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.
Jemgine.Hex now available for download
Our friend Blecki has released another project called Jemgine.Hex.
Here's some info from his codeplex project.
Jemgine.Hex implements a subdivideable hexagonal grid for XNA projects. Jemgine.Hex makes it easy to create hexagonal grids in vertical and horizontal orientations and to do mouse picking on them. It's written in C#.
All source is for XNA 4.0, but the library itself will compile against XNA 3.1 if it's references are changed. The demo project will not.
The HexDemo project contains examples of
*Rendering hexagonal grids
*Generating a series of subdivided grids
*Detecting the tile under the mouse of several subdivision levels
Please go check it out here
You can also see the Blecki's Jemgine XNA Engine which is a very fast maturing engine for XNA here
Recent News : XNA Still exists!
We think everyone must be busy playing with XNA 4 and WP7 tools as we're very light on news recently.
Here's a short brief round-up of some of the things we've heard about on the grapevine.
Mr "I don't provide screenshots" Blecki has released an Alpha 3 version of Jemgine. I here and now request that this gets published to codeplex so it's easier for interested parties to keep up to date.
There's also a pretty cool video of his engine in action.
Shawn "The Prophet" Hargreaves keeps us refreshed on changes in XNA 4.0 with this goodbye to ElapsedRealTime and TotalRealTime. Take a read here
Jeromy "No Nickname" Walsh has launched a new website relating to game development called GameDevelopedia.com. He's just published his first for the site. First of many let's hope. Check it out here
Heard about VS2010 RTM ? Never mind. It's not officially supported with the Windows Phone 7 tools. My advice would be to ignore it for now until there is an update to the Windows Phone tools. Here's some more details on that story
Another interesting WP7 related post on the official dev blog.
Automatic Rotation Support or Automatic Multi-Orientation Layout Support for Windows Phone
Jemgine Editor Alpha
Mr "I don't provide screenshots" Blecki has announced an updated build of his Jemgine map editor.
Some key points he makes.
- A 2d platformer engine with 'advanced physics'.
- A feature-rich editor (That one up there!)
- A single-player 'test game' to use as a base and guide for the engine.
- My eternal love and support.
More details here
48 hour shmup
Blecki, the man behind jemgine has released news of his 48 hour shmup project.
He's provided an updated video and a download for you to try out.
"It uses XNA, of course. You'll need the 3.1 redist. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=53867a2a-e249-4560-8011-98eb3e799ef2&displaylang=en"
More details over here