Book Image

XNA 4.0 Game Development by Example: Beginner's Guide - Visual Basic Edition

By : Kurt Jaegers
Book Image

XNA 4.0 Game Development by Example: Beginner's Guide - Visual Basic Edition

By: Kurt Jaegers

Overview of this book

XNA Game Studio enables hobbyists and independent game developers to easily create video games, and now gives that power to Visual Basic developers. XNA lets you bring your creations to life on Windows, the Xbox 360 and the Windows Phone platforms. The latest release of XNA has added support to Visual Basic and therefore, Visual Basic developers now have the power to give life to their creativity with XNA.This book covers both the concepts and the implementations necessary to get you started on bringing your own creations to life with XNA. It presents four different games, including a puzzler, space shooter, multi-axis shoot 'em up, and a jump-and-run platformer. Each game introduces new concepts and techniques to build a solid foundation for your own ideas and creativity.This book details the creation of four games, all in different styles, from start to finish using Visual Basic and the Microsoft XNA framework. Beginning with the basics of drawing images to the screen, the book then incrementally introduces sprite animation, particles, sound effects, tile-based maps, and path finding. It then explores combining XNA with Windows Forms to build an interactive map editor, and builds a platform-style game using the editor-generated maps. Finally, the book covers the considerations necessary for deploying your games to the Xbox 360 platform.By the end of the book, you will have a solid foundation of game development concepts and techniques as well as working sample games to extend and innovate upon. You will have the knowledge necessary to create games that you can complete without an army of fellow game developers at your back.

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XNA 4.0 Game Development by Example: Beginner's Guide - Visual Basic Edition
Kurt Jaegers
Dec, 2011 | 424 pages
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Table of Contents (16 chapters)
XNA 4.0 Game Development by Example – Visual Basic Edition Beginner's Guide
XNA 4.0 Game Development by Example – Visual Basic Edition Beginner's Guide
Credits
Credits
About the Author
About the Author
About the Reviewers
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Introducing XNA Game Studio
Introducing XNA Game Studio
Overview of the games
System requirements
Installing XNA Game Studio
Time for action – installing XNA Game Studio
Building your first game
Time for action – creating a new Windows game project
Time for action – adding variables to the class declaration area
Time for action – customizing the Initialize() method
Time for action – creating the squareTexture
Time for action – coding Update() for SquareChase
Time for action – draw SquareChase!
Time for action – play SquareChase!
Summary
2
Flood Control – Underwater Puzzling
Flood Control – Underwater Puzzling
Designing a puzzle game
Time for action – setting up the Flood Control project
Introducing the Content Pipeline
Time for action – reading textures into memory
Sprites and sprite sheets
Classes used in Flood Control
The GamePiece class
Time for action – build a GamePiece class - declarations
Time for action – building a GamePiece class – constructors
Time for action – GamePiece class methods – part 1 – updating
Time for action – GamePiece class methods – part 2 – rotation
Time for action – GamePiece class methods – part 3 – connection methods
Time for action – GamePiece class methods – part 4 – GetSourceRect
The GameBoard class
Time for action – creating the GameBoard.cs class
Time for action – initializing the game board
Time for action – manipulating the GameBoard
Time for action – filling in the gaps
Time for action – generating new pieces
Time for action – water in the pipes
Time for action – making the connection
Building the game
Time for action – Game1 declarations
Time for action – updating the Initialize() method
Time for action – drawing the screen – the title screen
Time for action – drawing the screen – the play screen
Time for action – scores and scoring chains
Time for action – handling mouse input
Time for action – letting the player play
Play the game
Summary
3
Flood Control – Smoothing Out the Rough Edges
Flood Control – Smoothing Out the Rough Edges
Animated pieces
Time for action – rotating pieces
Time for action – falling pieces
Time for action – fading pieces
Time for action – updating GameBoard to support animated pieces
Time for action – generating fading pieces
Time for action – generating falling pieces
Time for action – modify Game1 to generate rotating pieces
Time for action – updating Game1 to update animated pieces
Time for action – update Game1 to draw animated pieces
SpriteFonts
Time for action – add SpriteFonts to Game1
Time for action – drawing the score
Time for action – creating the ScoreZoom class
Time for action – updating and displaying ScoreZooms
Time for action – game over
The flood
Time for action – tracking the flood
Time for action – displaying the flood
Time for action – adding difficulty levels
Summary
4
Asteroid Belt Assault – Lost in Space
Asteroid Belt Assault – Lost in Space
Creating the project
Time for action – creating the Asteroid Belt Assault project
Another definition for sprite
Time for action – declarations for the Sprite class
Time for action – Sprite constructor
Time for action – basic Sprite properties
Time for action – animation and drawing properties
Time for action – supporting collision detection
Time for action – adding animation frames
Time for action – updating the Sprite
Time for action – drawing the Sprite
A Sprite-based star field
Time for action – creating the StarField class
Time for action – updating and drawing the StarField
Time for action – viewing the StarField in action
Animated sprites – asteroids
Time for action – building the AsteroidManager class
Time for action – positioning the asteroids
Time for action – checking the asteroid's position
Time for action – updating and drawing Asteroids
Time for action – bouncing Asteroids – part 1
Time for action – bouncing Asteroids – part 2
Player and enemy shots
Time for action – adding the ShotManager class
Time for action – firing shots
Time for action – updating and drawing shots
Adding the player
Time for action – creating the PlayerManager class
Time for action – handling user input
Time for action – updating and drawing the player's ship
Enemy ships
Time for action – creating the Enemy class
Time for action – waypoint management
Time for action – enemy update and draw
Time for action – creating the EnemyManager class
Time for action – setting up the EnemyManager class
Time for action – spawning enemies
Time for action – updating and drawing the EnemyManager
Summary
5
Asteroid Belt Assault – Special Effects
Asteroid Belt Assault – Special Effects
Explosion effects
Time for action – constructing the Particle class
Time for action – updating and drawing particles
Time for action – the ExplosionManager class
Time for action – creating explosions
Time for action – updating and drawing explosions
The collision manager
Time for action – creating the CollisionManager class
Time for action – player shot collisions
Time for action – player collisions
Time for action – using the CollisionManager class
Sound effects
Time for action – building a sound effects manager
Time for action – using the SoundManager class
The game structure
Time for action – structuring the game
Time for action – drawing the game structure
Summary
6
Robot Rampage – Multi-Axis Mayhem
Robot Rampage – Multi-Axis Mayhem
Modules, modules, everywhere
Time for action – creating the Robot Rampage project
A world larger than the screen
Time for action – creating the Camera class
Time for action – building a new Sprite class
Time for action – viewing the Sprite and Camera classes in action
The game world – tile-based maps
Time for action – creating the TileMap module
Time for action – dealing with map squares
Time for action – handling tiles
Time for action – drawing the tile map
Time for action – random wall placement
Adding the player
Time for action – building the Player module
Time for action – handling input
Time for action – staying in bounds
Time for action – accounting for walls
Summary
7
Robot Rampage – Lots and Lots of Bullets
Robot Rampage – Lots and Lots of Bullets
Visual effects
Time for action – the Particle class
Time for action – the EffectsManager module
Time for action – building explosions
Time for action – spark effects
Adding weaponry
Time for action – beginning the WeaponManager module
Time for action – new weapons
Time for action – shots colliding with tiles
Time for action – power-ups
Pathfinding
Time for action – the PathNode class
Time for action – beginning the implementation of A*
Time for action – finding the path
Time for action – adjacent squares
Time for action – updating the WeaponManager class
Player goals
Time for action – building a computer terminal
Time for action – the GoalManager module
Enemy robots
Time for action – building the Enemy class
Time for action – enemy AI methods
Time for action – the enemy manager
Time for action – destroying enemies
Game structure
Time for action – the GameManager module
Time for action – awarding points
Time for action – updating the Game1 class
Summary
8
Gemstone Hunter - Put on your Platform Shoes
Gemstone Hunter - Put on your Platform Shoes
Borrowing graphics
Time for action – creating projects
A more advanced tile engine
Time for action – the MapSquare class
Time for action – the Camera module
Time for action – the TileMap module – part 1
Time for action – the TileMap module – part 2
Time for action – the TileMap module – part 3
Time for action – adding the tile map to the game project
The map editor project
Time for action – creating the Level Editor project
Time for action – adding a form
Time for action – adding event handlers
Time for action – creating the menu bar
Time for action – tile selection controls
Time for action – scroll bars
Time for action – final controls
Time for action – updating Game1
Time for action – the Game1 Update method
Time for action – completing the editor – part 1
Time for action – fixing the scrolling delay
Time for action – implementing loading and saving
Time for action – handling the FormClosed event
Summary
9
Gemstone Hunter—Standing on your Own Two Pixels
Gemstone Hunter—Standing on your Own Two Pixels
Animation strips
Time for action – building the AnimationStrip class
Animated game objects
Time for action – building the GameObject class – part 1
Time for action – building the GameObject class – part 2
Time for action – building the GameObject class – part 3
The player
Time for action – creating the Player class
Time for action – overriding the Update() method – part 1
Time for action – overriding the Update() method – part 2
Time for action – repositioning the camera
Loading levels
Time for action – building the LevelManager module
Time for action – building the Gemstone class
Time for action – implementing score tracking
Enemies
Time for action – summoning the zombies
Time for action – interacting with zombies
Level transitions
Time for action – supporting map transitions
Processing other codes
Time for action – handling codes
Game structure
Time for action – implementing game states
Summary
Index
Index

Summary

This Chapter has us well on our way to implementing a playable version of Asteroid Belt Assault. We have covered the following:

  • Building a generic Sprite class to represent objects within the game world

  • Creating a scrolling StarField using a large number of sprites that update their own positions and a class to encapsulate the management of the StarField as a whole

  • Implementing an asteroid field, with Asteroids that rebound off each other, using elastic collisions to simulate realistic changes in direction and speed

  • Creating manager classes for shots, the player's star fighter, and enemy ships

  • Designing an Enemy class that can follow a set of waypoints as the ships traverse the screen

  • Building an EnemyManager that controls enemy spawn rates and establishes waypoint paths for enemies to follow, as well as controlling enemy fire at the player

In Chapter 5, Asteroid Belt Assault – Special Effects, we will finish building the Asteroid Belt Assault game, by adding a collision management system...

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