Thanks
when and how did you make the transition from warcraft 3 to this
Well, I sorta felt like in warcraft 3 my project was a failure. I could have put a bit more time to finsh a few more things, up. I was close to having some more game modes, but in end it was not very popular.
I heard about xna, and thought "wow I could recode roller coaster in C# so much easier then I could in triggers".
So I sat up one night, and rebuilt all of roller coaster in C#. The next day I polished it up, and it works in console. You could build and ride your coaster in console.
This was 4 years ago.
Then I attempted to learn xna, I bought a book, did most of the samples. and in the end got stuck.
I wasn't able to get a 3d model to show up, with a camera I could control easily with code like in warcraft 3. I spent months trying. Failed all attempts.
over 3 years later I tried again. I bought some more books, tired a few months failed.
about 5 months ago, I tired, and found out the reason it never worked, was that I had used a model that I exported from blend incorrectly!
from that point on it was smooth sailing. of the 4 xna books I bought none of them showed a simple 3d engine, I could just shove in to roller coaster, that was strong enough to do screen culling, and that I could control via a camera with as much control as in warcraft 3. that took me a while to get right.
developing wise, how did you go about acquiring the skills needed?
- Learned C++, at least the basics, like functions, and classes. (At Collage)
- Learned warcraft 3, GUI (mostly this site, and messing around)
- Learned C#, nearly the same stuff, different syntax, works a bit different. (From a single Book)
- Learned XNA, most of it is easy, xna books help. But none I got showed or give a basic 3d engine, with powerful, yet easy to use camera in code. I spent 80% of my time getting this, and building one. (From 4 books, but only needed 1 as reference, if I had a good sample from the start. I wouldn't have needed any), online sites
- Pushed a windows phone app, Dino Jokes (1 button, show next joke), online sites for how too
- push to windows phone, I used Silverlight for the UI, this should have been easy, but wasn't for me. online.
ISSUES
The game hasn't got any real updates due to me trying to fix this bug I had from the start. I belive it has to do with saving a file to large, or going to and from start screen and game. but its the major reason roller coaster has become a huge headache for me, and development has stoped. I have been fighting to fix this since it was out, and am slowly getting there.
Some of this, I couldn't test for, as I tested the game 1000's of times with no crash's, but in my effort to fix the issue, I have recently made it WAY worse. but at least I am getting to the issue. and getting it fixed.
Thus the num # 1 thing said by people is, "GREAT game", or "CRASHS"
