I’m just a beginner at Managed C# game development, and very much learning as I go. So this *new* XNA thing has been quite a daunting prospect and I have pretty much ignored it until now.

The more I read about it though, the more I’m looking forward to it. It sounds like I’ll no longer be needing the DirectX SDK & VS.2005. Instead the new XNA Game Studio IDE will have all I need. At least that’s how I’m interpretting things at the moment. August 30th is when this shiny new IDE is expected to be released. So I guess that’s when the rewrite begins.

Most of my questions & concerns were answered by this faq & this blog.

I haven’t done much on the game lately (because I’ve been focusing on getting the blog going).

However, I have just made a small fix and uploaded it.

What’s new?

Fixed the known issue where the plane could disappear off the screen. Now, if you fly too high or too low the plane will change direction to stay in view.

I’ll revisit this one day, perhaps having the plane get struck by lightening/ufo/stall when too high, and too low will crash into the ground – duh!

What’s next?

I think I will work on the problems dealing with different hardware appropriately. I have some ideas on how to do this properly now, but a bit of refactoring will be necessary.

Sorry JD, no shooting yet

There is a new Battlefield 2142 trailer out called “Camp Gibraltar”. You can get it here.

If you’re a BF2 fan you’ve gotta check it out! The most impressive trailer yet!

Needless to say, I’m REALLY looking forward to this game.

As promised, I’ve put up the pages for trying out my work in progress.

I will routinely put up new builds and this is where you should always be able to find the latest one.

I’ve also added a troubleshooting page. There is important information you’ll probably need to follow to get the build running. (I’m still learning how to deal properly with all the different hardware capabilities out there).

Remember this is a work-in-progress, so don’t expect a complete game! Any feedback is most appreciated.

The pages can be found are on the right hand side of my blog.

Enjoy!

XNA sounds pretty cool, although I’ll confess to not really looking into it for now.

The reason being that the DirectX SDK (June 2006) that I am currently working with says this about XNA (from the dxreadme.txt).

Microsoft is working on a new managed gaming framework which will target Windows and Xbox 360 known as the XNA Framework. The majority of what exists today as the Managed DirectX 2.0 beta will become a key component of the XNA Framework. The MDX 2.0 libraries will remain unchanged as of the April 2006 SDK release and will continue to ship as a beta in DirectX SDK releases until a beta of the XNA Framework is made available. While we are striving to deliver a smooth transition from code written to use the Managed DirectX 2.0 beta, Microsoft can make no guarantees about the API compatibility between the Managed DirectX 2.0 beta and the upcoming graphics API’s in the XNA Framework. Microsoft will be providing guidance about the API differences as well as migration assistance as more information becomes available regarding the XNA Framework.

Confused? We’re up to DirectX 9.0c aren’t we? Well yes, but “DirectX 2.0″ is actually a whole different beast. I have limited understanding of it, but I believe that it is like a whole brand new API, and very much in the Beta stage.

All pretty useless information anyway since DirectX 2.0 is no more!

Read this from “The Z Buffer”.

So XNA is definately coming, but at this stage I’m not really focusing on it for my work in progress!!!

p.s. I realise a new DirectX SDK was released in August. I haven’t bothered with it since there were apparently no changes made to the Managed wrapper. Perhaps it says more about XNA, so I’ll look into that.

Well, I’ve been struggling to work out how to really get this blog chugging along.
The main purpose of which, is to be a running diary of how my game dev progress is going.

The hard thing is knowing where to start since I’d previously been emailing my progress to friends and family. But at the risk of repeating myself, I think I better start by recapping from the beginning.

I don’t have much time, because tonights actually my dedicated Battlefield 2 gaming night!

So like one of those movie flashbacks, let’s fade in with some wobbly transition effect…

So it all started with me realising my development skills were getting totally stagnant. I needed to do some serious development in the latest tools, instead of the ones I’d been stuck doing for the previous 2 years.
For a long time I’d been wanting to reprise my old game dev hobby from age 13. I even knew in the back of my mind which incomplete game idea I wanted to resurrect.

So in an uncharacteristically assertive decision, I decided I’d get off my lazy arse and finally do it. I’m a far more capable developer now than I ever was at age 13. And for once the hardware or development language wasn’t going to hold me back on game performance.

So I armed myself with VS.2005, downloaded the DirectX SDK (with the Managed Code wrapper) and went for it – in the evenings of course. Certainly not going to give up my day job. This is very much a hobby, nothing more.

It did mean sacrificing some gaming time, and since that’s exactly what I am doing right now, I’m going to end the flashback there, and continue this later. It’s my weekly dedicated gaming night remember.

fade out with wobbly transition effect again…

back in the present, now I’m off to do some carnage!

PC Gaming’s a huge passion of mine, but as a dad, husband and IT professional it’s hard to be any more than a part-timer compared to the hoards of “l33t” teenage masses I play online against. It’s a similar story for my other buddies that I always try to team up with. That tends to only happen one night a week, when we devote ourselves to the greater cause that is team =NAD=.

So it’s a rare & welcome pleasure when we pull one off against the masses and top the table so clearly!

(Ok, so our scores aren’t THAT amazing, but we still kicked arse, both individually and as a squad!)

Take a bow squad =NAD=, take a bow!

I’m still learning how to blog and make pages.

At least I now have some initial Game dev pages in the right hand page links.

Some of you will have already seen the latest batch of screenshots. Stay tuned for more!

Enjoy!

So here it is, my first Blog!

Big ups to JD for hosting me.