RPG Programming with XNA Game Studio 3.0

Table of Contents

1. Contents
2. Foreword
3. Acknowledgments
4. Introduction
   1. Who Should Read This Book?
   2. Conventions
   3. System Requirements
   4. Installing and Using the Code
   5. Support for This Book
5. Chapter 1 RPG Basics
   1. A (Relatively) Brief History of Computer RPGs
   2. What Makes Up an RPG?
   3. Designing an RPG
      1. The Design Document
      2. Decisions to Make
      3. Our Design Document
         1. Game World Overview
         2. Camera
         3. Game Characters
         4. User Interface
         5. Items
         6. Music
         7. Single-Player Game
         8. Multiplayer Game
   4. Next Up
6. Chapter 2 RPG Entities — Characters, NPCs, and Monsters
   1. Stats
   2. Races
   3. Entity Classes
   4. Entities
   5. The Toolset
   6. Summary
7. Chapter 3 Skills
   1. The Skill Class
   2. Creating and Storing Skill Data
   3. Learning Skills
   4. Using Skills
   5. Summary
8. Chapter 4 Magic
   1. The Spell Class
   2. Learning Spells
   3. Using Magic
   4. The Spell Book
   5. Summary
9. Chapter 5 Items and Loot
   1. The BaseItem Class
   2. The Item Class
   3. The Weapon Class
   4. The Armor Class
   5. The Chest Class
   6. The EntityItem Class
   7. The Inventory Class
   8. Summary
10. Chapter 6 Combat (or “It ’s Clobberin’ Time”)
    1. Ready… Fight
    2. The Combat Engine
    3. The Combat Simulator
    4. There’s Always Room for Improvement
    5. Summary
11. Chapter 7 Audio
    1. Playing Sounds with the SoundEffect and SoundEffectInstance Classes
    2. Playing Songs
    3. XACT
       1. Creating Sounds with XACT
    4. Playing 2D Sound
    5. Summary
12. Chapter 8 Creating the Tile Engine and Level Editor
    1. Tiles
    2. The Level Class
    3. The Level Editor
    4. Summary
13. Chapter 9 Interface
    1. The Toolbar
    2. The Inventory Window
    3. GUI Libraries
    4. Areas for Improvement
    5. Summary
14. Chapter 10 Quests
    1. The Quest Class
    2. Entity Class Changes
    3. Creating Quests
    4. Summary
15. Chapter 11 Conversations/Scripting
    1. The Conversation Class
    2. Testing the Conversation
    3. Summary
16. Chapter 12 Multiplayer Considerations
    1. Who’s the Boss?
    2. Multiple-Player Party
    3. GM-Controlled Game
    4. Players as Both Good and Bad Entities
    5. Setting Up for Multiplayer
       1. Getting Started
       2. In-Game Chat
       3. “I sense a presence…”
       4. Session Management
    6. Summary
17. Chapter 13 Putting It All Together
    1. Making It Better
18. Appendix Additional Resources
    1. RPG Development Links
    2. Community Sites
    3. Blogs
    4. Game Development Resources
    5. AI Resources
    6. AI Middleware Links
    7. Source Code Control
19. Index