I think http://pygame.org is pretty awesome.

I think you should stick to SFML, Ive messed with both.. SFML is simply more modern. SFML has a good community and uses more modern methods, for example SDL uses older blitting methods while SFML supports useful things such as sprite rotation. From my experience, SFML is just a cleaner, newer, better version of SDL. Im not expert on either of them.. but from what Ive read and experienced, thats what I would say.

inaccurate. SDL 1.3 is a modern, hardware-accelerated 2D rendering API with a wider range of ports, a more robust API (not counting views and the use of internal context APIs, where SFML certainly beats SDL), and unfortunately no tutorials or completed games using it (to my knowledge).

With SDL 1.3; you not only get the typical trio of Windows, Linux with X11, and Mac OS X; but also iOS, Android, webOS (Palm Pilot), Windows CE (not counting Windows Phone 7, which does not allow C/C++ programs to run), and homebrew NintendoDS; among a handful of other less notable ports.

If you're ready to probe documentation and header files for the information you need to make your game, SDL 1.3 is a much better choice than SFML in my opinion.

To the author of the origional question, I think the answer is pretty simple, ask the company you are interning for what they would recommend.

If they are vague or unwilling to answer that question, find out what languages/technologies they work with. Simply put, aligning your skillset with the company you are interning with is probably your best strategy. If they script in Python, pyGame is a very good idea. If they use .Net C# becomes a much better choice, while if they are a pure C++ shop, something like C++/SDL is a good bet.

Frankly though, we can't answer your question, only they can.


Now if they come back with an answer like "use whatever is most productive for you" or "use whatever produces the fast code" or "make it as cross platform as possible", then we have more to direct you with.

Well, they pretty much left it open to me on how I want to create the engine. I've pretty much used up all of my time since posting the question up until now on reading up on C++ and SFML and I think I got a solid foundation on both right now. So from here on, do I just jump in to create the engine, or is there anything else I should read up on?

BTW, I only have about 7 months to finish this project because that's when my internship period ends. I had a few talks with my supervisor and he said that if it's too hard to create the engine then he proposed I just try to make a game using free commercial engines like Unity or UDK. Personally though I'd like to stick with this project seeing as how it's more interesting and I'd be learning a lot more. I'm just wondering if it's going to be at all possible to finish this in 7 months?

[quote name='zenoru24' timestamp='1309903542' post='4831534']
[quote name='Serapth' timestamp='1309789809' post='4830981']
To the author of the origional question, I think the answer is pretty simple, ask the company you are interning for what they would recommend.

If they are vague or unwilling to answer that question, find out what languages/technologies they work with. Simply put, aligning your skillset with the company you are interning with is probably your best strategy. If they script in Python, pyGame is a very good idea. If they use .Net C# becomes a much better choice, while if they are a pure C++ shop, something like C++/SDL is a good bet.

Frankly though, we can't answer your question, only they can.


Now if they come back with an answer like "use whatever is most productive for you" or "use whatever produces the fast code" or "make it as cross platform as possible", then we have more to direct you with.

Well, they pretty much left it open to me on how I want to create the engine. I've pretty much used up all of my time since posting the question up until now on reading up on C++ and SFML and I think I got a solid foundation on both right now. So from here on, do I just jump in to create the engine, or is there anything else I should read up on?

BTW, I only have about 7 months to finish this project because that's when my internship period ends. I had a few talks with my supervisor and he said that if it's too hard to create the engine then he proposed I just try to make a game using free commercial engines like Unity or UDK. Personally though I'd like to stick with this project seeing as how it's more interesting and I'd be learning a lot more. I'm just wondering if it's going to be at all possible to finish this in 7 months?
[/quote]


7 months is a fairly arbitrary number, as we have no idea how much time you use each day. Creating a 2D RPG game in 7 months, engine and all, is very much doable, but much of it comes down to your dedication. Scope reasonably though, as frankly, thats a lot of work. It's easily 2x more than you probably calculate in your head.


As a matter of curiosity, if you are spending your internship working on a project like this, what are they getting out of it?
[/quote]

They're letting me work at home so I can pretty much work all week, and I can probably put in at least 12 hours per day. As for why the company wants me to do this, they're expecting me to come up with an engine kind of like RPGmaker VX and since I'm making it from scratch, at the end of the day they can take the final product, dissect it, mess around with the source code and fill it in with any other functions that they want that isn't included in RPGmaker.