Making games

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Alright, so I admit it, despite being an Aspie I'm the farthest thing from tech savvy. Can anyone tell me what programming languages are best for making games (with good graphics and sound and stuff) and what kind of computer you need for that?

i'm still very much a noob as far as programming go's but from what i understand C C++ and Java are the main one's used in game programming.

Thanks.

Np

You could have a look at Alice: http://www.alice.org/

What kind of games do you design?

I don't, but a friend and I talked over an idea and I'm the sort of person who goes OOH SHINY LET'S DO IT! Or are you asking what my needs are going to be? Needs to be 3D but doesn't need to be ooh wow awesome graphics (ought to look pretty, though). Actually, think Ocarina of Time, but with voice acting. And probably for PC. And not pseudo-medieval-themed.

@lau, thanks.

again, i am new to this but would you not need a game engine?

Jeeze, I feel like such a geezer.
Its like you're speaking in a foriegn language.

Back in the seventies I invented a board game ( with dice and tables) that was a kind of fantasy football for world war two naval warships ( how would the Yamato do against the Iowa?) that cried out to be computerized. The concept has been done on commercial computer games since then. So i guess its just reinventing the wheel now.

In my day we had the non computerized "Dungeons and Dragons"- and now you're talking about the plethora of computerized descendants of that first fantasy game that ive never heard of. "The Ocarina of time" conjures images of a cosmic sweet potato to me!

You haven't heard of Zelda?? You don't have an N64?

Okay, here's what you do. Get a Gamecube, and get the ports for OoT, Majora's Mask and two others (they have them on one disc, I think it's called the Collector's Edition), and that way, if you find you like them, you can also get Wind Waker and Twilight Princess for the same system.

Basically, Zelda is one of Nintendo's cash cow franchises that they've been making the same thing on for years and years. It has the most wonderful music ever; it's had good music since the beginning. They made a bunch of 2D puzzle-based dungeon-crawls featuring a hero who had to save Princess Zelda. Then came Ocarina of Time. Essentially, they turned it 3D, but it's... incredible. The graphics are way outdated, but the music is beautiful, there's a cool story and the dungeons... they are SO great. I love the Water Temple, but most people I know cringe at the thought. The Shadow Temple is terrifying. Your life is simply incomplete if you haven't heard the music in Gerudo Valley. It's like they got the greatest composer in the world to write the pieces, then got the greatest orchestra in the world to play them. If you somehow manage to avoid spoilers, there are two plot twists that will genuinely surprise you, but neither feels like cheating.

Ocarina of Time used to be considered the best Zelda game ever, and Nintendo did some variations on the idea (Wind Waker is done in a cartoony style on an ocean, and has a direct sequel, Phantom Hourglass, with different gameplay-- different but usually pretty good), with their own different plots and settings. They did a couple of 3D Zeldas, and a couple more 2D Zeldas (Minish Cap isn't bad). But the reason Ocarina of Time is no longer universally considered peerless is Twilight Princess, which has WAY better graphics. (Let me put it this way: with OoT, the big flaws with the graphics include stuff like Link's nose being 2D. With TP, when you wade into the water, your whole lower body gets wet at the same time, then your upper body, then your hair, and so you can walk slow enough to have parts of your body wet that aren't actually in the water. When you have to complain about stuff like THAT...) Whereas the games between the two avoided comparisons by just being different-- the time mechanic in MM, the sailing in WW, plus none of them having quite the same plot. Twilight Princess just did what Ocarina of Time did, its own way, with more character development, a bigger world, better graphics and a more complicated and developed plot. Essentially, in most respects, it's Ocarina of Time, only better. There are ways that Ocarina of Time surpasses it, and surpasses it by far, but in the end, it's no longer a given that OoT is the best. (The music isn't better or worse, IMO.)

The series occasionally lacks logic-- for instance, the Iron Boots make you sink when you wear them, but not when you carry them. They'll be pulled by magnets when they're on your feet (so you can walk along the ceiling, even), but they never fly out of your pocket. When you're upside down your hat not only stays on, but keeps hanging down your back. Magnets powerful enough to lift your whole weight off the ground and make you fly upward are not powerful enough to keep you from lifting your foot. (...Lifting?)

Anyway, I totally recommend the whole series.

C# with the XNA libraries is pure bliss to write games in, C# is fairly easy to learn and with the XNA stuff you are go for writing games on Windows and xbox 360.

XNA basically contains all the goodies for handling 2D and 3D graphics, sound and controls (keyboard/mouse and xbox 360 controller handling is in there by default, wiimote support can be added with a little work).

Microsoft and the XNA community provide some packages with code and examples for beginnes, including on how to make simple 2D and 3D engines...

Also, once you get better at C#, I can recommend the Unity Engine for making games, however, you'll need to learn some shader language as well. When you get a good hang of Unity and Shader language, then you can make games that have the equivalent of Crysis' graphics.

Tips for learning how to program:

1. Never EVER start off with large projects like the game you mentioned. Rather, start off with small programs like those from tutorials. ie. a simple calculator or a small program that can move a sprite across the screen.

2. SAVE those simple programs for future reference or use. The code in them can help you immensely later on... for example code for movement controls.

3. Add a generous amount of comments and helpers. Comments are mostly added by a double slash ("//") or by a slash-asterisk block ("/* add text here */"). If you use Visual studio, you can use triple-slash summaries ("///") which are helpful for describing methods and parameters. As many of my programming teaches have said: "you can never comment too much"

4. Read up on preprocessor directives. One of them in Visual Studio is "#region" and "#endregion", which are useful for large chunks of code. Other directives can be useful for compiling to different CPU architectures.

5. Programming is essentially like telling an incredibly ret*d child (sry bout language) how to do stuff. Patience is key

6. If in doubt, consult The Almighty Google, The Finder Of All Things

7. Know how computers work.... Although it's rather outdated, pcguide.com is a good place to start. The basic principles of how a computer works has not changed that much since they were invented.

Tips on how to program C#:

1. The online MSDN reference is pure gold, it has info on every library, function and command. It also has a number of good guides on how to do stuff, like importing DLL files and such

2. go make a user on forums that help with C# and other programming languages, also places like codeproject.com are great places to find code snippets and other people's source code.

3. Use Stylecop, especially in the beginning. Stylecop can be rather bitchy, but it helps you write easily readable code and helps out with compatability with documentation tools like Doxygen

4. Intellisense helps out with coding by making a little box beneath where you write with possible commands, it updates while you write. It's a really smart feature and cuts off quite some time trying to remember variable and method names.

5. Go buy ReSharper, AFAIK it costs about 20 bucks. ReSharper adds some features to Intellisense and auto-completes some things like loops and if-statements... it's worth every cent if you ask me, especially for more complex programs.


Tips for game making in general:

1. Plan everything from the beginning, like features, looks, etc. Make some concept art and mockups to help you along later on

2. learn some project management techniques like SCRUM. Project managment is key in any large project and saves you from a lot of anger, frustration and wasted time

3. Along with 2, learn UML.

It may seem like all this takes a long time to learn, but programming is in fact quite easy to learn. The rule to remember is, that programming is logic in its purest form.
C# is quite easy to write games in, within a month of starting at my current school, I made a simple console-based hangman game using arrays, About 2 weeks later I had made my first game with graphics, a simple shoot 'em up

Not to burst your bubble, but RPGs are among the toughest games to program. Many pieces need to fit together in perfect harmony. Many game programmers start off making a linear RPG with a main questline, then add side-quests

If you wish to program in C#, you can get Visual C# Express, which costs exactly zero dollars and zero cents. VC# express is great in the beginning for the small programs, but later on, you'll want Visual Studio (2010 is the latest) for larger projects.

When you have a good grip around C#, you can go for Java. Java and C# are quite similar in many ways, but the main difference is that Java can run pretty much on everything, while C# is dependant on Microsoft's .NET framework. From there you can jump to C++ and some of the other more "archaic" languages.

WOW. That's great!! !

What are mockups?

i looooooooooooove c#... so much easier than c++

i understand why c++ is important though (and know how to use it enough to have gotten 3rd in a statewide competition, beaten only by my two classmates)
college is boring, they're teaching me c++ again like "and this is how you use an array!" YES I KNOW ABOUT ARRAYS

i've only ever made one game though and that was a clone of snake and it sucked =( i did have fun with the sprites though, you played as the female character from pokemon ruby and the "food" was eevees and when you got one a pokeball was added to your tail XDD
it was in c# =)