Meet Swordy

Today saw the start of a new journey for me. A new journey that will see me learning new things, and thus proving an old dog can learn new tricks.

A friend is teaching me to program in C# (C Sharp) and how to write games using the XNA framework for the Xbox 360.

So sitting in the Costa Coffee franchise at work like true geeks we sat with coffee’s (or in my case tea) and out laptop and netbooks having a hands on introduction to games programming.

It was in this initial session that I came up with what I am convince will become a classic video game character of the 21st Century Swordy. Swordy was created out of necessity of needing a sprite to move around the screen when a direction arrow is pressed.

But in true video game tradition Swordy needed a nemesis, and so in an equally rushed drawing I came up with a badly drawn ghost from Pacman as Swordy’s nemesis.

In our little hack-a-thon (if you can call a session of hogging the comfy seats in the coffee shop for just over an hour of geekiness a hack-a-thon) the enemy homed in on Swordy. Which when moving Swordy around the screen gave an almost Robotron like feel to the basic program being developed. If you remember in the classic game Robotron the enemies homed in on the players character. And to get this AI (if you can even call it AI) is an amazingly simple bit of code. Which I give the extract for below:

foreach (character e in enemy)
{
    e.update(gameTime);
    if (e.getpos().X < swordy.getpos().X)
    {
        e.movex(1);
    }
    if (e.getpos().X > swordy.getpos().X)
    {
        e.movex(-1);
    }
    if (e.getpos().Y < swordy.getpos().Y)
    {
        e.movey(1);
    }
    if (e.getpos().Y > swordy.getpos().Y)
    {
        e.movey(-1);
    }

}

Basically for each enemy we compare it’s position to that of Swordy and move the enemy closer towards Swordy. Which as I said has the effect on screen of making it look like the enemies are homing in on Swordy.

Anyway that makes it look like I know what I am talking about, which I don’t. I’m just impressed (easily I know) with how well the Robotron homing enemy effect looks with such simple code. The whole area of enemy AI is a complicated one and has evolved over the years, to which point in modern big budget games the AI can be pretty sophisticated.

Anyway that about sums up todays lesson, I’m looking forward to next weeks now.

Cool XBox360 Announcements From E3

At this years E3 Microsoft made some cool announcements for the XBox360. Here I’m going to look at the three that I think will have the biggest impact on the home.

The first of which was to announce that this Autumn Sky will be coming to the 360. Which is a pretty good move on both parts. It’s not clear at the moment exactly which channels will be available, or what the costs will be. But for Sky this means that they can get into all those homes that have cable and by pass the cable provider. A lot of 360’s are in the bedroom, and this announcement means that there is a way to get Sky into those bedrooms with out having to have a second Sky box, or pay for that second installation. For Microsoft this helps them position the 360 as the only box that you need under your tv in the living room.

But one of the exciting things that you will be able to do with the Live Sky broadcasts like football matches is the live chat. So if you and your mates are all watching the match on your 360’s you will be able to use the headsets and have all the banter while the game is on. Just like you do while playing Call Of Duty 4 or Halo 3 at the moment.

Over the last couple of years you can’t escape the impact that social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are having. So the next announcement from Microsoft for the 360 will come as no surprise either. This Autumn Microsoft will be adding the ability for you to access your Facebook and Twitter accounts via Xbox Live. For this to be of real use to people they will need to get the messenger kit. This adds a little keyboard to the 360 controller that makes typing easier. So I expect to see sales of this messenger kit increase once this is available to use.

The final announcement that will be of interest to folks is Project Natal. So what is Project Natal? Well it’s a controller free controller! At a basic level think of the Wii sensor bar on steroids, but you don’t need the Wii remotes, or the need for a WiiFit board. It is easier to show what it does than write about it. So watch this video showing what Project Natal can do.

But the most impressive and incredible use for Project Natal was shown by Lionhead with their Milo demo. Just watch the following clip, it’s breath taking.

So can Project Natal be a Wii beater? If it works as well as the demos then I think it can and will be a game changer for the Game Industry. I’m so looking forward to when we can get this technology in our living room.

Remaining In Contact Update 1

Thought I would write an update on my initial experiences of using social media and technology to keep in contact with Nathan after I moved up North.

Before I left on Nathan’s pc I installed Skype, bought him a web cam and installed, then set up a short cut up on his desktop to my blog.

Nath and I both have Xbox Live Gold accounts for our Xbox360’s. So we are able to send messages to each other via Xbox Live. Xbox Live is great for keeping in touch. Nath can send me a text or voice message. To aid in the sending of text messages Nath and I both have the messenger kit. This is a small QWERTY keyboard that plugs into the 360 controller. We both use this when sending text messages to each other via Xbox Live.

But Xbox Live comes into it’s own with games. Nath and I can and have games evenings playing games online with each other. It’s good fun playing Texas Hold ‘Em or Uno while chatting away using the headset. Sound quality isn’t amazing but it’s good enough (just).

Another great feature is private chat, so Nath and I can chat away with each other while playing different games. We spent two hours doing this one Sunday afternoon. I was playing Doom and I think Nath was playing Saints Row 2.

Nath and I have also been using Skype with video to chat with each other as well. Skype is great, easy to use and Nath can call me whenever he likes. The video side I think adds more to the call for Nath.

When Nath came to visit I was impressed and touched to find out that Nath actually visited my blog regularly to see what I was up to. So that seems to be working ok at the moment.

So far the use of social media and other tech seems to be working. It’s enabling the both of us to stay in contact easily with the minimum of effort. The proof  is the fact that Nath is using it himself without me prompting him. Several times now Nath has been the one to make the Skype call. So all in all a very positive experience so far.