Virtual Realm - XNA

Book Review - Building your First Mobile Game Using XNA 4.0

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 02:29:00 GMT

A little over a week ago I was contacted by Packt Publishing to review the Following Book “Building your First Mobile Game Using XNA 4.0”.

The book is a small book that goes through the creation of a Simple 3D game from start to finish, while going through the game you start with 2D and end up with the complete 3D game. Below is a small list of what is covered.

2D Graphics
3D Graphics
Input
Sound and Audio
Basic Game Frameworks
Building and Releasing a Game

The book is based on XNA 4.0 and the Windows Phone System and by reading the book you get a good idea of what it takes to develop a game and take it from development all the way through to publishing the title.

As always he beginning of the book starts with the installation of the tools and registering your phone and tools. Next it jumps straight into the development process, those out there that have no idea about programming, I would not be starting with this book. Although the book is targeted at the low experience developer, you will need to have an idea of what development and the development process is. The other thing that you will find with the book is that all of the art work has been done for you, so if you are looking for information on how to create assets… this is not for you.

But all in all the book is well worth it and for those who do decide to pick it up you will get a lot out of it.

Developing Bizzy Bees Full game Walkthrough

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 22:45:23 GMT

Going through the Posts and Blogs this morning I found a good series of posts that show you the End to End Walkthrough of a Windows Phone 7 Game developed in XNA.

About a year back I wrote my first XNA game for Windows Phone. The game is called Bizzy Bees and you can download and play it for free from the Marketplace.
The idea of the app is quite simple… the goal is to collect as many rainbow flowers as you can before all the flowers hit the bottom. You collect flowers by matching flowers and bees, so a yellow flower matches with a yellow be, a pink flower with a pink bee etc. and all bees match up with rainbow flowers.”, Tess Ferrandez, MSDN. Direct Link

Windows Phone Pirates Game

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:13:58 GMT

The same author that brought you the Windows Phone, XNA and Farseer game Labyrinth has also released another game and code on Code Project, this time it is called Pirates.

pirates uses the same farseer Physics engine and XNA to bring you a game based on the idea of Angry Birds.

"Pirates!" for Windows Phone is a game build in C# and XNA, using Farseer Physics Engine. The idea of the game is largely inspired on and also pays tribute to Rovio's "Angry Birds" game, which reached 500 million downloads at the end of 2011. Angry Birds may have addicted many people around the world, but from my part, I'm not addicted to the playing itself, but to pursuing the pieces needed to build a game like that.
Instead of birds, a cannon full of cannon balls. Instead of pigs, a big pirate ship full of pirates. Your mission here is to aim the cannon and destroy all pirates.

Here is the Direct Link to the Article on Code Project, as well as a short video.

Windows Phone Labyrinth

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:17:09 GMT

For those wanting to get into Windows Phone Development and Games, have a look at the following post. This post on Code Project goes through a simple Labyrinth game using the XNA system along with the Farseer Physics system.

In the tutorial the author shows you how to utilize the Accelerometer functions of the Windows Phone to control the games main character.

This article is intended to show how to play with this new accelerometer emulation, accompanied by a simple application that use it.

Here is a Direct Link to the Code Project site and the Tutorial.