I am taking a different approach to the menus in the next version of Galactic Wars (formally known as Galactic Wars 3). The previous version (1.3) used a new sliding menu that shifted to seemingly random points on an image and displayed some text for the point. It made sense since Galactic Wars does take place in space (each menu choice was a star in a galaxy). However the graphics required to do this were a big drawback, even on the Zune. This is because you can’t really have a low resolution image and have to make it much larger than the screen to get the sliding effect to look good. Because the game is going to the PC and Xbox 360 platforms, to carry over this idea would require even bigger images. In the end, it just doesn’t make sense.

So the new idea is to keep it sleak and simple. On the PC/360 version the menus will drill down a little differently but the idea is the same.

A very early version of Gato Muy Splato is now available for download one the Zune Games page.

During the last part of this little article series I mentioned how I used a queue in each state object to allow for continuous transitioning to occur. The reason for this is to allow for complex transitioning to occur. One example for this is a logo screen where it needs to fade in, stay on screen and then fade out again. Rather than relying on managing the states manually, we can add states on to a queue so they occur automatically.

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There comes a time when simple state management just will not cut it anymore. I found this out while building up the code base for Thrust’s GUI library. As the objects on the screen became more complex, so did their states. This article covers a new way of thinking about an object’s state, a design that has been proven in Thrust (v1.x). The goals of this state system include the following:

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I have put up a new version of the Focused Games Framework for download. This release includes Thrust v1.1 and Vodka Alpha files. I have also released X86 and X64 installers for Folder Kill. Below is a more complete list of the changes made.

Thrust

• Created Content Pipeline Project
• Terrain Content
• Cleaned some StateObject & Menu code
• Added repeat states for GamePad
• Added Xbox 360 projects
• Added Camera components
• Added Console component
• Diagnostics
  • Added Stats component
  • Added Thumbstick Throttle Component

Vodka

• Created core Vodka project
• Added core interfaces
• Implemented a few providers
• Added Services project.

Finally, I urge you to keep an eye on FGDN as I continue to add to it over the next couple of months.

I have upgraded GW3 for Xna 3.0 Beta and Thrust v1.1. I have included a fifth level that should be very hard and attempted to fix a few bugs. If you run into any issues, please do not hesitate to let me know. You can download the GW3 source code from the following link:

Galactic Wars 3 (2431) - 7.46 MB

For a little while now I have been working with James Silva on a book, Building Xna 2.0 Games. The book is an incredibly fast paced guide to developing a game like The Dishwasher as the artist, sound engineer, programmer, tester, designer and much more. We cover topics like HLSL effects, particle systems, network programming, tool creation and scripting. Also covered are non-programming topics like creating some custom sounds, generating characters and how to make sure that you do not fail by keeping checks on your goals and designs.

So if you want to help us out and learn lots in the process, buy the book!

I am building in a host of diagnostic tools for the next release of Thrust to help you keep track of what is going on with your game. Currently I am working on a few ways to visualize how each gamepad is being used which is incredibly important on the Zune. Here is a screenshot of Galactic Defense using one to measure the left thumbstick:

And a video:
<a href="http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=99fc531a-356b-4472-8f82-942dec70dd24" target="_new" title="Galactic Defense and Diagnostics">Video: Galactic Defense and Diagnostics</a>

This one is incredibly simple.

1. Connect Zune to computer.
2. Deploy / Run a game.
3. Open Device Center (in Start Menu)
4. Right click on Zune and select Take Screen Capture

And there you go!

I knew I couldn’t just let the work we did on Tower Defense just sit forever in some bin of old source code on my hard drive. So I have started porting it over to the Zune with some upgrades and some downgrades. Naturally there is no mouse on the device so I have been working mostly on the UI for tile selecting and placement. Here is a demo showing the work so far:

I am working towards an alpha release within a week or two which will coincide nicely with a new release of FGF, which will contain the first release of Vodka.