Knightedit

Date: Summer 2009
Tech: XNA, C#, HLSL, Xbox 360

During the summer of 2009, a friend and I finally had months of time to finally build a game after years of experimenting with graphics programming.

This was built using XNA and ran on an Xbox 360. It was an isometric engine which would be used to produce a modern adaptation of the old Knightlore style games from the ZX Spectrum era.

My inspiration for the map editor itself was Valve Hammer Editor.

Development of the map editor went very well - C#/XNA was impressively well structured after years of trying to work with Win32/OpenGL, and it seemed rare to get absolutely stuck on anything. With that said, other than what you can see in the screenshots, the final task to get done was allowing a door to open and close (with sound effects).

It wouldn't have taken much more to get spike traps, items, lava, extra rooms etc, but we were students who had finished year 3 of university, and had no income, and desperately short funds. I was gutted to have abandoned this project, but then entered the web industry.

The final version of Knightedit (in that we stopped developing it).

Work in Progress

A few screenshots during development:

The first iteration. The UI and DirectX viewport are able to interact.
Objects can be selected in the viewport, and the UI will show details of the selected object.
Object can be moved, deleted, etc. — The first iteration. The UI and DirectX viewport are able to interact. Objects can be selected in the viewport, and the UI will show details of the selected object. Object can be moved, deleted, etc.

The first door. The inspector in the UI shows I had started working on the
entity/trigger system of the game engine. At this point, items could tell other items what to
do (again inspired by Valve Hammer Editor), in this case causing the door object to toggle
open/closed. — The first door. The inspector in the UI shows I had started working on the entity/trigger system of the game engine. At this point, items could tell other items what to do (again inspired by Valve Hammer Editor), in this case causing the door object to toggle open/closed.

Added ability to place rooms. Rooms would be special in that only
the room you were standing in would render, and you would transition to other rooms when
walking into them. In this case, the second room doesn't yet have walls, but has a
cross-section wall piece. — Added ability to place rooms. Rooms would be special in that only the room you were standing in would render, and you would transition to other rooms when walking into them. In this case, the second room doesn't yet have walls, but has a cross-section wall piece.

Added lighting effects. The sphere represents a point light, though oddly
textured. You could customise the lighting colours, strength etc via the UI. — Added lighting effects. The sphere represents a point light, though oddly textured. You could customise the lighting colours, strength etc via the UI.

Added a few more lights. This is using shaders, so if the light was changed
or moved, it would effect the entire scene. — Added a few more lights. This is using shaders, so if the light was changed or moved, it would effect the entire scene.

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