Good Starter Projects?
Author
Im a beginner in XNA, and I'm curious on what some great starter projects would be? Tetris? Bingo? I kinda want something more fun than those, but just give me your thoughts please :D
thanks
-cmk-
Personally, I'm a big proponent of Pong - it's super basic, and can be approached a bunch of different ways... and is easy to tack features onto and play around with. Oh, and it's good to actually see a "finished" game, which with pong is easy to get to!
Breakout would be the next one on the list... it's a bit more complex, but progresses nice from the above.
After that, Asteroids or an R-Type (if you're feeling adventurous) type game. Again, main reason... It's a really vague, easy to grasp idea, with lots of room to make it your own and see your ideas take shape quickly - which is really important to see when you're starting out.
(though seriously, it's just a matter of doing something you think is fun so you'll want to work on it... I just personally love shoot-em ups, and want there to be more of them ^_^)
~ Rambling Topher
Breakout would be the next one on the list... it's a bit more complex, but progresses nice from the above.
After that, Asteroids or an R-Type (if you're feeling adventurous) type game. Again, main reason... It's a really vague, easy to grasp idea, with lots of room to make it your own and see your ideas take shape quickly - which is really important to see when you're starting out.
(though seriously, it's just a matter of doing something you think is fun so you'll want to work on it... I just personally love shoot-em ups, and want there to be more of them ^_^)
~ Rambling Topher
Author
Thanks :D, I just bought the XNA 3.0 from noob to pro, and im going through it and i hope it helps me understand xna a lot :D
Some very good points were being raised here.
1. Pick an easy classic game to copy and stick with it.
2. Finish it! This is the single point where most if not all of us fail :P We start off, you get the concept right and then you don't finish the game!
You then start a habit which is difficult to get rid of.
1. Pick an easy classic game to copy and stick with it.
2. Finish it! This is the single point where most if not all of us fail :P We start off, you get the concept right and then you don't finish the game!
You then start a habit which is difficult to get rid of.
Pong, Arkanoid, Tetris are all good starter project that takes up little time and are rewarding. After each project try to reuse parts you've already created in the next project and build up a library that little by little will become your "engine".
I agree with the posts above.
I just started making games (not with XNA but with PyGame, but the same principles apply).
I've made a TicTacToe Game (with AI), and I'm currently making a Space Invaders clone.
Both fairly easy: you already know how the game should work, and they're small, so you won't be bored with it before you finish.
My next step? Change the rules of the Space Invaders game slightly to make it more exiting.
So my advice? The same as the previous posters: pick a small game you know and like before moving on to bigger stuff.
I just started making games (not with XNA but with PyGame, but the same principles apply).
I've made a TicTacToe Game (with AI), and I'm currently making a Space Invaders clone.
Both fairly easy: you already know how the game should work, and they're small, so you won't be bored with it before you finish.
My next step? Change the rules of the Space Invaders game slightly to make it more exiting.
So my advice? The same as the previous posters: pick a small game you know and like before moving on to bigger stuff.
Quote:Original post by feal87
Pong, Arkanoid, Tetris are all good starter project that takes up little time and are rewarding. After each project try to reuse parts you've already created in the next project and build up a library that little by little will become your "engine".
Pong was my first full game project since high school and it took me almost a year of on and off programming to build (including doing the art).
And the second part of feal87's post is possibly the most important. I built Pong and looked at the code and basically cried it was so bad. But, I'm changing all the bad features in my new project.
Code evolution is a wonderful thing.
Author
thanks again guys, The other night i tried the book and the first example didnt work, but this morning i tried again and it worked! i guess some typos made the ball not draw on the screen the first time :P
But the satisfaction of writing all these things and vaguely understanding it makes me giddy :P.
But i have a question...
Can someone tell me in simple terms what classes are use for? So far i used them to draw a bitmap on the screen (or sprite).
But the satisfaction of writing all these things and vaguely understanding it makes me giddy :P.
But i have a question...
Can someone tell me in simple terms what classes are use for? So far i used them to draw a bitmap on the screen (or sprite).
For me,
first full game is "Apollo 13".
The name is just for eye-candy, it's 2d game.
The concept is that you control the apollo 13, you must try to avoid the meteors coming all around the way as long as possible. Then you can grab the length of time you can be alive and compare with others. Thus a little longer of game-playing time can be achieved.
I do it with Java at that time, but it's not difficult to do it with XNA.
first full game is "Apollo 13".
The name is just for eye-candy, it's 2d game.
The concept is that you control the apollo 13, you must try to avoid the meteors coming all around the way as long as possible. Then you can grab the length of time you can be alive and compare with others. Thus a little longer of game-playing time can be achieved.
I do it with Java at that time, but it's not difficult to do it with XNA.
Quote:Original post by Armadon
you get the concept right and then you don't finish the game!
You then start a habit which is difficult to get rid of.
That, unfortunately, is painfully true. I'm still trying to break myself of that habit.
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