDL.NET!!!!!!!

ArchAngel

Member

Posts: 3450
From: SV, CA, USA
Registered: 01-29-2002
hey, S^2, that was pretty fun. kinda a mix of chess and checkers.

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"Patience, my good citizen, patience. It's bad enough to rob a man of his dream"
-Sydney Carton, Tale of Two Cities
Soterion Studios

SSquared

Member

Posts: 654
From: Pacific Northwest
Registered: 03-22-2005
Thanks.

Yep. At one point I had a little stratego-style in there as well where you wouldn't know the piece, but I had so many strange ideas with that one, it just wasn't going to fly. I eventually took it down to 3 visible pieces as you see now.

For some reason, the computer will sometimes not move on its turn. I think it happens sometimes with the Scout. I saw it twice last night after I uploaded the update.

By the way, your angel turned out nice! When you said it was hand-drawn, I thought you meant like mine. Like the scout and archer? I whipped those up in, hmmmmmm, 30 seconds or so. I'd like to see what you can do with your game. Any plans to continue work on it?

ArchAngel

Member

Posts: 3450
From: SV, CA, USA
Registered: 01-29-2002
haha, thanks. yeah, that guy's running animation alone took me over 5 hours. haha. adesigning. sketching. scan and clean. format for GameMaker. crzy.
I spent a bunch of time doing others also, but they weren't able to be put in. quite a bother.

lol, yeah, I plan on finishing this game up. worked too hard to let it drop.
but, yeah, I'll be taking it slower.

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"Patience, my good citizen, patience. It's bad enough to rob a man of his dream"
-Sydney Carton, Tale of Two Cities
Soterion Studios

CPUFreak91

Member

Posts: 2337
From:
Registered: 02-01-2005
The only thing I think I did wrong was forget to do a deeper bug check.

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All Your Base Are Belong To Us!!! chown -r us ./base
"After three days without programming, life becomes meaningless.'' -- Tao of Programming Book 2

D-SIPL

Moderator

Posts: 1345
From: Maesteg, Wales
Registered: 07-21-2001
quote:
Originally posted by CPUFreak91:
The only thing I think I did wrong was forget to do a deeper bug check.


don't worry bout bugs too much, it's natural progression. Just work on them as you find them. Being a Linux zealot, don't you believe in release early and often?

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