Gamer Gamester

Check out Land of Lisp!

You could give Audacity a try.

Dude, you shouldn't be in love yet. It should be much harder for a girl to win your love. She won't respect or value your love if it is that easy to get.

Back when I was a strapping young youth I would mistake my being horny for love. Girls who had rather obnoxious and immature personalities suddenly seemed like "angels" to me (but only one at a time.... there could only be one "perfect being"). Certain activities or topics which held no genuine interest for me were suddenly fascinating simply because she liked them.

It took me a long time to realize that I was misinterpreting what I really wanted: to sexually devour them. Along with discovering this, I noticed that there were girls I wanted to do this with EVERYWHERE. All over the place.

Love and relationship are something different. They're slower, take time, and in many ways are much more of a practical matter. Do you genuinely enjoy her other interests? (you don't just think they're interesting just because her hotness likes them, do you?) Do you really like talking with her? (as in: you really enjoy the conversations, not just the fact that it's coming from her body.... Here's a good test: would you still enjoy the conversation if she were some 80 year old woman?)

It takes time and experience. At first, finding a girl attractive will distort your interpretation of everything else related to her (and even not related to her, such as programming). Good luck!

The patent system ignores the implications of the commonly observed "simultaneous invention". Often an idea appears novel and innovative (why wouldn't it have been around before)... until you realize that the real reason it is "new" is because the problem it solves weren't around before.

If slide-to-unlock wasn't the result of innovative genius, then why wasn't it around years ago? Because the problems it solves weren't. Problem: You are carrying a touch-screen device in your pocket, and need to be able to activate it easily. Answer: You can just touch it to activate it! Problem: Your device will be activated unintentionally if a simple touch can activate it. Answer: Hmm.... what's the simplest solution to this. You could be required to touch in only a specific spot, but even that precise spot may accidentally be touched. Oh wait, I know!! Maybe you need to touch a specific spot, then move to a different specific spot! That is unlikely to happen by accident.

Coloring visited hyperlinks is equally ridiculous for a patent. Why hadn't such coloring been widely used for years? Because hyperlinks hadn't widely used, not because it takes some one-of-a-kind genius to think up. Being able to put your kids through college from something like that implies that the patent system is like some kind of casino.

1. Performance.
2. A good reverse engineer can dump the classes and members offset and easily hack my game. (Using the script engine)
3. I like C++ more than high level languages.

1. The performance critical part is the engine.
2. This is not as serious a priority as: finishing something that somebody would actually want to reverse engineer.
3. But your planning to work on a higher level! You program on top of the (low level) engine. Really the whole point of an engine is to let you use scripting.

Memory management is one of many programming topics. There's enough to learn about computers and programming to fill a lifetime. It makes sense to start with a selection of topics that are among the most immediately and practically useful and go from there. Direct memory management doesn't really fit into that category these days -- there are more useful things to start with.

C++ is not the best language, and it is a terrible choice to begin programming with.

I always recommend Python to beginners. C# is supposed to be good too (but I've always avoided it as I don't like being limited to one company's ecosystem). There are other good choices as well, but stay away from C++!

The best place to start is to pick a language and begin studying it. Find a few good books and take pleasure in understanding the language itself. Making games is very frustrating if you don't first cultivate a strong interest in programming itself.

That sucks. I really want something that will allow me to program in c++ so I can get better with that language as don't want to just use scripting. Wanting to get better as going to college for game programming so this isn't just going to be a hobby and need c++ projects to work on to help me get better.

You don't need C++ projects in order to get better at programming. And it's harmful to dismiss "scripting" languages as not powerful. Where are 90% of beginners getting these ideas?

I get the impression you're new to programming -- in that case (especially when thinking of a career in the field), I highly recommend learning programming fundamentals and concepts. Things will go smoother with a language like Python, but try something 2D first instead of Panda3D. FPSes and RPGs are both too difficult to start with -- try something like Pacman. Even old 80s style arcade games will provide quite the challenge and learning experience.

I would go with C#/XNA. It's more Object-Oriented

How is C#/XNA more Object-Oriented?

and the syntax is closer to other modern languages (Java, C++).

I wouldn't call Java or C++ modern languages (anymore), though they still can be quite useful in these modern times.



To the OP:
I've heard C#/XNA are a joy to work with -- they're probably a safe bet if limiting to Windows works for you.
How important is the portability to you? If you require Linux and other OSes, then Python/PyGame is a more appropriate tool.

It will help to cultivate a strong interest in the programming itself. Take some time to study whichever language you choose.
If you discover no passion for programming, you're likely better off with a form of game maker software. But give programming a try first!

I think being both programmer and designer is actually the ideal setup. It gives the designer a more intimate intimate relationship with the medium (and as a programmer, it's much more fun making my own stuff!).

It's probably off topic to focus on this.... but I'm not fully sure what the topic even is anymore, so here I go.

This type of talk:

The government tells you what drugs to do because drugs ruin lives and waste potential. Look at your average stoner. They insist vehemently that weed has no bad points, isn't addictive and would single-handedly save the economy- facts be damned. They usually say all this at 3pm on a Tuesday in their parents garage.

has no substance. Many "stoners" that I know are successful financially, don't think legalization is a silver bullet for the economy, and fully acknowledge both pros & cons to the drug. Their lives are not ruined, and some of them would say that weed (among many other factors) helped them to realize their potential.

If you don't know much about something, please refrain from spewing nonsense about it. There's too much regurgitating of nonsense going around these days -- it inhibits real discovery and learning about topics.

Techniques that promote faster development time -- it makes sense to rate them highly.
Programming high-level game logic in C++ is cumbersome. The language works better for crafting fast, fine-tuned engines.

"Scripting" makes it more practical to play with details and experimentally find that "just right" gameplay.

Get the first (or last) child element of a node with the following:
firstElementChild, lastElementChild

Then iterate through them using that child node's:
nextElementSibling, previousElementSibling

When nextElementSibling returns null, you know you are done.
Alternatively, you can get the number of children that a node has with:
childElementCount


These work in all browsers except (I think) Internet Explorer (not sure about version 9).
If you need to support older IEs, you can use the more cumbersome:
firstChild, lastChild, nextSibling, previousSibling


However, these are tricky as they don't limit themselves to child elements
(they also return the text nodes that make up the contents of elements, etc.)
so you'll want to check:
nodeType


elements have a nodeType of 1 (text nodes have 3, etc.)

Read the SFML tutorials. They're well done, simple and cover the API well.
If you don't feel like you know what do from there, then maybe you're not ready.
Remember to plan something extremely simple to get going.

Do you have your compile/linking process down (are you able to make executables)? That is one of the trickier aspects of C++.

Start by getting a SFML window running.
Then get an image in that window.
Maybe you'd like to be able to move the image around with arrow keys?

Reading books is great, keep it up. But don't be afraid to mix in some programming (at least half your time, I'd say --- though the occasional academic sabbatical can be healthy).

Developing graphics & audio and doing the programming requires skilled humans, which can cost a lot. "Massive companies" make games for profit, which means they need even more humans and tools for marketing, accounting, legal, etc. Business gets expensive in the details.

But you're correct, a person with a computer, electricity, and internet can make a game, with the only additional cost being time (which perhaps you value?). Look into the indie scene for examples of successes and failures without "millions".

Lofty ambitions are good for an indie, but it's important to be able to transform those goals into something tangible. This requires thinking things through realistically -- it's easy to underestimate what goes into things (see Dunning-Kruger).