I have been programming school-wise applications and little things, I find boring calculatros and such, where do I begin to learn how to game program, I wouldnt even know how to apply it, I mainlyknow C and VB.
cragtek at
Re: Where do I start
Calypso said
I have been programming school-wise applications and little things, I find boring calculatros and such, where do I begin to learn how to game program, I wouldnt even know how to apply it, I mainlyknow C and VB.
As far as I'm aware these days, (and Ken may feel differently - I'm not sure) you should learn as much as you can about DirectX and/or OpenGL, and how to manipulate vertices and map textures - that is if you want to go down the polygon-based route.
It depends what you mean when you say "game". You're not, for example, going to program Doom 4 in your bedroom - things like that just don't happen anymore... you'd need a huge team and a budget of millions.
If you're looking at shareware ventures, then the emphasis is less on visuals and more on gameplay. This would be a very sensible place to start, and would allow you to develop window rather than full-screen based ideas before you move onto other things.
I'm sure the advice anyone would give you is to keep absorbing from all around you. Keep reading the books. Keep experimenting. Go to college. Get a job through the usual channels if need be.
I don't profess to be an expert on the subject, I'll leave Ken to cover that area, but I do know that you need a lot of enthusiasm and commitment to persue game programming. If you've got that then you're half-way there.
Admittedly, my interests on a personal level rather waned from programming - largely due to an interest in business, coupled with the realisation that I could express myself more through other creative disciplines. Given that, I'd take everything I just told you with a pinch of salt. :-)
Hope it helps,
-C
Calypso at
Where do I start
I am in colllege for networking/securty we do some programing, but I just want to do in recreationaly, yeah no DOOM4s just smaller 90 looking games, any books reccomended?
BarrenSoul at
http://www.gametutorials.com/
Happy learning
Personaly I still havn't got around to it.... social corospondence is killing me :) trying to do modules in one month is no fun ^_^
BarrenSoul at
Re: Where do I start
cragtek said
It depends what you mean when you say "game". You're not, for example, going to program Doom 4 in your bedroom - things like that just don't happen anymore... you'd need a huge team and a budget of millions.
??? of course you can do it!!!! NEVER say you can't thats just silly! it's just gonna take a HELLUVA LONG time for one loley person to do it ^_^
DoubleG at
Where do I start
If you know C or C++, there's a rather cool library called SDL (http://www.libsdl.org/) that is cross-platform, simple to learn, and can interface with OpenGL to make 3D games once you're comfortable.
As for making the next "big game," don't forget that big games aren't just the latest blood-and-guts shooter...Snood and The Sims made a killing by appealing to a totally different gaming demographic.
cragtek at
DoubleG said
As for making the next "big game," don't forget that big games aren't just the latest blood-and-guts shooter...Snood and The Sims made a killing by appealing to a totally different gaming demographic.
I do have to concede that the fantastic Transport Tycoon, Rollercoaster Tycoon (& 2) plus Locomotion have all been excellent, despite the isometric psuedo-3D graphics.
And guess what? All done by one man - Chris Sawyer.
I'll give you that one then. :-)
About making Doom4 at home though, I stick by that. Might sound pessimistic, but in fact it's just realistic. After all, one cannot assume that you are world-class at every aspect of game design (including music composition, texture design, marketing!) In the event I'm wrong though, I'm sure I could find you a job doing something!
Calypso at
Ehh what's to say that DOOM 4 isnt 2d, and uses simple sprites...and uh no sound X-D
BarrenSoul at
my bad crag I thought you were talking about just the game engine aspect of Doom4 :\ ya one person doing all that alone would be almost impossible (key word almost ;) ) if you using MSVS .NET remeber to disable managed directx since ken seems to hate it it has to be bad :D
Calypso at
that links really good.
Anonymous at
*is chock full of prorgamming links* I got about 50+ of em :\
BarrenSoul at
Anonymous said
*is chock full of prorgamming links* I got about 50+ of em :\
Nards I posted as a guest >_< oh well just to let you know it was infact me :)
Calypso at
wanna post them? that'd great, I found a few, but its all what I know. On a side note dont you think guesst should be disabled
BarrenSoul at
sorry for taking so long to reply I'll get to posting them as soon as I get home since I'm in school right now and forgot to turn tightVNC on (remote managment rocks!)
Silhouette of a Can at
Start off with a twinkie and other sugary substances.
Then make a little game, something simple, like a simple text adventure, a pointless click game. This will help open the more creative part of your mind. As time goes on, continue to create better games. This helps you learn more skills step by step. Then, when you feel you have the skills, or are willing to learn them, and are comfortable enough to do a 90s style game, go right ahead. :)
BarrenSoul at
I havn't sorted all of these and some may be redudnant to some extent since I've just accumulated them over time.
http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial.html
http://www.desy.de/gna/html/cc/Tutorial/tutorial.html
http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article1563.asp
http://www.adom.de/misc/qhack.php3
http://www.iota-six.co.uk/c/
ftp://68.96.173.193:51221/ebooks/programming/
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=introduction+g%2B%2B+C%2B%2B+compiling+linking&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&meta=
http://www.soulie.com/juan/
http://www.planetsourcecode.com/ (study the source codes DON"T COPY AND PASTE THEM! thats not learning)
http://new-brunswick.net/workshop/c++/faq/
http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/#tutorial
http://cplus.about.com/library/blcplustut.htm
http://www.functionx.com/cpp/
http://www.4p8.com/eric.brasseur/cppcen.html
http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/C++/
http://www.intap.net/~drw/cpp/
http://www.cee.hw.ac.uk/~pjbk/pathways/cpp1/cpp1.html
http://www.cyberdiem.com/vin/learn.html
http://www.arachnoid.com/cpptutor/
http://etude.uwaterloo.ca/~ctrudeau/lessons/C++/tutorial2.html
http://www.docs.cs.huji.ac.il/C++-Tutorial/tut-many_file/
http://www.coronadoenterprises.com/
http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/1590592271/qid=1078527296/sr=1-6/ref=sr_1_1_6/702-9190590-4313664
(the Ivor book is a great book, I learned from it mainly)
http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial/lesson16.html
http://cppreference.com/
http://www.codecuts.com/mainpage.asp?WebPageID=315
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/Unicode.html
http://drorbitz.ath.cx:8080/~orbitz/Thinking_In_C++/Volume1/Contents.html
http://www.vivekpatel.cjb.net/
http://www.paulgrenyer.co.uk/articles/books.html
http://www.cplusplus.com/
http://mysite.freeserve.com/dave_normans_site/page2.html
http://www.cpp-home.com/tutorial.php?23_3
http://www.scorpioncity.com/djdirectxtut.html
http://www.vijaymukhi.com/
http://www.tantalon.com/pete/cppopt/main.htm
http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~horie/persp.txt (3D graphics tutorial I think)
http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~horie/alphablend.html
http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~horie/project2.html
http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~amitp/gameprog.html
http://www.gameprogrammer.com/
Calypso at
whoa, thanks
maniac1701 at
I've been writing programs in dos for a long time i feel i can do almost anything with 2d graphics now. Unfortunately i haven't had much time to work on my engine but when its done it will be a warcraft 2 clone with better features. Im also working on a 3d renderer that worked great until i got into depth sorting. I need to rewrite a major part of the renderer but feel kinda lazy about it due to my lack of time. Any way I'd like to port all of this to windows but every time i look at visual studios (visual c++ more specifically), i feel like im hitting a brick wall.
Any good books you could recomend for using VS/VC++ (DirectX would be nice).
I'm sure microsofts MSDN has more stuff on it (but it won't be kiddy stuff is my guess)
Calypso at
Well I have anither question, I really want to start, but I am having little problems, how did YOU (anyone) learn, yeah you read the books but maybe you did things, how?
BarrenSoul at
personally I experimented alot, although I'd sujest you be EXTREMELY carrefull with arrays since you can write beyond where the array is and write in memory that another prog is using (like windows memory, which is HIGHLY unsujested :) )
Andy at
Highly unsuggested, but really really funny. :)
Anonymous at
Calypso said
Well I have anither question, I really want to start, but I am having little problems, how did YOU (anyone) learn, yeah you read the books but maybe you did things, how?
I do have some source files, but I don't know if they could help you, it's mostly just little menu box's and randomizations with the Time.h file, or if you press a button some sort of action would happen but it shows how to use some of the fuctions, it could help you but I'm not sure.
Calypso at
C or C++, which would be better to learn, easier and such, I have about 2 years of VB already.
Calypso at
Oh and gametutorials sold out, you have to pay per tutorial, pssh
Calypso at
Ha Ha I went for a job interview for networking, but they hired me for programming for reasons I have no clue I am obviously new to it, and I need to learn C#
Andy at
C# is ridiculously easy. Shouldn't be very hard to pick up if you already know VB. It's approximately VB with C syntax, in the style of Java. : )
Edit:
Okay, that's probably not a really good description. But it wont take long at all to pick up. (Like every other language, I guess)
Anonymous at
Calypso said
Oh and gametutorials sold out, you have to pay per tutorial, pssh
It shouldn't be anymore, I got myself a copy. Binary operators are hard :D :lol:
Anonymous at
Does anyone know of a place where you can find some good C tutorials? I know some stuff about C but not lots. I already tried the Game Tutorials link and was really disapointed (I found it not very helpful after about 15 tutorials).
Anonymous at
Next step
So whats the next step, remember, take baby steps before you try to walk ;-).
Anonymous at
Re: Next step
Anonymous said
So whats the next step, remember, take baby steps before you try to walk ;-).
Very true statement, I agree that starting out small and working your way up is a good method. But I would like a link or two to some tutorials on C.