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Project ConclusionsDeveloping FallFury was a fun and educational activity. Besides the fact that I got to work with an amazing team of people who were willing to assist me with the testing and development, I learned some important points about the development process as a whole and have outlined…

Hardware Testing & DebuggingAs previously mentioned, FallFury runs on multiple types of hardware as long as that hardware supports Windows 8. This article describes the project’s general testing and debugging process, including setting the debug configurations and remote debugging. Check out the…

CharmsWith the release of the Windows 8 operating system, applications are now able to easily integrate with each other and have a unified way to control their workflow through unique system-wide contracts called Charms. Out of the multitude of available options, FallFury leverages two charms—Share…

Particle SystemDuring gameplay there are scenarios during which users need to be visually notified that something has happened, such as a collision with an obstacle or an enemy shell. One way to do this is by having explosion or item breaking simulation, which brings us to the next large component…

Element InteractionDuring the gameplay multiple entities interact with each other to make the gaming experience what it is. The bear collides with obstacles and collects buttons, monsters shoot shells that can fly off-screen or hit the bear—all this is possible with the help of the basic collision…

Animations & Item TransitionsFallFury relies on a lot of dynamic content. As you already aware of how SpriteBatch is invoked inside the FallFury rendering stack, this article focuses on how dynamic activities are handled on existing textures and entities. If you need a quick look at what was…

Rendering Level ElementsIn the previous article, you learned how to build level XML files in order to create playable levels. This article discusses how the internal parser works and how XML nodes become items on the game screen.  Check out the video for this article at…

Creating LevelsOne of the goals set when developing FallFury was making the game extensible in regards to playable levels. Furthermore, I thought that it would make sense from the development and testing perspective to have levels as a completely separate entity that can be modified as necessary.…

As mentioned earlier in the series, FallFury does not solely rely on DirectX to display content to the user. As a Windows Store game, FallFury leverages the new Direct2D (XAML) project template, available in Visual Studio 2012.  Check out the video for this article at…

Continuing the FallFury series, in this article I talk about basic game element rendering and character movement. As you already know, the FallFury user experience stack is split across two layers—native DirectX and XAML. Here, I will only be talking about the native DirectX component.  Check…