Thread: I want to start working on my own game...

The only game programming I've done is with OpenGL and C++. It was for a computer graphics class. My group made a very simple first person snowball throwing game that took place in a dungeon. You might want to check out some OpenGL tutorials unless someone that has done more game programming else has some better ideas.

Keep in mind that even creating a simple 3d engine is no simple task.

You don't mention if you have any programming experience....
(I'm assuming not)

C or C++ is probably the best thing to learn
almost every other language out there bases itself on the syntax of C
learn C or C++, and other languages will be simple to pick up

Also, games (due to the need for speed) are almost always in C/C++

If you don't know C or C++, then starting with complicated games is probably not the best way to learn

First up is to learn the language

you'll need some references and tutorials, so have a browse through these
www.cprogramming.com
www.cplusplus.com

Get the basics of programming down

then make a really simple game
(hangman, snake, digdug, whatever)

Moving on to real, complicated games, can I suggest you start out modifying an existing game.
To jump straight in the deep end will leave you completely confused
and making your own game engine is probably out of the question (have you ever seen any? they make your head hurt)

Pick an open source game that you're interested in
then change it

After that, you can take an existing open source game engine, and make your own game using the engine

Open source is your friend
learn from what others have done

I'll probably go for the simple stuff, then work on editing Half-Life or something...

3D engines are easy, the problem comes from optimizing them. Most games have millions of objects on the screen at once. OpenGL can render then all, but it will take forever. The "engine" actually sorts and clips the parts out that don't need to be drawn. That's hard and requires you to know how to use and implement an Octree Data Structure, and BSP mapping.

C++ is a good language to learn, but there are some things in it that make it difficult to understand at first (pointers, virtual methods, polymorphism, mutlithreading) Most programmers use smart pointers, but when working with graphics, that's impossible. I recommend writing things like AI and such in C++, but using something a little more powerful than OpenGL for the actually graphics engine. Dark SDK is a C++ wrapper around the Dark Basic engine. I'm pretty sure that Dark SDK is free, and it's easy to use and does clipping and such for you. The only problem is that it uses the some-what deprecated DirectX 9.

Please don't mention Dark Basic again ;__;

I had to use that in one of my classes and almost died from using that piece of crap...

I didn't. Dark SDK is a C++ SDK (Software Development Kit) From what I know it's API is very similar to OpenGL and DirectX (XRotate, XScale, XMatrix...)

While these guys are suggesting more low level solutions, I'll show you your higher level options =P

If you want to use a C family language, you could always develop with C# and XNA (Microsoft's development platform that will make your game compatible with both PC and Xbox). C# tends to be much nicer to the starting developer with all the nice things like a expansive library, garbage collection, being mostly thread safe and stuff....

The platform I use the majority of the time is flash. You can pick up the trial from the adobe website if you want to try it. The language is quite newcomer friendly (as far as languages go) and the distributive ability of the finished product is what makes me use it.

Both those solutions are not nearly as efficient or powerful as C/C++ though, and only flash CS4 has hardware support for 3D. It really depends on what you want to make.

Originally Posted by arby

While these guys are suggesting more low level solutions, I'll show you your higher level options =P

If you want to use a C family language, you could always develop with C# and XNA (Microsoft's development platform that will make your game compatible with both PC and Xbox). C# tends to be much nicer to the starting developer with all the nice things like a expansive library, garbage collection, being mostly thread safe and stuff....

C# requires .NET framework, a heft file. Not reccomended.

The platform I use the majority of the time is flash. You can pick up the trial from the adobe website if you want to try it. The language is quite newcomer friendly (as far as languages go) and the distributive ability of the finished product is what makes me use it.

Both those solutions are not nearly as efficient or powerful as C/C++ though, and only flash CS4 has hardware support for 3D. It really depends on what you want to make.

Flash is pretty win, I used to make stuff.

Did Adobe make AS4 for CS4? OR did they keep it at 3?

C/C++ is the best. Also, there is an engine called RealityFactor you might want to look at.

I recomend against flash, it doesn't have any hardware support, so it's slow.

For a full 3D game, flash = fail. C++ would be good.

Oh, and my bad; it's Reality Factory. Link

I'm right there with you, I would love to throw together some games three dimensional or something like a MUD.

In any case I'm starting down the road of learning C++ and thus far haven't gotten past "Hello, world!". It certainly isn't something you can get in a day. Wikiversity is a pretty good place to start learning.

Originally Posted by GestaltAlteration

I'm right there with you, I would love to throw together some games three dimensional or something like a MUD.

In any case I'm starting down the road of learning C++ and thus far haven't gotten past "Hello, world!". It certainly isn't something you can get in a day. Wikiversity is a pretty good place to start learning.

lulz I got to pointers in one night. i have other programming experience, so that's probably why. I could give you private lessons. You too slayer.

I should make a thread for that...too bad I'm not too far,but a study group would be cool. I'm doing that, later.

Originally Posted by GestaltAlteration

I'm right there with you, I would love to throw together some games three dimensional or something like a MUD.

In any case I'm starting down the road of learning C++ and thus far haven't gotten past "Hello, world!". It certainly isn't something you can get in a day. Wikiversity is a pretty good place to start learning.

Well it seems someone is a Chaos;Head fan...


Who's eye's are those eyes?

Originally Posted by [SomeGuy]

lulz I got to pointers in one night. i have other programming experience, so that's probably why. I could give you private lessons. You too slayer.

I should make a thread for that...too bad I'm not too far,but a study group would be cool. I'm doing that, later.

Yeah I haven't been too on top of studying it, plus I was actually looking into C, though now I see I should just jump right into C++.

A study group sounds very cool. :3

Originally Posted by slayer

Well it seems someone is a Chaos;Head fan...


Who's eye's are those eyes?

I told you I'd be taking this for my own once you changed signatures. You were forewarned!

EDIT: Good resource: http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/C%2B%2B

...

Should we do the study group through email, or PM?

And slayer, you wanna be invloved?

Originally Posted by [SomeGuy]

Should we do the study group through email, or PM?

And slayer, you wanna be invloved?

We could all hijack a room in DV chat. Easiest and most responsive, then move on from there-- PMing questions or whatever.

Could of major C++ points that you will need to do a real game:

pointers (real pointers, not smart ones)
multithreading and mutex controls
inheritance / polymorphism
Callback functions
O3 optimization, code stripping

Originally Posted by GestaltAlteration

We could all hijack a room in DV chat. Easiest and most responsive, then move on from there-- PMing questions or whatever.

We could get together and try to make our own game?

Would it be easier for us to mod a game like Half-Life? Or start something from scratch?

I want to make a fast first person shooter with awesome particle effects and stuff...what about you guys?

I think start from scratch;more of a learning experience. And my computers suck, we could make it compatible for me lul.

lol...

Ok well if we are going to make a game, then we'll have to agree on what kind of game we're making.

Suggestions?

As I said, I wanted to make a fast fps game with some nice looking effects (I can photoshop things) for some laidback fun and casual gaming.

Originally Posted by slayer

As I said, I wanted to make a fast fps game with some nice looking effects (I can photoshop things) for some laidback fun and casual gaming.

Add MMO, and a Bioshock theme;

You win.

You could always just take Doom and use doombuilder, which allows you to do a ridiculous amount of stuff FPS-wise.

But half-life is good too.

Myself, I was just in it to learn basic C++, not to making games yet, reasons evident in ninja's post.

Doom 3? Why don't you kill my computer...

OMG BIOSHOCK ON ThE DOOM 1 ENGINE.

Let's do this boys.