2D Game Programming with XNA 4.0

Principles of Game Programming Game Programming Basics Mouse & Keyboard Controls Sounds Sprites and Animation Collision Detection Arcade Style Games Scrolling Game Physics Orthogonal Projections Design Implementation Game Design Basics Game Genres Paper Design Backgrounds/Environments Graphical Elements Gameplay Dialog and Story Issues of Style Playability

Game Basics The Game Loop Game Initiated Events User/Player Initiated Events Game Physics Game AI

The Game Loop

Genres Action Games Arcade Games (Locked Position Shooters) First-Person Shooters Third-Person Games (Orthographic Projections) 2D Action Games Side-Scrollers Platformers (Mario, etc…) Fighting Games Strategy Games Real-Time Turn-Based Massively Multiplayer RPG’s Sports Games Simulators Car/Racing Games Flight Sims Construction and Management Sims Puzzle/Board Games

Paper Design

Game Backgrounds and Environments

Graphical Elements

Gameplay The term gameplay can be quite ambiguous to define, thus it has been differently defined by different authors. "A series of interesting choices." "The structures of player interaction with the game system and with other players in the game.“ "One or more causally linked series of challenges in a simulated environment.“ "A good game is one that you can win by doing the unexpected and making it work.“ "The experience of gameplay is one of interacting with a game design in the performance of cognitive tasks, with a variety of emotions arising from or associated with different elements of motivation, task performance and completion.“ "Gameplay here is seen as the interactive gaming process of the player with the game."

Dialog and Story

Game Style and Attitude

Satisfaction - degree of gratification of the player Learning - the facility to understand and dominate the game system and mechanics Efficiency - the necessary time and resources to offer fun and entertainment while players achieve objectives Immersion - the capacity to believe in the game contents and/or the virtual game world Motivation - the characteristics that provoke a player to realize concrete actions and persist until success is achieved Emotion - to induce feeling of happiness, fear, intrique, curiosity, etc.. using the game challenges, story, and aesthetic Socialization - enjoyment derived from playing the game in collaboration, cooperation and/or competition with others Playability

Game Programming Basics User Interaction Mouse Keyboard Gamepad Monitor Speakers Animation Double-Buffering (non-blinking Animation) Loop Timing (fixed frame-rate and/or pacing) Blitting Environment Laws of Motion (Physics) Collision Detection/Interaction (Geometry) Laws of Behavior (AI)

Getting Familiar with XNA 4.0 for this Course The textbook Learning XNA 4.0 covers game programming for both 2D and 3D using the XNA 4.0 Game Development Environment. This course is intended as a first course in game programming and will emphasize 2D games. We will cover the first 8 chapters of the textbook. The course lecture notes and projects will cover game programiing for desktop computers, however your games and demos are equally well suited for running on Xbox and iPhone platforms.

Tuning your Games to Match your Computer Your XNA game graphical resolution, maximum background image sizes and other characteristics are determined by the specific capabilities of your computer. XNA provides you with two graphics profiles from which to choose called Reach (low res) and HiDef. It is not necessary to understand all the details now but we will want to consider the hardware of the target machine as well as our own for games we intend to publish.

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