Category Archives: Game Development

Game Development XNA

Posted on by

Game Development XNA framework

Introduction about game development with Microsoft XNA game studio

Microsoft® XNA™ is composed of industry-leading software, services, resources, and communities focused on enabling game developers to be successful on Microsoft gaming platforms. Microsoft provides advanced technology that allows professional developers to quickly enable games on platforms like Xbox 360 and Windows. Simultaneously it provides authoring, development, debugging, and profiling tools, while the libraries provide superior performance and an amazing depth of features.
Zatun has developed the “The Legend of Vraz”, a 2D action packed adventure arcade game for Windows PC. The legend of Vraz is the first 2D arcade game in India created with Microsoft XNA Game studio. It is also one of the earliest Microsoft XNA games developed in India and one of the first games in India from an Independent developer. It is also the first game ever made on Indian Miniature painting style.

Background Study

Before starting the actual game development the team prepared the game design document. Two teams were created which worked in parallel. One team worked on the graphics development which looked for the miniature art and the other team, game programming team, was searching for a particular platform and different game engines. During this period the team checked out other game engines but finally decided to work with XNA.

Game Development

One of the most important phase of the game development was finished; information gathering. After finalization of the platform we started looking on how we can utilize the XNA for the game development with its best. We started from the home page for the XNA and move forward from there looking at different samples and tried to figure out the best optimized solution for that. The learning curve for the XNA seemed to be very low as we had an expertise in C, C++ and C# as well as different graphics library such as Open GL and DirectX.

The following were the base requirements for us to develop a game.

  • Game Menus
  • A graphics library which would give us direct access to the hardware which is available with XNA.
  • A Game world designer, Map Editor, that would help us in faster production of different Levels and Worlds.
  • A Character Animation Editor, Character Editor, which would assist in the developing faster animations with better results.
  • Ease of development of physics that can be included in the game.
  • Ease of implementation of the artificial intelligence inside the game.
  • Applicability of the special effects. Game Menu

Game Menus

Now we are on board the ship of hardcore coding and have just started sailing. We are now ready with the GUI of the game-the menu of the game which handles the game parameters.

Game menu

We started building it from scratch by taking reference from book- Beginning XNA Programming, from Novice to Professional by Alexandre Lobao and others.

We made a general menu initially which gave us the idea about the functioning of menu. We took the approach of Game Components in which every screen was added to the game as a game component. Through this we acquired the knowledge about important features of XNA like Game Components and Game Services.
We also got to know about controlling Sound, display modes and keyboard controls. Dealing with File input/input and mouse was also a part of the learning process so now we were familiar with that also.

Then we began the main programming of our game specific menu but by following the reference as mentioned above we were facing memory issues as every menu screen was added as a game Component which consumed some space in memory and the code would get more and more complex as the number of menu screens would increase. So now we had to think of a very simple way to develop and handle menu because if menu itself would be so complex then mounting the whole game would lead severe memory issues.

We took the approach of a controller which controls the rendering and hiding of menu screen and passing controls to respective screen. The only game component added was the controller which when required to display a screen, would load its contents on run time and would display the screen. This reduced a lot of memory overload as only the visible contents were loaded in game and others are not. This also made our code very simple as in from only a single class – the class of the controller we could manage all the game screens.

Having a simple skeleton ready for the menu, adding the different functionality was not a major task as due to prior knowledge of the audio, display, mouse etc, it was just like fixing the spare parts of the motor engine in proper place. This reduced the development time and effort. Now we will move on to developing the first level of the game.

Map Editor

Map Editor is a utility that allows the faster development of the game levels or the game world. As we have stated in the Introduction section that the game will be a platformer, action and adventure game so obviously we lots of jump and multiple path for the wondering around. We have different layer depths for different images and tiles.

We have even allowed placeholders for different collectibles and the NPCs as well as for the enemies too. This map editor application allows us to draw the collision detection path where player can run on. Bounding boxes are helpful to assign the collision with different objects during the game. We can assign these boxes in the game too.

The NPC characters allow moving during the game into their patrolling area and also able to take appropriate action when the player comes into visibility area. It is more advantageous to assign them in the editor rather than into the game itself. So the Map editor allows us to do this on the fly just on the click on a mouse button.

Once we will finish with one point we can run the application and even check how this thing looks in the real game. Once we found any issues we can straight away go there and sort that issue very easily.

map editor level 4

level 4 2D arcade game

Here it shows different interactive objects which can be directly add into the map editor and then on the fly we can load them into the game.

Game AI (Artifical Intelligence)

Artificial Intelligence is one of the important factor that make the game looks like a real game and the gameplay looks very interactive, the game is engaging the player and make them think.

First of all the game characters should move on the path assign to them and do the patrolling. This means that the character should move on the platform and when they are on the platform they just stand still and play the appropriate animation.

In the other case we have to take appropriate decision when the player character comes in to the visibility of the NPC they have to take appropriate action such as changing the direction, attack the player or dodge if the player is attacking and some other like this. This is a part of the AI. But in this case we have different types of enemies and they have different physic so we can’t take a generic decision. In this case the langur baby can jump as it is light in weight where as the soldier can’t as he has heavy Armour on his body so we have take decision based on this kind of situations.

Even to make the game more realistic we have included different expressions like happy, sad, angry, die and so on. If the NPC can hit the payer twice then they will be happy and miss then sad or angry.

Game Particle System

Particle system is one of the important factor that give realistic look to the game. We have applied particle systems at few many places like in different interactive objects like fire flame, volcano and arrow fire.

For the particle system we have make the particle system manager by our self and use the different objects on them. This manager will take of updating the look and feel of each and particle by make sure that a particular particle requires update. This way we can optimize the thing effectively.

Summary

Game development is a dream of team Zatun. The experience with XNA is also good that we have deliver what we want. XNA is good development platform with lots of resources available on the internet with few dedicated site too.

PC Game Controls

Posted on by

What is a PC Game Control?

A game control is a plug-in device connected to games. It used to entertain the games using system and the control of device. Using pc control one can play character or object of game with the input given to the computer game. A controller usually connected to game console or computer with the way of wire or chord. Especially talking about the present time, one of the big alternate introduced on game control is wireless connection. Game control with wired are classified by keyboard control, mouse control, game pads, joysticks etc. some of the special purpose devices uses game controllers like steering wheels for driving games and light guns for shooting games. The main function of game controls is to direct the movement or action of a playable objects. Mouse and keyboard controller are the earlier and two most used pc game controls where there are number of games direct. One of the good examples of such pc game is ‘The Legend of Vraz’ creation of Zatun. The game can be played using the keyboard control and mouse control both or it can be played by using either of control. ‘The Legend of Vraz’ creation of Zatun is largely popular game played using the mouse and keyboard controls all over the world, especially it’s earned a big market value in India and got good positive response from the players. It’s quite flexible game to play and have lot of fun and enjoy by playing the game.

The type of controller used in a game depends on the kind of the game being played. There are several of controls used in games like, Gamepad, Paddle, Trackball, Joystick, Steering wheel, Touch screen, Keyboard, mouse and mouse pad etc. A gamepad is also known as a joy pad. It is the most common kind of game controller, held in both hands with thumbs and fingers used to apply the inputs. Touch screen is an input device allows user to interact with the computer by touching the display screen. Trackball is basically an upside-down mouse that is control with the palm of user’s hand. One of the advantages using trackball is, it has no need of desktop space. It is quick as user can easily roll the ball on it. Paddle is a controller that features a round wheel and one or more fire buttons. Joystick is a computer device consists of a handheld stick that can be twisted around either of two axes or twisted around a third axis.

The keyboard control and mouse control are classic input devices for a personal computer. Both are the main and crucial game controllers for computer games at present. The keyboard and mouse with the support of the mouse pad realize good speed, comfort and accuracy for the gamer. It’s most used and convenient controls of pc based game devices. Many video game consoles also have the ability to function with a keyboard and a mouse. The computer keyboard is replica after the typewriter keyboard and designed for the input of written text. A mouse is a handheld pointing device used in addition to the keyboard. For game players, the keyboard usually controls movement of the character while the mouse is used to control the game camera or used for aiming.

PC game controls for our game – The Legend of Vraz.

The game can be played with both keyboard and mouse or mouse only or keyboard only depending upon the user preferences.

Our PC Game Controls

Best PC Game

Posted on by

Hi,

We are showcasing our final HD quality game play videos of our Best PC Game.

We have incorporated various feedback and comments from the community, our fans, gamers and critics and have added physics to the prince jump and created a new prince jump animation, improvised the camera movement and the art for level 4.

The AI is now more polished and there are hardly any “idle” moments in the game. Regarding the Audio, we have new background music for level 2 and added new effects while removing redundant ones.

We have submitted a version of this game to the IGF “Independent Games Festival” to be held at the GDC in San Francisco in 2010. We are the only indie game developer from India to do so.

We also made it to the front page of DNA newspaper – One of India’s largest newspapers Front Page Last Page.

We have created a Wikipedia page where we have explained our entire game development process.

Level 4 – Fantasy Level

Level 3- Palace Level

Level 2- Jungle Level

Thanks,
Team Zatun

Game Wallpapers

Posted on by

Game Wallpapers

Game wallpapers become a most eye catching part of game industry either we talk about the 2d video game or 3d games for any computer or console. It is good to have wallpaper which we can set on game desktop with a good background. It is more attracting to users to have some sound effect and the moving images on game background when they play with the game. Video game desktops, also known as wallpaper and it consists of large images that are used as the backgrounds on the computer screen, especially when there is no program open. By selecting video game desktop, user can customize the look of the game and its more feel and more fun to have on the computer screen. For example one use to play and fun with game like, The legend of Vraz, Mario and Nintendo etc., one can quite easily find game wallpaper or the pictures which is large enough to cover the whole computer screen.

There are quite most popular video game desktops among the gamers. Vraz and Nintendo have been so popular around the world and spark a lot in front of numbers of people. If you are a fan of Vraz, named the full title ‘the legend of Vraz’, which is creation of Zatun; where there are so many game wallpapers available to set on game desktop which completes your computer setup by getting a wide range of video game desktops. It has a great collection of high-quality video game wallpapers to download freely. It is help to create a great fun for you and more enjoyment towards game. It provides the realistic and the real experience on game while playing with the games using sound, background and video images to set as game wallpaper. The best part of such video game desktops is that they are normally free and quite easy to find. One can find and download the latest pictures of the game ‘Vraz’ on http://www.zatungames.com. This professionally-designed website has some shot of latest video game changed into some radical -looking desktops. In addition to video game wallpapers, this website also has all sorts of images and ads on this website. One of the best things to observe is the game wallpapers available free to download here! It’s all looking pretty good with high resolution.

A good part of video game wallpaper is not only contain the image or different color combination on image as background but it is all have the advertisements and some message which use to get more popular the site and have more number of users to have on site and aware of the games. One can create their own game wallpaper using a photo manipulation program and with the images it is also possible to create backgrounds which can decorate the desktop. For computer games, it is simple to take single snapshot by print screen option. For console and handheld games, user can use a digital camera with enough lighting and then easily transfer the images to the computer systems.

Below is our latest video showcasing game play and interactive objects in the palace level.

If you are looking for “The Legend of Vraz” wallpapers, you will find them under “Downloads” .The game screens support all type of monitor resolutions and we have Iphone wallpapers for our fans as well.

2D Arcade Game

Posted on by

Our game “The Legend of Vraz” which is a 2D arcade adventure game based in Indian miniature painting style has been generating a lot of curiosity and we have receiving some rave feedback and reviews.

We are finally in Beta and we have made a lot of changes to the game play, AI and animations and have integrated the background music and sound effects. The prince can be controlled both with the mouse and keyboard or mouse only and keyboard only depending upon your comfort.

Take a look at our latest in-game footage from the Jungle Level and the Palace level.

Level 1 – Jungle Level

Level 3- Palace Level

A two dimensional arcade game has been so popular from a long back and grown up lot from quite early to now. There are number of developers who always looking for the two dimensional games to get innovative look to the games. Two dimensional arcade games have a wide variety of development where people love and enjoying more to play games. Many graphical user interfaces, including Mac OS, Microsoft Windows, or the X Window System, are primarily based on two dimensional graphical concepts. Two dimensional graphics are very important in the control devices like printers, sheet cutting machines, etc. It’s also used in most of earlier video and computer games. Two dimensional graphics still used for card and board games also. Typical two dimensional arcade games are especially talking about the action games which consist of a background and various animated characters. Two dimensional pc based graphics is pc based creation of digital images, mostly from two dimensional models like, two dimensional geometric models, text or digital images etc.

Two dimensional arcade games are mainly used on applications which are originally designed and developed using traditional print and drawing. For example, technical drawing, advertising, typography, cartoon creating etc. one such two dimensional arcade game creation done by Zatun named ‘The legend of vraz’, which is a two dimensional arcade foundation in Indian market. Zatun, an independent video game developer released the first Indian two dimensional arcade game ‘The Legend of Vraz’; is a action game for Windows PC with full of fun and quite excitement. It is the first Indian two dimensional arcade game created with Microsoft XNA framework developed completely in-house by Zatun. It is playable by audiences of all ages. It is one of unique game earned big market value and so popular across the world. The game is integrated with the background music and sound effects. The prince can be controlled with both mouse as well as keyboard and it is also flexible to play with mouse only or keyboard only depending upon the user comfort. It has received a so positive response and has number of fans all over the world.

The two dimensional arcade games largely replace by raster-based devices in the last few decades. The PostScript language and the X Window System protocol were familiar for developments in the two dimensional games. The painting style generates a lot of interest to the people and attracts more to play and fun. It’s the reason two dimensional arcade games are receiving good and positive feedback from its users. It’s one of best combination of paint on different scenes using layers. Two dimensional arcade game have their own applications; a two dimensional images, which is not only a real world object representation but an independent object with added semantic value. The reason 2d arcade games are more preferred and popular; because it gives more direct control of an image than 3d computer games. A 2d arcade game have a smaller description of document compare to corresponding digital image based on two dimensional computer graphics techniques. Such documents and illustration are always stored as two dimensional graphics files. The representation of two dimensional arcade games is so flexible it provides various resolutions to match with different output devices.

Palace Worlds

Posted on by

Palace Worlds

We are showcasing two of our latest in-house Game videos of our game “The Legend of Vraz”.

The first video is for level 1 – the jungle level and the second video is for level 3 – The Palace Level.

Level 1 – Jungle level

Level 3 – Palace level


The new in-game footage videos showcase our new Menus, GUI, the particles and the new backgrounds.

Audio will play are huge part in getting the right mood for the game so we are making an extra effort to ensure we get the right audio which suits our game.

Palace worlds games are the big attraction towards the people in modern world. The Palace worlds create a simulation game set in passionate upper class version than the older version and the other version of game design. Palace worlds is good attempt to design the game to make it modernize using the palace design and make the development with most beautiful structure in the kingdom. One of such best creation done by Zatun on Palace worlds is ‘The legend of Vraz’. The highly qualified staff members have been put all great efforts to make the new version of game become most popular across the world. The game has earlier version named jungle level and the latest they created by Palace worlds version. This Palace worlds consists of new Menus, GUI, particles and the new backgrounds which are quite good to fun and enjoy. Audio is the crucial part that creates the right mood on playing such games and Zatun has put all great efforts to make sure the game have right audio which really suits while playing. It’s a unique experience to have such game with all great design of palace.

The world has seen an uprising with the creation of the internet and culture is really considering its impact with the unity of high speed access. Palace worlds is quite known and familiar version people use to play and enjoy the game with number of objects to face in the game at each new level and have to clear up all the level one by one with placed objects. The Palace worlds game design is slightly complex as it has number of objects to place while move from the one point to other. At each new level, it is required to plot of land to design and set of objectives. These objectives include a set of number of certain buildings and also how much it demand to cover entire palace plot generation. Once all the objects set to the right place on palace, it looks beautiful and real. Palace worlds gain popularly and earned big values from viewers with creating positive impact that make it more enjoyable and funny!

The intention of gaming industry to design and develop a games where more and more people involve to play such new world games and have a great fun and enjoy with the latest version of games. The game level is the most famous part of gaming than the other level of games. It encourages more users to use such game and enjoy it the fullest. The Palace worlds games include 2d and 3d games and more it’s using with flash have a wonderful combination of the images and a sound mixture. It’s more realistic and productive level being most popular in today’s world.

This increasingly competitive industry has greater demands on Palace worlds games and therefore its need for a more dynamic and pro-active game development approach supported by a technologically efficient organization to meet user requirements. Zatun is one of the most booming gaming industry with their high class video game design and development with a real taste and best creativity. ‘The Legend Of Vraz’ creation of Zatun looks pretty good with palace level and good feeling to use and play this version.

Game Play Videos

Posted on by

Game Play Videos

Hi as promised, we are releasing 2 new game play videos of our XNA game. This game is a classic mix of Mario games and Prince of Persia games. The game play is very similar to the retro Mario games.

The prince Vraz is on a journey of his life in an epic adventure quest to win the Princess hand in marriage. This early video show cases the Interactive objects of the game.

Vraz, the Prince must embark on an epic adventure quest where he must journey through 15 exotic locations, avoid the tribal warlord Mani and battle with the evil lovelorn Vizier and his shrewd accomplices. He will also have to collect gold and keys, skillfully navigate dangerous traps, operate objects and find his way out of near impossible terrain.

Video1: level 3 game play video with AI and Interactive objects and collectibles

The video showcases level 1 game play with enemy AI (Artificial Intelligence), Interactive objects and real time prince interactions and updated art.

Video2: Interactive objects in-game footage

A video is showcasing a couple of interactive objects in game. The health has been disabled just for the video.

Thanks,

Team Zatun

Game Screenshots

Posted on by

Game Screenshots

Hi,

I hope everyone is doing well.

Below are some of new video game screenshots of our new game. The game gallery showcases our enemies, main characters and the hero mentor.

The XBOX Game screenshots of this XBOX Live Indie game are similar and we will be adding the new game screenshots later on in the blog.

Check out our game gallery/game screenshots below and do let us know your suggestions for the video game screenshots of our new game.

Vraz the prince

Vraz - The Prince Video Game Screenshots

Vazier with plane

Vizier with plane

Sadhu

New Game Screenshots of Sadhu

ManiMani

We have finally started adding collectibles like coins, health, enemies, interactive objects, etc in the level.

The moving platform issues are now solved and they work perfectly. We even have a few surprises on the moving platforms.

All character animations are now approved and they look really cute and match well with the game. The AI algorithm is ready and now only has to be implemented in the game. We are still working on the interactive objects (there are tons of them in the game) and getting them ready to work seamlessly. The GUI and game concepts look promising and we are trying to make them stand out from any game you have previously seen.

I know a lot of you are waiting for our first playable demo and I really appreciate your support. We are working on the playable demo and can assure you it will be out soon.

First impression counts a lot and we know that. Our team is working hard to make sure that we can give you a game you would love to play for hours on end.

Thanks again,

Abhinav Chokhavatia

Team Zatun

Game Level Design

Posted on by

Game Level Design

Hi,

I hope everyone is doing well. We are enjoying the nice bright sunshine here while working our game.

Art wise, the game level design for the remaining levels should be over within this month. The lighting for the characters is complete as well.

This complex world of Level Design is so huge that it takes hours of game play to make sure we have the perfect game level design.

On the programming end, we are still working on the AI (Artificial Intelligence) . The horizontal and the vertical moving platforms have been implemented in the game but they are not functioning as required. The collision algorithm is working but again there is a bit of issues. In short, a lot of tasks have been completed still it seems a lot more needs to be done. I am hopeful that all these issues will be sorted out without taking up too much of our time.

Below is the video of our Stage 1 “Jungle worlds video game” with the blinking and the moving platforms.

Team Zatun

2D Game Art

Posted on by

2D Game Art

Today I would like to share regarding the game art. How did we come up with this game idea and 2D game art for the platformer style?

India has a long tradition of Miniature paintings (since the 12th or 13th Century AD). Various cultures which were in India and those which came to India added their own style to the depth of miniature paintings. Therefore it is not surprising to find paintings in various styles like Rajasthani, Madhubani, Mughal, Mysore, Tanjore, Pichoi and Bengal paintings.

When we first started the game, we wanted to make a game based on the miniature paintings. But once we had a look at miniature paintings, it was really hard to figure out which style we wanted to follow. After spending a month or two searching for references on Google, we could not come up with a single style that we liked. We even visited local museums and found actual miniature paintings which were over 400 years old. They were really beautiful to look at but to create something similar might take us another 100 years.

We even browsed through various books but still could not pick up a style. Then we came up with a book from a very prominent artist who had adopted his own unique style taken the various styles found the miniature paintings. He mostly worked on large and small canvases and murals and his style was very unique yet it was a reflection of the major miniature painting styles.

Once we had this book, it served as a major reference point and a guiding light on the path we were to undertake.

Below is some of the very early 2d concept art of the game: