Game Creation

Hi,

Im a design student in the UK and im starting to think that i wanna go into the games industry.
I have always done stuff myself and i intend to keep doing it.

My passion is Artwork but my skills are in the narrative, i have a gift for innovative ideas and solutions, for breaking the mould and hence i suspect my future lies in game concepts and design rather than coding. But unfortunately i am well aware there are 1000s of wanna be game designers who want to sell theirr lame ass storys and push off the real work on coders.

I began with Flash (Action script) but quickly became bored. Its too limited, it seemed to be going no where but gimmick games and jokes. So, I moved on. I have begun learning C++ and i am getting somewhere i guess, but i wanna get going. I wanna start creating! Just when i had got it into my head i need to take the long road a devil whispered in my ear....."game enginesssss"

I have met some DEVs who are using "Game Engines" to make their games. They seem a hell of alot quicker and much easier too. They are using "3D Game Studio A6". If i want to go somewhere in the Industry will a knowledge of this help me? Im not good at this kinda thing so i want to learn stuff that will last. I dont wanna have to learn new systems all the time so should i just stick with C++ and make Pong? Its just i can already see the foundations of a 3D application with the engine, all i see in C++ is more and more learning....

Basically, what this post is, is a call for advice from coders. I want some coding knowledge to draw from, i want to be able to do basic programming and i would love to start creating games to put in a future portfolio. What do you recommend me doing?

Lastly my true love (like everyone"zzzz" lolz) is the mmorpg and that is my final aim, but i realise that probly isnt possible any tiime soon.

Thanx for reading my essay lol,

Bam :D

Well as a novice programer i recomend you start with VB6, it may not be a very powerful language but if you know how to use it you can create some great things. Its also a very easy language to learn as you can see what your doing as you make it. I advise you to stick with C++ but try VisualBasic as well. It will give you a better understanding of how things work. I myself started with C++ but i soon grew bored of it after the "hello world" and most of the other basic things, hehe. With VB I found that it was so simple and easy that i didnt get bored. Another tip is to always create something for a purpose. An example, you play a lot of "FPS" games and your accuracy isnt all that good. What do you do? you create a simple target game to help you. Its things like this that will help you on your way to creating great games. Remember everyone has to start small. You cant just dive straight in to creating your dream game. Game Engines are all good and well but in the long run your game will look and play like a lot of other games, and i dont know about you but i would want my game to be unique.

just pm me if you need anymore information in more detail, i will be happy to help.

/sparx

Yea, thats what i was worried about with engines...

I think i will have a go at VB, Its kinda confusing learning patches of this and that tho. I lose confidence :(

You have to pick a language and stick with it no matter what.

Bit of advice, you have to program things you like. I only got into programming because of legend of mir, I wanted to create things for it which would make it better. Currently i'm working on an emulator in delphi which is a new language to me but I can pretty much do anything and if i'm stuck F1 help to the rescue. Learn one language and you will have a basic understanding of all languages. Then theres the syntax. ^^

A6 is shit.

If you want to make a game, I highly suggest that you do NOT use VB...

Java is okay, but it is not always practical... I would have to say C would be the way to go.

Learn DirectX or OpenGL API's to start ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bitblaster

If you want to make a game, I highly suggest that you do NOT use VB...

Java is okay, but it is not always practical... I would have to say C would be the way to go.

Learn DirectX or OpenGL API's to start ;)

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Reguardless of what language he would use.. do you think he will be able to make a highly developed mmorpg or fps?

Vb6 is very capable of making graphical games just not high performance, but who can really make games like that on here?

What i'm saying is hes not developing the next World of Warcraft he will probably make a game like pong so its better to learn off an easy language like vb6 or delphi so when he needs to learn a more advanced language hes not sitting there wondering what a loop is.

I myself started out with Qbasic, then I moved along to Visual basic which is like two different things and the same.... I still use VB for small things if I just need to some something fast! Then VB is wonderful, but if I want to make something serious and stable, I use C++ or C#.
I must say, VB is not really enough for everything, but thank god I still love it!

About Java and flash and so on. I hate people who calls themselves programmers because they can make some HTML or use program from Macromedia. I know Flash and Java is still programming but they are really too limited! There's for me no future in them as C# is very integrated in the Internet too with the .net technology from Shitsoft.

So barely, do as said before, learn VB, itøs easy, it's good. Then advance later on. If you just push yourself, you'll get stuck and you can start from where you are now again!

Good luck!

I would take a look at C#, very easy to get some graphics going, and the DirectX API is really easy to use in C#.. however, if like you say, your skills are in game design, and not programming.. why learn programming? I know plenty of design houses that would take you with no programming exp. However they would expect you to have basic concepts of how a game development lifecycle evolves and maybe a sample game, and a nice storyline.

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Originally Posted by Kaoii

A6 is shit.

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LOLZ! Yea it really is. We (me and some friends) are using Valve Source now. We are basically going to create a game off of HL2. I saw that Source uses C++ programming and thought maybe i can kill 2 birds with 1 stone.
I can get making and learn some appropriate code at the same time.

Why learn programming? coz i want to be able to make my own stuff for fun, and i think having a working knowledge would really help the design aspect. It seems stupid to plan something then be told it cant be implimented. And not only that but perhaps i could use the knowledge to help me plan games from the limitations.

There seems to be a bit of a VB good or bad arguement goin down in teh thread...
I have decided to see c++ through and see what happens.

Thanx for all your responses!

Btw, if any1 is interested in the concepts or how our project is going:
News
Story

Note: its the combat/majick/leveling systems that are the most interesting elements. I will try to get something up about them soon. :)

As a novice programmer who's tried many different languages, I'd like to clear something about VB up.

VB is a wonderful language for making small programs to do one thing, such as tools to say, encrypt your scripts, if you happen to be using a scripting language which will be decrypted by the program (like in ROSE online, for example) but it pales greatly in comparisin with a C based lanuage (Java included, since it's syntax was originally based around that of C) Java itself is a very useful programming language, and it looks like it's rising up in the market. My highschool currently teaches java courses as it's programming courses, and I've found the language to be decently simple to use, and quite powerful. Not only is it good for making programs that do what you want and keep within OOP (Object Oriented Programming...) but it helps you better understand encapsulaion, and interaction between classes. Though Java is not well made for graphically intensive programs, such as 3D high quality games. Java is also very easy to perform networking, and multithreading, which are very helpful to learn to use. On top of all that, java is built to run on just about any system.

C languages, on the other hand, are very helpful, but require a little more knowledge of the language itself, and of the system you are programming for. The big drawback with C based languages (excepting C#) is that the multimedia coding can be drastically different depending on what system and libraries you are using, whereas C# attempts to consolidate all your multimedia needs in DirectX (via Managed DirectX). This is good for people using DirectX, but can eb a pain for anyone who wants to use a differnt library, since you'd need to go thrpough the conventions for calling "unmanaged code" and such. If your looking for performance, C/C++ or C# would be the way to go (C/C++ would most likely perform marginally better than C# due to the .net framework, and CSLIM, etc. but for our purposes, the point is moot), unless you wanted to learn Assembly, which I can tell you right now, is MUCH more of a pain than it's worth nowdays, unless your writing inline ASM in a C application.

There is one thing I will caution you against though. I've seen games which use integrated websites (in pannls which integrate seamlessly into the GUI) and HIGHLY caution you against that because they are unreliable, a hssle to work with, and all around ugly (when you have to wait for a page to load every time you make an action in that area of the GUI, it can be problematic) Plus it's slower, and not nearly as reliable.

There's my 20cents.

Thats definatly 20 cents..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kaoii

A6 is shit.

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quoted for the truth :\ yet I'm sure some games on here were made in 3DGS

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Originally Posted by bobbias

unless you wanted to learn Assembly

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*GASP*

No one appreciates ASM these days!!

... okay... i use C# :lol:

Although, do use ASM to program PICs and ARM chips.