The Long Post of Programming!

8-22-08
Was able to figure out game pad input fairly quickly. Though now I need to turn that into a well put-together input class. It'll take a bit more research to check for everything but should be fairly simple. Only like a gazillion buttons and stuff.
Buttons: RT, RB, LT, LB, L3, R3, A, B, X, Y, Back & Start - - - These seem to only have Pressed and Released States
Thumb Sticks (Left and Right) - Give you a Vector2 value in floats. 1.0 through -1.0 for each X and Y. I'll have to use that value for speed perhaps.

Triggers and Dpad i'm still looking into... but who uses DPad anyways! Triggers appear to be floats but haven't much looked into them yet.

Also got my old Sprite class working again in 2.0 (updated from 1.0r) - It's a mish-mash of tutorials and public domain code... but hey it is a sprite class with simple Per-Pixel Collision Detection, rotation, speed, etc.. I think. Need to look into it more to remember fully.

Game as it stands now - 4 (big and ugly ships) appear on a black background. Player 1 controller moves Yellow Ship, P2 Controller moves Blue ship. Both are moved with the Left Thumbstick. Pressing A brings the ships back to their starting locations.

Next Task - I want to create a better InputHandler. The one I current have there is a rip from someone else and it sucks for gamepad support.

8-23-08
The input handler class has been updated so that it now works again. I have also implemented ThumbStick support! Created a new Function
"ThumbSticks" which takes two integer variables. Player Index (0 - 3) and Stick (0 - 1) Sticks 0 = Left, 1 = Right. Player index = controller # -1. This will return a Vector2 coordinate which can be used for movements and stuff.

D-Pad is still kinda up in the air, but I'm going to leave it there until we have a need to use the D-Pad.

Game as it stands is the same. I added in some test functionality... Controller 2's B button moves Player 1's Ship to co-ords 200,200 & Player 2's Right stick if held to the right moves Player 1's Ship right.

Next Task(s) -
Game State Handling - so we can start building Title Screen - Splash Screen - Loading Screen - Level Screen (etc..) Also it will help me keep code separate. No need for ship controlling code to bog down the Title Screen!
Scrolling Backgrounds - Because we want the ships to feel like they are moving.
(Extra Innings) Particle Effects - the name says it all, but start with enginge 'fire' [though like this will happen with D3 coming out in two days!]

9-6-08
Pretty much no news. I've been busy with running and house stuff and work. have looked at Game State management but not enough to get it up and running in our prototype yet. I'm not going to set any date earlier than the weekend of Oct 18th to have it done by. The marathon training is kicking my ass right now.

Started a self-motivating blog here:
http://projectggot.blogspot.com/

Current Project status... Everything I had prior to now is in XNA GS 3.0. so that's down. Right now my mind is all muddled and I need to get it organized. so I'm thinking of wasting $20 and buying a giant white board to hang in the office.