New Blog on its way

So I've decided to get my own hosting and make my own WordPress blog, rather than using the Blogspot site. This way I can customise it a bit more and host files easier. Right now I'm in the middle of my finals exams (final one on Thursday), but once they're done I'll be working on getting the new blog online ASAP. The address will still be www.burkazoid.com, but I'll be sure to write on here again once its online.

EDIT: Its online now!

Sky Surfer XNA v0.91b Source Code

So here it is, the project I've been working on (on and off) for the last 4 months or so. At the moment I've only uploaded the source for XNA, as I'm having some issues getting it to deploy to a fully compiled setup file and I don't have time to deal with those issues for a short while. So in the mean time, if you have XNA Game Studio Express, here's Sky Surfer. The music has been omitted for copyright reasons, but the sound and every other resource is included:

Sky Surfer XNA 0.91b Source Download

A readme file is included with the necessary credits for now. These will eventually be integrated into the main menu. I also need to get round to changing movements so they are frame-time reliant (ie if it lags it won't affect the game so detrementally, nor will an uber fast computer affect it in the opposite way). This version only supports 1280x720 resolution and requires an Xbox 360 Controller. Keyboard and multi-resolution will come in a future release. Anyway, if anyone has any feedback please let me know.

PS. This solution was saved in the latest XNA GSE (1.0 refresh). The game is fully compatible with the original 1.0 GSE, but I'm not sure if GSE will allow the file to load if its from a newer version.

Sky Surfer on its way..

So, Sky Surfer and its associated thesis was completed in the early hours on Friday morning. All that remains is for me to thoroughly comment the code, and when I do I'll be putting up some videos, as well as releasing the source code and binaries here.

I can't say I worked hard over the weekend on doing the commenting, as I was due a welcome break. So I mostly spent the weekend having a few social drinks and playing plenty of games with a sweet LAN setup of Xbox 360s at a mate's house.


Game of the weekend was most definitely Halo 2. Oh and I also got a great trade in deal at GameStop and got Kororinpa [Wii], Deus Ex [PS2] and Crackdown [360]. More games to add to that Summer Games list. Just 2 exams between me and shedloads of gaming.

Sky Surfer Screenshots

So as I touch off my final write-up for my XNA Project Sky Surfer, here's a wealth of screenshots from the game:

Sky Surfer (XNA) Alpha Coming Next Week

Firstly, apologies for the lack of updates. I've been extremely busy lately and the blog has unfortunately been pushed to the back of the priority list. Just have a few things to say quickly. SkyWay has now been renamed to its final name of Sky Surfer (thanks to Gary for the title!). The game is pretty much complete, apart from sound and a few cosmetic changes, all of which will be done by the release at the end of next week. The release I put on my blog will more than likely not feature music for [a] copyright reasons (unless I can find some good royalty free tracks) and [b] size restrictions, as XNA's current audio compression is not highly compressive, compared to the likes of MP3 and WMA. The game has the following features:

• 3D environment platform based game.
• A hover car which the player controls, with the ability to accelerate, brake, turn left and right, and jump.
• 6 Zones, each with differing levels of gravity, lighting, different textures and a different skybox.
• 3 levels per zone, making a total of 18 levels.
• Levels can be played in any order, and can be selected from the game's menu.
  
• Speed and jump boosts.
• Moving barrier obstacles.
• Snow particles (in Zone 3).
• Particles showing on picking up a boost.
• Saved track times, so you can try and beat your previous times.
  
• Each track has a par time associated with it for the player to attempt to beat. A silver trophy is awarded for track completed over par time, a gold awarded for tracks completed under par time.
  
• Achievements (obviously not official Microsoft achievements, but I have coded my own achievements worth 200 points into the game).
• Basic light shading.
• Xbox 360 controller support with vibration.
  

At the moment only Xbox 360 controller is supported. I will add keyboard support extremely soon, possibly before I release the alpha version. Also, the alpha build currently only supports a 1280x720 resolution (720p). I will hopefully be working on 1024x768 and 800x600 support during the summer.

Right now I'm in the process of writing up the whole thing for my final submission. Watch this space!

Great Skybox Resource

Wow, I've just stumbled across this pretty amazing resource of skyboxes. Thought I would mention it here for anyone else who may be on the prowl for good high resolution skybox textures:

Hazel Whorley's Skybox Textures

SkyWay XNA: Snow World (WIP) Video

Here's a short video from 2 of the 3 levels of the snow world, featuring speed and jump boosts. Remember, this is purely work in progress. Particle system (stars on the boosts) thanks to help of this tutorial.

SkyWay Level Design

So the last few days has taught me that I am completely terrible at level design. Thankfully my project's marking won't exactly rely heavily on good level design. In saying that, I've been doing my best to get some good looking skyboxes and textures for each zone. So far there are three zones (each with varying gravity, textures and skybox), and I've made three levels for each zone. My aim is for at least six zones of three levels each. Here's a few screenshots of the zones so far, each showing a different in game camera angle as well:






I have also now added moving barriers to some of the later levels, which, obviously, the player must avoid.

Dreaming of Blue Skies

So the past few days I've been looking for some nice skyboxes to make the game look nicer. After much hunting I found a great resource site at Quadropolis, which has some great high resolution skyboxes uploaded by contributers. Their on-site search seems to be a bit bolloxed at the minute (read 'not working'), so the easiest way to find the skyboxes is using a Google query. Anyway, here's a quick snapshot of how the first level looks now:


Much nicer!

SkyWay: From X-Wing to Hovercar

Its never been my intention to stick with the X-Wing as the craft for SkyWay because, lets face it, who associates an X-Wing craft with not being able to fly, and jumping and bouncing between platforms? So thanks to the wonderful 3D modelling resource site that is Max Realms, I found this new model.

Its... odd.. to say the least, but its interesting and pretty different, so I thought it would do the job nicely. This hovercar model is created by David Goodman, and be found at the Max Realms site. Expect to see some more game shots very soon. I'm currently working on better collision detection (as always) and level design.

Games I'm Looking Forward To

Thought I would take some time out of my headache studies (as in studies that cause headaches, not studies on headaches) to post up some of the games I'm looking forward to in the future.

• Theme Park [DS] - I could never get into Theme Park World. It had great graphics, but it just didn't have the charm of the original Theme Park. So a remake of the original Theme Park for my favourite handheld? Hell yes! I was a huge fan of the original Theme Park. Granted I wasn't exactly great at it, but it was a hell of a lot of fun to play, even if I could never stop the inevitable puke epidemics that followed the roller coaster. Heres hoping this lives up to the original's gameplay, and doesn't skimp on the features!
• Sim City [DS] - Another fantastic sim game coming to DS for me to fail miserably at. Sim City 2000 was the only game I really ever approved of cheating in. Something tells me I'm doomed to take the mortal route with this port and watch myself fail miserably all over again. Still, it'll be sweet joyous failure.
• Worms [XBLA] - This morning Worms HD came out on Xbox 360's Live Arcade. Having been a fan of all Worms games, this was an essential purchase. From a quick look I noticed there isn't half as many weapons as say Worms World Party, but following prior interviews with the game developers I'd come to expect that. I'm just hoping this will be as fun as World Party, both offline and online.
• Forza Motorsport 2 [360] - Every preview clip of this I've seen has just left me in awe. I'm almost finished Project Gotham 3 (one of the first games I got with my 360), and this will be the perfect game to add to my racing collection.
• Hotel Dusk [DS] - I will get round to playing this some day. I have fond memories of the adventure game genre, so I'm hoping this will be a nice return to it.
  
• Final Fantasy XII [PS2] - Having not yet completed FF7 is still in my Pile O'Shame. I'm working on it though. Once I'm done with FF7, I'm looking forward to checking out 12.

I still have plenty of other games to come back to as well: Resident Evil 4, Gitaroo Man, Zelda: Twilight Princess, the list goes on. This summer is going to be a hell of a catch up period.

SkyWay Progress Video 2

Here's another video of the current progress on the game:



As mentioned before: Collision detection is now fixed for the most part. The game now uses the Xbox 360 controller with rumble. New camera angles are added and also the ability to pan around the craft with the right thumbstick. The left thumbstick controls the craft's direction, the triggers accelerate and brake, A jumps, and Y changes camera angle. Still have to add a collision explosion hence why it jumps back to the start when the craft hits an obstacle.

SkyWay Onscreen HUD

So this weekend I've got the Xbox 360 controller working with the game, a bit of rumble in there, and I've also designed a prototype HUD for the game, as shown in the screenshot below (click to enlarge).

At the moment the design is still only a prototype, it is more than likely elements will be moved around. The gravity value represents how much gravity is in effect on that level. The exit proximity is basically a level progress bar. The speedometer represents the player's current speed. Finally, the oxygen represents how long the player has left in the level before death (i.e. time limit).

Quick Update on "SkyWay"

So whats been fixed since the video?

• Fixed visual fade.
• Proper (at least seems so thus far!) collision detection.
• Better control sensitivity.

And this is whats in the pipeline:

• Xbox 360 controller integration, including vibration.
• On screen HUD - visual cockpit style.
• Ship bounce on jump.
• Explosion when collision occurs.
• Multiple Levels.
• Differing environment (textures, skybox and gravity) for different zones.
• Sound (this will come more towards the final stages).
• Options where sensitivit and lighting (and possibly a few other factors) can be altered.
• Possibly shadowing under the ship (I hope!).
  

This is by no means a definite list. There will hopefully be plenty to add, and possibly some things which will be dropped. Burkey over and out.

SkyWay Prototype Video

So here's a short video of what I've got so far for my project code-named "SkyWay". The collision detection is broken, jumping isn't the way I want it to be, and I only use a short map. But, for now, I'm pretty pleased considering this is my first hard coded 3D game, and only my second hard coded game ever. Quite a testament to XNA in my opinion.



This week (since my last post) has mainly been spent doing research. The prototype will be somewhat improved for my prototype demonstration of it next week.

Goodbye Breakout, Hello SkyWay

So once again my main idea for my final year 3D XNA game has changed. If you've been reading my blog, you'll know that I originally began with the idea of creating a game similar to Microsoft's Hover. Well, that was before I knew what 3D programming really involved. I think decided a 3D Breakout clone would be a better idea, due to it using simple shapes and only plane collision. Upon doing a few 3D tutorials (from Riemer's Excellent Tutorial site) I realised that Breakout was going to cause problems for me as well (mainly indoor lighting which I struggled with attempting); that and the fact Breakout is predominantly meant to be played as a 2D game. I wanted to make something that worked best in 3D, as well as would be fun.


Last night, thanks to insomnia, I was brainstorming, and remembered an old DOS game I used to play and enjoy constantly: Bluemoon's excellent Skyroads (now available for free download). The basic idea of the game is to drive your small space craft along an obstacle course whereby you must avoid hitting the obstacles or falling off the track, whilst maintaining enough speed so that you finish the track before you run out of time. I have decided that this game would be very suitable for my project: its fun, its 3D, and most importantly, I feel its within my ability.

Working from Riemer's XNA Flight Simulator tutorial, I am beginning to construct the game. I have included some work in progress screenshots below. Bare in mind almost everything you see in these shots is going to be changed: the skybox, the ground textures, the spacecraft model. At the moment I have a very primitive gravity acting in the world, and collision detection which barely works. Expect at least one more update this week to the blog.

Screenshot in solid mode (click to enlarge)
Screenshot in wireframe mode (click to enlarge)

Games of 2006

So since my final winter exam was yesterday, I thought I'd take this weekend to unwind before diving right into my project prototype on Monday. I've been meaning to make a post about my favourite games of 2006 and what I'm playing now, so here goes!

My Games of 2006

• 1. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess [Wii]
  
• 2. Guitar Hero I & II [PS2]
  
• 3. Elite Beat Agents [DS]
  
• 4. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion [PC]
  
• 5. Gears of War [360]
  
• 6. New Super Mario Brothers [DS]
  
• 7. Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter [360]
  
• 8. Half Life 2: Episode 1 [PC]
  
• 9. Viva Pinata [360]
  
• 10. Wii Sports [Wii]

So there you have it. Viva Pinata could possibly had ranked higher had I had more playtime with it, but since its my final year, spare time has been rare this year. Also, an honourable mention goes to 42 All Time Classics on the DS; I only managed to pick it up after Christmas but since then its brought a multitude of multiplayer joy, as well as a great game to play when you can't sleep!

My "currently playing" games list consists of:

• NHL '07 [360]
• 42 All Time Classics [DS]
• Rainbow Six: Vegas [360]
• Pro Evolution Soccer 6 [360] (usually only local multiplayer)
• Frogger [Xbox Live Arcade]
• Gears of War [360]

Blog Seasoning

So I've added some features down the right hand side of the blog. Nothing of interest really, or to do with my 3D project, more just to make this feel a bit more like a home page for me. So now you can find my Xbox Live gamercard with gamertag info, my Nintendo DS and Wii codes, and a live feed from what I'm listening to right now, courtesy of Last.fm.

This is what happens when I'm supposed to be revising for exams with Powerpoint slides on my laptop. :-(

EDIT: I've also added links to my dj mixes along the right as well, just in case people are still coming to my site looking for them. Sorry, no tracklistings anymore, at least for now.