No work just Wow

Yup, it was one of those days that i did not get any programming done. Not a bad day though, as i managed to fit the TRailer (Caravan) with a new LCD tv. This is a good thing as we are going away for thanksgiving again this year. Out camping in the Desert and doing some off roading while spending time with friends. Lovely.

So today i did get to spend some quality time PVPing with some friends of mine. Even though we are a thousand miles away from each other (well except for 1 of the gys who lives close to me). It was fun to play together.

As well as the Caravan tv install, i also got to visit Home Depot and buy some stuff like glue (needed for the tv install).

All in all it was a very productive day, even if that mean't killed  300 people in PV and leveled 10 bubs on my level 79 rogue.

Oh, i also outlined a design for a new puzzle game to my friend Terry. Hope he likes it :)

G'night

Presence in Xblig Games

I have always loved the idea of presence, and in some Xbla titles i have had the pleasure of working on, I did indeed use presence. Xblig and it's Xna studio has some built in functionality for doing this same thing, though with a few restrictions. I used the presence in A Shooter and i have to say tat seeing it first hand like that, watching in a way your friends progress from boss to level etc is really a great feeling.

Making adding it into the code well worth while.

// first i started by enumerating my Own presence values, for the ones i wanted to use.
enum PRESCENCE {
MENU = 0,
STAGE,
COOPSTAGE,
BOSS,
};

// then i simply call this routine with the state i want to be known, it basically converts my own enum, to the Xna studi type and sets it
public void SetPresenceForAllPlayers(int _state)
{
  foreach (SignedInGamer sig in Gamer.SignedInGamers)
  {
   switch (_state) {
    case ((int)PRESCENCE.MENU):
     sig.Presence.PresenceMode = GamerPresenceMode.AtMenu;
     break;
    case ((int)PRESCENCE.STAGE):
     sig.Presence.PresenceMode = GamerPresenceMode.Stage;
     sig.Presence.PresenceValue = cLevel.iLevel+1;
     break;
    case ((int)PRESCENCE.COOPSTAGE):
     sig.Presence.PresenceMode = GamerPresenceMode.CoOpStage;
     sig.Presence.PresenceValue = cLevel.iLevel+1;
     break;
    case ((int)PRESCENCE.BOSS):
     sig.Presence.PresenceMode = GamerPresenceMode.BattlingBoss;
     break;
  }
 }
}

Good luck implementing your own Presence. I have posted this here, just so people can see how easy it is to really implement

Laters

Pax10 Research and Fun

Well i spent way longer than I should to validate a mere 50 bucks entry fee into the competition. However I always try to be diligent. In this case it was to see if I had any chance with A Shooter. Ya know what.. I think I do. These people really prize playability above all else it seems. Their PAX10-2009 entries were all great games with so much going for them play wise, if not all of them looked amazing.

Here is what their Pax10-2010 says:-
The PAX 10 is a showcase of independent games to be exhibited at the Penny Arcade Expo. Taking submissions until June 15th, our group of 50 industry experts will cull the selection of games into what they collectively feel are the ten best in regard to gameplay and overall fun-factor.

So there ya go, the Yellow highlighted part tells me to go for it. This means of course that the stage I am curently in (make the game more fun etc) is a real meaningful thing to do.

But what is fun ?
This is a tough one at times. One that can send a sane game designer batty. I believe my game has a lot of gameplay. I also think it is quite good fun. However I also feel that more fun can be added. So here are a few things i have done. Starting with the latest :O

I added a star, well i added a number of them. They scroll slowly down the level and you can collect them. YAY collectibles! However this was not enough fun. so after talking to me mate Jeff i have gone back and altered them. They used to just give 1000 points. Now for more fun i made them get incremental points per level. so now the more you collect the WAaay more points you get for the later ones. They can top out at 10K points. I like them.

I have writen a bit about another fun item, which is to play with the starfield. It can get quite crazy with Gigantic stars. Still this is value added fun. So a word to the wise. Finish your game, and in those last few weeks (yes WEEKS!), make it as much fun as you can.

Ok, i am done for tonight, So

G'night

Pointless work and Options?

I am sure some people will think the last 30 minutes I spent coding in my new game a pointless and waste of time. I do not agree with this of course for a number of reasons. Oh, first I should tell you what I spent that time on I guess.

I have added a couple of new Options to my Options screen in A Shooter. Here is a picture of the Options screen as it is Now.

A Shooter Options page as of 5/2/2010

As you can see there are quite a few of them. The new ones are the bottom two. Both are related to the starfield. I have put them in because I think they are both fun items. They do not alter the gameplay in any way, but People can play with the way the game looks, and how can that not be fun? I have done similar but more over the top things in some past games. Krakout had some of the wackiest phsychadelic modes I have ever come across and that was a breakout type of game. More of the Jeff Minter style color cycling etc. Anyway, why did I add the functionality? For two reasons, One is that it is more fun with them. Two I really wanted to see what colored stars looked like, and so wrote the code. Sometimes when you write code you really want written, it is like it didn't take any time at all. On another plus side of course I now have more options making the game look bigger than it did.

You might have noticed the order of the options and wondered why I have not ordered them to be a cone shape or something artistically appealing. The order is denoted by how important I think an option is. So difficulty mode has to be Major, followed by volume controls. My new Fun options are least important, so go at the bottom.

Laters