If you want to write a Role Playing Game, but don’t know how to program, or just want to learn how to program in C#, then you’re at right the place.
These lessons will take you from a complete beginner, to being an author of a Role Playing Game, for free.
Now, this isn’t the world’s greatest game. In fact, it’s very short and kind of ugly.
However, as you create it, you’ll learn the most common C# programming practices and techniques. Then, if you want, you can improve the game, adding more features and your own special touch to it.
NOTE: One of the awesome students here created a PDF document of the lessons. You can get a copy of it here, or here. You can also download the source code files for the lessons here, or here. Thank you, Mark!
SECTIONS
Lesson 00.1 – What is in these lessons?
Lesson 00.2 – General information about programming in C#
Lesson 00.3 – The parts of Visual Studio
Lesson 01.1 – Defining classes and objects for the game
Lesson 02.1 – Installing Visual Studio Express 2013 for Desktop
Lesson 02.2 – Building the solution for the game
Lesson 03.1 – Building the first screen
Lesson 04.1 – Creating the Player class and its properties
Lesson 05.1 – Creating objects from classes
Lesson 06.1 – Creating the remaining classes
Lesson 07.1 – Inheritance and base classes
Lesson 08.1 – Setting properties with a class constructor
Lesson 08.2 – Using class constructors with derived classes
Lesson 09.1 – Using your classes as datatypes
Lesson 10.1 – Creating collections of objects
Lesson 11.1 – Using a static class
Lesson 12.1 – Add the remaining UI controls
Lesson 13.1 – Functions, procedures, and methods
Lesson 13.2 – Creating functions to handle user input
Lesson 15.1 – Getting random numbers for the game
Lesson 16.1 – Writing the function to move the player
Lesson 16.2 – Refactoring the player movement function
Lesson 16.3 – Functions to use weapons and potions
Lesson 17.1 – Running the game on another computer
Lesson 18.1 – Future enhancements for the game
Bonus lessons (enhancements to the game)
Lesson 19.1 – Scroll to the bottom of a rich text box
Lesson 19.2 – Use a calculated value for a property
Lesson 19.3 – Clean up the source code by converting foreach to LINQ
Lesson 19.4 – Saving and loading the player information
Lesson 19.5 – Changing dropdown default values
Lesson 19.6 – Increase maximum hit points when the player gains a level
Improving SuperAdventure’s code quality by refactoring
Lesson 20.1 – Refactoring the SuperAdventure program
Lesson 20.2 – Binding a custom object’s properties to UI controls
Lesson 20.3 – Binding list properties to datagridviews
Lesson 20.4 – Binding child list properties to a combobox
Lesson 20.5 – Moving the game logic functions from the UI project to the Engine project
Adding a vendor to locations (with buying and selling items)
Lesson 21.0 – Plans for adding a vendor to locations
Lesson 21.1 – Adding a price to game items
Lesson 21.2 – Create the vendor class and add it to locations
Lesson 21.3 – Add a button and create its eventhandler in code, without the UI design screen
Lesson 21.4 – Completing the trading screen
Use SQL to save and restore player’s game data
Lesson 22.1 – Installing MS SQL Server on your computer
Lesson 22.2 – Creating database tables from classes
Lesson 22.3 – Creating the SQL to save and load the saved game data
Creating a console UI for SuperAdventure
Lesson 23.1 – Creating a console front-end for the game
Final refactoring (cleanup) of the SuperAdventure source code
Lesson 24.1 – Make the SuperAdventure source code easier to understand and modify
New game features
Lesson 25.1 – Select a random monster at a location
Hello again, Mr. Lilly,
It has been a while since you last helped me in my endeavors to learn C# and programming in general. I don’t have any questions for you this time, but some news. 10 months after graduating with my BS in CS, I’ve finally managed to break into the professional field by landing a paid internship. I cannot overestimate how ecstatic I am. I’ve reason to believe that part of what put me over the edge of other potential employees (if they existed) was that I had demonstrative proof of having worked on a project of some sort. Among the coding examples I provided after the initial interview was the project I started after finding this site. Though there is no object-oriented programming going on in this position, several portions of the project either hinted at or was directly related to the skills deemed requirements, specifically knowledge of XML.
I just wanted to let you know that you and your tutorials helped pave the way to my success. I know I don’t know you very well, but I admire your work and your willingness to teach.
I don’t believe I can thank you enough.
Congratulations! That is great news!
You also learned two important career lessons, very early on. Invest time to improve your skills (or learn new skills), and have something you can demonstrate to employers. Many programmers wait for their employers to “give them an opportunity” to learn something new. A few programmers “make their own opportunities”. They experiment with new technologies, and post their code samples online. When a new position comes along, it’s easy to guess which type of programmer will be selected for it. Even if you only put in a few hours every week, you can see some amazing results over the years.
Best wishes to you, in your new career.
I found this tutorial incredible and worthwhile – so thank you for the lesson. Do you have any other tutorials that would show basically the same thing but with graphics?
You’re welcome. I don’t have a tutorial for a graphical game. You might try this series (https://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/dotGAME) on MSDN Channel 9. It shows how to build an RPG in Unity.
Hi Scott,
This is really a great tutorial and easy to follow. I finished the basics (upto Lesson 16.3) and tried to run the game but I am getting this exception message:
An unhandled exception of type ‘System.TypeInitializationException’ occurred in SuperAdventure.exe
Additional information: The type initializer for ‘Engine.World’ threw an exception.
This occurs at Line 25:
24 _player = new Player(10, 10, 20, 0, 1);
25 MoveTo(World.LocationByID(World.LOCATION_ID_HOME));
26 _player.Inventory.Add(new InventoryItem(World.ItemByID(World.ITEM_ID_RUSTY_SWORD), 1));
Can you help me resolve this exception?
Thanks,
Vyyom
This error usually happens if there is an problem in the World class.
Can you upload your solution (including all the sub-folders and files in them) to GitHub or Dropbox, so I can look at the source code?
Hi again,
Here is the source code: LINK REMOVED FOR PRIVACY
The Quest class is missing the initialization of the QuestCompletionItems property. Look at line 26, in the constructor from Lesson 10.1, to find the missing line.
I also noticed there are no eventhandlers for the movement buttons. So, the player cannot move.
To fix this, you can open SuperAdventure in Designer (graphic) mode, click one time on each movement button (do not double-click on them). Look in the “Properties” section of Visual Studio (the lower-right corner). Click on the lightning symbol, to see the events. Look for the “Click” event, and select the right movement function for each button (for example, “btnNorth_Click”, for the “North” button). This is what the “Properties” section looks like:
Here is the source code: https://github.com/Vyyom-Kelkar/SuperAdventure
You need to make the changes here: https://scottlilly.com/learn-c-by-building-a-simple-rpg-index/comment-page-6/#comment-6029
Hi,
Thanks for your help. That solved my problem!
Vyyom
You’re welcome!
Hey Scott,
First of all this tutorial has been great so far I’m loving it!
But I’ve come to a stand-still, I can run the program without errors but It doesn’t seem to be generating the quests or monsters in the game and I can’t for the life of me figure out why?
Can you upload your solution (and all in the files in the folders below it) to GitHub or Dropbox, so I can look at it?