Pico-8 – Knoxville Game Design, July 2019
An overview of using the Pico-8 fantasy console to develop games using the Lua programming language. We look at the steps and code for building a number guessing game and a simple space shooter....
View ArticleRandom Number Generators (RNG) – Knoxville Game Design, August 2019
This month’s topic is Random Number Generators (RNG). We discuss the various methods for generating random values in game development. We provide specific examples for Unity, GameMaker, and Unreal...
View ArticleCreating Games in Smalltalk – Knoxville Game Design, September 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...
View ArticleLudum Dare 45 Showoff – Knoxville Game Design, October 2019
We show off the four games created by East Tennessee developers for Ludum Dare 45. The theme was “Start with Nothing” Hosts Dylan Wolf https://www.dylanwolf.com/ @DylanWolf https://dylanwolf.itch.io...
View ArticleScratch – Knoxville Game Design, November 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...
View ArticleSDL with C – Knoxville Game Design, December 2019
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...
View ArticleBlender for Unity – Knoxville Game Design, January 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...
View ArticleJava Game Development – Knoxville Game Design, February 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...
View ArticlePromotion and Feedback – Knoxville Game Design, March 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...
View ArticleLudum Dare 46 Kickoff – Knox Game Design, April 2020
Jacob, Dylan, and Levi get together before the Ludum Dare 46 theme announcement to talk about their thoughts on the possible themes. 0:52 – Possible game jam night in Tennessee 7:10 – Dylan’s water...
View ArticleLudum Dare 46 Entries and Leaderboard Security – Knox Game Design, May 2020
This month we show off our games created for Ludum Dare 46. Levi D. Smith also talks about leaderboard security. 0:58 – News – BitBucket discontinues Mercurial, migration to GitHub 9:43 – Raising...
View ArticlePygame – Knox Game Design, June 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...
View ArticleColor – Knox Game Design, July 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...
View ArticleBBS Games, VT100, and ANSI Graphics – Knox Game Design August 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...
View ArticleMonoGame – Knox Game Design, September 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...
View ArticleLudum Dare 47 Recap – Knox Game Design, October 2020
A recap of the Ludum Dare 47 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...
View ArticleRaspberry Pi Arcade – Knox Game Design, November 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....
View ArticleAllegro – Knox Game Design, December 2020
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...
View ArticleAnimation in Blender – Knox Game Design, January 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...
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Mazes – Knox Game Design, February 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...
View ArticleSorting – Knox Game Design, March 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...
View ArticleImage File Formats – Knox Game Design, April 2021
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,...
View ArticleLudum Dare 48 Entries – Knox Game Design, May 2021
Knox Game Design had two great entries for Ludum Dare 48. The theme was Deeper and deeper. Let us know if we missed your game entry and we will add it to the list! Delve Inc. by Jacob You play as a...
View ArticleSound Effects with BFXR – Knox Game Design, June 2021
This month’s Knox Game Design covers the BXFR tool for generating sound effects for games. A look at different sound effect types, modifying sound effect properties, using the mixer to combine effects...
View ArticleAdding Sound Effects to Your Game – Knox Game Design, July 2021
Demonstration of how to play a sound effect in various game development environments. This presentation covers Unity, GameMaker, Godot Engine, Unreal Engine (Blueprints), and Pico-8. Source Code –...
View ArticleStrategy Guides – Knox Game Design, August 2021
A look back at strategy guides for 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System and 16-bit Super Nintendo games. How to Win at Super Mario Bros The Official Nintendo Player’s Guide Dragon Warrior Strategy Guide...
View ArticleDistributing Your Game – Knox Game Design, September 2021
An overview of various ways to distribute your video game. First, a historical look at various physical media that can be used for distributing digital content. Then a look at multiple online sites...
View ArticleLudum Dare 49 Entries and More – Knox Game Design, October 2021
This month, Knox developers Allen, Jared, and Levi show off their games developed for Ludum Dare 49 and more. Links and Notes Dark Crossings by Allen –...
View ArticleStencyl – Knox Game Design, November 2021
Overview of the Stencyl game development environment for making 2D games. Explanation of scenes, actors, behaviors, events, and visual coding. Examples of a number guessing game and simple space...
View ArticleParticle Systems in Unity – Knox Game Design, December 2021
Explanation of particle systems in Unity, along with modifiers such as emission shape, bursts, color over time, custom shapes, and size over lifetime. Demo project and code –...
View ArticleDijkstra’s Algorithm – Knox Game Design, January 2022
Explanation of Dijkstra’s algorithm for finding the shortest path in a graph based on a selected starting node. Walkthrough of an example of the algorithm. Demo of implementation of Dijkstra’s...
View Article2D Collision – Knox Game Design, February 2022
Explanation of 2D collisions for points, lines, rectangles, and circles. Overview of each collision type along with examples and code. Explanations are general in nature so that they can be...
View ArticleBasic 3D Collision – Knox Game Design, March 2022
Explanation of calculating collision between basic 3D objects (rectangular solids/cubes and spheres). Methods used can be applied to any programming language or game development environment. Review of...
View ArticleSpring ’22 Game Jam – Knox Game Design, April 2022
Games created by Knox area developers for Spring ’22. Theme was “delay the inevitable”. Links and Notes Cult of the Furnace by Jacob – https://gamejolt.com/games/furnace_cult/706365 Possum Blitz by...
View ArticleEnemy Behaviors – Knox Game Design, May 2022
This month’s Knox Game Design presentation topic is Enemy Behaviors. This is a look at various enemy behavior types: Back and forth (timer / collision based) Alert and chase, using distance / timer for...
View ArticleI-Frames and Stun Lock – Knox Game Design, June 2022
Overview of I-frames, invincibility, stun lock, and knock back. How these are implemented in games, statistics from examples of classic games, and demo project showing various methods for implementing...
View ArticleCurves – Knox Game Design, July 2022
Overview of four types of curves that can be used in game development. Basic parabola for moving objects in an arc. Sine function for moving objects in a wave motion. Physics using velocity and...
View ArticleLogo – Knox Game Design, August 2022
Introduction to the Logo programming language. Useful for teaching functional programming to beginners. Explanation of using “turtle graphics” to draw various shapes. Download Slides as PDF Demo...
View ArticleReading Text Files – Knox Game Design, September 2022
Explanation of how to read text files to display objects to the screen in Unity, GameMaker, MonoGame, Godot, and SDL. Download Slides as PDF Demo project –...
View ArticleKnox Game Jam Fall ’22 Recap – Knox Game Design, October 2022
Knox Game Jam games Old Timer Peg Game by Levi Other games by Knox Developers Caverns of Evil (Steam) by Jared Labyrinth (Steam) by James Gospelgo by Danosono
View ArticleNumber Systems – Knox Game Design, November 2022
Overview of number systems, including decimal base 10, binary base 2, hexadecimal base 16. How to convert between the number systems. Explanation of addition and subtraction in binary. Download Slides...
View ArticleQBasic IO and Graphics, Knox Game Design, December 2022
A look at various approaches for keyboard input and graphics display in QBasic. Demo code – https://github.com/levidsmith/QBasicShooter Links and Notes QBasic.net – https://www.qbasic.net/ ASCII...
View ArticleJavascript and HTML Canvas – Knox Game Design, January 2023
How to create a simple space shooter web game using Javascript and HTML Canvas, as well as drawing the Tennessee state flag. Demo code –...
View ArticleSVG Scalable Vector Graphics – Knox Game Design, February 2023
How to create vector graphics in the SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) format by text editor or Inkscape. Demo code – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/svg Links and Notes Podcast...
View ArticleGame Engines – Knox Game Design, March 2023
Overview of game engines and development libraries. Links and Notes Godot Engine – godotengine.org Unity – unity.com Unreal Engine – www.unrealengine.com GameMaker – gamemaker.io Stencyl – stencyl.com...
View ArticleFalling Blocks – Knox Game Design, April 2023
Walkthrough on how to create a basic falling block line clearing game using MonoGame. Project code – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/falling_blocks Links and Notes Visual...
View ArticleSpring ’23 Game Jam – Knox Game Design, May 2023
Knox Game Design Spring ’23 game jam entries Links and Notes Podcast theme music – Ride by Pocketmaster
View ArticleGrid Based Games – Knox Game Design, June 2023
Overview of grid based games and implementation of checkers in MonoGame/C#. Links and Notes Checkers demo code – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/gridbased Podcast theme music –...
View ArticleParallax – Knox Game Design, July 2023
Overview of how parallax is used and implemented in 2D video games. Links and Notes Demo code – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/parallax Podcast theme music – Ride by Pocketmaster
View ArticleCharacter Encoding – Knox Game Design, August 2023
Overview of encoding characters and letters into their numerical and binary values. Explanation of how to use bitwise operators to change case of characters. Links and Notes Podcast theme music – Ride...
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