Duckbill: Week 1

So I started fiddling about with XNA recently. As in, Tuesday or so. Here's the start of the engine that I got done this week. I decided I'll try my hand at Agile programming for a change, releasing early and often.

Here I've released far too early; there's more missing than there is implemented. In fact the game itself is little more than a platforming engine demo.

Enough stalling:

Download

Google Docs (.zip) 

Caveats:

Windows-only (for now and a while; it may be possible to release an XNA game for Linux, but I wouldn't hold my breath)

I have no idea what the system requirements are because I haven't tested the distributable on not-my-machine at all

I've decided that I will release a new version of this every week until unfeasible; i.e. school starts again or I get a job. This will serve to 1: give me deadlines, and 2: let people see a game evolve. The first is the most important, because the most crucial thing I've learned from taking Game Dev courses is just how much work one can accomplish with a deadline looming over you. Not only do they make you work for about twelve hours straight (probably not going to be killing myself like that for this, though), but they also make you prioritize what to finish and what to cut, or at least what to do after the important things are taken care of.

Also, actually releasing games helps make sure said games are usable. Rouge was fairly impenetrable to almost everyone but me, and most people didn't even notice the hastily tacked-on keybindings button I added at the last minute. This game has obvious instructions! And less keys! So far.

(Incidentally, I have too many plans for Rouge to really start anywhere on them at the moment. I fully intend to get back there again, but not at the moment. Maybe after I get busy again.)

What is this game, anyway? Codename Duckbill is a tile-based platformer. What it will become is a procedurally generated Metroid-style game with multiplayer support. I have barely any idea how to do that, but that's where the fun will be.

Oh, and it's open-source. Kind of. I won't listen to anybody who tries to send me code, but as per the requirements of Google Code, the code is open. It's here if anybody's interested. I'm using the MIT license, because as far as I can tell that's as close to the WTFPL as they would let me use.

Edit: realized I didn't actually distribute said license in the .zip file OH WELL PRETEND IT'S THERE