Samples, Starter Kits, Tutorials

Re: Role-Playing Game Starter Kit - Main Discussion Thread

Chapel — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:16:36 GMT

So, o2Slim...what is the purpose of this project?

Are you modifying the engine/starter kit for a game you are working on, or are you modifying the starter kit to make a better version available to Creators Club members?

Sounds like you're doing some awesome work...seems like it's an overhaul that the kit really needs.

I noticed it's been a few months since your last post...do you have any updated information of your progress?

Thanks
--Chapel

Re: Role-Playing Game Starter Kit - Main Discussion Thread

Constant Change Media — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 10:06:25 GMT

Drool.

Since you are at Codeplex, will we see some actual scripts that you are writing? ;)

Re: Role-Playing Game Starter Kit - Main Discussion Thread

o2Slim — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:02:06 GMT

Hello Everyone! I wanted to give everyone a look at my latest hobby project. Project Alkali is a expansion to the RPG Starter kit. I'm doing some major upgrades, modifications and additions to the systems. The code is still very debuggy and not commented for the project yet but I figured I'd publish it anyway while I work on it :)

Here is a link to the project: http://xnaalkali.codeplex.com/

The current additions and modifications implemented are:

- Particle System implemented! Mercury Particle Engine (v3.1) has been implemented into the project. Currently only spells have the particles attached, but soon the tiles, items, characters, etc will have them. The spells have generic / debug particles so don't be surprised if they look a bit odd :)

- Active combat. Team turn based removed. This system is more like Final Fantasy. All combatants have a turn timer that will eventually be affected by stats, items, magical spells, etc. Once a turn timer triggers you can "queue" that combatants turn orders and they will cast / act in order. This system is more engaging and fast paced!

- Level based Loot Tables. Loot is now controlled by both loot tables and the standard gear drop control. Both the loot tables and the gear drop tables can be controlled by character levels

- Animated tile system added! The base layer can have multiple (no set limit) animated tile sheets for use with animated tiles (ie: ocean water). The other layers are simple to update, just haven't updated them yet :) The first map is the only map to use this system, so crossing into other maps will crash. Feel free to update the others!

- Multiple tilesets per layer. Utilizing the same system for animated tiles you can add any number of extra tile sets to the map files. But as above this is only implemented for the base layer, the fringe and object layers are quite easy I just haven't done them yet.

- The character planks in combat have been replaced with health and MP meters.

Here is what's currently being worked on!

- Additional layers being supported, Up to ten layers for added detail to your world!

- Triple leveled maps, so you can have bridges and overpasses etc (increasing the total layers per map to 30)

- Alpha controlled object layers for terrain blending

- A Tile editor that will support editing portals, auto-gen tiles for rounded and blended looks, alpha object layers, etc (Hoping to use Nandosoft's excellent Tile editor :))

- Moving AI on map.

- Particles added to the map

- Mini map system

On the horizon!

- Scripted AI movement and events tiles.

- Cinematic style cutscenes (basically using the same engine just scripting the movements and speech of characters, think FFVI/III).

- Editors for AI, Items, etc

- Support for animated items and advanced spell systems (think FF espers, materia).

- Multiple quest lines at once, multiple selectable quests and world altering quest events.

Known Issues with the current code:

- Not a lot of Project Alkali comment markers in the code

- Defend in the combat system doesn't work due to the active combat system.

- All combat timers for monsters and characters are placeholders and not balanced!

- All loot tables for monster point to one loot table (major magic potion! :)).

- Map01 is the only usable map, it's the only one updated to use the new animation and multiple tileset system

Hope you enjor it, let me know if you have any questions. I'll try to get some commenting and information in there asap so you can follow what I've done throughout the code base.

Re: Role-Playing Game Starter Kit - Main Discussion Thread

falc410 — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 23:35:03 GMT

Thanks to MS for supplying us with this starter Kit.

Since I have never written my own TileEngine, I looked at the Tile Engine example which looked pretty cool but I also had a look at the extracted Tile Engine from this StarterKit - which is more sophisticated (but also a lot more complex if you ask me).

The question is, did MS supply the starter Kit with some kind of Map Editor? I know I can edit the XML files by hand, but looking at the tile Sheet it's kinda hard to figure out which tile is number X. So is there any easier way to do it? I don't think I'm ready yet to build my own Map Editor (although this is a cool idea).

I heard that some user on this forums has build a map editor for a tile engine (using XNA in Windows Forms) but I downloaded it, and it's just an .exe file and it won't run under Windows 7 for whatever reasons (just crashes).
So are there any alternatives?

Re: Role-Playing Game Starter Kit - Main Discussion Thread

Verse — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:17:42 GMT

Thank you!!

Re: Role-Playing Game Starter Kit - Main Discussion Thread

Jim Perry — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:38:39 GMT

Read this FAQ.

Re: Role-Playing Game Starter Kit - Main Discussion Thread

Verse — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:28:13 GMT

Hi guys,

A few friends and I have been working on an RPG using this as a basis. This may seem silly, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to get the game to them in it's current state for them to play it (on PC). Are there some specific runtime files they need?

Any help would be appreciated!

Re: Role-Playing Game Starter Kit - Main Discussion Thread

CloudSFF7 — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 20:28:32 GMT

Hi

Sorry if i'm not posting in the correct place but it should (i hope) be an easy to answer question.

I downloaded the XNA 3.1 edition and have obviously got the c#2008 edition with it.So i went and downloaded the 3.0 version of this starter kit.I've installed it using the wizards instructions and loaded the project up.With it being my first time using this starter i wanted to see what the project had already got by playing it via my xbox360.

However whenever i go to build the project so that i can play it it tells me the following:

RoleplayingGameProcessor.dll is missing

I hav not edited this starter yet and i've re-installed several times along with trying a few repairs on the install but i just seems like a file is actually missing from it.I've even upgraded the project to 3.1 and i'm still having problems.

Is this a known issue and if so how may i fix it?

Thanks

Re: Role-Playing Game Starter Kit - Main Discussion Thread

Mylon — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:40:42 GMT

How does one edit out the XBL/Windows Live component of this game? I keep getting an error saying I need an XNA-enabled or off-line profile to play. I attempted to create a new profile, but it was automatically created as a silver account, not an off-line account.

Re: Role-Playing Game Starter Kit - Main Discussion Thread

Cypherroo — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:39:41 GMT

K, thanks for the quick feedback.

Re: Role-Playing Game Starter Kit - Main Discussion Thread

Jim Welch — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:37:09 GMT

Question has been asked before and there's an official response somewhere in the forums.

You'll need to show that you did significant work to the sample in order to get approved from MS and pushed to XBLCC. It will also take a lot of work to make the starter kits pass peer review since the starter kits doesn't follow all of the requirements needed to pass that stage.

Re: Role-Playing Game Starter Kit - Main Discussion Thread

Cypherroo — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 23:12:01 GMT

Hey, everyone I have a question. Can you publish this game on xbox360 xna assuming that the game would get approved, after you switched the name and title and more quests etc etc.

Re: Role-Playing Game Starter Kit - Main Discussion Thread

Jim Welch — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 01:08:36 GMT

I noticed from an earlier thread in this discussion which tile map editor was used. Making tiles and tile maps is a bit easier for me than the character sprites.

Does anyone know which software was used for the character sprites? If not, is there any recommendations?

I'd like to replace all of the character sprites and I'm not concerned about how to code it. I just don't know the most efficient way to make the sprite sheets without spending the majority of my development time doing graphics work instead of coding.

Re: Role-Playing Game Starter Kit - Main Discussion Thread

THE ROOSTER — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 02:14:54 GMT

I just downloaded this starter kit today and I can open it, but when I try to run the debug for the first time I get an error and it won't build. Did anyone else have this problem? If so, what did you do to fix it?

Re: Role-Playing Game Starter Kit - Main Discussion Thread

dave17 — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 22:04:33 GMT

wonderful starter game. it's really useful to have a much fuller game to look through and break down. I have borrowed many of the concepts and approaches used here for my game, like seperating data/logic, saving and loading games, more game state management.