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[BrodiemanTTR]

I've had an idea in my head for a while for a 2D shmup that takes place on concurrent and mildly intertwined dimensions/planes of existence one can freely switch between, but it's not developed enough to be turned into a design document.

 

[bluemax]

So sp0rsk wants to make free roaming Smash tv? Or am I off the mark here...

 

[Zaptruder]

So sp0rsk wants to make free roaming Smash tv? Or am I off the mark here...

I was thinking smash TV too, but he said ships.

I still think guys are a better idea

If we had a large art team, maybe we could pull off top down Metal Slug! hah.

 

[Wollan]

Is it available yet? All I see is links to C# guides and so forth here(but maybe I'm blind).
I've suggested for my lecturer that we could use this for a third year dev enviroment so maybe maybe(though my field will be animation so I doubt I will touch it much).

 

[bluemax]

I was thinking smash TV too, but he said ships.

I still think guys are a better idea

If we had a large art team, maybe we could pull off top down Metal Slug! hah.

So SmashTV, with open enviroments and space ships instead of guys?

Sorry, I work best when I can relate concepts to games I know about. Like the game I am getting involved with at school seems to be Ecco the Dolphin meets Psychonauts, combined with an open world and a scaled down version of the Mass Effect communication interface. Or something, haha. My brain works weird.

Is it available yet? All I see is links to C# guides and so forth here(but maybe I'm blind).
I've suggested for my lecturer that we could use this for a third year dev enviroment so maybe maybe(though my field will be animation so I doubt I will touch it much).

Tomorrow is what I read.

 

[temp]

I wish I knew anything about coding so I could help make GAF: The Game; either way, I desperately want to play whatever actually materializes.

 

[Tain]

Ok so far we have 7 people that want to make a game

So who can/want’s to do what. I only added the people who wanted to do 2D for now.

Hey man, don't throw me completely in there just yet.

I'm interested at looking into C# and all, but if I make somethin', I'm probably gonna go off and try to make (well, as of now, finish) a simple danmaku shooter. screw all yall.

Seriously though, I don't wanna say that I'll help if I don't end up liking the idea or I'm too into my own thing, so I'll hold off for now.

 

[sprsk]

So SmashTV, with open enviroments and space ships instead of guys?

The enemies wont be just spread out all over the place, and each level will actually have branching paths (oh god i used it.) Meaning that the end is at one point, but there are multiple ways to get there. I wont be just plopping you in an arena with a bunch of guys. I don't remember smash tv having all the things I listed in this thread either.

I guess if you wanna visualize the game yes its top down like smash tv, but I think thats pretty much where the comparisons end.

Also i fail to see whats so hard about animating a ship, its just a giant rock that moves in space, true we can add small animated details for firing weapons n stuff, and I would actually want that in a final product, but You would think animating a human is a little more difficult, what with all the moving parts...

 

[mrklaw]

Before you start, wouldn't it make sense to check out that garagegames package that was discussed at the XNA announcement? The one that sits on top of XNA express and lets you put stuff together with simple clicks etc.

 

[sprsk]

Before you start, wouldn't it make sense to check out that garagegames package that was discussed at the XNA announcement? The one that sits on top of XNA express and lets you put stuff together with simple clicks etc.

I want it, but alas, no credit card :/

 

[Kafel]

Who will photoshop the screens of your game ?

 

[sprsk]

Who will photoshop the screens of your game ?

The same guy who resized your avatar WHICH IS TOO BIG.

 

[Wollan]

.

 

[Ghost]

Well im in for general code monkeying for whatever game you eventually agree on...if we're doing 2d my vector maths has gotten pretty good over the last few months so i might be of use for the AI and movement & physics & such.

 

[mrklaw]

I want it, but alas, no credit card :/

30 day free trial.... http://www.garagegames.com/products/torque/tgb/

do the game in gamebuilder, then port to X360 later.

 

[ZeMMiK]

make gyruss/tempest like game for me .. then put it on live!

 

[shibbs]

So coding in XNA Game studio express is done in C#?

 

[joaomgcd]

So coding in XNA Game studio express is done in C#?

Yes it is.

Anyone knows at what time it comes out today?

 

[6.8]

I program in C# daily at work, but I have no game design experience.
I will try this.

 

[bumpkin]

It's the 30th... Where my XNA at?

 

[iapetus]

I've already decided what my project will be, and there will probably be a call out for art/music/whatever when it gets to a working stage (I'll use placeholder stuff until then). I'm finally bringing

to the 360 where it belongs. Although for legal reasons large swathes of the background and rules will need to be changed.

 

[Zonar]

Hey man, don't throw me completely in there just yet.

I'm interested at looking into C# and all, but if I make somethin', I'm probably gonna go off and try to make (well, as of now, finish) a simple danmaku shooter. screw all yall.

Seriously though, I don't wanna say that I'll help if I don't end up liking the idea or I'm too into my own thing, so I'll hold off for now.

Cool we can hold off on you.

BTW can somebody tell me what is a shmup?

 

[Teknopathetic]

shoot em up. Like Gradius, etc.

 

[jgkspsx]

Programmer only here.

I mainly work in C#/Java, but my education was all in C++. I haven't worked in DirectX before. In the last five years I've done a couple simple PC games in C++ with OpenGL and a couple of (pretty crappy) polygonal graphical demos for the PSP. I haven't done a sprite-based game since the Tandy Color Computer (and that wasn't very good ). No experience with DirectSound, either.

I have no art design skills to speak of. I've written music, but not game-esque music. I'm handy with audio and graphics editors, though.

P.S. I'll use CVS if it's the group's preference, but Subversion -- with Trac, which integrates change requests/bug reports and a wiki -- would be my preference.)

P.P.S. I'd certainly like a faq/template on a game design document, if there's any sort of standard.

P.P.P.S. My favorite germ of an idea at the moment is a vector-graphics 2.5D puzzle/platformer starring a rotating box with sails. The controls would be: "spin left" (pushing you down), "spin right" (lifting you up), and then left and right directions. I haven't figured out what objectives/rewards/penalties would be, though -- I don't want it to be just an Irritating Stick kind of game. I have a bitGenerations aesthetic in mind. I do not expect anyone else to be interested in this, though )

 

[Vark]

Whoo lotta posts after i logged off last night.

Aight, here's the deal, since there's obviously interest in FAQs and what not I'll write a few out and link to them when they're done.

We're in an early state here though so I'm not going to promise anything I can't deliver so basically it's done when / if it's done. I'm going to focus on the really basic stuff now, and do more specific in depth stuff once the FINAL tools are done and out in the open.

While i'm not saying no one should work on anything keep in mind MS is only releasing the BETA.

To that end it'd probably be best if those interested in C# and what not to spend the time tinkering around with the toolset, getting familiar with the environment (learning to program) etc.

I'll try to get a basic 'Beginning Design' how to written up, potentially this weekend (3 day weekend, whoo) but I plan on slacking off a lot this weekend so who knows

Artists types won't have much to do

Music types *really* won't have much to do.

So basically, instead of diving head first into anything, use the beta period to individually warm up to your respective interests (and find out if it's as interesting as you thought it was).

Whenever the final version hits then would be a better time to come together and try something a little more formal (hopefully with some groundwork stuff done and ready).

Nothing kills motivation like lack of progress, and nothing hinders progress like non-final software.

Also KEEP IT SIMPLE.

It's going to be a lot harder than you initially thought, especially with a lot of people on a lot of different schedules with differing levels of commitment. It would probably be a good idea to start out with a puzzle game, or a single screen shooter first.

Once that's done, it can lay some of the groundwork for something slightly more ambitious.

 

[Tain]

Also KEEP IT SIMPLE.

Also KEEP IT SIMPLE.

Also KEEP IT SIMPLE.

qfe

 

[gollumsluvslave]

I'll doff my hat in here as well - not any game programming experience but my day job is a Microsoft tech based Software dev company - been doing C# since .Net first came out (vanilla COM and COM+ before taht) so I'm very interested to see what the XNA IDE and framework will be like.

Also of note is I've been a songwriter for 10 years and have my own DAW-based recording studio at home and would probably be more interested in composing music than actually coding :lol :lol :lol

I'll not likely be contributing any game designs :lol , but it will be interesting to see how this progresses and I'd be interested in being involved.

 

[Wolffen]

Beta Download


Never got the email that it was live, and the link on the XNA forums seem broken; I did an search at the MS download site for XNA and found the link above.

edit2:
System Requirements
Supported Operating Systems: Windows XP Service Pack 2
This release requires Microsoft Visual C# 2005 Express Edition to be installed before proceeding. The August 2006 DirectX Software Development Kit is required for the tools needed for audio development.

edit3: fixed url. Thanks Clever Pun and gollumsluvslave.

 

[Clever Pun]

your link isn't working for me either.

 

[Teknopathetic]

Good news, Visual C# Express is free.

 

[gollumsluvslave]

Currently downloading:-

http://download.microsoft.com/downl...f1-4b4d-8a68-573e4d285e5e/XGSESetup-Beta1.msi

 

[jgkspsx]

This will only work with C# Express, not with Visual Studio 2005?

 

[Clever Pun]

Currently downloading:-

http://download.microsoft.com/downl...f1-4b4d-8a68-573e4d285e5e/XGSESetup-Beta1.msi

much better, thanks!

 

[White Man]

This will only work with C# Express, not with Visual Studio 2005?

Yeah can anyone comment on this? That's ridiculous if true.

 

[sugarhigh4242]

Programmer only here.

I mainly work in C#/Java, but my education was all in C++. I haven't worked in DirectX before. In the last five years I've done a couple simple PC games in C++ with OpenGL and a couple of (pretty crappy) polygonal graphical demos for the PSP. I haven't done a sprite-based game since the Tandy Color Computer (and that wasn't very good ). No experience with DirectSound, either.

I have no art design skills to speak of. I've written music, but not game-esque music. I'm handy with audio and graphics editors, though.

P.S. I'll use CVS if it's the group's preference, but Subversion -- with Trac, which integrates change requests/bug reports and a wiki -- would be my preference.)

P.P.S. I'd certainly like a faq/template on a game design document, if there's any sort of standard.

P.P.P.S. My favorite germ of an idea at the moment is a vector-graphics 2.5D puzzle/platformer starring a rotating box with sails. The controls would be: "spin left" (pushing you down), "spin right" (lifting you up), and then left and right directions. I haven't figured out what objectives/rewards/penalties would be, though -- I don't want it to be just an Irritating Stick kind of game. I have a bitGenerations aesthetic in mind. I do not expect anyone else to be interested in this, though )

If you have a knowledge in open standards (openGL), don't move backward into propriatary-land. i hate how Direct-X is such a wedge technology.

 

[Oldschoolgamer]

Good news, Visual C# Express is free.

Indeed it is. Thats what, I'm teaching myself off of.

 

[Tain]

I haven't installed this yet, but I guess I could install VS 2005 and find out.

 

[gollumsluvslave]

Yeah can anyone comment on this? That's ridiculous if true.

It's true. I've got VS 2005 on my dev machine, and the above .msi evaluates conditions - it fails to install as there is no C# Express installed.

 

[sefskillz]

Yeah can anyone comment on this? That's ridiculous if true.

This is true, C# express will install side by side though.

 

[jgkspsx]

This is true, C# express will install side by side though.

The C#Express site says that all prior versions of VS2005/.NET 2.0 need to be uninstalled. Hope that doesn't mean all current versions too.

If you have a knowledge in open standards (openGL), don't move backward into propriatary-land. i hate how Direct-X is such a wedge technology.

I wish you people would just shut up and let people investigate what they like. I'd rather know both -- do you have a problem with that?

 

[gollumsluvslave]

To be fair itr states this in the XNA Faq
http://msdn.microsoft.com/directx/xna/faq/

Q: Are there any prerequisites to run XNA Game Studio Express?
A: Yes, you must download and install Visual C# Express and the latest DirectX runtime updates. If you wish to modify/created audio files, you must download the full August 2006 DirectX SDK in order to use the XACT audio tool.

 

[Nerevar]

It's true. I've got VS 2005 on my dev machine, and the above .msi evaluates conditions - it fails to install as there is no C# Express installed.

ugh. That sucks.

 

[Tain]

Eh, I've got no problem if it works side by side.

 

[jgkspsx]

Looks like I'll need to get a bigger hd for my laptop after all. Dammit, Microsoft.

(Actually, what *is* the VSE installation footprint?)

 

[Tain]

According to the installer, 375 megs.

 

[gollumsluvslave]

Just checked on the forums and C# Express will run side by side quite happily. Seems like an oversight though!

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=660984&SiteID=1

David Weller MSFT : You need to install Visual C# Express separately (which is a prereq for XNA Game Studio Express). Visual Studio and the Express editions work side-by-side.

Also, some explanation as to why:-

I posted about this too, and it was explained that the XNA Express edition cannot plug into C# Express the same way as the retail versions (Standard, Pro, Team, etc) since the Express Edition has the plugin support stripped out. XNA Professional will come with a plugin for the retail versions. I'm guessing that it would still be possible to link to the assemblies with the retail versions, however you'll lose the nice XNA Express tools, the templates, and the ability to eventually compile your code for the 360.

 

[jgkspsx]

According to the installer, 375 megs.

I guess I'll be OK. Annoying oversight, though. Hope it isn't true for the final version.

Edit: Shit, the DirectX SDK is 600 MB?! How big is XNA express? This is going to be close.

 

[Ecrofirt]

****ing VS Express.

 

[sefskillz]

XNA is about 90mb. You don't HAVE to have the SDK, just the runtimes.

C# Express will run alongside fine, the comment on the website is supposed to only be about beta versions.

 

[jgkspsx]

XNA is about 90mb. You don't HAVE to have the SDK, just the runtimes.

I thought you needed the SDK for DirectSound support?

C# Express will run alongside fine, the comment on the website is supposed to only be about beta versions.

Yep, I see that now.