VBA4Play: Making a Maze (Prologue: Development Principles for Excel Games and Applications)

This post has been written by guest author Jordan Goldmeier of Advanced XL. 

This is part of a series called “VBA4Play,” written in conjunction with Excel game developer, Cary Walkin, for his blog. Many thanks to Cary for inviting me to write a few tutorials for his series.

My development approach is different from Cary’s. To be sure, there are many different development styles when in comes to Excel and, for that matter, in the software development world. However, my principles are ones I hold fast to. You may disagree with them, and I welcome you to challenge me in the comments should you feel inclined. But it’s far more important that you understand these principles and why I believe in them. Think of it as an Elements of Style for Excel development. (For the unfamiliar, The Elements of Style is English style guide with a list of rules and principles to English writing style.)

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2013
09/17
CATEGORY
VBA4Play
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Molyjam 2013: Observations From a First-Timer

Last weekend I attended Molyjam, a game jam event hosted by Uken Games in Toronto. A game jam is an event where people volunteer to work on a game for a weekend and see what they can make by the end of the weekend. For me, the end result was Lost Dog, a 4-player marco-polo experience where you are trying to find your lost dog before a coyote finds it first (Play in Browser). The game was made over the weekend with contributions from myself, Aaron Bernstein, Katherine Mackay, Edith Chow, and Ryan Roth. This was my first game jam event and this post details my observations about it.

Lost Dog – Molyjam

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2013
07/11
CATEGORY
Game Development
Game Portfolio
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VBA4Play Part 2: Animation in Excel

This is the second part of the VBA4Play tutorial series. This tutorial is going to leverage off some of the code in VBA4Play Part 1: Movement and Collision Detection so be sure to view that prior to starting.

By the end of this tutorial, you’ll be able to make your own customized animations within Microsoft Excel. This tutorial is going to cover three different types of animation techniques: Uncontrolled, Wait, and Real-Time. Each type of animation has its own benefits and drawbacks so I’ll be going through the implementation of each of them step-by-step so that you will have the skills to use them in your own projects. Animation appears in every type of game so it’s important that we understand how to make effective animations so that we can make bigger and better games!

Okay, now let’s get started!

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2013
06/28
CATEGORY
Arena.Xlsm
VBA4Play
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Arena.Xlsm is now on Steam Greenlight!

Arena.Xlsm on Steam Greenlight

If you want to see Arena.Xlsm on Steam vote here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=149050793

2013
05/30
CATEGORY
Arena.Xlsm
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Open Call for Localization Volunteers!

Currently Arena.Xlsm is in a state that I am happy with, the game mechanics are all in and they seem to be working well together. Now that there will be few game changes, I can now proceed with localization of the game into various languages. Arena.Xlsm was designed in Microsoft Excel for free to be accessible to the largest number of people as possible. By localizing the game into various languages, more people will be able to enjoy the experience!

The most commonly requested languages are:

  • Russian
  • French
  • Portuguese
  • Italian
  • Dutch
  • Chinese

If you can speak any of these languages and English fluently and would like to help translate Arena.Xlsm, please contact me via e-mail or comment below. If you want to translate the game into a language not listed above, please contact me and we can discuss the viability of getting another localized version out.

If you’re interested in helping make the game accessible to more people in another language, this is your opportunity to make it happen!

Thank you so much for your continued support!

2013
05/29
CATEGORY
Arena.Xlsm
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Arena.Xlsm Version 1.3 Released!

The-Obstacle-Course

Arena.Xlsm Version 1.3 is now available here: Download Arena.Xlsm

This update contains a number of new features and content. Here are the highlights:

  • New Feature: Keyboard Controls. Access the controls through the new control button. You can now customize hot-keys for your most frequently used spells!
  • New Feature: Hard Mode! Unlockable after completing a play-through on Normal. Blood harvested from enemies is decreased by 1. Fame required to level up is increased by a factor of 2. The player does not start with any heals. Enemy health and damage is increased by 25%. Exhausted enemies do not lose their immunities.
  • New Feature: Statistics. The statistics will track your actions across multiple games.
  • New Feature: “Boss Key” – The Statistics spreadsheet is unlocked and can be quickly accessed by pressing the F key from within the game. You can add corporate logos and work to this spreadsheet to mask the fact that you are playing a game at work. NOTE: If you feel the need to use a “boss key” you probably should not be playing this at work. I will not be held liable if you get yourself fired for playing a video game at work.
  • New Feature: Title Screen. There is now a title screen when opening the game and after the player dies. The logo is dynamic and will change based on the player’s progress throughout the game.
  • 3 New Terrain Types: Movable Walls, Pressure Switches and Switch Walls. Move the Movable Walls on to the Pressure Switches to trigger an explosion on Switch Walls connected to the Pressure Switch. This can allow the player to access new parts of the arena and provides an additional challenge while you’re battling enemies simultaneously.
  • 3 New Arenas: The Box, The Obstacle Course, and The Great Barrier.
  • New Collection: Arena Tourist.
  • 61 New Achievements!

For the full patch notes, see the Arena.Xlsm Wiki.

2013
05/14
CATEGORY
Arena.Xlsm
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Arena.Xlsm Version 1.3 Preview

Arena.Xlsm version 1.3 is coming along nicely. Here are some of the main things to look forward to!

New Tiles: Movable Walls and Pressure Switches – Movable walls are heavy walls that you can push around the arena. Push a movable wall onto a pressure switch to detonate the dynamite attached to that switch.  Dynamite can be attached to walls to access new areas of the map. Dynamite may also be attached to cracked terrain, explode the terrain under an enemy to cause the enemy to fall down a bottomless pit! Note that walls with dynamite attached can only be exploded via pressure switch. Be careful, if you push the movable wall onto cracked terrain or a bottomless pit, it will fall down and make the pressure switch unusable!

v1.3-arena-2c

New Feature: Keyboard Controls – You can now control every action in the game with the keyboard in addition to the mouse. This dramatically increases the speed of gameplay!

v1.3-Keyboard-Controls

New Feature: Statistics and “Boss Key” – The game now tracks your statistics across play-throughs. A lot of people have been requesting that I implement a “boss key”, which is a spreadsheet that can be pulled up quickly to mask the fact that you’re playing a video game. The Statistics spreadsheet can be pulled up quickly by pressing the F key while playing the game. The Statistics page is an unlocked and unprotected spreadsheet if you need it for this purpose you can customize it with work. NOTE: If you feel the need to use a “boss key” you probably should not be playing this at work. I will not be held liable if you get yourself fired for playing a video game at work.

v1.3---Statistics

If you want to volunteer as a tester and receive version 1.3 prior to the general public, please feel free to send me an e-mail with the version of excel you are using and I’ll add you to the volunteer tester group.

Please continue to follow me on Facebook and Twitter and Reddit for Arena.Xlsm updates and discussion. Thanks very much for your interest in Arena.Xlsm!

2013
04/29
CATEGORY
Arena.Xlsm
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Arena.Xlsm Version 1.2 Released!

v1.2-arena-3b

Arena.Xlsm Version 1.2 is now available here: Download Arena.Xlsm

This update contains a number of new features and content. Here are the highlights:

  • New Feature: Import Data. You can now import old games! This allows you to continue your game in a new version without losing your progress!
  • New Feature: Dynamic Player Avatar – The player’s avatar will now change to reflect how the player is feeling.
  • 2 New Terrain Types: Cracked Terrain and Bottomless Pits present new situational strategies and challenges!
  • 3 New Arenas! 
  • New Attack: Lunge. Moving offensively into the melee range of an enemy will now automatically perform a lunge attack on the enemy with the player’s melee weapon. This will make it possible for the player to have the first hit in a melee confrontation.
  • New Collection: Emotional Breakdown.
  • 2 New Achievements:
    • My Emotions!!! – Collect all 10 Emotions.
    • Darkness Falls – Cause an enemy to fall down a bottomless pit.
  • New Enemy Type: Chance to Knockback.
  • Final Boss fight has been redesigned and is now much more strategic!

For the full patch notes, see the Arena.Xlsm Wiki.

2013
04/24
CATEGORY
Arena.Xlsm
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Arena.Xlsm Version 1.2 Progress Update

Thanks for your patience regarding the version 1.2 update. Final exams and assignments have been dominating most of my time. However, I’ve been making significant progress on version 1.2. Have a look at the few remaining items still on my to-do list for version 1.2:

  • New Enemy Ability: Chance to Knockback. This will make it more challenging to avoid fire and the new bottomless pits!
  • The Ultimate Evil Boss Encounter: I’m redesigning this boss fight to give it a more “epic” feel. This requires some heavy scripting on my part but I think it’ll be worth it. Without spoiling the redesign, there will be multiple targets and you will need to make a strategic decision which target to hit at any time. This will be in addition to some new counterattacks that have been added to The Ultimate Evil to deal with some of the simpler strategies from earlier versions. I’m trying to get the balance on this just right so it’s not too hard but not too easy while still being a challenge.

In regards to the specific time for release, please continue to follow me on Facebook and Twitter and Reddit for updates and discussion. I hope to get the new version to the volunteer tester group sometime next week. Speaking of which, if you want to be a volunteer tester, please e-mail me with your Excel version(s) and I’ll add you to the list. You’ll be able to try out version 1.2 before everyone else!

In addition to the version 1.2 preview that I posted earlier, please enjoy some screenshots from the upcoming update below:

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2013
04/19
CATEGORY
Arena.Xlsm
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I’m doing an AMA on Friday April 12 at Noon EST

EDIT @ 11:33 AM EST: Now Live!

Hey Redditors!

I’ll be doing an AMA on Friday April 12 at Noon EST. Will we have a thought provoking discussion? Will it degrade into a chaotic mess? You decide!

2013
04/11
CATEGORY
Uncategorized
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