Currently, Steve-o and I are working through the Star Defense Tutorial Series on xnaresources.com. I'm on the fifth part, and so far it has been extremely helpful. Going through this has considerably helped my understanding on what is needed to make a game - even a simple one. So, without further ado, here's a breakdown of each part.
Part 1: Design
The first part to Star Defense doesn't even have any code - it's all about the planning and design process for making a game. With other coding projects I've worked on, I've found that having a plan from the get-go is invaluable. Though, when you've never made a game before it's tough to know where to start. Since Stephen and myself are flying by the seat of our pants with this whole game-making thing, having a section devoted purely to planning and defining what's needed for the game was very helpful.
First, the look, feel, and play-style of the game were mapped out. Then the game was broken down into two main elements: coding design and assets. What's nice about the way Star Defense was planned out is that it gave both structure and flexibility. There was now a base to build off of and a direction to move in, but there was room for changes to be made as needed. Let's be honest here, anyone who's coded knows that it's a rarity for the final product to match the plan exactly. Something always comes up that needs to be tweaked.
There were a lot of "Aha" moments while I was reading this and I learned a good bit. Honestly, this will be a section that I can see myself coming back to more often some coding pages.
Well, it's lunch time for me. I'll be back in a little while to post about Part 2: Foundations.
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