Game Programming Challenge 4: First Person Shooter

[Claxon]

Any chance this thread could replace the GPC3 sticky thread? Hopefully then we'll get another person or two to enter (don't forget it can be team programmed if you like).

[SpiritBoy]

I'm gonna try and take a jab at this - Can't really promise I'll manage to finish what I want to do on time, but it's worth a shot.

[Protector one]

Welcome to the forum! Feel free to post some in-progress screenshots! We like stuff like that! (Well, I like stuff like that. :P)

[SpiritBoy]

Thanks! Will definitely post screen shots when I have something to post, right now I'm taking a crash course in 3D programming, so hopefully this project will be in 3D.

[Claxon]

What are you planning to use to create your game?

[SpiritBoy]

XNA, I've already used it to create 2D games so I'm familiar with some of it's functions.

[Claxon]

Good choice

just ask if you need any help/advice.

[SpiritBoy]

Okay, this is killing me.
What are some of the more efficient approaches to level creation? I thought about making it in excel (or something similar) and then making a script or something to convert it to C# code.
Is this a valid approach?

[Claxon]

You could do that, but you'd want to export it to an easier file format to read (CSV for example). It really depends on what you want data you want in the file.

XNA / C# has excellent support for XML, which is what I tend to use for level data. What you can do is create a class that contains the data for your level (eg. an array of meshes, start locations, level name, music track) you can then "Serialize" the class which saves it as an XML file which you can then de-serialize to give you an instance of the class with all the saved data. That way you can use the same class in a seperate "level editor" project to produce valid data.

[SpiritBoy]

Thanks! That makes things much more easier.