Knoxville Game Design

Comparison of file types for holding image data for textures and sprites in games.  File types include BMP, GIF, PNG, JPEG, SVG, TIFF, TGA, PCX, HEIC, and WebP.  Properties include transparency, compression, lossy vs lossless, and file size.  Demonstration of how to programmatically decode and encode PNG files.  Compatibility of image files with four game … Continue reading Image File Formats – Knox Game Design, April 2021 →

Overview of comparison of data types, sorting algorithms, and run times. Demonstration of sorting in Unity with C#, GameMaker with GML, Godot with GDScript, Unreal Engine with C++, and Pico-8 with Lua. For each game development environment, examples are shown for sorting integers, character strings (words), and a custom object type. Example code – https://github.com/levidsmith/SortingDemos … Continue reading Sorting – Knox Game Design, March 2021 →

How to generate mazes using Prim’s and Kruskal’s algorithm. Example implementations in Unity with C#.  Methods for solving mazes.  Demonstration of maze generators available on the web. Demo project in Unity and C# – https://github.com/levidsmith/MazeDemo New and Updated Games by Knox Developers Untitled game by Matthew BlazorRogueLike by Mythik Enfield by LocksmithArmy and Kendra Gomen-nasai … Continue reading Mazes – Knox Game Design, February 2021 →

Demonstration of how to create a simple humanoid armature in Blender to be used in a game development environment.  Explanation of how to assign a mesh to an armature and weight painting.  How to create simple walking and standing animation by adding key frames.  The model and animation are exported into FBX format and imported … Continue reading Animation in Blender – Knox Game Design, January 2021 →

Overview of the Allegro game programming library.  Compiling a legacy Allegro game with DJGPP through DOSBox.  Installing and building a game with Allegro 5 in Visual Studio.  How to use event and polling based methods for handling keyboard and gamepad input. Explanation of how to create a “Hello World”, Number Guessing game, and simple space … Continue reading Allegro – Knox Game Design, December 2020 →

Overview of building a Raspberry Pi arcade system.  First build was a Raspberry Pi (1) Model B and the second build was a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B.  Explanation of what components and tools are needed.  Installation the RetroPie operating system and configuration of Retrogame software to convert joystick movement and button presses into simulation … Continue reading Raspberry Pi Arcade – Knox Game Design, November 2020 →

A recap of the Fall ’20 game jam plus a post mortem. Also what others on the Knox Game Design Discord have been developing. If you are interested in attending a Knox Game Design meeting either virtually or in-person, let us know! Links and Notes Game jam keynotes – https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/$212263/welcome-to-ludum-dare-47-ps-we-start-early Circuitus Infinitus entry – https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/circuitus-infinitus … Continue reading Fall ’20 Game Jam Recap – Knox Game Design, October 2020 →

An overview of creating a game with MonoGame.  Installation of MonoGame development environment using Visual Studio.  Handling input devices such as keyboard, gamepad, and mouse. How to load assets such as sound effects, music, fonts, and sprite images.  Examples of simple number guessing game and space shooter in MonoGame and C#.  How to convert an … Continue reading MonoGame – Knox Game Design, September 2020 →

An overview of BBS (Bulletin Board System) games from the 1990s.  How to connect to a telnet BBS to play DOOR games.  Creating ANSI graphics with ACiD draw in DOSBox.  VT100 color codes explained.  A simple telnet server created in Ruby, which displays system time, counts to ten, displays an ANSI file, and has a … Continue reading BBS Games, VT100, and ANSI Graphics – Knox Game Design August 2020 →

An overview of color for game developers.  How various colors are made on the computer using RGB and HSV formats.  The color spectrum and the ROY G BIV order for colors.  Where visible color exists on the electromagnetic wavelength scale.  Color displays on CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) and LED (Light Emitting Diode) devices.  Converting between … Continue reading Color – Knox Game Design, July 2020 →

This month we learn how to create games in Python using the Pygame library. 1:30 – News 6:13 – Showoff: Unity Helper and new leaderboard features 11:47 – Pygame (feature presentation) Hosts Jacob ldjam.com/users/jacobturn/games gamejolt.com/@Big_Ol_Tom Jeffry http://www.thingiverse.com/insane66 Levi D. Smith levidsmith.com @GaTechGrad gatechgrad.itch.io Links and Notes Pygame examples (Number Guess, Shooter, Koi-Koi) – https://github.com/levidsmith/PythonProjects Python … Continue reading Pygame – Knox Game Design, June 2020 →

This month we show off our games created for Spring ’20. Levi D. Smith also talks about leaderboard security. 0:58 – News – BitBucket discontinues Mercurial, migration to GitHub 9:43 – Raising Cerberus by James 15:54 – Machina by Jacob 23:50 – Potted Plant Simulator by Dylan 46:02 – Chicken Little by Levi 52:33 – … Continue reading Spring ’20 Game Jam Entries and Leaderboard Security – Knox Game Design, May 2020 →

Jacob, Dylan, and Levi get together before the Spring ’20 theme announcement to talk about their thoughts on the possible themes. 0:52 – Possible game jam night in Tennessee 7:10 – Dylan’s water color work 19:08 – Game jam theme discussion 59:05 – Tools we are planning to use for the game jam 1:15:30 – … Continue reading Spring ’20 Game Jam Kickoff – Knox Game Design, April 2020 →

This month we talk about ways to promote your game and how to handle feedback on your game. Hosts Dylan Wolf www.dylanwolf.com/ @DylanWolf dylanwolf.itch.io Levi D. Smith levidsmith.com @GaTechGrad gatechgrad.itch.io Ruth Ann http://meemawsurrendered.com/ https://tranzeve.itch.io/ Jared github.com/BlackJar72 jaredbgreat.itch.io Links and Notes East Tennessee Content Creator event at Token Game Tavern (March 15, 2020) – https://www.facebook.com/events/664493714306082 Spring … Continue reading Promotion and Feedback – Knox Game Design, March 2020 →

This month’s topic is Creating Games with Java.  We discuss the basics of Java and how to create simple games with the language. Source Code for Java Examples Hosts Jared github.com/BlackJar72   jaredbgreat.itch.io Jacob ldjam.com/users/jacobturn/games   gamejolt.com/@Big_Ol_Tom Jeffry www.thingiverse.com/insane66     Dylan Wolf www.dylanwolf.com/ @DylanWolf dylanwolf.itch.io Levi D. Smith levidsmith.com @GaTechGrad gatechgrad.itch.io Links and Notes … Continue reading Java Game Development – Knox Game Design, February 2020 →

This month’s topic is Blender for Unity.  We will go over the basics of modeling and texturing an object in Blender.  Then we will import that model into Unity and add behaviors through C# code. Hosts Ruth Ann http://meemawsurrendered.com/ https://tranzeve.itch.io/ Jeffry http://www.thingiverse.com/insane66 Jacob http://ldjam.com/users/jacobturn/games https://gamejolt.com/@Big_Ol_Tom Dylan Wolf https://www.dylanwolf.com/ @DylanWolf https://dylanwolf.itch.io Levi D. Smith https://levidsmith.com @GaTechGrad … Continue reading Blender for Unity – Knox Game Design, January 2020 →

This month’s topic is SDL with C.  Before Unity and GameMaker, there was the Simple Direct Media Layer.  It can be used to create 2D and 3D games on a wide variety of platforms.  C is still one of the most widely used programming languages.  We will discuss how to get a simple game running … Continue reading SDL with C – Knox Game Design, December 2019 →

This month’s topic is Scratch. Scratch is a game development environment where visual code blocks are dragged and dropped instead of writing code. It is a good tool to introduce programming concepts to people who have no coding experience. Links and Notes Scratch website – https://scratch.mit.edu/ Dylan’s Inktober entries on Redbubble – https://www.redbubble.com/people/dylanwolf/collections/1188929-inktober-2019 Chris Gardner’s … Continue reading Scratch – Knox Game Design, November 2019 →

We show off the four games created by East Tennessee developers for Fall ’19.  The theme was “Start with Nothing” Hosts Dylan Wolf https://www.dylanwolf.com/ @DylanWolf https://dylanwolf.itch.io Levi D. Smith https://levidsmith.com @GaTechGrad https://gatechgrad.itch.io Links and Notes Self-Made Spaceman – https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/self-made-spaceman Mahjong Drop – https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/mahjong-drop The D U S T – https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/the-d-u-s-t Ludum Lux – https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/ludum-lux Theme … Continue reading Fall ’19 Game Jam Showoff – Knox Game Design, October 2019 →

This month’s topic is Creating Games in Smalltalk.  We look at how it is possible to create games in the Smalltalk language using the Squeak environment.  Smalltalk is one of the first object oriented languages, where everything is an object. Smalltalk Example Code Hosts Dylan Wolf https://www.dylanwolf.com/ @DylanWolf https://dylanwolf.itch.io Levi D. Smith https://levidsmith.com @GaTechGrad https://gatechgrad.itch.io … Continue reading Creating Games in Smalltalk – Knox Game Design, September 2019 →