Tag Archives: game development

Level Zero: Construct 2 Book

By Shahed C on December 1, 2015

Build Your First Mobile Game Today – No Coding Required.

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At some point, many of us have had an idea for a cool game. The technical expertise needed to build a game has often discouraged most. Level Zero is a tutorial e-book that solves this problem. It explains step by step how to use Scirra’s Construct 2 to set up backgrounds, sounds and characters, implement game mechanics and other nuts and bolts to building your first game. As the title says – without any coding.

For those who aren’t familiar, Scirra created Construct 2 with the non-programmer (or beginning programmer) in mind. Construct 2 uses a visual editor that allows you to create 2D games quickly by dragging and dropping components. It’s easy to pick up and intuitive to use.

Level 0 is based on the principle of learnings while doing. The reader can follow step-by-step instructions to build 5 simple mobile games. Along the way they’ll learn functions that they can implement to customize the games they’ve already built or build an entirely different games from scratch. The authors encourage the developers to publish their game to app stores to get valuable customer feedback and provide instructions on how to set up a developer account and publish one’s game.

levelzero-2

The tutorials are in the form of easy to follow step-by-step instructions for beginners and non-programmers.

So if you’ve been pondering a great game idea and haven’t gotten around to it because you lack the coding skills, now’s the time to get started. Construct 2 gives you an easy to pick up tool and Ankur Prasad’s and Allen Wu’s Level 0 tutorial will going quick and easy. The e-book is available for purchase on Amazon.com for $9.99. However, for a short while, you can download it for free on Scirra.com’s website.

Cross-Platform Apps/Games with Azure

By Shahed C on November 13, 2015

Here is the material for “Cross-Platform Apps/Games with Azure”, delivered at my Reston meetup group on Thu Nov 12, 2015.

Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/shahedC3000/crossplatform-appsgames-with-azure

Download PPTX: https://wakeupandcode.com/public_downloads/ms-AzureMobileAppsGames-ShahedChowdhuri-20151112.pptx

Azure portal links:

BizSpark, MSDN Benefits, AzurePass:

Azure App Service (Web, Mobile, Logic, API):

 

 

Indie Game Development at Game Developer Symposium 3.0

By Shahed C on October 14, 2015

Presentation material for Indie Game Development presentation at Game Developer Symposium 3.0

Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/shahedC3000/indie-game-development-53942292

Download PPTX: https://wakeupandcode.com/public_downloads/GameDevPanel-ShahedChowdhuri-2015-10-14.pptx

 Useful Links:

* Win10 development: http://dev.windows.com
* Publish Win10 game with Construct 2: Guide: http://wakeupandcode.com/publish-a-windows-10-game-with-construct-2
* Publish Win10 game with Unity 5: https://wakeupandcode.com/publish-a-windows-10-game-with-unity-5
* Apply to ID@Xbox: http://xbox.com/id
* Apply to HoloLens: https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-hololens/en-us/development-edition

 

Facebook groups:
* Construct 2 Devs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/construct2devs
* Unity Indie Devs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/UnityIndieDevs
* Xbox One Indie Devs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XboxOneIndieDevs
* HoloLens Indie Devs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/HoloLensIndieDevs

 

 

Publish a Windows 10 Game with Unity 5

By Shahed C on September 21, 2015

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Unity recently announced support for Windows 10, starting with Unity 5.2. To help developers export their games and publish to the new Universal Windows Platform for Windows 10, I put together a quick tutorial.

Steps:
1. Enable developer mode in Windows 10
2. Enter game details in Unity
3. Export to Windows 10 Universal format
4. Build Solution in VS2015 w/ Win10 SDK
5. Associate your app with Store App
6. Add required images, e.g. logo, icon, splash
7. Run WACK (Windows App Certification Kit)
8. Publish to Windows Store!

Slides & Video

 Download PPTX file:

https://wakeupandcode.com/public_downloads/Unity-Win10-Export.pptx

 Video on Ch9:

https://channel9.msdn.com/blogs/shahedC/Publish-a-Windows-10-Game-with-Unity-5

 

  SlideShare:

http://www.slideshare.net/shahedC3000/publish-a-windows-10-game-with-unity

 

Developer Feedback

Upon sharing this with the developer community, I got some useful feedback from indie dev Tarh Ik, so I have copied/pasted his words below:

Awesome manual!!! Everybody should see this video.
A couple of additional notes:
* Always make sure you are using the latest WACK. It has been rather… buggy ever since Windows 8 was released, and it could throw a false “Fail”
* Compile using the “Release” version. The “Debug” version always fails to install in other computers due to the absence of the “Debug” version of certain run-time libraries.
* There is no hurry to upload packages to the store. Create a package for “side-load”, and test in as many devices as you can before submitting to the store.
* Although the game asset’s logos and other store images can be “png” format, it is recommended to use “jpeg” instead, because “png” usually go beyond the size limit when working with the large store assets.
* You have 1 year after reserving your game name.

One very important advice:
* uncheck the “Internet (Client)” capability if the game does not need to connect to the internet.

However…

* If your game needs to go on-line, not only the “Internet (Client)” capability needs to be checked, but also you need to have a web-site with your own “terms and conditions”, as the standard agreement in the Windows store does not cover on-line experience.

When in doubt, consult a Lawyer.

Lastly…
* Check the requirements for each country where the game is release. Depending on the country and the game’s contents, additional documents may be required (eg rating).
* Check tax declaration requirements too. When in doubt, consult a Tax expert.

Wrap-Up

Needless to say, I am not a lawyer, and cannot provide legal advice. Please consult a lawyer for any legal questions/concerns.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! 🙂

 

 

Publish a Windows 10 Game with Construct 2

By Shahed C on September 4, 2015

(I’ve also posted this link on Redditreddit-logo   

Scirra recently announced support for Windows 10, in their game development tool Construct 2. To help developers export their games and publish to the new Universal Windows Platform for Windows 10, I put together a quick tutorial.

Steps:
1. Enable developer mode in Windows 10
2. Enter game details in Construct 2
3. Export to Windows 10 Universal format
4. Fix manifest file in Visual Studio, if necessary
5. Associate your app with Store App
6. Add required images, e.g. logo, icon, splash
7. Run WACK (Windows App Certification Kit)
8. Publish to Windows Store!

 Download PPTX file:

https://wakeupandcode.com/public_downloads/C2-Win10-Export.pptx

 Video on Ch9:

http://channel9.msdn.com/blogs/shahedC/Publish-a-Windows-10-Game-with-Construct-2

  SlideShare:

http://www.slideshare.net/shahedC3000/publish-a-windows-10-game-with-construct-2

 

 

 I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! 🙂