Hello everyone, I study electric engineering and for an important class I decided to create a simple videogame, Im thinking something similar to NES (Nintendo) games, something like mario comes to mind Jumping, avoiding obstacles, simple type of game.

The whole idea of the project is to develop the game to run in a processor called LatticeMico32, this processor will be mounted in a NEXYS 2
-Nexys 2 is a powerful digital system design platform built around a Xilinx Spartan 3E FPGA
-info about the LM32 http://www.latticese...ico32/index.cfm

These characteristics make the project different from most. The languages in which I know can compile for this processor are C and verilog, Im guessing only C will be used for the game. I feel like the processor and FPGA setting is confusing so if anyone wants to check out the code of a simple application I have compiled and run on this "kit" I can show it, no problemm.

I decided to use a VGA monitor and a numeric keyboard as the control and screen for the videogame.

Alright, now that you know what Im up to, here is my cry for help

Im familiar and I would say good at programming in C, BUT I have never worked on something similar to a videogame, I realize I need to get familiar with different programming schemes and techniques but I dont know exactly where to start.

I know that game programmers usually count on a series of libraries, I believe I will have to create these library's in my case, or am I wrong, is there any help I can get from pre-existent code?

Any books or websites recommended?

How much time do u think I will need? The project is due in june, but If this is obviously a lost cause I must know.

I might not be very clear but I will be here to explain better and answer questions. THANK YOU for reading this, anything that comes to mind might help me, Im new to the game programming world so there's nothing obvious

The closest I've been to what you're doing is DOS 6, so I can't help with any of the 'on the metal' kinds of things.

Do you have anything working yet? Can you control pixels on the screen? Can you handle signals from the keyboard?

My approach would be to get the essentials working from scratch, then judge how large the scope of your project could be based off of that, then reduce the scope a bit to make sure you meet the deadline.

Searching for libraries often makes work easier, but each library has a learning curve. This learning curve might not be worth it if you keep your game simple. I'm not even sure if anything appropriate exists for your platform.

Thanks a lot for the feedback! Im gonna do some research regarding what u guys have mentioned and come back with more questions! thanks a lot!

I cant use an OS even though im sure it ccould be done, this aproach is the one used on the class that follows the one im taking right now and doing this project for.

As nypyren suggested I will work on the basics, aquiring and manipulating the keyboard signals and getting to display pixels appropiately. This week Ive got some tests so I will get started on this next weekend. I also decided that my primary goal for now will be just a simple pong game, and hopefuly I will get this working with enough time left in order to aim for a more complex game Thanks a lot again.