Zombie Outhouse Development Part 7

Zombie Outhouse Development Part 7: Back to the XNA Arrrr!

[Bonus points to whoever gets the title reference.  Okay, maybe not.]

Porting Zombie Outhouse to Windows Phone 7 was a fairly easy process since the game was developed using XNA and already running on the Xbox 360 & Zune HD.  But Windows Phone 7 is a new mobile platform with its own set of challenges.

Advertisement

Zombie Outhouse Development Part 6

Zombie Outhouse Development Part 6: To the iPad and beyond!

[Just like a zombie, this blog is back from the dead.  Apologies for the neglect.  I got derailed a few times but am back on track.  There will be a flurry of posts over the next few weeks to catch up on the backlog and then we’ll focus on an upcoming action rpg project.]

Soon after the iPad came out, I wanted to upgrade Zombie Outhouse to add native iPad support using the higher resolution art that was used in the Xbox 360 version.  But luckily [really?], I got sidetracked with the Cyborg Mice web comic.  A few months later, Apple announced the iPhone 4 with its high resolution Retina Display.  Believe it or not, this actually would make the porting job a much easier task.

Zombie Outhouse Development Part 5

Zombie Outhouse Development Part 5: Creating the Zombie Outhouse Font

I wanted to have a unique font for Zombie Outhouse and after doing a little research, I decided to create my own.  Here’s how I did it…

Step 1. The Zombie Outhouse font needed to have a messy splatter look so the first thing I did was to create a few test brushes in Illustrator and quickly settled on one.  This is what it looks like:

Zombie Outhouse Development Part 4

Zombie Outhouse Development Part 4: Porting to the iPhone with the Bork3D Engine

[Apologies for the long hiatus but I hope be back on track and am planning on weekly updates for this blog]

When it came time to port Zombie Outhouse to the iPhone, I looked at numerous options to help ease the process.  After the dust settled, I decided on the Bork3D Engine.  Some of the reasons were:

• It’s C++!!!!
• Low price ($49 for an indie license)
• Full Source Code
• Lightweight and clean

Zombie Outhouse Development Part 3

Zombie Outhouse Development Part 3: Converting from C# to C++

While the official programming language for the iPhone is Objective-C, you can use C/C++ within it.  I prefer to work in C++ and try to avoid Objective-C at all costs.

To take the path from C# to C++ I used Tangible Software’s Instant C++ software.  The conversion of the files was fairly quick but that was the easy part.

Zombie Outhouse Development Part 2

Zombie Outhouse Development Part 2: Porting to Zune HD

While the plan for Zombie Outhouse was to do an Xbox360 and iPhone version from the beginning, it made sense to make an intermediate Zune HD version which would ease the transition.  It would also allow me to get the game play figured out for the touch screen while still working within the XNA environment.

Zombie Outhouse Development Part 1

Zombie Outhouse Development Part 1: Overview, design and development (Xbox360 & Windows)

This is the first part of a multi-part series which will document the development of Zombie Outhouse for Windows, Xbox 360, Zune HD and iPhone platforms.  I’ll be talking about the various issues and decisions that came up during the development process including details on porting the game from XNA/C# to C++.

Check out the video of the Xbox 360 version below to get an idea of what the game is like and make sure to have your audio on to get the full experience.