Thomas' Game Dev Journal #9: September 12, 2009

I discuss the challenges and specifics of programming ladders. God, I can't wait to program some bad guys to kill.

Follow me on Twitter! http://www.twitter.com/retrothomas

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• game development
• game programming
• game dev
• programming
• C#
• XNA
• gaming
• indie games

[retrothomas]

I currently only check the tiles within the camera view, which is a relatively small number of optimizations. I figure I could shrink the testing further by making a rectangle a bit larger than the player and only testing tiles within that, but right now my performance is great and I'm more interesting in creating new functions.

I appreciate the suggestion though and I've thought the same thing :)

[ProgrammerInProgress]

thoroughly enjoyed the video, and i'm very impressed by your progress as this series continues, keep it up!

[retrothomas]

Thank you :)

[Sewje]

Very impressive how you organise all your learning, I been learning XNA for a few months also, Indeed when I look though my code from earlier months I can definitely see ways to optimise and simplify certain parts, which in turn actually fixes some bugs. Also, good job in explaining your development, mine would be a nightmare to explain since my code is probably only readable by myself. lol

It is interesting to see how others are getting on with their XNA learning.

Keep up the good work.

[retrothomas]

Thanks! I think I have a great handle on my code because I comment the crap out of it and I go out of my way to make everything clean and readable. It's unlikely that anyone else will ever see the code, but I want to be able to quickly understand it when I go back to it months later.

I think that in programming, "myself in the future" counts as a different person that will read your code.

[gamedever]

It's exciting, isn't it? Watching the code come to life.

As a freelance developer working on stuff for a virtual world called Blue Mars, it's extra fun to watch these lines of text come alive. Especially after a major bug squash.

Keep it up! This will look fantastic on your resume.

[retrothomas]

Thanks a bunch. It will look good on a resume, which is my Plan B ;)

[FlosHoer]

lol, some sort of quick start tut, haha.

[HomocidalCanineK9]

Umm... Stopping the lies about your programming knowledge would help.

[bChiCkeNpLuCkeRd]

I already know programming (so I am covered in that department) and have done some game programming in the past ( as well as systems level development) so I am not asking for how to get started in general I just need to know if you used some sort of quick start tut. or something that would help me get started (quickly) making a game like this.

[bChiCkeNpLuCkeRd]

Hello. I really like your game level! It reminds me of cave story a bit. What technology are you using to create this game? I am sure you have mentioned it but I have just stumbled upon you vids and have not watched all of them yet. I want to create a game like this (this style) and would like to know where you got your information to get started with this game?

[outofmylaboratory]

hey some advice for you... instead of checking ground collision with EVERY tile why don't you just check ground collision with the two or three tiles directly beneath the player on the grid? That will keep your game more efficient because it's not really necessary to check a tile that's not beneath or near the player for ground collision. Same goes for side to side collision and head bumps, if y'kno what I mean. Good luck!

[FrozenPixelStudio]

Nice work man. Keep it up.

[dandymcgee]

Sweet.