Article: Node-Based Scripting
by Blecki
Node-based scripting is not a traditional scripting language. And it's not a new idea, though it seems like people have forgotten about it. New systems appear - see Unreal Engine's Kismet - which people think are amazing new technologies. They aren't new; just amazing. I first encountered this scripting system in the quake engine. It was very crude, and limited, but it had all the basic properties of the system I am about to describe.
A brief note : Throughout this article, I use my own engine, Jemgine, and it's level editor for my examples. Jemgine is available at http://jemgine.codeplex.com You'll need to have XNA Gamestudio 3.1 installed to compile it, and to run the editor.
The target user of a node-based scripting system isn't the programmer, it's the level designer. The level designer might not know how to program. They might be constantly bothering a programmer to write scripts for them. Node-based scripting is an attempt to give the non-programmer level designer tools they understand and can use to create interesting behavior in a level without involving the programmer, and without having to learn a complex scripting language.
Submissions Closed
Yeah, as pointed out in the comments, the deadline was sooner than I actually said in my last email.
The submission for the 'Absolutely Fine' XNA Tutorial Contest is now closed.
We'll soon be starting formatting the rest of the articles, posting them, and then posting a master list of all entries. After that, judging and voting will begin.
Meanwhile, enjoy our news feed 
1 Day remaining
Quick reminder for our 'Absolutely Fine' XNA Tutorial Contest: The deadline is about 1 day away, so if you want to enter the contest, send us your entry!
At the moment, we have 4 published entries, and another around 14 entries that we're preparing for publishing.
Good luck!
Contest deadline approaching!
Hi all,
Just a reminder that the deadline for our 'Absolutely Fine' XNA Tutorial Contest is closing in, and you have about 1 week to send your entries into the contest.
If you forgot the details of the contest, feel free to refresh your memory.
We're currently hard at work to get the rest of the entries online for your reading pleasure.
Good luck!
First two entries to our contest are online!
Hi all,
Two fine entries into our contest are now online.
Input Playback, by Jesse Chounard
Derived Effect Classes in XNA 4.0, by Dave Carlile
Do you like them? Submit your own!
Have a nice reading!
First entry to the contest received!
We have just received (by email) our first submission in The Sgt. Conker "Absolutely Fine" Tutorial Contest!
We'll arrange it soon into a nice format and post it on the site in the next few days, but we had to get the excitement off our chest first
Toon Boom Studio for all 3 Winners!
The people at Toon Boom Animation just announced me that they are giving us 3 (three) copies of Toon Boom Studio for our contest.
So now, all three winners (places 1,2 and 3) are going to receive one!
About our sponsor: Toon Boom Animation offers easy to use software applications for storyboarding and animation, that perfectly fit game developers' needs. Propel your games to the next level using pre-visualization and leading-edge animation features.
The Sgt. Conker ‘Absolutely Fine’ XNA Tutorial Contest!
Hey everyone,
It's time for more details on the contest we're going to host here at Sgt. Conker.
The goal of the contest is to encourage you, our dear readers, to write the best tutorials for XNA that you can, and share it with the world! In exchange, we'll give some prizes to the authors of the best tutorials.
Our full list of prizes is still in construction, but it will include the following:
One SunBurn Community License
SunBurn is a Lighting and Rendering engine built on top of our beloved XNA Framework. As the guys at Synapse Gaming say, "combining the latest lighting and rendering technology with a flexible and easy to use framework, SunBurn performs the heavy-lifting, letting you focus on your games." For a full list of features included in the SunBurn Engine, visit their site. The license we're giving out as a prize is provided by the kind people and Synapse Gaming.
Toon Boom Studio
Toon Boom Studio is a great product for 2D animations, allowing you to use a wide range of techniques for your work, including: stop-motion animation, traditional digital animation, traditional paper animation, cut-out animation and rotoscoping. I found the product very easy to use, and it will be a great addition to the arsenal of your development tools. Toon Boom Animation Inc. are the kind sponsors that bring this to our prize pool.
Update: This is 1 copy for each of the first three places.
4-Month XNA Creator's Club Premium Subscriptions
Other stuff we can't name yet
As I said above, the list is still in construction, and we're hoping it grows until the end of the contest (by the way, if anyone in the audience is interested in sponsorship, let us know )
Now that you've seen some of the prizes, it's time for some rules:
- All entries will consist of written tutorials related to the XNA Framework.
- If source code is provided, it must work with either XNA Game Studio 3.1, or XNA Game Studio 4.0
- All entries must be submitted by email to contest@sgtconker.com
- The last day of submission is August 31 2010, 23:59 GMT
- All entries must be in english
- We do not ask for exclusivity, but by submitting the article in the contest, you agree to allow us to publish the tutorial on this site ( sgtconker.com ).
- The entries submitted must be your own creation, and the assets used in the accompanying sample code must either be your creation, or obtained with permission (ex: MSPL or MIT licenses). This might also interest you.
- We reserve the right to reject/remove any article with no explanations.
- Entries containing illegal or indecent content will be disqualified, and will not be published.
- The entries will be judged by a panel of judges, and three winners will be selected.
- Residents of the world are invited to enter the contest, provided your local laws allow you to enter such contests.
- This contest is void where prohibited.
Those are the rules for now. Remember, these are subject to change in order to protect ourselves from legal trouble. Please remember we are doing this for the good of the community and would like to continue to do so.
With all being said, I wish all of you good luck, and I hope we see some awesome tutorials!
Teaser: XNA tutorial contest
We have an important announcement to make! We are currently busy in the barracks with something we call "The Sgt. Conker 'Absolutely Fine' XNA Tutorial Contest" (temporary name).
I'm sure you can come up with some ideas about what the name means, and you can expect more details about the specifics sometime next week. Stay tuned because.... IT'S COMING!
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