Video Games

[MolotovCocktail]

Does anyone here have any experience in programming video games of any sort? I've had a couple of ideas and reading those "Teach yourself Java" books, but experience is showing that this making a game is really, really complicated. I'm trying to make some sort of TBS (Turn Based Strategy).

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Start simple. Learn the programming language first, then learn graphics, then apply it to games.

 

Python would be good to learn, as you can use Pygame.

[1veedo]

You could look at other (gnu or open source) tbs and see how they do it.

 

Eg wesnoth.

[abskebabs]

If you learn some c++, you could perhaps start using the engine in the link below to make something. It would save you starting something COMPLETELY from scratch, though you may want to use something else fr a turn based game, as that doesn't need to be 3d. Generally, I think serious videogame making is done by huge teams of ppl nowadays.

Irrlicht Engine: http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/

[JesuBungle]

Personally, I find VB to be an excellent language for top-down or sidescroller type games. You make a picture box for your character, tell it what file you want in the box, and set parameters to move it around. Very simple.

[1veedo]

Personally, I find VB to be an excellent language for top-down or sidescroller type games. You make a picture box for your character, tell it what file you want in the box, and set parameters to move it around. Very simple.

You're joking, right?

[JesuBungle]

No, not at all. Why does everyone have to hate VB lol. It's an easy beginner language, and I think it would be perfect for what he wants to do.

[timo]

Similarly to abskebabs, I´d recommend you to use an existing engine. I would, however, strongly recommend that you simply play around with its tutorials a bit before you even think about starting your own project. If you still have to learn the language, you won´t even know what is possible and what will turn out to be complicated, otherwise. A very nice java engine with -iirc- nice documentation and available tutorials is the jmonkey engine (http://www.jmonkeyengine.com/).

[abskebabs]

I just remembered.... My friend used to have a program on his computer called "Klik and play". You could make pretty simple 2d games on it without knowing any programming languages so you might wanna try it out if you wana learn the basics of videogame design(and show off to your friends too! ). The same company has made more programs like that since and the latest I think is called "Games factory 2". A link to the site is below:

http://www.clickteam.com/eng/index.php

[Rocket Man]

Why does everyone have to hate VB lol. It's an easy beginner language, and I think it would be perfect for what he wants to do.

 

vb... it's the one code i bothered to learn. now i've got the thing rendering 3D wire frames in stereoscopy, tens of times per second with unrestricted view points using the just built in draw functions.

 

basically, the only thing limiting anyone in gaming is the graphics engines they work with. vb can't draw a triangle so i'm stuck at wire frames.

the most useful language any programmer can learn is mathematics.

 

edit: klick and play is not something i'd recommend to beginners or anyone else. it's not code, it's not teaching anything, and most of all, you'll out grow it's built in subs in no time flat leaving you at square one wondering what language to learn. i like vb becasue i can control everything.

 

 

ps: if anyone has any suggestions regarding a sub for a quick loading triangle in vb, it'd be much appreciated (i am not going directX)

[Pangloss]

Personally, I find VB to be an excellent language for top-down or sidescroller type games. You make a picture box for your character, tell it what file you want in the box, and set parameters to move it around. Very simple.

 

That's not VB you're talking about. The simplicity and ease-of-use you're describing are features of the IDE and the underlying managed code, and the easy access to the operating system's graphical interface that the managed code provides. It would work exactly the same way in any of the .NET languages. You'd just be typing your "parameters" a different way.

 

Just as a side note, misconceptions like that are really pushing the Microsoft programming community to dump VB, not so much because it's a bad language, but just to simplify the picture. These days all the ASP developers start out learning VB syntax, and then promptly have to learn the C++/Java syntax because they're having to spend so much time in Javascript, XML, C#, etc. Dumping VB would solve all that and bring the MS programming community in line with what everyone else is doing.

 

As Gandalf might say, "One syntax to rule them all, and in the runtime bind them."

[Adrian]

XNA is your friend. You can download the C# express compiler for FREE.

 

http://www.xnatutorial.com/?page_id=46

 

Check that site out.

[foodchain]

I might suggest looking in at this. The game has one of the best physics engines out there really and many many people using it all over the place.

 

http://www.valve-erc.com/srcsdk/Hammer/html/Hammer_Users_Guide.html

 

"phys_torque

Like the phys_motor entity, this entity applies angular velocity to an object. This entity also has the ability to ignore the mass of the object being turned, as well as having a built in timer which allows the entity to exert torque on the attached entity for a given amount of time, disabling itself afterwards.

 

See maps/sdk_phys_torque.vmf"

[MolotovCocktail]

Thanks for all of your help guys.