Hey, I'm a pretty intermediate programmer. I've got a good grasp of a few languages, most notably C#, but most of my work has been in UI and web development. I'm definitely not as experienced when it comes to game dev. I've made a few games using XNA: pong clones, bomber man clones, some 2-D platformer type stuff, basic 3-D space shooter type stuff.
However, I really wanna familiarize myself with c++ a bit more. I've got a good grasp of the basics of the language, and OOP structures associated with it, classes, class hierarchy, the memory management of the language. However, I've been looking around the web and have had some trouble deciding on a graphical library framework to use. I'd like something that offers similar functionality to XNA or pygame, ie, not as barebones as say, SDL (unless my understanding of SDL is wrong). And with decent documentation.
The game I have in mind is a pretty simple one, 2-D 16x16 grid array of 16x16 tiles, with NES zelda style camera movement. in which you're a farmer who runs around managing a farm and raising animals. Basically a harvest moon clone.
I'd just really love some experienced input on what library would be best for someone who has my level of experience, to really hammer out a grasp for C++ while making a neat game.
c++ top down 2-D game. Looking for suggestions on graphics/game libraries similar to XNA or pygame
Hi, I heard that SFML is a good C++ library for games, It is not as high level as XNA, but definitely easier than SDL.
You seem to be pretty experienced in game development to me, you say you've done pong clones, 2d platformer games and even have worked with 3D shooters, I barely scratch that surface.
SDL is a low-level library providing access to Audio,Video and input. But if you want, you can use it for it's Window creation API, SDL 2.0 supports multiple Windows now.
But SDL is written in C. SFML has a C++ interface.
In addition to what the others have said, I recently came upon two frameworks I've never used when I watched One C++ by Herb Sutter. The general graphics-related stuff starts at around the 55th minute, and ends with a pac-man :P
The frameworks in particular are Cinder and openFrameworks. I haven't used either, but at least Cinder looked quite awesome, and I'd love to try it when I have some free time.
