Knox Game Design

How convert a photo image data to be used in an NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) game. Tools used: Gimp, NESASM, YY-CHR, FCEUX. Review of background tile, palette, and attribute data for assembly code. How to prepare the image in Gimp to used indexed palette. Copying image data to YY-CHR. Running the game file with FCEUX. … Continue reading NES Photo Graphics – Knox Game Design, Jun...

History of game passwords for the 8-bit NES video game system console from the 1980’s. Pros and Cons for password systems. Design considerations for a password system. How passwords are generated in Mega Man 2. Method for generating passwords in Metroid. How powerups, boss status, game time, and starting position is converted from bits and … Continue reading Game Passwords – Knox...

Check out the great games that were created for Knox Game Jam 2026! Thanks to everyone who came out for the kickoff event and created a game! Finding Dave by Ashton and Robert You must escape the cave! Click in the direction you want to go with left-click and release at the charge amount you’d … Continue reading Knox Game Jam 2026 – Knox Game Design, April 2026 →

Explanation of how to create a game for N64. Overview of the N64 architecture. Development environment with Pyrite64, MSYS2, libdragon, and Tiny3D. How to install and setup development environment. Creating a new project. Navigating the editor. Adding a simple object and creating a build. Building and running a test project. Creating a model in Blender … Continue reading N64 Development &#82...

Explanation of recreating the classic snake game for QBasic called Nibbles in MonoGame. Steps: Moving blocks. Add snake body. Limit snake length. Adding collectibles. Adding levels, Game States. Sound Effects. Title Screen, Options, Pause. Links

Commemoration of 10 years of the Knox Game Design podcast, with Jacob, Colin, Levi, and RollyMusic. Jacob talks about the GameMaker game he has been creating called Stormbound. https://scrangican.itch.io/stormbound We also talk about the new chat channel for collaboration. James (Lil Snug/locksmitharmy) has a signup for a community game development project. https://discord.com/channels/59607672406...

Design and implementation of a turn based real estate game in twelve steps using MonoGame and C#.

Demo of using hinge joints in unity for doors and pinball flippers. Links and Notes Source code – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/hinge_joint Joints in Unity – https://docs.unity3d.com/6000.2/Documentation/Manual/Joints.html Hinge Joint component in Unity – https://docs.unity3d.com/6000.0/Documentation/Manual/class-HingeJoint.html Podcast theme music – Ri...

Overview and implementation of a 3×3 puzzle cube game using Blender, Unity, and C# code. Links and Notes Source code – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/3x3_puzzle_cube/3x3PuzzleCube Podcast theme music – Ride by Pocketmaster

Overview of ten special weapons for a 2D platformer game, along with demos in MonoGame with explanation of C# code. The weapons covered are normal (buster), eight way, freeze, wave, boomerang, tornado, charge, orbit shield, roller, exploder. Links and Notes Source code – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/special_weapons Podcast theme music – Ride by Pocketmaster

Examples of the various types of gates used in the design of games.   Links and Notes The Level Design Book – https://book.leveldesignbook.com/process/layout/typology/gates What Games Are – https://www.whatgamesare.com/gating.html Mapcore – https://www.mapcore.org/topic/20013-player-gating-in-level-design/ Gating in level design – https://shaunspalding.co.uk/gating-in-level...

Design and implementation steps for creating a pellet eating maze game in MonoGame with C#. Source code – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/pellet_eating Links and Notes MonoGame – https://monogame.net/ Visual Studio – https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/ Ghost behaviors – https://pacman.fandom.com/wiki/Maze_Ghost_AI_Behaviors Podcast theme music – Rid...

Two demos for using the Gimp Perspective Tool to create textures from photos. The textures are then applied to a mesh in Blender which is exported into an FBX model. The model is then imported into Unity which can be used in a game. Links and Notes Gimp – https://www.gimp.org/ Blender – https://www.blender.org/ Unity – … Continue reading Perspective Tool for Textures &#8211...

Explanation of three methods for capturing screenshots for your game. 1. Print Screen key 2. Snipping tool 3. OBS with VLC (VideoLAN). How to use Gimp to crop and scale a screenshot image to the desired size. Links and Notes Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) – https://obsproject.com/ VideoLAN, VLC media player – https://www.videolan.org/ Gimp (GNU Image … Continue reading Screensho...

Five great games were created for Knox Game Jam 2025.  Thanks to everyone who attended the kickoff and created a game.  Great job everyone! Reality Breach by Jeffry Reality Breach is a browser-based bullet hell game with an alternate reality theme and cell-shaded graphics. Players take on the role of a “Reality Architect” who must … Continue reading Knox Game Jam 2025 – Kno...

What is a simulation? Are simulations games? A look at simulations such as SimCity, Micropolis, and Conway’s Game of Life. Links and Notes Demo source code – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/blob/master/simulations/conway/conway.c Micropolis source code – https://github.com/SimHacker/micropolis MicropolisJS – https://www.graememcc.co.uk/micropolisJS/ LifeWiki (C...

New Game Releasing this month Check out the new game Shrine of the Forest God by Dustin, which will be released on Steam on February 28, 2025. Monthly Presentation How to create a simple client and server socket connections in Python to send network data. Demo of how to use socket code to implement a … Continue reading Sockets – Knox Game Design, February 2025 →

Explanation of how to implement drag and drop interface for games. Demos with source code include Unity (C#), MonoGame (C#), GameMaker (GML), and SDL (C). Links and Notes Demo source code – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/draganddrop Unity – https://unity.com/ MonoGame – https://monogame.net/ GameMaker – https://gamemaker.io/en SDL – https://w...

Overview of steps to create a Solitaire game in Unity. Links and Notes Demo source code – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/solitaire OpenGameArt card front sprites – https://opengameart.org/content/playing-cards-vector-png OpenGameArt card back sprite – https://opengameart.org/content/colorful-poker-card-back Unity – https://unity.com/ Podcast theme...

Explanation of mesh model face normals in Blender, which are imported into Unity. Steps to show normals in Blender and how to flip and recalculate normals. Links and Notes Demo project – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/blender_normals Blender – https://www.blender.org/ Unity – https://unity.com/ Podcast theme music – Ride by Pocketmaster

Analysis of how battle damage is calculated in role playing games (RPGs). How damage is calculated in traditional table top RPGs using dice rolls. Statistical analysis of outcomes of various dice combinations. Calculation of battle damage in the video game RPGs Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior) and Final Fantasy along with verification of damage outcomes. Links … Continue reading RPG Battle Dama...

Overview of how to use NFTs (non fungible tokens) in games, including how to mint tokens, specify trait values, and using OpenSea API to read NFT data into a game. Demo of Unity RPG game using NFTs for equippable weapons. Links and Notes Blockchain RPG demo – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/blockchain/BlockchainRPG OpenSea API – https://docs.opensea.io/referenc...

Proof of concept demonstration on how to implement a blockchain to track game currency and purchase of game items.  In this demonstration, the blockchain is created in PHP on a Fedora Linux virtual machine running in Virtual Box.  The block chain is pulled into Unity through C# networking code.  Regular expressions are used to parse … Continue reading Blockchain for Game Development –...

Demonstration of how to use the FCEUX emulator memory tools to determine the memory location of in-game variables, such as number of coins. How to set a breakpoint with the Hex Editor to find the 6502 assembly code that is executed when a memory location is changed. Analysis of assembly code for awarding an extra … Continue reading Exploring NES Memory – Knox Game Design, July 2024 &#8...

Comparison of jumping statistics from various characters in classic platformer games. Analysis of states in jump cycles. Demo of implementation of jump for a 2D platformer game. Links and Notes Demo Code – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/jumping FCEUX – https://fceux.com/web/home.html Podcast theme music – Ride by Pocketmaster