27 replies to this topic

[barraclough]

Hi there first off id like to just say hello. Ive been a member here for a little while but this is my first serious post. Well for me anyways.

Well me and a few guys i work with were discussing things in work the other day. We work in argos as delivery assistants and we were asking everyone if you had to choose in this store what would be your zombie killing weapon of choice. Obv we got a few different answers.

So we ened up talking about a zombie invasion and how to defend, progress and counter. Then the topic of this would make a cool game was brought up.

Im pretty tech savy with computers, but a jack of all trades master of none.

But i do have programming knowledge. No where on the scale to pull this off but i have alot of free time and i think i could enjoy learning and possibly in the end put together a small zombie invasion 2d game for me and my work friends to enjoy.

Just wondering if someone can give me some advice on the best route to take.

I have a few books on c, object c , c+, coca, 3ds max and java.

I own a macbook pro so i think doing some more c, then moving onto object c. But about models and stuff. What would i need for that.

I read before that i should just use a game engine to take some of the smaller steps out, the guy wrote because there is no need to reinvent the wheel.

Any help would be appreciated. I have nothing but time.

Trying not to set any unrealistic goals. Going to start with pong and pacman and move from there. Learn the mechanics of how they work. It may only look like a ball and a few lines but im sure alot of work went into them, and are in no way..... easy to remake for a novice no matter how simple the end product seems.

Thanks again

[Tom Sloper]

1. I think i want to make a game
2. Any help would be appreciated.

1. When will you know?
2. What kind of help do you want? You never said.

[Varine]

3DS Max, Maya, Softimage, Blender, Anim8or, etc, are all modeling and animation toolkits. For high resolution models, look into Zbrush, Mudbox, and I think Gsculpt is the open source sculpting software but I might be wrong (I like Zbrush the best). You'll need Photoshop or something for textures.

And yes, unless you are a hardcore programmer really good at math, do not make your own engine. Well you might be able to, but it's a bad idea. Unity, UDK, C4, Panda3D, there are a lot of game engines.

Pong and PacMan are a lot of times fairly basic application programming projects. I've never done 2D games like that in an engine, sometimes people tell you to but I mean it's kind of useless just because you use hardly any of the engine usually. I would just get an engine with a lot of documentation, and just play around with it for a while. You'll learn a lot more with it probably. At least you'll likely end up using a lot more of it a lot quicker.

Start making like a tower defense or something. I think I made a little racing game when I first started (I couldn't model so I used the character models that came with DarkBASIC when I was 11 or 12 or something, and most of them got stuck in a wall somewhere and I couldn't figure out how to make the legs animate, so they just kind of moved around). Worst engine ever.

[barraclough]

1. When will you know?
2. What kind of help do you want? You never said.

1. I know, im gonna make one
2. Just some info on what engine to possibly use, any useful advice on progression.

But the other guy seemed to cover that and was much more helpful. So thanks

[Tom Sloper]

2. What kind of help do you want? You never said.

2. Just some info on what engine to possibly use, any useful advice on progression.
But the other guy seemed to cover that and was much more helpful. So thanks

OK, good. You could always read this forum's FAQs, too. Probably even more useful information for you there.

[Varine]

That's true. FAQ, I recently learned, stands for Frequently Asked Questions, and this is asked quite a bit (slightly different wording). Go into more detail as to what you're doing and we can tell you with more precision what you want to look for.

[barraclough]

well i was thinking of making a 2d based zombie survival game based on the argos store i work in.

Kind of like pokemon style for graphics.

2 story map for each layer of the building with different objectives and goals.

[Postie]

well i was thinking of making a 2d based zombie survival game based on the argos store i work in.

Kind of like pokemon style for graphics.

2 story map for each layer of the building with different objectives and goals.

Is this at all similar to what you're thinking of?

[barraclough]

well i was thinking of making a 2d based zombie survival game based on the argos store i work in.

Kind of like pokemon style for graphics.

2 story map for each layer of the building with different objectives and goals.

Is this at all similar to what you're thinking of?

Similar but more like pokemonish. You know the low 2d graphics

[surix]

I would start by finding source code for a tile-based game like zelda. That should be fairly easy to understand. Try to understand how every part of the code works and modify it into your zombie game. Once you get to a point where you understand what you need to do, you can start over from scratch with all of your own code.

I would not use an existing game engine, unless you need state of the art physics and light rendering I really dont see what 3rd party engines offer besides a box to work in. They are designed to be everything for everyone and thus are very bloated featurewise and have way too much code. But of course that is just opinion, others will swear to using them.

If you make your own engine it will be simple and to the point, just what you need exactly how you need it. Plus you will understand every aspect of your game and how it works, nothing will be "black box".

Good luck with your game!

[Bastiaen]

It sounds like you don't need a complex engine. Take a look at gamemaker or flixel. You should be up and running with either in no time.

[barraclough]

id like to learn from scratch so ganna pass on the game engine and those game maker ones.

Will continue reading my c and object c books and have a look at the zelda source code. Thanks

[Joe P]

id like to learn from scratch so ganna pass on the game engine and those game maker ones.

Will continue reading my c and object c books and have a look at the zelda source code. Thanks

Good to hear that you want to take that route.. its the same thing I'm doing. Trust that you will learn a lot more in the end. Since the point of your game is not to make money and use current graphic technologies.. doing it yourself will help you understand the true workings of games. Using an engine is good if you want to work from more of a designer standpoint. If you want to learn game programming.. doing it yourself will be a fun (and frustrating)
experience.

[barraclough]

id like to learn from scratch so ganna pass on the game engine and those game maker ones.

Will continue reading my c and object c books and have a look at the zelda source code. Thanks

Good to hear that you want to take that route.. its the same thing I'm doing. Trust that you will learn a lot more in the end. Since the point of your game is not to make money and use current graphic technologies.. doing it yourself will help you understand the true workings of games. Using an engine is good if you want to work from more of a designer standpoint. If you want to learn game programming.. doing it yourself will be a fun (and frustrating)
experience.

Yeah a guy i know at college says being a programmer meant discovering your an idiot several times aday

[Joe P]

id like to learn from scratch so ganna pass on the game engine and those game maker ones.

Will continue reading my c and object c books and have a look at the zelda source code. Thanks

Good to hear that you want to take that route.. its the same thing I'm doing. Trust that you will learn a lot more in the end. Since the point of your game is not to make money and use current graphic technologies.. doing it yourself will help you understand the true workings of games. Using an engine is good if you want to work from more of a designer standpoint. If you want to learn game programming.. doing it yourself will be a fun (and frustrating)
experience.

Yeah a guy i know at college says being a programmer meant discovering your an idiot several times aday

Yea pretty much. I mean it really depends on your goal and interests. If the goal is to simply make a game, and you dont care about the inner workings... then obviously using as many tools as possible will get you there faster. If your goal is to understand how games work, it just makes sense to attempt some thing s on your own. Especially if your intention is to be a game programmer as a career. I dont think that knowing how to use an engine really well through its scripting language will make you very valuable to a company who actually creates games and engines. Most of the time when you see job openings for companies, they want AI programmers, graphics programmers, etc. You are expected to know how these things work, usually mathematically. Using an engine from a super high level will not teach you these things, the whole point of them is to not care about these issues.

[barraclough]

id like to learn from scratch so ganna pass on the game engine and those game maker ones.

Will continue reading my c and object c books and have a look at the zelda source code. Thanks

Good to hear that you want to take that route.. its the same thing I'm doing. Trust that you will learn a lot more in the end. Since the point of your game is not to make money and use current graphic technologies.. doing it yourself will help you understand the true workings of games. Using an engine is good if you want to work from more of a designer standpoint. If you want to learn game programming.. doing it yourself will be a fun (and frustrating)
experience.

Yeah a guy i know at college says being a programmer meant discovering your an idiot several times aday

Yea pretty much. I mean it really depends on your goal and interests. If the goal is to simply make a game, and you dont care about the inner workings... then obviously using as many tools as possible will get you there faster. If your goal is to understand how games work, it just makes sense to attempt some thing s on your own. Especially if your intention is to be a game programmer as a career. I dont think that knowing how to use an engine really well through its scripting language will make you very valuable to a company who actually creates games and engines. Most of the time when you see job openings for companies, they want AI programmers, graphics programmers, etc. You are expected to know how these things work, usually mathematically. Using an engine from a super high level will not teach you these things, the whole point of them is to not care about these issues.

Im not looking for a job really just want to make a little game. Maybe one day try get something on the appstore or xbl arcade but for now just a small game for me and my work mates

[Joe P]

id like to learn from scratch so ganna pass on the game engine and those game maker ones.

Will continue reading my c and object c books and have a look at the zelda source code. Thanks

Good to hear that you want to take that route.. its the same thing I'm doing. Trust that you will learn a lot more in the end. Since the point of your game is not to make money and use current graphic technologies.. doing it yourself will help you understand the true workings of games. Using an engine is good if you want to work from more of a designer standpoint. If you want to learn game programming.. doing it yourself will be a fun (and frustrating)
experience.

Yeah a guy i know at college says being a programmer meant discovering your an idiot several times aday

Yea pretty much. I mean it really depends on your goal and interests. If the goal is to simply make a game, and you dont care about the inner workings... then obviously using as many tools as possible will get you there faster. If your goal is to understand how games work, it just makes sense to attempt some thing s on your own. Especially if your intention is to be a game programmer as a career. I dont think that knowing how to use an engine really well through its scripting language will make you very valuable to a company who actually creates games and engines. Most of the time when you see job openings for companies, they want AI programmers, graphics programmers, etc. You are expected to know how these things work, usually mathematically. Using an engine from a super high level will not teach you these things, the whole point of them is to not care about these issues.

Im not looking for a job really just want to make a little game. Maybe one day try get something on the appstore or xbl arcade but for now just a small game for me and my work mates

Well I think the simple question is, do you care to learn about how games work.. from the physics, AI, graphics, etc? If you dont, then just save yourself the headache and try to find a good 2d engine... there are a ton.

If you care about those things.. grab a decent middleware library such as XNA, Allegro, Slick2D, etc and use that. Thats pretty much my take on tit.

[XXChester]

If you are making the game 2D based you do not need to go into the mess of 3D modeling etc. To do your art you will want to learn the basics (and some more advanced) features in Photoshop or a similar program. Personally I really like GIMP, it is free and very easy to use. Also programmatically, I say good choice on 2D....3D is a lot more difficult to learn, it is a lot easier to start with 2D and than move to 3D later.

[SuperVGA]

Hello! I recommend against using C then moving onto Obj. C if you're (even almost) starting from scratch. Those are two completely different languages, so you'd have to get used to a lot of different concepts than what you'll be used to.

[Varine]

Not really. It will only take maybe a couple weeks to get used to the different language, and maybe a little longer to get used to OOP, but other than that it's not that hard to shift between languages.