Game Development 101

Good evening all

As most here, i've got an itching passion to develop games, and like most, have tried at one time or another, i originally tried to make a game using game maker, and made a simple mario clone, but to me it wasnt rewarding enough nor as powerful, i then had the chance to mess around with visual basic, and created a who wants to be a millionaire thing, i liked its user interface, and coding for it wasnt too bad, if not slighty enjoyable,...lately ive dabled in a program called blender,its 3dsmax, a game engine, and a animation tool rolled up into one application. to me, its too powerful if not daunting, and for my needs, there really isnt the tutorial i want. i've also seen stand alone game engines that require an editor and creator.....

Now ive turned here. I know many of you, have in the past, or even for earning a living create games. And i was wondering if you could point me in the direction to go. It would be great to do a 3d game, but ive found blender too complicated, or create a game for the GBA, or DS, what would you suggest, what would be the best?...


Ryan

 

If you want 3D, then blender and similar programs are your only options. Try getting a game like Doom3, or Unreal2k4, or Thief: Deadly Shadows to create your own 3D levels and your own mods via scripting. Completely different games have been created by just using the free level editor those games come with. Sure they are complicated but the mod community is big and help is easily accessible. Or try RPG Maker 1, 2, or 3, or the PC version.

For learning how to program, I recommend starting with a simple general book like Visual C++ for dummies and then go to something like game programming in C++. There are some "all in one game programming" books that simply guide you in programming everything from the ground up to where you can, in the end, mess with it to create what you want.

Useful sites:

www.gamedev.net
www.igda.org

 

*I must've re-edited my post about 1,000 times now*

Here are some good game programming books on C++.





I would familiarize myself with C++ and its functions first.

I would recommend Visual C++ either 2002 or 2003 (6.0 is a little old). Visual Studio 2005 just came out, but is quite expensive. Also, use the Microsoft DirectX 9.0 SDK, which is free.

The last working version of the SDK for Visual Studio 6.0 is: Microsoft DirectX SDK 9.0 Update (Summer 2003)

The last working version of the SDK for Visual Studio versions 2002 or higher on a Windows 2000 PC is: Microsoft DirectX SDK 9.0 Update (December 2004)

The updates after December 2004 will work on any Visual Studio versions 2002 and higher on a Windows XP computer only.

Anyone, please correct me if I am wrong.

 

i bought a book on game programming on c++ awhile ago, i think ill dig it up and read some of it.........i also came across this http://www.dhost.info/realityfactory/index.htm its based off of genisis 3d, a well known freeware engine...its basically genisis 3d without alot of the tricky coding, i might try this, then work my way up to genisis 3d or something else after i learn c++


edit* i appreciate the help that ive gotten in all my mundane questions....

 

If you have the money, get a license for the Turbine Engine at www.garagegames.com

It's only $100 and now includes directx9.0 support. It was originally a directx8.0 engine used for the game Tribes 2.

 

Visual C++ 2005 Express is completely free.

 

I use a combination 3DSMax7 (for general purpose models, rigging and animation), Photoshop (textures, but I think thats obvious), Unreal 2 engine (Its a glitchy piece of junk, avoid it), and i've been dabbling a bit in Z-Brush (which is very neat so far) for high-poly organic stuff.

No recommendations of programming though, as outside engine-specific scripting I don't really mess with it.

 

I can also recommend "introduction to 3d game programming with directx 9.0" (the book with the red dragon). It's a nice book if you want to learn programming with the directx api. but as I usualy say when someone wants to start making game.. start simple! don't try to do unreal3 the first thing you do. start with learning the programming language.. and work from there. it's just like anything else.. you don't start with running before you can walk

 

does anyone know of a good(preverebly free) 3d modeller that supports vector like stuff, as in using free form lines to creat the shap i want, and not some pre determined object........all ive done in blender was a crappy nurbs boat hull

 

I used to use 3D Game Studio, which works pretty well, but i don't recomend it for comercial games. I use Game Maker 6 to prototype games before i start working on them. I'll make a level or two just to prove that the game will be fun before i dump my time into coding. On the other hand, it's pretty cool to develop your own simple 3d engine out of C++, that's how i wrote my first 3d game (stupid college professor didn't know that Direct X exsisted and demanded we wrote the engine from scratch... grrr)

 

what about programming for the gba?......i know thats also alot of coding, is it rather hard?........i dont mind working hard, but im damm lazy..maybe thats why i havent been able to fully use or understand blender......

 

I know of an unofficial GBA SDK out there. Here's a site I used to visit a long while back: http://www.devrs.com/gba/

 

well when I and some friends made a little game for the gba we did it in C++ and used devkitadvance as our compiler and made our own little "gbalib" thingy with functions and macros we needed.

 

i see......ive seen unofficial and offical devs kits, also for the ds too, im tempted to try out the ds sdk, though the installed user base with ds flash roms is small..lol....actually relaity factor is looking to be a good short term solution....well maybe

 

3D Studio Max can accept vector based files in adobe illustrators format, and you can make your own inside the program (although its been a long time sense I used the built in tools for this). Even if your going for free modelers, i'd just say use one of the education versions of a commercial modeling program, as in most cases they include the most necessary tools anyways. Sometimes they are the complete program, and just watermark your renders instead of cutting back on functionality. XSI/Softimage, Lightwave, and Maya are also very popular.

Also, I think you should be able to get a good ammount of your questions answered by looking through here:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/forumdisplay.php?f=40
http://forums.cgsociety.org/forumdisplay.php?f=39

 

yea..i have some educational programs such as the macromedia suite, that was given out at the beginning of my comp class.............i found something very appealing today....

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=126606&SiteID=1

lik kyuusaku pointed out, Microsoft is releasing vb and many others for free........


I have a small question to ask....as of 10 minutes ago, i found out im the owner of a new ipod shuffle, and i was wondering....while importing and converting my songs to itunes...what is the button combination to skip copyprotection?.....i wonder if this is appropriate at all.......sorry if it is...

edit* gosh darn....relized these will only work with sp2....and i was one of those unlucky ones who had serious problems installing it(can you say format?) that bytes if your like me and only use sp1

Ryan

 

If you're running XP and not running SP2 you're just *asking* to get owned.

-hl718

 

i really dont like formating my computer every time i want to have sp2...........

 

At that point, pirate a CD with SP2 slipstreamed already, and install it using your official CD key (not really piracy at that point...). And install it on a seperate partition (Partition Magic is great to pick up heh), that way when you need to format it, you dont lose everything.

 

So do it once, and get everything up to date.

Otherwise you're just leaving it wide open with well documented and well known security flaws. Not the smartest thing to be doing.

-hl718