Learning C# by Programming Games

Description

Developing computer games is a perfect way to learn how to program in modern programming languages. This book teaches how to program in C# through the creation of computer games - and without requiring any previous programming experience. Contrary to most programming books, Egges, Fokker and Overmars do not organize the presentation according to programming language constructs, but instead use the structure and elements of computer games as a framework. For instance, there are chapters on dealing with player input, game objects, game worlds, game states, levels, animation, physics, and intelligence. The reader will be guided through the development of four games showing the various aspects of game development. Starting with a simple shooting game, the authors move on to puzzle games consisting of multiple levels, and conclude the book by developing a full-fledged platform game with animation, game physics, and intelligent enemies. They show a number of commonly used techniques in games, such as drawing layers of sprites, rotating, scaling and animating sprites, showing a heads-up display, dealing with physics, handling interaction between game objects, and creating pleasing visual effects such as snow or glitter. At the same time, they provide a thorough introduction to C# and object-oriented programming, introducing step by step important aspects of programming in general, including many programming constructs and idioms, syntax diagrams, collections, and exception handling. The book is also designed to be used as a basis for a game-oriented programming course. For each part, there are concluding exercises and challenges, which are generally more complex programming endeavors. Lots of supplementary materials for organizing such a course are available on the accompanying web site http: //www.csharpprogramminggames.com, including installation instructions, solutions to the exercises, software installation instructions, game sprites and sounds. POE Cover Learning C# by Programming Games Preface Introduction Required Materials and Tools Using this Book as a Basis for a Programming Course Acknowledgements Contents Part I: Getting Started Chapter 1: Building Your First Game Application 1.1 Structure of This Book 1.2 Getting and Installing the Tools 1.3 Creating Your First Game Application 1.4 Running the Newly Created Project 1.5 Projects and Solutions 1.6 Running the Examples in This Book 1.7 What You Have Learned Chapter 2: Programming 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Computers and Programs 2.2.1 Processor and Memory 2.2.2 Programs 2.3 Programming Languages 2.3.1 The Early Days: Imperative Programming 2.3.2 Procedural Programming: Imperative + Procedures 2.3.3 Object-Oriented Programming: Procedural + Objects 2.3.4 Java 2.3.5 C# 2.4 Translating a Program 2.4.1 Assembler 2.4.2 Compiler 2.4.3 Interpreter 2.4.4 Compiler + Interpreter 2.4.5 Compiler + Compiler 2.5 Programming Games 2.5.1 Games Are Special Programs 2.5.2 Game Engines 2.5.3 The XNA Game Engine 2.6 Developing Games 2.6.1 Small Scale: Edit-Compile-Run 2.6.2 Large Scale: Design-Specify-Implement 2.7 What You Have Learned Chapter 3: Game Programming Basics 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Building Blocks of a Game 3.2.1 The Game World 3.2.2 The Game Loop: Updating and Drawing 3.2.3 The Game Loop in XNA 3.3 The Structure of a Program 3.3.1 The Basic Game Application in More Detail 3.3.2 Other Types of Applications 3.3.3 A Method: A Group of Instructions with a Name 3.3.4 A Class: A Group of Methods with a Name 3.3.5 Syntax Diagrams 3.3.6 Namespaces 3.3.7 A Compilation Unit: A Group of Classes in a Text File 3.3.8 Relying on Other Classes 3.3.9 Subclasses: A Special Version of Another Class 3.3.10 Calling a Method 3.3.11 Update and Draw 3.3.12 Different Kinds of Methods 3.3.13 The Graphics Device 3.4 Program Layout 3.4.1 Comments 3.4.2 Layout 3.4.3 Whitespace and Indentation 3.5 What You Have Learned Chapter 4: Creating a Game World 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Basic Types and Variables 4.2.1 Types: Different Kinds of Structured Information 4.2.2 Declaration and Assignment of Variables 4.2.3 Instructions and Expressions 4.2.4 Arithmetic Operators 4.2.5 Priority of Operators 4.2.6 Other Numerical Types 4.2.7 Declaration and Initialization of const Variables 4.2.8 DiscoWorld: A Changing Background Color 4.2.9 Scope of Variables 4.2.10 Setting the Background Color 4.3 Managing Game Assets 4.3.1 Introduction 4.3.2 Locating Sprites 4.3.3 Loading Sprites 4.3.4 Drawing Sprites 4.3.5 Adding a Background Sprite 4.3.6 Music and Sounds 4.4 What You Have Learned Part II: Creating Colorful Games Chapter 5: Knowing What the Player Is Doing 5.1 Introduction 5.2 A Sprite Following the Mouse Pointer 5.2.1 Retrieving the Mouse Position 5.2.2 Methods and Properties 5.2.3 Changing the Origin of a Sprite 5.3 Classes, Types, and Objects 5.3.1 Methods and Properties Can Manipulate an Object 5.3.2 A Class Is a Blueprint for an Object 5.3.3 A Constructor Describes How an Object Is Created 5.3.4 this: The Object We Are Currently Manipulating 5.3.5 Properties: Retrieving or Changing Parts of an Object 5.3.6 Member Variables and Local Variables 5.4 Using the Mouse Position to Rotate the Cannon Barrel 5.5 What You Have Learned Chapter 6: Reacting to Player Input 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Reacting to a Mouse Click 6.2.1 ButtonState: An Enumerated Type 6.2.2 The if-Instruction: Executing an Instruction Depending on a Condition 6.3 Boolean Values 6.3.1 Comparison Operators 6.3.2 Logic Operators 6.3.3 The Boolean Type 6.4 More on if-Instructions 6.4.1 An if-Instruction with an Alternative 6.4.2 A Number of Different Alternatives 6.4.3 Toggling the Cannon Barrel Behavior 6.5 Handling Keyboard and Gamepad Input 6.5.1 Basics of Handling Keyboard Input 6.5.2 A Multicolored Cannon 6.5.3 Handling the Keyboard Input 6.6 What You Have Learned Chapter 7: Basic Game Objects 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Structuring the Game World 7.2.1 The Basics 7.2.2 The HandleInput Method: Organizing Instructions in Methods 7.2.3 Different Kinds of Methods: With or Without Parameters, with or Without a Result 7.2.4 Declarations Versus Parameters 7.2.5 Why Declarations Are Useful 7.3 Classes and Objects 7.3.1 An Object Is a Group of Variables with Methods and Properties 7.3.2 Objects in the Painter Game 7.3.3 Adding Classes to Your Project 7.3.4 Classes Can Be Used as a Type 7.4 The Cannon Class 7.4.1 Data in the Cannon Class 7.4.2 Adding Methods to the Cannon Class 7.4.3 Accessing the Data in the Cannon Class 7.4.4 Retrieving the Color of the Cannon Object 7.4.5 Adding More Properties 7.4.6 Properties Do Not Always Directly Correspond to Data 7.5 Reorganizing the Class Structure 7.5.1 A Class for Handling Input 7.5.2 The GameWorld Class 7.5.3 Managing the Game Objects 7.6 Objects and Types 7.6.1 Copy by Value or by Reference 7.6.2 The null Keyword 7.6.3 Different Kinds of Object Types 7.7 What You Have Learned Chapter 8: Adding Interaction 8.1 Introduction 8.2 The Ball Class 8.2.1 Structure of the Class 8.2.2 Initializing the Ball 8.2.3 Shooting the Ball 8.2.4 Updating the Ball 8.2.5 Drawing the Ball on the Screen 8.3 The PaintCan Class 8.3.1 A Class with Multiple Instances 8.3.2 Randomness in Games 8.3.3 Calculating a Random Velocity and Color 8.3.4 Updating the Paint Can 8.3.5 Drawing the Cans on the Screen 8.4 Handling Collisions Between the Ball and the Cans 8.5 What You Have Learned Chapter 9: A Limited Number of Lives 9.1 Introduction 9.2 The Number of Lives 9.2.1 Maintaining the Number of Lives 9.2.2 Indicating the Number of Lives to the Player 9.3 The while-Instruction: Executing Instructions Multiple Times 9.3.1 A Shorter Notation for Incrementing Counters 9.4 The for-Instruction: A Compact Version of while 9.5 A Few Special Cases 9.5.1 No Repeat at All 9.5.2 Infinite Repeat 9.5.3 Nested Repeats 9.6 Restarting the Game After the Game Is Over 9.7 What You Have Learned Chapter 10: Organizing Game Objects 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Similarities Between Game Objects 10.3 Inheritance 10.3.1 Game Objects and Inheritance 10.3.2 The ThreeColorGameObject Class 10.4 Creating Special Versions of Game Objects 10.4.1 The Cannon Class 10.4.2 Overriding Methods from the Base Class 10.4.3 Accessing Member Variables from the Base Class 10.4.4 Access Modifiers and Methods/Properties 10.4.5 The Final Cannon Class 10.5 The Ball Class 10.5.1 Outline of the Class 10.5.2 The Reset Method 10.5.3 base Versus this 10.5.4 Polymorphism 10.5.5 Sealed Methods 10.6 Hierarchies of Classes 10.6.1 A Subclass `Is a Kind of' Base Class 10.6.2 Designing Class Hierarchies 10.7 What You Have Learned Chapter 11: Finishing the Game 11.1 Introduction 11.2 Adding Motion Effects 11.3 Adding Sounds and Music 11.4 Maintaining a Score 11.5 Drawing Text on the Screen 11.6 Characters, Strings and Type Conversion 11.6.1 The char Type 11.6.1.1 History of char 11.6.1.2 Using Single and Double Quotes 11.6.1.3 Special char Values 11.6.1.4 Calculating Things with char 11.6.2 String Operations 11.7 What You Have Learned Part III: Structures and Patterns Chapter 12: Collections of Game Objects 12.1 Introduction 12.2 Many Game Objects 12.3 Snowflakes 12.4 Collections of Objects 12.5 The IList Interface 12.6 The Collection Interface 12.7 The ISet Interface 12.8 The IDictionary Interface 12.9 The Array: A Simpler Version of the List 12.9.1 Strings: A Special Kind of Array 12.10 foreach: Do Something with All the Items in a List or an Array 12.11 Iterating with an Iterator 12.12 What You Have Learned Chapter 13: Fullscreen Games 13.1 Introduction 13.2 Setting the Resolution 13.3 Updating the Graphics Device 13.4 Correcting the Mouse Position 13.5 Scaling the Sprites 13.6 Making Sure We Can Still Quit the Game 13.7 What You Have Learned Chapter 14: Game Objects in a Structure 14.1 Introduction 14.2 Game Objects in a Grid 14.2.1 Grids in Games 14.2.2 Using a Grid to Draw Sprites 14.2.3 Grid Operations 14.2.4 More Possibilities with Grids 14.3 Hierarchy of Game Objects 14.3.1 Anatomy of a Game Object 14.3.2 Relations Between Game Objects 14.3.3 Local Versus Global Positions 14.3.4 Layers of Game Objects 14.4 Different Kinds of Game Objects 14.4.1 A Sprite Game Object 14.4.2 A List of Game Objects 14.4.3 A Grid of Game Objects 14.4.4 A Grid of Jewels 14.4.5 Moving Smoothly on the Grid 14.4.6 Selecting Rows in the Grid 14.5 Creating the Game Objects 14.6 What You Have Learned Chapter 15: Redesigning the Game World 15.1 Introduction 15.2 Better Asset Management 15.2.1 Moving Sprites Around 15.2.2 The Asset Manager 15.2.3 Loading and Retrieving Assets 15.3 Accessing the Game World 15.4 Game Objects Using the Asset Manager 15.4.1 The SpriteGameObject Class 15.4.2 The RowSelectGameObject Class 15.4.3 The Jewel Class 15.5 What You Have Learned Chapter 16: Gameplay Programming 16.1 Introduction 16.2 Interaction Between Game Objects 16.2.1 Finding Other Game Objects 16.2.2 Assigning Identifiers to Game Objects 16.2.3 Finding Game Objects 16.2.4 Recursion: A Method Calling Itself 16.2.5 Finding the Game World 16.2.6 Updating the RowSelectGameObject Class 16.3 Introducing a Couple of New Game Object Types 16.3.1 The ScoreGameObject Class: Maintaining the Current Score 16.3.2 A Moving Jewel Cart 16.4 Finding Combinations of Jewels 16.4.1 Handling the Combinations 16.4.2 Finding Valid Combinations of Jewels 16.4.3 Removing Jewels from the Grid 16.4.4 Updating Other Game Objects 16.5 What You Have Learned Chapter 17: Game States 17.1 Introduction 17.2 Adding a Title Screen 17.3 Adding a Button for Showing the Help Frame 17.4 Overlays 17.5 What You Have Learned Chapter 18: Finishing the Game 18.1 Introduction 18.2 Extra Points for Multiple Combinations 18.3 Time in Games 18.3.1 Other Useful Classes for Managing Time 18.3.2 A Timer for Controlling Visibility of a Game Object 18.4 A Field of Glitters 18.4.1 The Constructor 18.4.2 Adding Glitters 18.4.3 Accessing Pixel Color Data 18.4.4 Updating the Glitter Field 18.4.5 Drawing the Glitter Field 18.4.6 Adding Glitters to Game Objects 18.5 Adding Music and Sound Effects 18.6 What You Have Learned Part IV: Making Your Games Appealing Chapter 19: Sprite Sheets 19.1 Introduction 19.2 Overview of the Example Project 19.3 Loading a Sprite Sheet 19.4 Managing the Sprite Sheet 19.5 Finalizing the Example 19.6 What You Have Learned Chapter 20: Menus and Settings 20.1 Introduction 20.2 Setting up the Menu 20.3 Adding an on/off Button 20.4 Adding a Slider Button 20.5 Reading and Storing Game Settings 20.6 What You Have Learned Chapter 21: Game State Management 21.1 Introduction 21.2 Basics of Managing Game States 21.2.1 A Generic Game Loop Object Interface 21.2.2 The GameStateManager Class 21.3 Adding States and Switching Between Them 21.4 The Level Menu State 21.5 What You Have Learned Chapter 22: Loading Levels from Files 22.1 Introduction 22.2 Structure of a Level 22.3 The Tile Class 22.4 Other Level Information 22.5 File Reading in C# 22.5.1 Reading a Text File 22.5.2 Streams Versus Text Readers and Writers 22.5.3 Reader 22.5.4 Text Reader 22.5.5 Stream Reader 22.5.6 Abstract Classes 22.6 Reading the Levels from the Text File 22.6.1 The loadLevels Method 22.6.2 Creating the Level Object 22.6.3 The switch-Instruction: Handling Alternatives 22.6.4 The break-Instruction 22.6.5 Loading Different Kinds of Tiles 22.7 Completing the Level Class 22.8 Maintaining the Player's Progress 22.9 What You Have Learned Chapter 23: Pairing the Penguins 23.1 Introduction 23.2 Penguin Selection 23.2.1 The Arrow Class 23.2.2 The Animal Selector 23.3 Input Handling Order 23.4 Updating Animals 23.5 Dealing with Meeting Other Game Objects 23.6 Maintaining the Number of Pairs 23.7 What You Have Learned Chapter 24: Finishing the Game 24.1 Introduction 24.2 Separating Code into Different Libraries 24.2.1 Creating and Filling a Library 24.2.2 Public or Private Classes 24.2.3 A Convenient GameEnvironment Class 24.3 Finishing the User Interface 24.3.1 Showing Hints 24.3.2 Resetting the Level 24.3.3 Moving to the Next Level 24.3.4 Music and Sounds 24.4 Some Final Notes 24.5 What You Have Learned Part V: Animation and Complexity Chapter 25: Creating the Main Game Structure 25.1 Introduction 25.2 Overview of the Game Structure 25.3 The Structure of a Level 25.4 Water Drops 25.5 The Tile Class 25.6 Setting up the Level Class 25.7 Creating the Level Object 25.8 Exceptions 25.8.1 Dealing with Errors 25.8.2 The try-catch Instruction 25.8.3 Throwing Your Own Exceptions 25.9 What You Have Learned Chapter 26: Animation 26.1 Introduction 26.2 What Is Animation? 26.3 The Animation Class 26.4 Playing an Animation 26.4.1 Updating the Animation that Is Currently Playing 26.4.2 Mirroring Sprites 26.5 An Animated Game Object 26.6 The Player Class 26.7 What You Have Learned Chapter 27: Game Physics 27.1 Introduction 27.2 Locking the Character in the Game World 27.3 Setting the Player at the Right Position 27.4 Jumping … 27.5 … and Falling 27.6 Collision Detection 27.7 Retrieving Bounding Boxes 27.8 Per-pixel Collision Detection 27.9 Handling Collisions Between the Character and the Tiles 27.10 Dealing with the Collision 27.11 What You Have Learned Chapter 28: Intelligent Enemies 28.1 Introduction 28.2 The Rocket 28.2.1 Creating and Resetting the Rocket 28.2.2 Programming the Rocket Behavior 28.3 A Patrolling Enemy 28.3.1 The Basic PatrollingEnemy Class 28.3.2 Different Types of Enemies 28.4 Other Types of Enemies 28.5 Loading the Different Types of Enemies 28.6 What You Have Learned Chapter 29: Adding Player Interaction 29.1 Introduction 29.2 Collecting Water Drops 29.3 Ice Blocks 29.4 Enemies Colliding with the Player 29.5 What You Have Learned Chapter 30: Finishing the Game 30.1 Introduction 30.2 Adding a Timer 30.2.1 Making the Timer Go Faster or Slower 30.2.2 When the Timer Reaches Zero… 30.3 Drawing Mountains and Clouds 30.4 Finalizing the Level Progression 30.5 What You Have Learned Appendix A: Exercises and Challenges A.1 Exercises and Challenges for Part I Exercises Challenges A.2 Exercises and Challenges for Part II Exercises Challenges A.3 Exercises and Challenges for Part III Exercises Challenges A.4 Exercises and Challenges for Part IV Exercises Challenges A.5 Exercises and Challenges for Part V Exercises Challenges Appendix B: Syntax Diagrams B.1 Introduction B.2 Compilation Unit B.3 Top-Level Declaration B.4 Type Declaration B.5 Parameters B.6 Member B.7 Block B.8 Declaration B.9 Initialization B.10 Type B.11 Instruction B.11.1 If-Instruction B.11.2 While-Instruction B.11.3 For-Instruction B.11.4 Foreach-Instruction B.11.5 Switch-Instruction B.11.6 Try-Catch-Instruction B.12 Expression B.13 Constant B.14 Symbol B.15 Number Further Reading Glossary Index