Success!

I'd like to formally announce that John and I have met our goal of a playable game! I brought it into my office today, tried to look fancy with my xbox controller, and played our lack of content game! There were a couple performance hiccups, but I didn't care. It was the first time I was able to show something I've helped build with true pride, knowing that my code is running well, and that my dreams are coming closer to fruition. My audience was a great group of people that I have come to love and respect over time, and I'm glad that they were able to share in that experience.

All good things must come to an end though. It is a harsh reality that this project will take someday. As I said in my previous entry, we would like to complete it, but it will take time to build everything else, mainly the content of the game. That's what is so beautiful about this game. We built the entire framework such that the content of the game will simply be using what we built. We squashed bugs here and there (and I am sure there are many more), and stuck to it and came through.

The game itself is not impressive by any means. You have one dungeon, some enemies, a random brute light bug enemy at the end and some switches. We wanted to build more, and change the keyboard input (I'd do it now, but i'm above the neck in homework which I am currently procrastinating on, plus I am lazy), but we have a build that we can give to people should they want to try it. Others may get over it within minutes, but for me, and I would say for John as well, that the ingenuity that we displayed in building the game will be with us for the rest of our lives as we continue to drive towards our intellectual passions.

Some may not completely understand why we did this. I'd like to try to explain that in a way that makes sense to me. Why would I spend my vacation, and for 12-15 hours every single night work on this game? My vacation was literally nothing but working on this game. John and I have been asked this question, and I'm going to explain why the best I can.

I personally have many reasons other than passion, including personal ones. However, when I was younger, games were how I passed time. Games involved me in a world that I could make sense of, and allowed me to be the person I am today. There is so much to some games that not everyone realizes. There are entire universes to explore. You solve problems and witness passionate stories from minds that worked tirelessly to bring hours of entertainment (For the record, this is why people who pirate games piss me off to no end). Not all games are simply about getting to the next level. This is what I love about games. They gave me something to look forward to in the future, and I want to do the same for others. Knowing that I could inspire someone to be passionate about something, games or otherwise, is an ultimate goal of mine, much like those who wrote games for me gave me my passions. It's a tough road, but eventually, you, me, and anyone else can achieve something if they try hard enough. That was the ultimate goal of this week. To show that we could, and that we did.

Finally, we started this blog to show the immense progress that can be made by two passionate people. If you compare the videos from before to how the game shaped up - you can't even tell that they're the same thing! As I had mentioned to others, knowing that this is our lovechild, that we built it from scratch using nothing but our own knowledge (and XNA, of course), is a tremendously good feeling. We know the code inside and out, and from when it was nothing but a little visual studio project! They grow up so fast!

Anyway, I hope we have helped inspire some people to pursue their passions, whether it is in games, computer science, or otherwise. Beginning, and working on something that you're passionate about, and then completing it is a feeling that words can't express. I'm so glad that I did this, even if it took my entire vacation. It was one of the first times that I was able to show people something I created, even if it wasn't perfect, that I was incredibly proud of. John did a wonderful job on maps and graphics, and we came together on everything.

I believe my rant is over now, and for those who are simply waiting for the game, the link is below:

http://www.thelunchboxlegion.net/AP/ArmorPotions.zip

The not as intuitive keyboard controls are:
W - Move up
A - Move Left
S - Move Down
D - Move Right
Space Bar - Swing sword (It will swing in the direction of the player)
Mouse Click - Fire selected projectile (From the lower left corner)
Arrow keys left and right will switch the selected item

Note: You need the XNA 4.0 redistributables to play this game! The easiest way is likely to go straight to the source:  http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=20914 

If anyone has any questions, suggestions, anything at all please reach out to us. We would especially like to hear if anyone has actually been affected by our work :)

Until next time!