Programming a game. What Language?

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Hey.
I want to make an open world game.
What would be the best language.
I want nice graphics, but allot of capability.
I was thinking of Java, as it is open platform.
What would you think?
Also, I am very good at Objective C and PHP.
And, I know that it is not as simple as just making a game.
Also, how would I go about making a metal effect so I can pattern it in Photoshop?
Thanks.

I would use Clojure. It is a dialect of Lisp that runs on the Java Virtual Machine. It is much more powerful that Java, and will allow you to program a kick-ass game.

It seems to me, therefore, that this would be your "best" language.
At the very least it avoids your having to learn another language before you can start writing code.
I'm sure you're already aware that a games program is likely to be more about manipulating structures than yards of hardcode coding, and I would have thought that an object-oriented language is well-suited to that - and especially one you already know.

Doesn't Photoshop have this already available as one of its built-in effects?
Otherwise, there are plenty of online Photoshop tutorials which would cover this sort of thing in great detail.

python is easy to code and ok for graphics u could use it to save time if thats an issue.

Thanks.
there are tutorials, but they are not compatible with what I want to do with them.
I want to make a metal texture that can be patterned with out any one noticing (rather then one huge texture which would look very very bad).
Also, how would I go about porting from Objective C?
Because, Objective C is only Apple Macintosh compatible.

Isn't that sort of thing normally handled by backing stores/different video RAM banks? Where the visual changes are written to RAM in the background and switched/ORed into view when required?
But this wouldn't be the sort of thing Photoshop could handle anyway - although you could easily create the static forms of metallic textures etc., Photoshop isn't really designed to help with animating then on any large, game-related scale.
Oh, Ok. Going by the name it seemed to be a form of object-oriented C although I now see that much of it is derived from Smalltalk.
It may not be possible to painlessly port - as in: just run it through a converter and bingo, it works - so I'd expect a certain amount of rewriting to be required. Have you been able to find anything that helps with (at least partially) automating a port?
Ultimately it depends on how much of what you already have depends on plain ol' 'C' vs. how much depends on this specific flavour of 'Objective C'.

Objective C isn't a good language for programming a game specifically because it's Mac only. They tried to make it a standard and it never was.

If he wants his game to run natively on a PC, there should be a variety of languages he can choose from. If performance is a serious consideration, C++ is probably the way to go. He should look into existing game engines he can adapt.

Yeah, I was thinking of C++ development.
Its just that I want maximum compatibility, like Minecraft for example.
Sure, Linux makes it as hard as possibile to install Java, BUT atleast it works on Linux.

Very helpful answer.
Thank you.

Most Linuces come with Java installed these days. The issue is you don't want to inconvenience Windows users with installing a VM, it's a pain in their ass, just like installing .net updates or whatever. They're more likely to pass up your game than bother. There are enough libs out there to help with making your C++ portable.

There is something that most people tend to forget when talking about game programming that I'd like to point out: 90% of the person-hours that go into making a video game are for the artwork. I would be inclined to say that the choice of programming language is (almost) secondary to the art.

I'd agree: how it looks, how it feels, how you drive it are all vastly more significant than the language.

Of course, starting to consider that sort of thing locks you into a platform - Objective C comes automatically if you're playing with Apple gear.

The human eye is very proficient at picking out patterns and any tile texture you draw is going have a repeating pattern. At best you can hope to minimise it.

Yeah.
I do not mind doing all of this at all.
My brother is going to be doing most of the games art work anyways.

Personally, I would go with c++.
but thats just me.
javas nice too, though.

C++ is what they use "in the real world" for most games and there are lots of good libs out there for input handling, graphics etc. You just need to find the right places to look...
C# and XNA is quite good for beginners, and is very powerful indeed if you choose to make an engine of your own, however, you are stuck on Windows and xbox 360 for the most part, depending which libs you use and if they're mono compatible. Nevertheless, I find it easy to implement different rules and concepts with XNA, and you can make great modular engines with it.

For open world games, you should look into procedural generation, with that, you can make huuuge worlds within a very small space. The best example would be the game FUEL that contains 14,000 sq. km. of play area on a single DVD. If it were to be rendered normally, it would take up a few blu-ray disks at least.... and that's not including the player models, AI models, engine code etc.

Since you know objective C, I would recommend you to make games on iphone/ipad. You can make good money in the process.