Beginning game programming course

[EssexMame]

Thanks both - just what I needed! I'd seen the Draw in Rock but just couldn't get the code right on how to call it...

[empardopo]

Someone is using Windows 8 with Visual C# 2010 and XNA Game Studio 4?
It's impossible to install the XNA. I always get an error...

Thanks in advance.

[DaOld Man]

Im using Win 7 64 bit, so cant help you much on that. Try searching the forum on the coursea website.

I am finished with my assignment for week 3. I printed out the "Coding standards" and intend to double check my code to make sure its all up to the standards before I submit it.
Also have finished my assessments from week 2's assignment.
This class is a lot of work, but I think Im beginning to understand C# and XNA a little now.
The forum on the website is a very good tool.

[empardopo]

Im using Win 7 64 bit, so cant help you much on that. Try searching the forum on the coursea website.

I am finished with my assignment for week 3. I printed out the "Coding standards" and intend to double check my code to make sure its all up to the standards before I submit it.
Also have finished my assessments from week 2's assignment.
This class is a lot of work, but I think Im beginning to understand C# and XNA a little now.
The forum on the website is a very good tool.

Thanks! I'll try take a look that forum.

[EssexMame]

Just noticed in the syllabus eek 4 has "no new topics" - i.e. No video lectures. Just the start of the overall/main project it seems. Enjoying the course, though OO/XNA programming is so much different to what I'm used to.

Week 4
No new topics

Required Work
Project Increment 1

[edekoning]

Just saw this topic, too late to enter now Hope they will have a future course.

Good luck to all that enrolled, and happy coding

[lordnacho]

Someone is using Windows 8 with Visual C# 2010 and XNA Game Studio 4?
It's impossible to install the XNA. I always get an error...

Thanks in advance.

This is from the coursera page on setting up your dev env

XNA Game Studio Installation Problems on Windows 8
If you have problems installing XNA Game Studio 4.0 Refresh on Windows 8, make sure you downloaded and installed the Games for Windows Marketplace Client from the link at the top of this course page. You may also find the following link useful: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12849107/how-to-install-the-xna-game-studio-4-0-in-windows-8. I haven't used the recommended steps in the post, but Stack Overflow is usually a pretty good source for problem solutions.

[lordnacho]

Just noticed in the syllabus eek 4 has "no new topics" - i.e. No video lectures. Just the start of the overall/main project it seems. Enjoying the course, though OO/XNA programming is so much different to what I'm used to.

Week 4
No new topics

Required Work
Project Increment 1

Hm you're right.  Seems odd not to teach something for an entire week.
And how is the project different from the usual assignments?

[JDFan]

Just noticed in the syllabus eek 4 has "no new topics" - i.e. No video lectures. Just the start of the overall/main project it seems. Enjoying the course, though OO/XNA programming is so much different to what I'm used to.

Week 4
No new topics

Required Work
Project Increment 1

Hm you're right.  Seems odd not to teach something for an entire week.
And how is the project different from the usual assignments?

Think it might be because the course used to be 8 weeks instead of 12 so they added a couple breaks in to solidify the learning and give time to get caught up.

[shponglefan]

Someone is using Windows 8 with Visual C# 2010 and XNA Game Studio 4?
It's impossible to install the XNA. I always get an error...

Thanks in advance.

As an alternative, you could try Visual Studio Express 2013 and Monogame 3.2 (it's built on XNA 4).

The caveat is that Monogame is a bit different than XNA 4 and not everything works exactly the same.  But it's relatively close.

[shponglefan]

Just noticed in the syllabus eek 4 has "no new topics" - i.e. No video lectures. Just the start of the overall/main project it seems. Enjoying the course, though OO/XNA programming is so much different to what I'm used to.

Week 4
No new topics

Required Work
Project Increment 1

Hm you're right.  Seems odd not to teach something for an entire week.
And how is the project different from the usual assignments?

Presumably it would be a program that we would build on week over week.  I can find anything specifically posted about it though.

There's also reference to an optional project at the end of the course, so I wonder if there are two different projects?

[Generic Eric]

Someone is using Windows 8 with Visual C# 2010 and XNA Game Studio 4?
It's impossible to install the XNA. I always get an error...

Thanks in advance.

As an alternative, you could try Visual Studio Express 2013 and Monogame 3.2 (it's built on XNA 4).

The caveat is that Monogame is a bit different than XNA 4 and not everything works exactly the same.  But it's relatively close.

Is it required at CU?  I find it distracting with that there are extra steps for a thing I am not using. 
I'm over it by now; I'm not trying to follow those monogame steps, but its clutter-some now.

[lordnacho]

Microsoft no longer supports or adds features to XNA.  So Monogame is a fork(I guess) of XNA, and has added features already.

[shponglefan]

Is it required at CU?  I find it distracting with that there are extra steps for a thing I am not using. 
I'm over it by now; I'm not trying to follow those monogame steps, but its clutter-some now.

Monogame is a volunteer project to continue XNA development; basically keeping XNA alive and adding features and support for newer platforms.  Microsoft officially ended XNA support back in 2014 I believe.

The shooter game I was working on in the game idea thread is built with Monogame and Visual Studio Express 2013.

[Generic Eric]

Microsoft no longer supports or adds features to XNA.  So Monogame is a fork(I guess) of XNA, and has added features already.

Is it required at CU?  I find it distracting with that there are extra steps for a thing I am not using. 
I'm over it by now; I'm not trying to follow those monogame steps, but its clutter-some now.

Monogame is a volunteer project to continue XNA development; basically keeping XNA alive and adding features and support for newer platforms.  Microsoft officially ended XNA support back in 2014 I believe.

The shooter game I was working on in the game idea thread is built with Monogame and Visual Studio Express 2013.

Thanks.  I knew support had ended for XNA.  Your explanation of Monogame has allowed me to understand the situation.  Thanks for your input.

[DaOld Man]

Finished and submitted Week3 assignment.
Im not posting a video of the final project, Ive seen enough rocks flying off the screen LOL
But if anyone REALLY wants to see it, I will post the video.
Got week 2 evals done, so now I can sit back and relax... wait.. gotta go to work (the real work that pays me money) LOL No rest for the wicked I guess.

[eds1275]

Finished and submitted Week3 assignment.
Im not posting a video of the final project, Ive seen enough rocks flying off the screen LOL
But if anyone REALLY wants to see it, I will post the video.
Got week 2 evals done, so now I can sit back and relax... wait.. gotta go to work (the real work that pays me money) LOL No rest for the wicked I guess.

Yeah I'm hoping to find time to finish up week 3 project... busy busy busy this week!

[Admiral688]

I ended up withdrawing. I wasn't able do the lectures before week 2, and since I can't submit it now, oh well. I'm still going to follow you guys and tinker,  but these two weeks just are too busy for me.

I hear ya. I had to do the same because I need to get some certs done.

[shponglefan]

More assignment 3 fun.  No 'splosions (yet), but some experiments to see what sort of patterns 'n things could be generated:

[shponglefan]

Project increment 1 has been posted.  Haven't looked at all the code yet, but the project is making a basic 2D shooter gamer.  Albeit one that involves teddy bears and burgers.

[JDFan]

Project increment 1 has been posted.  Haven't looked at all the code yet, but the project is making a basic 2D shooter gamer.  Albeit one that involves teddy bears and burgers.

Looks like it should be a fairly easy week - no new video lectures and just setting up and getting the first part of the game going (drawing the burger and having the teddybear move around on screen) but you never know what kind of curves might crop up !

[DaOld Man]

Ok, im having trouble with the instructions for Project Increment 1:

Step1:
1. Add code to the GameLoadContent method.....
It doesn't like whatever I try to put in for the constructor..

[JDFan]

Ok, im having trouble with the instructions for Project Increment 1:

Step1:
1. Add code to the GameLoadContent method.....
It doesn't like whatever I try to put in for the constructor..

Took awhile but this is what I ended up using :

Code: [Select]

// add initial game objects

            burger = new Burger(Content, "burger", GameConstants.WINDOW_WIDTH / 2, (GameConstants.WINDOW_HEIGHT - (GameConstants.WINDOW_HEIGHT / 8)), null);

burger was the Burger object he already declared for us - in his PDF file he told us to use Content for the first argument - the second argument is the name of the .png sprite we are using in "  "s, Third argument he says to use something that centers the sprite in the horizontal (x axis) center of the window ( and he  used GameConstants.WINDOW_WIDTH for the graphics.PreferredBackBufferWidth setting so that represents the Window width so dividing that by 2 gives us the horizontal center ) and then for the Y setting he says 1/8th up from the bottom of the window - so  GameConstants.WINDOW_HEIGHT is the bottom of the window so subtracting (GameConstants.WINDOW_HEIGHT/8) from that gives us the vertical position he wanted. ANd for now he says to use null for the final argument.

Hope that makes sense !!

And a pic of the result once you finish the draw steps:

[shponglefan]

Project Increment #1:



One thing that did initially confuse me was the SPAWN_BORDER_SIZE for setting the bears to spawn within the border.  Although I think it's fine now.

A way to test this as suggested on the course forums was to add some loop code to spawn more than one bear in the LoadContent() method.

Code: [Select]

for (int i=0; i<1000; i++)
{
     SpawnBear();
}

And by commenting out the bear.Update(gameTime) code, you'll get a bunch of static bears:

[JDFan]

That same loop using 25 or so instead of 1000 can be useful to see the random movement of the teddy bears also to make sure you are getting random speeds and directions.

[eds1275]

I didn't get to finish week 3 assignment, directed a short film yesterday and was so exhausted that I went to bed in the afternoon. I swill still finish it, just not in time for marks!

[EssexMame]

what happens if you don't submit assignments - is that course over, or do you just get zero for that week?

[Generic Eric]

what happens if you don't submit assignments - is that course over, or do you just get zero for that week?

There is a post, I'll try to find out the formula for how the labs are weighted.

But you can not turn something in and still progress.  Grades matter, but only really matter for the cert.

Also, keep in mind that the grades are done by peer review.  You could get marked down by someone that didn't understand lesson.

I've ran the submitted code instead of relying on a video.  At least for the first 2 weeks.

[JDFan]

what happens if you don't submit assignments - is that course over, or do you just get zero for that week?

Each weeks assignment is 8% of the grade so if you miss one assignment best you can get is a 92% still plenty of room to get the needed 70%.

[DaOld Man]

Got my Week3 evaluations done and week 4 gameproject Inc.1 finished and submitted.

About the gameproject: Make sure you name it GameProject at the start, I had named mine Burger_Game and I couldn't get hamburger or teddy bear to display.
Deleted it, started all over with name= GameProject and the above suggestions worked.
I have decided that I will wind up either hating or loving XNA, currently the scales are edging more towards the hate side. LOL

[shponglefan]

I have decided that I will wind up either hating or loving XNA, currently the scales are edging more towards the hate side. LOL

I'm really liking XNA so far.  What really impresses me is all the built-in functionality: sprite rotations, scaling, alpha blending, sound, music, content support...  No extra coding required, it's all ready to go.

[shponglefan]

what happens if you don't submit assignments - is that course over, or do you just get zero for that week?

I haven't submitted any assignments and haven't noticed any impact.  I guess it would affect the final grade.  But the lectures and subsequent assignments show up just fine.

[Generic Eric]

If you don't submit, you are not able to evaluate.

[shponglefan]

If you don't submit, you are not able to evaluate.

True, there is that.

[EssexMame]

What is meant in Project Increment 1 by:

Add code to the Game1 LoadContent method to spawn a single teddy bear. Do this with the following
code:
SpawnBear();

Is it just teddy = SpawnBear();

and if so what/where/how is teddy defined?

[JDFan]

What is meant in Project Increment 1 by:

Add code to the Game1 LoadContent method to spawn a single teddy bear. Do this with the following
code:
SpawnBear();

Is it just teddy = SpawnBear();

and if so what/where/how is teddy defined?

Actually just SpawnBear(); the rest is taken care of in the teddybear class so that SpawnBear() returns a ready to use teddy with all needed info. (after you make your code changes in parts 2-8 and step 3) but it can already draw the bear on screen when you just use SpawnBear() until you add the rest of the steps in the teddybear.cs

[DaOld Man]

Im having trouble in Inc. 2 step 2.2.
I cannot figure out how to use the GetProjectileSprite method to return the app. sprite??

[JDFan]

Anyone that would like another book to read for reference I came across this free download for a book used as part of another class at University of Hull which also includes a download link for the class materials they use also free to download which might come in handy if you want another source --

http://www.robmiles.com/c-yellow-book/

[lordnacho]

Think I'm going to skip over the project increments, but will stick with the videos and maybe the other assignments. 

Stil tinkering with my 2d scroller in Unity, I'm pretty hooked with that so any free time I'd rather use towards that.

[DaOld Man]

Anybody want to give me an example of the GetProjectileType?