Knox Game Design is a monthly discussion by game creators in the Knoxville, Tennessee area. We share our ideas, show off projects, and discuss current topics related to video game development. Our group explores the many facets of the game design process, such as coding, graphics, modeling, animation, story, and promotion. You can find out more information on the group including future meeting dates at knoxgamedesign.org
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Exploring NES Memory – Knox Game Design, July 2024
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Demonstration of how to use the FECUX emulator memory tools to determine the memory location of in-game variables, such as number of coins. How to set a breakpoint with the Hex Editor to find the 6502 assembly code that is executed when a memory location is changed. Analysis of assembly code for awarding an extra … Continue reading Exploring NES Me…
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Comparison of jumping statistics from various characters in classic platformer games. Analysis of states in jump cycles. Demo of implementation of jump for a 2D platformer game. Links and Notes Demo Code – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/jumping FCEUX – https://fceux.com/web/home.html Podcast theme music – Ride by Pocketmas…
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Flood Fill Recursion – Knox Game Design, May 2024
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Overview of recursion and an explanation of a simple flood fill algorithm. Example demo in MonoGame with C# code. Links and Notes Demo Code – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/floodfill MonoGame – https://monogame.net/ Podcast theme music – Ride by PocketmasterBy Knox Game Design
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Knox Game Jam 2024 Recap – Knox Game Design, April 2024
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Thanks to everyone who came out to the Knox Game Jam 2024 kickoff! Seven great games were created by the group for the game jam. Great job everyone! Minu by Dustin Claws and Conundrums by James and PandaPuffsForBreakfast You are somewhat of a know-it-all. Your good friend has reached out for help in a murder … Continue reading Knox Game Jam 2024 Re…
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UML with Dia – Knox Game Design, March 2024
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Overview of using the Dia tool for creating UML diagrams. UML is a standard for creating various types of diagrams, such as class diagrams, state diagrams, and use case diagrams. Links and Notes UML – https://www.uml.org/ UML examples – https://www.uml-diagrams.org/ Dia at Gnome – https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Dia Dia installer – http://dia-installer…
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Texture Mapping – Knox Game Design, February 2024
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Explanation of how to create a texture mapped box by reading a BMP image file and displaying with OpenGL. Then how to create that same texture mapped the box in Blender to export into FBX format. The model is then imported and displayed multiple different game development environments, such as Unity, MonoGame, Godot, and Unreal … Continue reading T…
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Introduction to OpenGL and how to setup development environment using MSYS2. Code examples in C for displaying polygons, keyboard input with GLUT, and a simple game demo. OpenGL code examples in C – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/opengl Links and Notes OpenGL – https://www.opengl.org/ MSYS2 – https://www.msys2.org/ Setting…
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Doom Modding – Knox Game Design, December 2023
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Overview of modding Doom with customized levels and graphics. Links and Notes GZDoom download – https://zdoom.org/downloads Doom World mods – https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/ ModDB mods – https://www.moddb.com/games/doom-ii/mods Ultimate Doom Builder download – https://devbuilds.drdteam.org/ultimatedoombuilder/ Ultimate Doom Builder instructions …
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Memory Card Game – Knox Game Design, November 2023
45:20
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Explanation of design and implementation of card memory matching game in MonoGame. Demo code – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/memory_game Links and Notes Podcast theme music – Ride by PocketmasterBy Knox Game Design
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Object Oriented GameMaker – Knox Game Design, October 2023
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Presentation on how to apply object oriented principles to GameMaker to expand the variety of enemies and items in games. Includes discussion of parenting of objects in GameMaker and how to inherit attributes and functions in children objects. Links and Notes GameMaker – https://gamemaker.io/en Podcast theme music – Ride by Pocketmaster…
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OpCodes – Knox Game Design, September 2023
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Overview of OpCodes and how those relate to video game consoles. Links and Notes 6502 OpCodes at Ultimate Commodore 64 Reference – https://www.pagetable.com/c64ref/6502/ GameBoy OpCodes – https://www.pastraiser.com/cpu/gameboy/gameboy_opcodes.html x86 OpCodes – https://net.cs.uni-bonn.de/fileadmin/user_upload/plohmann/x86_opcode_structure_and_instr…
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Character Encoding – Knox Game Design, August 2023
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Overview of encoding characters and letters into their numerical and binary values. Explanation of how to use bitwise operators to change case of characters. Links and Notes Podcast theme music – Ride by PocketmasterBy Knox Game Design
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Overview of how parallax is used and implemented in 2D video games. Links and Notes Demo code – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/parallax Podcast theme music – Ride by PocketmasterBy Knox Game Design
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Grid Based Games – Knox Game Design, June 2023
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Overview of grid based games and implementation of checkers in MonoGame/C#. Links and Notes Checkers demo code – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/gridbased Podcast theme music – Ride by PocketmasterBy Knox Game Design
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Spring ’23 Game Jam – Knox Game Design, May 2023
2:43
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Knox Game Design Spring ’23 game jam entries Links and Notes Podcast theme music – Ride by PocketmasterBy Knox Game Design
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Falling Blocks – Knox Game Design, April 2023
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Walkthrough on how to create a basic falling block line clearing game using MonoGame. Project code – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/falling_blocks Links and Notes Visual Studio Community – visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/community MonoGame – www.monogame.net Podcast theme music – Ride by Pocketmaster…
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Game Engines – Knox Game Design, March 2023
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Overview of game engines and development libraries. Links and Notes Godot Engine – godotengine.org Unity – unity.com Unreal Engine – www.unrealengine.com GameMaker – gamemaker.io Stencyl – stencyl.com Scratch – scratch.mit.edu SDL – www.libsdl.org Allegro – liballeg.org MonoGame – www.monogame.net Pygame – pygame.org Pico-8 – www.lexaloffle.com/pic…
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SVG Scalable Vector Graphics – Knox Game Design, February 2023
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How to create vector graphics in the SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) format by text editor or Inkscape. Demo code – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/svg Links and Notes Podcast theme music – Ride by PocketmasterBy Knox Game Design
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Javascript and HTML Canvas – Knox Game Design, January 2023
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How to create a simple space shooter web game using Javascript and HTML Canvas, as well as drawing the Tennessee state flag. Demo code – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/javascript Links and Notes Javascript reference at Mozilla – https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference Canvas API at Mozilla – https…
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QBasic IO and Graphics, Knox Game Design, December 2022
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A look at various approaches for keyboard input and graphics display in QBasic. Demo code – https://github.com/levidsmith/QBasicShooter Links and Notes QBasic.net – https://www.qbasic.net/ ASCII character chart – https://www.qbasic.net/en/reference/general/ascii-table.htm Keyboard scan codes – https://www.qbasic.net/en/reference/general/scan-codes.…
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Number Systems – Knox Game Design, November 2022
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Overview of number systems, including decimal base 10, binary base 2, hexadecimal base 16. How to convert between the number systems. Explanation of addition and subtraction in binary. Links and Notes Podcast theme music – Ride by PocketmasterBy Knox Game Design
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Knox Game Jam Fall ’22 Recap – Knox Game Design, October 2022
10:43
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Knox Game Jam games Old Timer Peg Game by Levi Other games by Knox Developers Caverns of Evil (Steam) by Jared Labyrinth (Steam) by James Gospelgo by DanosonoBy Knox Game Design
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Reading Text Files – Knox Game Design, September 2022
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Explanation of how to read text files to display objects to the screen in Unity, GameMaker, MonoGame, Godot, and SDL. Demo project – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/textreader Links and Notes Podcast theme music – Ride by PocketmasterBy Knox Game Design
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Introduction to the Logo programming language. Useful for teaching functional programming to beginners. Explanation of using “turtle graphics” to draw various shapes. Demo project – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/logo Links and Notes Berkeley Logo Download – http://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~bh/logo.html Logo Manual – http:…
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Overview of four types of curves that can be used in game development. Basic parabola for moving objects in an arc. Sine function for moving objects in a wave motion. Physics using velocity and acceleration for simulating actions such as jumping and falling. Bezier curve for moving objects along a curved path. Examples of functions … Continue readi…
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I-Frames and Stun Lock – Knox Game Design, June 2022
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Overview of I-frames, invincibility, stun lock, and knock back. How these are implemented in games, statistics from examples of classic games, and demo project showing various methods for implementing invincibility time. Links and Notes Demo project – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/iframes Podcast theme music – Ride by Poc…
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Enemy Behaviors – Knox Game Design, May 2022
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This month’s Knox Game Design presentation topic is Enemy Behaviors. This is a look at various enemy behavior types: Back and forth (timer / collision based) Alert and chase, using distance / timer for stop chasing Move random direction and wait Orbital children, with varying radius length and orbit speed Behavior combination (orbital children and …
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Spring ’22 Game Jam – Knox Game Design, April 2022
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Games created by Knox area developers for Spring ’22. Theme was “delay the inevitable”. Links and Notes Cult of the Furnace by Jacob – https://gamejolt.com/games/furnace_cult/706365 Possum Blitz by Levi – https://levidsmith.com/games/possum-blitz/ Podcast theme music – Ride by PocketmasterBy Knox Game Design
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Basic 3D Collision – Knox Game Design, March 2022
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Explanation of calculating collision between basic 3D objects (rectangular solids/cubes and spheres). Methods used can be applied to any programming language or game development environment. Review of demo Ruby code to detect collision between rectangular solids and spheres. Links and Notes Ruby 3D collision calculator – https://github.com/levidsmi…
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2D Collision – Knox Game Design, February 2022
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Explanation of 2D collisions for points, lines, rectangles, and circles. Overview of each collision type along with examples and code. Explanations are general in nature so that they can be implemented in any game engine or programming language. Demonstration of Javascript web application that calculates collisions between the four types of objects…
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Dijkstra’s Algorithm – Knox Game Design, January 2022
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Explanation of Dijkstra’s algorithm for finding the shortest path in a graph based on a selected starting node. Walkthrough of an example of the algorithm. Demo of implementation of Dijkstra’s algorithm in Unity and C#. Dijkstra Demo in Unity (Unity WebGL) Dijkstra Demo Source Code Links and Notes Dijkstra’s Shortest Path Algorithm – https://www.ge…
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Particle Systems in Unity – Knox Game Design, December 2021
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Explanation of particle systems in Unity, along with modifiers such as emission shape, bursts, color over time, custom shapes, and size over lifetime. Demo project and code – https://github.com/levidsmith/ParticleSystemDemo Links and Notes Unity Particle System documentation – https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/ParticleSystems.html Unity – https://uni…
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Stencyl – Knox Game Design, November 2021
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Overview of the Stencyl game development environment for making 2D games. Explanation of scenes, actors, behaviors, events, and visual coding. Examples of a number guessing game and simple space shooter. Links and Notes Stencyl – https://www.stencyl.com/ Stencyl download archive – http://community.stencyl.com/index.php?topic=5530.0 Podcast theme mu…
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Fall ’21 Game Jam Entries and More – Knox Game Design, October 2021
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This month, Knox developers Allen, Jared, and Levi show off their games developed for Fall ’21 and more. Links and Notes Dark Crossings by Allen – https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/49/dark-crossings Cubic Nightmare by Jared – https://jaredbgreat.itch.io/cubic-nightmare Chester Servesalot by Levi – https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/49/waiter-ext…
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Distributing Your Game – Knox Game Design, September 2021
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An overview of various ways to distribute your video game. First, a historical look at various physical media that can be used for distributing digital content. Then a look at multiple online sites that provide hosting and marketplaces for video games. Links and Notes Itch.io – https://itch.io GameJolt – https://gamejolt.com Kongregate developer – …
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Strategy Guides – Knox Game Design, August 2021
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A look back at strategy guides for 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System and 16-bit Super Nintendo games. How to Win at Super Mario Bros The Official Nintendo Player’s Guide Dragon Warrior Strategy Guide Super Mario Bros 2 Inside Out The Legend of Zelda, A Link to the Past Player’s Guide 4-Player Extra Strategy Guide Ninja Gaiden … Continue reading S…
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Adding Sound Effects to Your Game – Knox Game Design, July 2021
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Demonstration of how to play a sound effect in various game development environments. This presentation covers Unity, GameMaker, Godot Engine, Unreal Engine (Blueprints), and Pico-8. Source Code – https://github.com/levidsmith/SoundEffectsDemo Links and Notes Unity – https://unity.com GameMaker – https://www.yoyogames.com/en/gamemaker Godot Engine …
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Sound Effects with BFXR – Knox Game Design, June 2021
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This month’s Knox Game Design covers the BXFR tool for generating sound effects for games. A look at different sound effect types, modifying sound effect properties, using the mixer to combine effects together, and an analysis for the various types of wave forms. Links and Notes BFXR – https://www.bfxr.net/ SFXR – http://www.drpetter.se/project_sfx…
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Spring ’21 Game Jam Entries – Knox Game Design, May 2021
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Knox Game Design had two great entries for Spring ’21. The theme was Deeper and deeper. Let us know if we missed your game entry and we will add it to the list! Delve Inc. by Jacob You play as a dwarf in a hastily constructed drillship delving deep into an abandoned mining plot to … Continue reading Spring ’21 Game Jam Entries – Knox Game Design, M…
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Image File Formats – Knox Game Design, April 2021
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Comparison of file types for holding image data for textures and sprites in games. File types include BMP, GIF, PNG, JPEG, SVG, TIFF, TGA, PCX, HEIC, and WebP. Properties include transparency, compression, lossy vs lossless, and file size. Demonstration of how to programmatically decode and encode PNG files. Compatibility of image files with four g…
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Sorting – Knox Game Design, March 2021
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Overview of comparison of data types, sorting algorithms, and run times. Demonstration of sorting in Unity with C#, GameMaker with GML, Godot with GDScript, Unreal Engine with C++, and Pico-8 with Lua. For each game development environment, examples are shown for sorting integers, character strings (words), and a custom object type. Example code – …
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Mazes – Knox Game Design, February 2021
1:14:47
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How to generate mazes using Prim’s and Kruskal’s algorithm. Example implementations in Unity with C#. Methods for solving mazes. Demonstration of maze generators available on the web. Demo project in Unity and C# – https://github.com/levidsmith/MazeDemo New and Updated Games by Knox Developers Untitled game by Matthew BlazorRogueLike by Mythik Enfi…
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Animation in Blender – Knox Game Design, January 2021
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Demonstration of how to create a simple humanoid armature in Blender to be used in a game development environment. Explanation of how to assign a mesh to an armature and weight painting. How to create simple walking and standing animation by adding key frames. The model and animation are exported into FBX format and imported … Continue reading Anim…
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Allegro – Knox Game Design, December 2020
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Overview of the Allegro game programming library. Compiling a legacy Allegro game with DJGPP through DOSBox. Installing and building a game with Allegro 5 in Visual Studio. How to use event and polling based methods for handling keyboard and gamepad input. Explanation of how to create a “Hello World”, Number Guessing game, and simple space … Contin…
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Raspberry Pi Arcade – Knox Game Design, November 2020
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Overview of building a Raspberry Pi arcade system. First build was a Raspberry Pi (1) Model B and the second build was a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B. Explanation of what components and tools are needed. Installation the RetroPie operating system and configuration of Retrogame software to convert joystick movement and button presses into simulation … Con…
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Fall ’20 Game Jam Recap – Knox Game Design, October 2020
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A recap of the Fall ’20 game jam plus a post mortem. Also what others on the Knox Game Design Discord have been developing. If you are interested in attending a Knox Game Design meeting either virtually or in-person, let us know! Links and Notes Game jam keynotes – https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/$212263/welcome-to-ludum-dare-47-ps-we-start-…
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MonoGame – Knox Game Design, September 2020
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An overview of creating a game with MonoGame. Installation of MonoGame development environment using Visual Studio. Handling input devices such as keyboard, gamepad, and mouse. How to load assets such as sound effects, music, fonts, and sprite images. Examples of simple number guessing game and space shooter in MonoGame and C#. How to convert an … …
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BBS Games, VT100, and ANSI Graphics – Knox Game Design August 2020
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An overview of BBS (Bulletin Board System) games from the 1990s. How to connect to a telnet BBS to play DOOR games. Creating ANSI graphics with ACiD draw in DOSBox. VT100 color codes explained. A simple telnet server created in Ruby, which displays system time, counts to ten, displays an ANSI file, and has a … Continue reading BBS Games, VT100, and…
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An overview of color for game developers. How various colors are made on the computer using RGB and HSV formats. The color spectrum and the ROY G BIV order for colors. Where visible color exists on the electromagnetic wavelength scale. Color displays on CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) and LED (Light Emitting Diode) devices. Converting between … Continue rea…
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Pygame – Knox Game Design, June 2020
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This month we learn how to create games in Python using the Pygame library. 1:30 – News 6:13 – Showoff: Unity Helper and new leaderboard features 11:47 – Pygame (feature presentation) Hosts Jacob ldjam.com/users/jacobturn/games gamejolt.com/@Big_Ol_Tom Jeffry http://www.thingiverse.com/insane66 Levi D. Smith levidsmith.com @GaTechGrad gatechgrad.it…
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