Chapter 1, As the Prophecy Foretold, a Hero is Born, introduces you to the fundamentals and specific features of RPG video games, and discusses how this book will help build foundational knowledge for a commercial RPG. This chapter will also walk you through the basics of video game architecture, with a high-level overview of the component layout and application lifecycle in LibGDX. Finally, after learning about setting up your development and build environment, you will run your first demo application.

Chapter 2, Welcome to the Land of BludBourne, initially discusses how to create maps for BludBourne with a tile editor and how to load them using asset management classes. You will then implement your main render loop with a camera for displaying your loaded maps. We will then discuss some features specific to maps, including spawn points and a portal system. Finally, you will learn about adding animation to your player sprite and implementing input handling so that your player can move around the game world.

Chapter 3, It's Pretty Lonely in BludBourne…, discusses how to implement the Entity Component System design pattern for BludBourne. We will then cover scripting support using JSON to define NPC properties. Finally, we will implement a physics component with collision detection and an input component for the NPCs' movement.

Chapter 4, Where Do I Put My Stuff?, covers HUD layouts with skins. We will learn about integrating player stats into the UI. We will then apply this knowledge by implementing a drag and drop inventory system for your player. Finally, we will discuss how to persist player state with save and load game profiles.

Chapter 5, Time to Breathe Some Life into This Town, discusses the theory behind dialog trees and implements an interactive speech system for the NPC characters. Finally, we will develop shop store UIs for the player with item and money transactions.

Chapter 6, So Many Quests, So Little Time…, discusses quest systems, including dependency graph theory and implementation. Finally, we will create a quest log UI, including the steps involved with creating scripts for quests.

Chapter 7, Time to Show These Monsters Who's the Boss, discusses how to implement a battle system with a UI including enemy NPC battle mechanics. We will then look at how we can connect HUD updates to state changes in BludBourne. We will cover a few tricks for implementing the consumption of items from the player's inventory. Finally, we will develop a leveling system for the player.

Chapter 8, Oh, No! Looks Like Drama!, discusses how to integrate sound and music into the world of BludBourne. We will also look at how to create cutscenes and integrate them into the game.

Chapter 9, Time to Set the Mood, covers an assorted list of special effects that can give your RPG some nice polish. We will first learn about creating transitions between screens. We will then learn about the theory behind a shake camera class and implement it. We will then look at how a static lighting model fits into BludBourne, including implementing a day-to-night cycle. Finally, we will cover particle effects that can used to make the spells pop and torches smoke.

Chapter 10, Prophecy Fulfilled, Our Hero Awaits the Next Adventure, covers deployment topics for your game, including discussing digital distribution platforms. We will then look at security measures, including obfuscating save game profiles, executable jars, native launchers, and obfuscating the final packaged JAR. Finally, we will look at a few tips and tricks regarding test coverage for builds and some debugging tips.

Throughout the book, I have mentioned various technologies and tools that can help at certain stages in the development cycle. I have recommended mostly free software tools and dependencies. However, keep in mind that some may require a separate license for commercial purposes. As a testament to the open source community, I created BludBourne entirely from these free resources.

LibGDX is a cross-platform game development framework that can run on a Windows PC, Linux, Android device, or Mac OS X. The development for this book specifically supports Windows (7/8), so keep this in mind when using the source for BludBourne as there may be some platform-specific considerations outside of Windows.

As a quick summary of tools and libraries used for this book, I have listed them here (may not be an exhaustive list):

The installation and usage instructions for additional tools are provided where necessary.

If you have always wanted to create an RPG video game but found the creation process overwhelming, either due to lack of tutorials or by getting lost in a sea of game-related technologies, engines or frameworks, then this book is for you.

This book will walk you through the entire development process of creating an RPG title from scratch using the LibGDX framework and it can be used as a reference by everyone from a team developing their first commercial title to the solo hobbyist.

This book does expect that you have software engineering experience, including familiarity with object-oriented programming in the Java language and an understanding of UML.

In this book, you will find a number of text styles that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "The processInput() method is the primary business logic that drives this class."

A block of code is set as follows:

public class DesktopLauncher {
  public static void main (String[] arg) {
    LwjglApplicationConfiguration config = new 
            LwjglApplicationConfiguration();
    new LwjglApplication(new BludBourne(), config);
  }
}

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

public class DesktopLauncher {
  public static void main (String[] arg) {
    LwjglApplicationConfiguration config = new 
            LwjglApplicationConfiguration();
    new LwjglApplication(new BludBourne(), config);
  }
}

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

C:\BludBourne>tree /F /A

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, for example, in menus or dialog boxes, appear in the text like this: "Adding a new tileset is as easy as clicking on the New icon in the Tilesets area."

Feedback from our readers is always welcome. Let us know what you think about this book—what you liked or disliked. Reader feedback is important for us as it helps us develop titles that you will really get the most out of.

To send us general feedback, simply e-mail <[email protected]>, and mention the book's title in the subject of your message.

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