Testing and Implementation

Testing wise we tested as we went along we did encounter various problems due to the many classes using the splash screen. Most problems we managed to overcome except the hit detection and the removal of the smoke trail. If we could of achieved collisions the smoke trail's alive state could of been changed to false when it went off the screen.

An example of a problem we encountered and solved using our initiative was the aim function of the enemy sprite which seemed to invert its aiming on the player position.

This problem was solved with the addition of added code:

(working screenshot)

Unfortunately we couldn't use code such as score and bodycount and there wasn't an end to the level due to the fact niether player or the boss had collison detection.

Also the pause menu didn't pause the boss sprite probably due to the location of the boss code as the code need to be in the update method to work and it wouldn't work in the handle input method. This method was where we had the code to lock the players/rocket position.

References

Software
XNA - http://creators.xna.com/en-GB/
Paint.net - http://www.getpaint.net/
Photoshop - http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/
Fireworks - http://www.adobe.com/products/fireworks/
GIMP - http://www.gimp.org/

Tutorials
http://creators.xna.com/en-GB/tutorial/collision2dperpixel
http://creators.xna.com/en-GB/education/gettingstarted/bg2d/chapter1
http://creators.xna.com/en-US/samples/gamestatemanagement
http://creators.xna.com/en-US/sample/chaseevade
XNA Help Files - Going Beyond IV

Asset List

Audio

• Voyager - Daft Punk
• engine - http://www.soundsnap.com/
• fireball - http://www.soundsnap.com/
• rocket - http://www.soundsnap.com/

Background

• Background - http://www.metalslugsprites.net/

Enemy

• Enemy - Made by Tom P
• fireball - http://sdb.drshnaps.com/sheets/Misc/Misc/Other/

HUD

• BloodHud - Made by Edgar & Tom D

Player

• player1 - Made by Andy
• RocketLauncher - Made by Andy

Rocket

• Rocket - Made by Andy
• smoke - http://www.riemers.net/eng/Tutorials/XNA/Csharp/series2d.php

This is the bodycount storyboard. It gives a run through on how it works on the right. Although it is only one page i thought it was all that was nessesary as we dont have scripted events it is more like a constant stream of enemies.

AAaarrrgh ive been hit! MEDIC! MEDIC!

Above is 2 sprites both taking damage so if we had hit detection we could use these. also, the enemy sprite was left out of the game. Oh yeah and i know u cant see the outline but imagine there both on see-through backgrounds!

OPEN FIRE!

Auright guys heres sum sprites for our guy to shoot out. I know this blog is a bit dodge but u get the jist! Missile 4 missile launcher bullet sprite 4 machine gun.

Game current status

The area of the game we have coded is for an extract of how a boss fight would look within the game.

We have merged all our versions of the game and here are some screenshots of how it is looking now:




Main Menu

Game Screen

The main parts of the game that we now need are:

• Collision detection
• To remove the smoke effect
  

Game Over Screen

This is the Game Over screen that will be displayed with the player is killed and has run out of lives.

Pause Menu

This is the pause menu for the game. The menu options would be seen on top of this image and they would be created using XNA programming.

GANTT CHART

This is the Gantt Chart for our group, the key on the left with our names shows the work each team member was assigned and the table on the right shows the intended time the work was to be completed by and the actual time it was completed by. Sorry for the poor quality of the image it was crazy trying to get a table into a image file. Click on the image for a better view.

More Enemies- Scout/Sniper

This is another alternate enemy design for a later level in which the enemy uses a sniper rifle to attack the player from long range.

More Enemies- Swordmaster

This is an alternate enemy design for a later level in which the enemy uses an energy sword to attack the player. Because of this their behaviour would change in which they would try and get as close to the player as possible but because they need to be close to damage the player the sword would inflict a great amount of damage to the player.

Enemy Update

I've got the boss firing rockets, its not perfect but it looks ok.

I think we just need some collision detection in there now.

Here is a screenshot:


Also the boss is not affected by pause (lol).

Enemy / Boss

Hey Guys,

I've programmed a boss type enemy for the level.

He moves towards the player by default and dodges / evades rockets when you fire at him.

I can customize pretty much anything about him (speeds, thresholds, what he does) as I did the code myself :D.

Here are some screenies:

Here he is moving towards the player. (The player is that tiny cannon sprite which is why its hard to see)


Here he dodging a rocket


Here he is dodging another rocket or trying to atleast


Edgar

Edit: Boss sprite from http://www.chatcomics.com/sprites/

Music and Sound Effects

I have successfully added Music and sound effects to the Game.

Obviously it is difficult to screen shot this so I won't try.

Currently using Daft Punk - Voyager as the soundtrack, if anybody wants something else just let me know and I'll stick it in.

My Firing sound effects are from http://www.soundsnap.com/.

My movement sound effect is from the Going Beyond Tutorials.

Edit: All my sound effects are not from soundsnap as I have changed the engine sound effect.

I now plan to try and implement some enemies over the rest of this weekend

Getting Closer...

Finally here is some closer work looking more like a game needing a lot more code but boundaries have been achieved heres some screenshot's of it now:

Tom D

Backgrounds

Here are a few backgrounds that can be used in the game. These are from www.metalslugsprites.net

Enemy Sprites

These are sprites created to be used as enemies in our game including a seperate arm so that the arm can be rotated at the shoulder joint. Colour schemes could be changed to show different enemy difficulties and new arms could be created for different weapons.

We need guns, lots of guns

Player character- badass kill bot

Hey guys, bin working on the player character a bit more got the main character minus the arms, and 3 more images for the arm/weapon turrets so well have a choice between a minigun, railgun, or missile launcher! should be enough to destroy everything in our paths mwa hah ha! Oh yeah u may notice i obviously based it on Jehuty from Z.O.E but making a mech from scratch is pretty tough.

Oh yeah its Andy by the way!!!!!!!!!!!

Bodycount - Splash screen & Background

Thanks to Tom D, we now have a working menu screen which looks pretty decent.

When the game is run it looks like this:



Tom has also managed to insert some code into the Gameplay screen so that our custom background so far appears when you select play game, with 2 text sprites that can be controlled using the arrow keys.



The code for this is quite complex with lots of different classes for different screens etc... However we feel we can add to this and add our own game into the play game screen.

Edgar

Prototype 1..

This is Bodycount in development, so far moving clouds, background, foreground and screen resolution have been achieved..

Splash Screen

Hey Guys,

I've followed through a tutorial for creating a menu screen I found on youtube called
"New XNA - Paddles...(name of tutorial)".

Links
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRnptF-_Ngo&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5DyDqQWa-A&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8_2XxJIPkE&feature=related

Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEakBpWysDw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5rrwx2RQ9A&feature=related

Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEakBpWysDw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hRIL7hlotY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWK-1-fuW90&feature=related

It was pretty lengthy and complicated but I think I got the gist of it and here is a screen shot of the really basic Menu screen you end up with.



It doesn't look like much but the tutorial explains how to seperate your program in to seperate classes and other useful stuff and also the tutorials continue and create something a bit more fancy I think but I could make it look better than that by myself I think if you guys wanna use this.

Implementation - First Steps

We have added a sprite and a background in XNA and given basic controls to the sprite to allow him to move left with the left arrow or right with the right arrow.

This is the corner stone of any 2D sidescoller and is the first step in our implementation.

Here is a screenshot:

Tutorial Links..

XNA Tutorials:

2D Scrolling Background:
http://www.xnadevelopment.com/tutorials/scrollinga2dbackground/ScrollingA2DBackground.shtml

Scrolling Background
http://www.xnaresources.com/pages.asp?pageid=34

Creating a 2D Sprite:
http://www.xnadevelopment.com/tutorials/creatinga2dsprite/CreatingA2DSprite.shtml

Tutorials:
http://www.xnadevelopment.com/tutorials.shtml

Splash Screen:
http://www.virtualrealm.com.au/blogs/xna-tutorial-fading-a-splash-screen-from-the-distance/

High Score
http://xnaessentials.com/tutorials/highscores.aspx

Explosions
http://www.xnaresources.com/pages.asp?pageid=40

Power-ups http://www.xnaresources.com/pages.asp?pageid=43

Interface http://www.xnaresources.com/pages.asp?pageid=42

Audio http://www.xnaresources.com/pages.asp?pageid=44

Pause Menu http://www.insidegamer.org/documents/XNA%20Development-6.pdf

Force to an Object http://www.ziggyware.com/readarticle.php?article_id=199

Xml Interface / Menu http://www.ziggyware.com/readarticle.php?article_id=215
http://www.ziggyware.com/readarticle.php?article_id=188

Initial Research

Group Name: Bonesmugglers
Game Name: Bodycount

Initial Research
The game we are designing is to the theme of a 2D side scroller of which there have been many previously successful titles. It is a popular genre of game and remains such despite the rise of 3D games and ever improving graphics engines.

Moon Patrol



Moon patrol is a basic side scrolling shoot‘em up in which the player controls a moon buggy whilst avoiding obstacles on the ground such as craters and shooting enemies. It is an example of one of the first ever side scrollers and was first released in 1982.

Both these principals of avoiding obstacles and shooting enemies are very strong in side scrolling and platform games to this day and in our game ‘Bodycount’ we hope to implement both these concepts.

Sonic the Hedgehog

One of the most recognisable characters in video games is Sonic the Hedgehog which has all the qualities of a typical platform, side scrolling game.


Super Mario
Perhaps the most renowned video game series of all time is that of Nintendo’s Super Mario which follows these basic principals.

From the early versions of Mario such as ‘Super Mario Land’ to much more current titles the core gameplay and ideas have stayed the same to a large degree. These concepts include jumping on opponents to disable them, collecting powerups and progressing to the end of each level.

As seen in this screenshot of the much more recent ‘Super Mario World’ available on the gameboy advance the graphical style has stayed the same while being improved to a much more aesthetically pleasing level.

For the game we are designing we would hope to implement graphics of a similar quality to this with its own unique style. Also we are aiming to implement concepts such as level progression and boss events.

Metal Slug
In terms of the theme of Bodycount, we are aiming at something along the lines of a platform game called Metal Slug that was released in 1996.

The game is known for its humour as well as its fast paced action and multiplayer functionality.

Although the fluid animation and excellent artwork may be out of our reach at this point, the theme of the game and many of the concepts we do hope to imitate. Rapid action, multiple weapons, lives, health and bosses are but a few of the things we hope to implement that can be seen working well in Metal Slug.

Conclusion
Overall we aim to implement a basic 2D side scrolling platform game with game concepts which are proven to work by many years of successful games in the genre. Side scrolling games are not as popular as they used to be with the emergence of increasingly realistic graphics and more possibilities, however the genre is still popular on some consoles and especially on handheld devices.

Bonesmugglers Initial Game Ideas

Our initial ideas and aims for our XNA Assignment as follows...

Group Name:

Bonesmugglers

Group Members:

Edgar Nightingale 0705003
Tom Parkin 0704494
Andy Cox 0709769
Tom Derbyshire 0706434

Game Idea: 2D side scrolling/platform game

Brief/Outline:

Platform/Shooter
Enemies

Splash Screen/Menu
Possible Narrative

Core game play elements:

Player – Controls:

Ø Shooting
Ø Jumping
Ø Crouching
Ø Movement (Left and Right)

Enemies – AI:

Ø Target Player and Shoot
Ø Variations of Enemies
o Damage
o Speed
o Other Customisations

Ø Boss Character – Health

Game Play:

Ø Get to the end of a level without dying and defeating boss.
Ø Pure Shooting Game
Ø Checkpoints
Ø Level Progression
Ø Health.
Ø Lives.
Ø Score carries through game defeating enemies and bosses give you our current score, possible other objectives.
Ø Possibly add vehicles.
Ø Game difficulty increases as game progresses.
Ø High score/Game Over Screens.

Power – ups/Items:

Ø Lives.
Ø Gun power-ups, different type of guns.
Ø Player power-ups.
Ø Score items ‘rings’.

Assets:

Ø Sprites
o Characters.
o Bullets.
o Items.
o Background.
o Splash Screens

Ø Sound Effects/Music