GameDevKicks.com : Stories kicked by ElementCy

XNA Society - Basic Event Handling

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 14:55:56 GMT

Event handling is a simple task to accomplish and can be extremely useful. It allows your coding to be more flexible because custom actions can be written and applied without the need of changing the game's base code.

Game AI Roundup Week #47 2008: 13 Stories, 3 Quotes, 1 Video

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:16:11 GMT

Weekends at AiGameDev.com are dedicated to rounding up smart links from the web relating to artificial intelligence and game development. This week, we have a set of interesting media comments on current and upcoming AAA games; also, as always, there are some good articles and blog posts for you to read. Remember, there's also lots of great content to be found in the forums here! (All you have to do is introduce yourself.) Also don't forget the Twitter account for random thoughts!

XNA Society - Alpha Masking

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 09:10:01 GMT

Alpha masks add transparency to images and allow regular square images to become any shape imaginable. This tutorial is going to show you how to apply an alpha mask to an image.

XNA Society - Starting A Game Editor (WinForms)

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 10:52:04 GMT

Game editors are used to make creating a game much easier. This tutorial is going to show you how to start a game editor with a splash screen for use in your XNA game. Tutorial includes project files written in XNA 3.0 and VS2008.

Game AI Roundup Week #46 2008: 8 Stories, 1 Video, 1 Paper - AiGameDev

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:31:35 GMT

Rather late this week, but still we have a Roundup full of insightful stories and news on the game AI community; as always, there are some good articles and blog posts for you to read. Remember, there's also lots of great content to be found in the forums here! (All you have to do is introduce yourself.) Also don't forget the Twitter account for random thoughts!

XNA Society - Basic 2D Collision

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:37:56 GMT

This sample uses XNA 3.0 and shows how to do rectangle-rectangle, circle-rectangle, and circle-circle collisions with very simplistic and unrealistic physics.

How To Make A Better Community Game

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:36:31 GMT

Nick was sitting around playing all sorts of games in review and playtesting, as well as thinking of his own game, he figured he would gather his thoughts and write up a post on the things he thinks are important when making a game for Xbox LIVE Community Games. These are, of course, additions or elaborations on the things already present in the Best Practices guide and the Creating Great Community Games list.

Game AI Roundup Week #45 2008: 13 Stories, 1 Video, 1 Paper -AiGameDev

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 04:21:21 GMT

Weekends at AiGameDev.com are dedicated to rounding up smart links from the web relating to artificial intelligence and game development. This roundup, we have as much of content, as we did'nt have in weeks: many very good articles and blog posts around the web! Remember, there's also lots of great content to be found in the forums here! (All you have to do is introduce yourself.) Also don't forget the Twitter account for random thoughts!

XNA Society's Grand Opening!

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 04:03:54 GMT

Today, XNA Society is finally being launched! This site has been in development for somewhere around 3 months and I have been working extremely hard over the last couple of weeks to get it done. The purpose of this site is to have central place for developers to post articles, tutorials, and samples based upon the XNA framework in order to help other developers and aspiring gamers. Once you have registered for an account, you will be granted access to submit your very own content and rate others as well. Good luck and thanks for joining!

Using a Pool Memory Structure to Boost Performance

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:49:41 GMT

Matt Bettcher has a new article hosted on Ziggyware focusing on Using a Pool Memory Structure to Boost Performance in your XNA games. This technique is used to prevent excessive garbage collection that can bog your game down.

Procedural Music in XNA

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 04:22:10 GMT

A new article focused on creating Procedural Music in XNA. This article should give you a head start if you want to create your own music programatically or even create your own rhythm based game in XNA.

Initial impressions on the XNA 3.0 Platformer Starter Kit

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 22:31:31 GMT

Chris Williams has posted his initial impressions on the XNA 3.0 Platformer Starter Kit. It posts that it doesn't come with as much media than say one from GarageGames for their TorqueX product, but does has nice features, and has a great price tag, FREE!

Language Localization using Method Extensions

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 19:54:23 GMT

MrLeebo has a new article online focusing on Language Localization using Method Extensions in XNA. This article covers how you could implement multiple languages in your games using a simple framework designed to be extendable and robust.

XNA Series - Game Components

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 15:58:29 GMT

JohnyGizmo thought he would talk about a pretty cool class in XNA called GameComponent and its child Class DrawableGameComponent. These classes are made to add components to your game in a modular way. A component is something that needs to update with your game. DrawableGameComponent inherits GameComponent and adds functionality so that the component is also drawn at proper times as well. You could actually re-design our GameObject class as a DrawableGameComponent or at least inherit a class from DrawableGameComponent to give us the added functionality. Now from his reading, it seems that a lot of people think GameComponents are are really aimed at single game objects like a tank, but to add a TankManager class that would deal with the updating and drawing of all the tank objects in our game. But it certainly doesn't hurt to learn the type in an easy way.

Research into C++ Object/Attribute System for Low-Level Game Framework

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:46:04 GMT

Most commercial games have their own object / attribute system. From one engine to another, these frameworks provides more or less features depending on the style of C++ that's used. In general, the job of an object / attribute system is to provide a variety of features which help building the rest of the game code on top.

OGRE 1.6.0 Final ('Shoggoth') Released

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:46:35 GMT

Following a period of 'bedding in' as a Release Candidate, we've now released OGRE v1.6 as the new, official stable version for all users. Here's a reminder of the main new feature points in v1.6 over v1.4: * New more powerful script compilers * Geometry shaders in OpenGL * Antialiasing on render textures as well as windows * sRGB gamma correction * Alpha to coverage support * New 'Portal Connected Zone' SceneManager * Parallel-Split Shadow Map support * Improved tangent generation * Skeletal blend masks * New background loading options * Custom memory allocator support

The Megatrends of Game Design, Part 2

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:59:05 GMT

Veteran designer Pascal Luban (Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory) continues his series on the "megatrends" of the gaming industry, taking on accessibility and games as a teaching tool in this installment.

Gamebryo 2.6 Released!

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 21:29:36 GMT

Emergent Game Technologies is proud to announce GamebryoT 2.6, the world's most flexible game development framework. This release solidifies Gamebryo's leading position as the only true cross-platform, multi-genre, any-core game engine. Gamebryo supports all of today's most popular targets - including capabilities for the Wii that are available nowhere else.

Nite To Unite Raises $750,000 For Kids Charities

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:58:08 GMT

The ESA Foundation's annual Nite to Unite raised $750,000 for children's charities at its recent gala.

Thinking With Portals: Creating Valve's New IP

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:49:30 GMT

As Valve re-releases an update of Portal for Xbox Live Arcade, Gamasutra is proud to present a Game Developer magazine-reprinted article by the creators of the 2007 Game Developers Choice awards' Game Of The Year, discussing the creation of the GlaDOS-domineered cerebral action-puzzler. This article originally appeared in the January 2008 issue of Game Developer magazine.

Play With The Whole World: Tandem Games & The Intel Software Partner

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:57:41 GMT

In this Intel-sponsored feature article, the Austin-based independent developer Tandem Games explains the optimization and development support that they received from being part of the Intel Software Partner Program.

XNA Series - A Simple Particle System

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:57:46 GMT

Sometimes you need to create a an effect like smoke or an explosion. This is when you can turn to a particle system. You can think of a particle system as an emitter. It emits points on given velocities, and each of those points has a lifetime. Once that lifetime is over they are no longer updated or drawn. This example by JohnnyGizmo will be a simple "fountain".

Analysis: On Theme And Game Design

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 14:55:05 GMT

In this powerful analysis, game designer Daniel Cook considers the role of themes, from pirates to princesses, in game development, asking why games seem so limited in that area compared to film and literature -- and laying out some possible answers.

Disputed Study Claims 'Conclusive Evidence' Of Game/Violence

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:38:33 GMT

A new study led by Iowa State University has concluded that violent video games do have a negative effect on children, with test cases examined in both the U.S. and Japan.