In a previous post I talked about inspiration and decided that I'd spend more time 'just coding'. This series of posts on 'MicroQuest' will be about my adventures doing just that.

It’s sort of a vague attempt to copy from the master (Andrew Braybrook of course!) and keep a diary on the creation of a simple game (from the point of view of someone who doesn’t know how to do it…). I like game programming because it saves me having to think about real-life troubles (such as integration) and allows you to construct a domain model from scratch.

About MicroQuest

This is a bit of an exploration, so I haven't fully formed exactly what MicroQuest will look like when it's finished, but a few principles for how it will work:

• A turn-based game (so I'm not concentrating on game loops and perf and stuff)
• A tile-based game (lends itself to layout and controls in WPF)
• A little bit of online/multiplayer stuff - I have some ideas on this which I'll think about later.

I want to create a game that's a little RPG-ish, and a little Strategy-ish. Influences are Advance Wars, Golden Sun and Fire Emblem on the GBA. I've done some of the basics of coding for this a couple of times using GDI+, but this will be the first time using WPF.

The game loop will be something like:

• From 1 until x turns (x will have a concrete number)
  • Move, Check for Events, Combat, Check for Events, Action, End Turn

• At x turns, assess achievements and ranking

About Technology

I'm going to use WPF to create my game. It's not the technology I should probably choose - maybe I'd be better off using XNA. Actually I'd probably be better off using Popfly Game Creator...

But the point here is to flex my general coding skills with the mainstream techs such as WPF and Silverlight, and the surrounding technologies such as LINQ, Astoria and all that.

And have some fun along the way.

Finally

I'd be happy to put this on CodePlex or similar if anyone is interesting in contributing. Feel free to contribute some graphics too. Best set gets to decide the actual game!