Knoxville Game Design

Five great games were created for Knox Game Design 2025.  Thanks to everyone who attended the kickoff and created a game.  Great job everyone! Reality Breach by Jeffry Reality Breach is a browser-based bullet hell game with an alternate reality theme and cell-shaded graphics. Players take on the role of a “Reality Architect” who must … Continue reading Knox Game Jam 2025 – Knox Game Design, April 2025 →

What is a simulation? Are simulations games? A look at simulations such as SimCity, Micropolis, and Conway’s Game of Life. Links and Notes Demo source code – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/blob/master/simulations/conway/conway.c Micropolis source code – https://github.com/SimHacker/micropolis MicropolisJS – https://www.graememcc.co.uk/micropolisJS/ LifeWiki (Conway’s Game of Life) – https://conwaylife.com/wiki/Main_Page djgpp – https://www.delorie.com/djgpp/ Podcast theme music – Ride by Pocketmaster

New Game Releasing this month Check out the new game Shrine of the Forest God by Dustin, which will be released on Steam on February 28, 2025. Monthly Presentation How to create a simple client and server socket connections in Python to send network data. Demo of how to use socket code to implement a … Continue reading Sockets – Knox Game Design, February 2025 →

Explanation of how to implement drag and drop interface for games. Demos with source code include Unity (C#), MonoGame (C#), GameMaker (GML), and SDL (C). Links and Notes Demo source code – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/draganddrop Unity – https://unity.com/ MonoGame – https://monogame.net/ GameMaker – https://gamemaker.io/en SDL – https://www.libsdl.org/ Podcast theme music – Ride by Pocketmaster

Overview of steps to create a Solitaire game in Unity. Links and Notes Demo source code – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/solitaire OpenGameArt card front sprites – https://opengameart.org/content/playing-cards-vector-png OpenGameArt card back sprite – https://opengameart.org/content/colorful-poker-card-back Unity – https://unity.com/ Podcast theme music – Ride by Pocketmaster

Explanation of mesh model face normals in Blender, which are imported into Unity. Steps to show normals in Blender and how to flip and recalculate normals. Links and Notes Demo project – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/blender_normals Blender – https://www.blender.org/ Unity – https://unity.com/ Podcast theme music – Ride by Pocketmaster

Analysis of how battle damage is calculated in role playing games (RPGs). How damage is calculated in traditional table top RPGs using dice rolls. Statistical analysis of outcomes of various dice combinations. Calculation of battle damage in the video game RPGs Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior) and Final Fantasy along with verification of damage outcomes. Links … Continue reading RPG Battle Damage – Knox Game Design, October 2024 →

Overview of how to use NFTs (non fungible tokens) in games, including how to mint tokens, specify trait values, and using OpenSea API to read NFT data into a game. Demo of Unity RPG game using NFTs for equippable weapons. Links and Notes Blockchain RPG demo – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/blockchain/BlockchainRPG OpenSea API – https://docs.opensea.io/reference/api-overview Podcast theme music … Continue reading NFTs – Knox Game Design, September 2024 →

Proof of concept demonstration on how to implement a blockchain to track game currency and purchase of game items.  In this demonstration, the blockchain is created in PHP on a Fedora Linux virtual machine running in Virtual Box.  The block chain is pulled into Unity through C# networking code.  Regular expressions are used to parse … Continue reading Blockchain for Game Development – Knox Game Design, August 2024 →

Demonstration of how to use the FECUX emulator memory tools to determine the memory location of in-game variables, such as number of coins. How to set a breakpoint with the Hex Editor to find the 6502 assembly code that is executed when a memory location is changed. Analysis of assembly code for awarding an extra … Continue reading Exploring NES Memory – Knox Game Design, July 2024 →

Comparison of jumping statistics from various characters in classic platformer games. Analysis of states in jump cycles. Demo of implementation of jump for a 2D platformer game. Links and Notes Demo Code – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/jumping FCEUX – https://fceux.com/web/home.html

Overview of recursion and an explanation of a simple flood fill algorithm. Example demo in MonoGame with C# code. Links and Notes Demo Code – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/floodfill MonoGame – https://monogame.net/

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Knox Game Jam 2024 kickoff!  Seven great games were created by the group for the game jam.  Great job everyone! Minu by Dustin Claws and Conundrums by James and PandaPuffsForBreakfast You are somewhat of a know-it-all. Your good friend has reached out for help in a murder … Continue reading Knox Game Jam 2024 Recap – Knox Game Design, April 2024 →

Overview of using the Dia tool for creating UML diagrams. UML is a standard for creating various types of diagrams, such as class diagrams, state diagrams, and use case diagrams. Links and Notes UML – https://www.uml.org/ UML examples – https://www.uml-diagrams.org/ Dia at Gnome – https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Dia Dia installer – http://dia-installer.de/ Podcast theme music – Ride by … Continue reading UML with Dia – Knox Game Design, March 2024 →

Explanation of how to create a texture mapped box by reading a BMP image file and displaying with OpenGL.  Then how to create that same texture mapped the box in Blender to export into FBX format.  The model is then imported and displayed multiple different game development environments, such as Unity, MonoGame, Godot, and Unreal … Continue reading Texture Mapping – Knox Game Design, February 2024 →

Introduction to OpenGL and how to setup development environment using MSYS2. Code examples in C for displaying polygons, keyboard input with GLUT, and a simple game demo. OpenGL code examples in C – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/opengl Links and Notes OpenGL – https://www.opengl.org/ MSYS2 – https://www.msys2.org/ Setting up OpenGL development Environment on Windows with MSYS2 – https://www.jamiebayne.co.uk/blog/opengl-windows Lazy … Continue reading OpenGL – Knox Game Design, January 2024 →

Overview of modding Doom with customized levels and graphics. Links and Notes GZDoom download – https://zdoom.org/downloads Doom World mods – https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/ ModDB mods – https://www.moddb.com/games/doom-ii/mods Ultimate Doom Builder download – https://devbuilds.drdteam.org/ultimatedoombuilder/ Ultimate Doom Builder instructions – https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?t=66745 MSYS2 (7zip decompression) – https://www.msys2.org/ Doom World Doom editors – https://www.doomworld.com/classicdoom/utils/editors.php Doom World beginner tutorial – https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/140740-doom-mapping-crash-course-absolute-beginner-mapping-workshop/ Slade3 … Continue reading Doom Modding – Knox Game Design, December 2023 →

Explanation of design and implementation of card memory matching game in MonoGame. Demo code – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/memory_game Links and Notes Podcast theme music – Ride by Pocketmaster

Presentation on how to apply object oriented principles to GameMaker to expand the variety of enemies and items in games.  Includes discussion of parenting of objects in GameMaker and how to inherit attributes and functions in children objects. Links and Notes GameMaker – https://gamemaker.io/en Podcast theme music – Ride by Pocketmaster

Overview of OpCodes and how those relate to video game consoles. Links and Notes 6502 OpCodes at Ultimate Commodore 64 Reference – https://www.pagetable.com/c64ref/6502/ GameBoy OpCodes – https://www.pastraiser.com/cpu/gameboy/gameboy_opcodes.html x86 OpCodes – https://net.cs.uni-bonn.de/fileadmin/user_upload/plohmann/x86_opcode_structure_and_instruction_overview.pdf Podcast theme music – Ride by Pocketmaster