chrismingay.co.uk Me and my games

Using Monkey for an XNA project

Update: The following article is now obsolete and an updated version is here : Using Monkey For an XNA Xbox Project : Revisit.

When developing Ninjah I had to do some last minute changes in C# because Monkey wasn't registering the controls properly (that is, if the player was to use controller #2, the game wouldn't work) and I have to say, working with Monkey became quite difficult in the end. Not only is Monkey new, it also supports 6 different programming environments (C#, Javascript, Flash, Xcode, GLFW and Java) which has lead to a lot more bugs than you'd expect from a single programming language. I know Monkey will improve and I've no doubt the points I am about to raise below will become redundant sooner rather than later. For now though, I will focus on the difficulties caused by Monkey with regards to a XNA project.

Ninjah submitted for peer review

Ninjah is DONE! Sunday I submitted Ninjah for the peer review process. The process relies on 9 fellow XBLi developers playing the game and making sure it doesn't contain anything that goes against a set of publishing rules that Microsoft set. Assuming all is ok and Ninjah receives the passes it requires, I can then decide when Ninjah becomes available through the market place and that's that!

I don't know how long this process takes and part of me is assuming that Ninjah won't pass first time and I'll have to make some minor changes. However, I still consider it finished at this time!

Ninjah Targets for 14th August and other things

Hello! I had hoped that by the 7th I would have finished all of the outstanding work. Had I not started adding other parts I am confident that I probably would have managed it! Anyway I am not too fussed at this time, because I am confident I am almost there now.

I spent quite a lot of time this weekend polishing various minor parts I wasn't 100% with but I spent a majority of time working on the music side of things. Originally I had planned on using the XM modules I had created for the first Ninjah game however I was concerned about using samples I didn't necessarily have permission to use and in areas it sounded a bit tired too. I was just going to replace the samples with royalty free ones or find the author of each sample so I could credit them. I got bored of this very quickly so opted to search for some royalty free music I could license. There is a huge selection of inexpensive and high quality pieces of music there, I easily found 30 or so tracks that I eventually filtered down to 5, for which I paid $14 each.

I both enjoyed and felt guilty about the process. I enjoyed it because it was nice to have instant access to lots of great music that I could easily preview and not have to worry about the permission rights. There was no negotiation of thoughts relating to "well I spent so much time on this track, I don't want to not use it", it was just a series of  "Yes", "No", "Maybe" answers until I found the 5 I wanted. I did however feel a bit guilty because it feels that I am being a bit lazy about it. Other than the royalty free packs of sound effects, I had never paid for assets before and it seems a bit too easy to say "I don't need to do this, because I can pay for it" even though deep down I know that I am capable of making at least some basic music. (That said, in writing this, it makes the guilt seem more ridiculous!)

After having problems with running Ninjah on other PC's when built in XNA or running even on my laptop when built as GLFW I mentioned that having a build as BlitzMAX option would be really quite cool and helpful. Half of me was expecting to get shot down, but the response from everyone else seems to show that they too want the same. Hopefully this will come to something! It will let me have Ninjah running on other PC's without huge great libraries for .net XNA and god knows whatever else!

Complete all of the following by the 14th of August.

• Add completion stuff
• Fix stupid Monkey/Music problem
• Import levels in to source
• Fix background image bug
• Final Xbox playthough
• Remove debug time display
• Edit project details for Xbox upload
• Get Xbox upload details ready
• Get Xbox upload images ready
• Sprite mode 1 special feature
• Sprite mode 2 special feature

Ninjah Targets for 7th August and XNA membership

Things are going well and I am very much on the home stretch now. Ideally I would like all of the below finished by the end of Sunday the 7th! Unfortunately, I am yet to sort everything I need account wise to sell Ninjah on XNA. I need to get a US tax code, and then apply for earning via the US UK tax treaty. If I don't do this, I will have to accept a default tax rate of 30%... mow! So to get a tax code, I need to fill out a form and send a copy of my passport, which has expired, so I need to renew that too... yay!

Part of me just wants to get on with it and get things going but the other part knows I really need to be patient and make sure I get everything done properly. The delay caused by all of this administrative work will allow me to really make sure everything is finished properly.

• add completion stuff
• add best time completion stuff
• sprite mode 2 special feature
• additional visual controls
• implement best times
• make it a bit more exciting when a new best time is posted
  
• add audio credits
• new credits page
• add reset controls
• add ghost controls
• add volume options (options screen)
• add music playback system
• select music (non committal, buy at last minute once sure) (select 5)
• update gui
• put ninjah sprite in front of particles
• normal trails
• fix move controls affecting reduced friction when attached with rope even with move controls disabled
• make it obvious when the player is trying to use a disabled control (flash icons and maybe an annoying sound)
• add best times ( 50 / 50 )
• sort out samples for music
  
• sort out music looping problem (decided to go with fade in/out like every other XNA game I've seen!)
  
• add font credits (donation made)
  
• add music track info (once selected)
  

I am confident however that one day I will get it running properly on every PC without issue