Teamchallenge Update - Tower Defense Game

Question

The contest ends Monday the 10th December (13:00 GMT+0)

The challenge is to create a "Tower Defense Game"

1. Team:  Math Man, Amir CPS, Timo Sö

2. Team:  Zock77, Cobra55, Flostian

The contest is over! Check out the details here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/smallbasic/archive/2012/12/11/small-basic-teamchallenge-tower-defense-game-vote-to-see-who-wins.aspx

Thanks!

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Ed Price (a.k.a User Ed), SQL Server Customer Program Manager (Blog, Twitter, Wiki)

Answer 1

My team is doing well.We are about done with the game and we are just "Tweeking" it a bit.

So.. Any update from the other team?

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a spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.

Answer 2

I think I am alone now. I never heared anything of Amir CPS and I did not hear anything of Math Man for around 3-4 days. :/

I don't think that our game will be done at Monday. Only our menu ans 1 troop are done at the moment...

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Greetings Timo

Answer 3

Sorry about that. so do you have MM's Email??

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a spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.

Answer 4

And I just got a hold of Flostian. So he is back in.

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a spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.

Answer 5

I have MM's e-mail. But he not answer my e-mails for around 3-4 days....

EDIT: He answered me today. :) So we try now to finish the game until Monday.

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Greetings Timo

Answer 6

NICE!!

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a spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.

Answer 7

OK when do we submit it??

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a spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.

Answer 8

On Monday morning or Sunday evening I think. But first WITHOUT Source code. So the other team can't look at it to get more ideas.

I think that Math Man and me will not finish it until Monday. But we our best. Amir is missing.....

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Greetings Timo

Answer 9

Yeah... Ditto with Flostain.

But we are about done with ours so we will be ready.

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a spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.

Answer 10

So... Post the .Exe??

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a spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.

Answer 11

Yes. I think we should do that just so no one can cheat off others' source code. We are almost done. Just need to add a couple more features and then we're done.

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I am a 10 year old that loves math, games, and computers. 'Binary is as easy as 1, 10, 11.'

Answer 12

Yep. Compress the .exe, the .dll and the .pdn and upload it anywhere. Then post the link here.

The basic of our game is done. We must fix a few bugs and add a few special options. I hope we will be ready with it until Monday.

I want tell you, that 99% of the program are programmed by Math Man. I did the graphics and I hope that I can make some bug fixes etc.. My main part has been sorted out. ;)

I have some problems to find out how Math Man did what, because our type to program is very different.

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Greetings Timo

Answer 13

Sorry guys i wasn't aware of this challenge...

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They say working hard is good but i say working smart is best...

Answer 14

..... Now, the challenge is over tomorrow. Perhaps you can be a part of the next challenge.

But please look at the forum and be aware. ;)

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Greetings Timo

Answer 15

Yeah. I did most of the real programming, but cobra helped a bit. (We lost Flostian again) :/

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a spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.

Answer 16

That's bad...

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Greetings Timo

Answer 17

You can post the EXE's in the TechNet Gallery. Maybe the MSDN Gallery too, but I haven't played with that one as much.

Thanks!

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Ed Price (a.k.a User Ed), SQL Server Customer Program Manager (Blog, Twitter, Wiki)

Answer 18

If you post .exe fiels in TechNet Gallery, then it stays there (not temporary), the stats and activity go on your Profile, and you collect more Recognition Points and Achievement Medals.

Thanks!

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Ed Price (a.k.a User Ed), SQL Server Customer Program Manager (Blog, Twitter, Wiki)

Answer 19

Ok! Here is the game of Math Man and me: Link

I am sorry that I posted it 10 minutes to late, but I had some problems with the TechNet.

We call our game "Tank Rampage".

Next I must tell you, that we had no time to finish our game and we had no time to debug it. Amir was missing......

So, don't be to hard with us. ;) IMPORTANT: Read the description in the TechNet!

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Greetings Timo

Answer 20

Just a sec...

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a spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.

Answer 21

Here you go! Link Here

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a spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.

Answer 22

I was missing Flostian until Sunday.

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a spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.

Answer 23

I like your game Zock. :)

Amir never worked with us...

There were big differences in the skills of the teams. :)

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Greetings Timo

Answer 24

ditto

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a spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.

Answer 25

Yeah I know what you mean. Flostian didn't code and Cobra doesn't know how to. :/

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a spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.

Answer 26

At my team Math Man did 99% of codeing. I did not completely understand his type of codeing....

It is very different to my own.

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Greetings Timo

Answer 27

Here is my source code.

VJQ222

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a spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.

Answer 28

Can I see yours?

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a spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.

Answer 29

Sure, this is our:

KFH630

Did you play our game?

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Greetings Timo

Answer 30

Yes I did!! It was Amazing!!!

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a spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.

Answer 31

Do you mean the bug, that if you place a tower the game hangs on sometimes?

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Greetings Timo

Answer 32

No. The tanks just stop in the middle sometimes.

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a spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.

Answer 33

Well I gotta Go. Talk to you later!

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a spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.

Answer 34

Sure. :) See you later!

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Greetings Timo

Answer 35

Who decides whose is the best??

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a spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.

Answer 36

I opened a new thread for the voating. Follow this link.

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Greetings Timo

Answer 37

Thank you!!

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a spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.

Answer 38

Advice to people who want to do the Team Challenge in the future:

If your time limit is anything near 1 week, I would suggest to have only the most advanced programmers. It is hard work trying to get along with all the school stuff and all the other duties we have while still fitting time to finish programs for Team Challenges. Of course, one of ours didn't show up, so I don't know how much easier it might have been with 3 people.

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I am a 10 year old that loves math, games, and computers. 'Binary is as easy as 1, 10, 11.'

Answer 39

Are we gonna be doing another one?

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A spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.

Answer 40

Sure we can. But I would prefer to start it in the new year. :)

Or me make a 1 week challenge. And this time (because the small time) only with experienced programmers.

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Greetings Timo

Answer 41

Nice!! Are we gonna switch up the teams??

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A spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.

Answer 42

Zock77,

What are your credits?

Did you do 100% of the coding? Did Flostian and Cobra contribute anything?

Thanks!

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Ed Price (a.k.a User Ed), SQL Server Customer Program Manager (Blog, Twitter, Wiki)

Answer 43

I did 100% of the coding but cobra did some graphics stuff.

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A spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.

Answer 44

Zock,

Did you come up with the gameplay details (the "game design"), because that's a pretty sweet game!

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Ed Price (a.k.a User Ed), SQL Server Customer Program Manager (Blog, Twitter, Wiki)

Answer 45

Yep. but the reason Flostian didn't do anything is not his fault. he thought that i was gonna tell him what to do and I thought he was gonna do his own thing. Plus we are on different time zones. he is in Germany and I'm in Oregon.

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A spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.

Answer 46

And cobra made some turrets to put in and gave me some gameplay advice after i made it (The game)....

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A spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.

Answer 47

Okay I added more of the who did what info here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/smallbasic/archive/2012/12/11/small-basic-teamchallenge-tower-defense-game-vote-to-see-who-wins.aspx

Thanks!

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Ed Price (a.k.a User Ed), SQL Server Customer Program Manager (Blog, Twitter, Wiki)

Answer 48

Here are some random thoughts of how to improve Tankinator (in case you plan to do that)...

- Save your game

- Save your high score and put it on a list with your name, high score, and date/time.

- It would be especially interesting if it wrote to a remote, online list, which would essentially allow you to compete against everyone.

- Sometimes I want my turrets to aim at different tanks. It would be nice to click a turret to change the tank it's firing on. That could be fun to go around clicking turrets so that you get the right combination. It would add a new level of interaction to the game.

- Performance for once you get further in the game. It slows down to a chug.

- A pause button. I might want to go to bed or go to the bathroom or go do something.

Great job to both teams! On the Tank Rampage side, I love the menus and the concept of saving your game!

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Ed Price (a.k.a User Ed), SQL Server Customer Program Manager (Blog, Twitter, Wiki)

Answer 49

I will try to add all that!!

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A spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.

Answer 50

Thank you!! I needed that!

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A spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.

Answer 51

In case you're wondering, we might make a much more improved version 1 (it's only about version 0.5 right now because of the bugs) of Tank Rampage if people are interested.

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I am a 10 year old that loves math, games, and computers. 'Binary is as easy as 1, 10, 11.'

Answer 52

A suggestion is each team takes the other's source code and tries to improve their game. 

This may help give some insight into working in a team for software development.

Answer 53

Math Man, it would be nice if you upload it. The voating is running, but it is better if we upload a newer version.

May you send me v 1.0 with e-mail too? Then I update the version in the tech net wiki too.

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Greetings Timo

Answer 54

Nice!

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A spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.

Answer 55

Help!! The website I was hosting all my photos just "Exceeded Its Bandwidth" So Tankinator doesn't work currently. Is there anywhere else that I can post my photos??

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A spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.

Answer 56

Sure! Try Mediafire or TinyPic!

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Greetings Timo

Answer 57

I use http://www.000webhost.com/ for a few small sites and it generally works very well with good bandwidth allowances.  As well as Timo's suggestions there is also the MS SkyDrive.

Answer 58

Timo,

I think you misunderstood me. I have not actually made a version 1, but I was just asking if people were interested in a version 1.

Zock,

If you have a Gmail account, you can upload the pictures on Google Drive. (Right at the top of the page, in about the center, it says "Drive." Click on that.)

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I am a 10 year old that loves math, games, and computers. 'Binary is as easy as 1, 10, 11.'

Answer 59

Ah thanks for the correction Math Man. :)

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Greetings Timo

Answer 60

I am going to work on version 1, though. I think I made a major improvement and I might actually be able to make the 3rd tower slow tanks down now.

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I am a 10 year old that loves math, games, and computers. 'Binary is as easy as 1, 10, 11.'

Answer 61

Nice!

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Greetings Timo

Answer 62

I am going to work on version 1, though. I think I made a major improvement and I might actually be able to make the 3rd tower slow tanks down now.

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I am a 10 year old that loves math, games, and computers. 'Binary is as easy as 1, 10, 11.'

That sounds like a great improvement! It would be fun to try it out.

Thanks!

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Ed Price (a.k.a User Ed), SQL Server Customer Program Manager (Blog, Twitter, Wiki)

Answer 63

Zock, an easy way to create a pause feature would be to have all the main action happening inside the Timer.Tick event. Then, when they click a pause button or press a specific key, you can change Timer.Tick = Nothing where Nothing is a subroutine that literally does nothing. When they click the resume button or key, you can reassign Timer.Tick = MainLoop. That's basically what our team did for the pause feature.

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I am a 10 year old that loves math, games, and computers. 'Binary is as easy as 1, 10, 11.'

Answer 64

Well I can't seem to put in a pause feature because almost all my stuff is controlled by clock.Elapsedmillaseconds so it doesn't bog down.

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A spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.

Answer 65

Understood. A Save and Load feature would take care of that need.

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Ed Price (a.k.a User Ed), SQL Server Customer Program Manager (Blog, Twitter, Wiki)

Answer 66

@Zock - how about something like this for the pause:

First set a flag that is 1 or 0 when key P is pressed

isPaused = 0
GraphicsWindow.KeyDown = OnKeyDown
Sub OnKeyDown
  If (GraphicsWindow.LastKey = "P") Then
    isPaused = 1-isPaused 'Toggle paused state
  EndIf
EndSub

Then in the main loop just update the variables set by EllapsedMilliseconds to your delay if the game is paused - should work for not too long pauses - overnight may need more thought, but could be done by recording when the pause started in the KeyDown event and just adding the total paused time to the required variables.

While Out < NumOfTanksAllowedOut
  Program.Delay(5)
  If (isPaused = 1) Then
    BeginGameTime = BeginGameTime+5
    Timestart2 = Timestart2+5
  Else
    OldTimeStart2 = Timestart2
    Timestart2 = Clock.ElapsedMilliseconds
    TimeElapsed2 = Timestart2 - OldTimeStart2
    
    If TimeElapsed2 / 20 < 5 Then
      TankSpeed = TimeElapsed2 / (20 -intTankSpeed)
    EndIf
    GraphicsWindow.Title = "Out = " + Out
    Shapes.SetText(MoneyText,"You Have " + Money + "$")
    If (Kills + OutThisRound) >= NumOfTanks Then
      Kills = 0
      AddTanks()
    EndIf
    
    MoveTanks()
    SetAim()
    CalcXY()
  EndIf  
EndWhile

Have you got any way to upload the images somewhere else yet?

Answer 67

well I have a lot of pictures, and tiny pic only uploads one at a time.so thats cinda out of the equation....I will be gon for the rest of today and most of tommorow so it will take a few days. but i'll find something.

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A spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.

Answer 68

Hey guys!!! here is it back to what it was.

http://www.mediafire.com/?5tpx97i0wqbd336

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A spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.

Answer 69

Zock, is that a new version? What's different?

Thanks!

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Ed Price (a.k.a User Ed), SQL Server Customer Program Manager (Blog, Twitter, Wiki)

Answer 70

Hey, Zock, can I add Tankinator to the TechNet Gallery? I'd like to get more games up there to fill in the Small Basic tag and give people more choices.

Thanks!

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Ed Price (a.k.a User Ed), SQL Server Customer Program Manager (Blog, Twitter, Wiki)

Answer 71

Hello!

First, The version I just posted is the same as it was except the photos are in the download so it will work

Second sure!! I would love it if you did that!

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A spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.

Answer 72

Uploaded it here: http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Tankinator-Small-Basic-Game-55a77a3f

In the new version, the yellow-rimmed Type 1 Missile Launcher wasn't firing for me. Did you have that problem too?

Thanks!

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Ed Price (a.k.a User Ed), SQL Server Customer Program Manager (Blog, Twitter, Wiki)

Answer 73

Hey all!! I just finished Ver 0.02!!!!! Get it here:  http://www.mediafire.com/?19b2zs421jovtf2

Picture here:

Features added:

1) Added pause Feature ("P" to activate) - Thanks to litdev for source code

2) Added a Feature to enable setting the aim of the turret - As suggested by Ed Price

3) Added different turret wreck shapes for different turrets

4) fixed countless bugs

5) Added Shadows

Thanks!!

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A spark to start a fire is necessary. But mainly you need dry kindling.