tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-348348889650646951.post2048579802974159992..comments2024-01-04T05:15:33.233+00:00Comments on XAGE - Cross-Platform Adventure Game Engine: Dull Technical PostClarvalonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08868169810712321832noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-348348889650646951.post-81788629119239084612009-05-15T09:41:00.000+01:002009-05-15T09:41:00.000+01:00There's definitely an expected level of programmin...There's definitely an expected level of programming competence at the XNA forums, and that's no bad thing. It's right to politely point people towards C# learning material when they haven't grasped things like basic OO principles.<br /><br />As for the more advanced topics, google is your friend. The MSDN site is a good starting point, though it can sometimes be a little dry. There are plenty of decent websites with friendlier tutorials. I find that seeing what other people have done on www.codeproject.com to be quite useful.<br /><br />But yes, it can be a balancing act at times, knowing when to utilise a new and unfamiliar technique or to just stick with what you know. Often I've found that if I've put a problem to one side then I'm usually better equiped to solve it with the knowledge gained from doing other things.<br /><br />Serialisation is just a way of persisting objects (think: loading and saving your game, highscore etc.). There are various pitfalls with XML serialisation but overall its pretty straightforward. Without it the AGS conversion would be a lot harder, for instance.<br /><br />As for the action types, yes, I was referring to the building blocks for each XAGE script. I was in the process of adding new Actions to start and end conversations when the major refactoring process began. I doubt many people enjoy refactoring code. It's a bit like spring cleaning, the only real satisfaction comes from having a clean new base to build upon.<br /><br />My advice to you would be to make sure you've got the basic elements in your platformer before investing too much time in the editor. Hardcoding a few levels is the simplest way of testing out your main game mechanic. I had XAGE up and running with entirely hardcoded room items, animation frames etc. before work began on the Editor. Chances are that if I'd spent months on the Editor first I'd have overlooked a lot more things than I already have done.Clarvalonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08868169810712321832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-348348889650646951.post-88541961855883276232009-05-14T21:18:00.000+01:002009-05-14T21:18:00.000+01:00Sounds like things are coming along. For my 2d pl...Sounds like things are coming along. For my 2d platformer I started out wanting to do things "the right way", but found the project a bit daunting. So I would put it off, and put it off. Finally someone said to me "just start coding it". I can always re-factor later if I need to. Because of that I've got the beginnings of a working map editor. Obviously what works for me doesn't necessarily work for you. Just as long as you're making progress.<br /><br />And I seriously have almost no idea what you mean by "new action types" maybe you mean actual adventure game character actions (such as walk, talk, etc) but if it's programming related you've lost me. Also I don't know squat about serialization, why it's used, how it's used, or what it's used for.<br /><br />It's weird I just hear all these new terms popping up every day and it's like if I'm a programmer I'm instantly supposed to know what they mean. So like Nick Gravelyn or John Sedlak would suddenly tell you how to do something in c# and xna, and I would be like "huh?" because they're like XNA MVP's or whatever (at least Nick is) so they've been working on this from the get go. Plus they probably have a good grounding in certain subjects. But me I'm just eeking out a coding existence based on what I do, or the internet or something.<br /><br />Makes me not enjoy programming very much.Keith Weatherby IIhttp://reviews.gamesafoot.comnoreply@blogger.com