When is the giant hook going to pull me off stage?

Published September 04, 2005
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Well... that was depressing.

I just read a bunch of other gamedev journals a little bit.

I sux. =/

Other people are more advanced and actually are working on real games and have screen shots.

All I did today was walk around NYC with bf a little. It was eh...

I can't write about my political views because then people will hate me if I am honest and talk about how ::edited out:: ...oops I didn't just say that :D

I don't have any game project I'm working on yet and I even already forgot how I made tic-tac-toe a few months ago o.O

I've been reading about four books at the same time kinda for a while now not really reading any of them actually that much. I wish I had a game to put on the showcase but I don't :( I don't even know why they let me write in here.

I've been at this trying to make real games for almost a year now and I haven't really made anything at all. Earlier today I was thinking about reading some C++ but instead I resigned up for EverQuest II and played for about 30min then stopped. It's still boring as ever. I can't focus anymore to read C++. It's boring. And the book I have kind of read a lot of lately isn't really for me yet its more of the business side of making a game and well I can't even make good games yet. I'm thinking about as my next test project making 'columns'. But having a journal to show how much of a beginner I am is kind of embarassing when in other people's journals they are making real 3d games and writing books or something. Instead of this journal motivating me to read more C++ stuff or work on a game all I've been doing is reading this web site more (I usually only popped in once a month if that).

*hides*
0 likes 12 comments

Comments

Drew_Benton
Hi [wink] You shouldn't feel too bad now, I'm in the same situation. Seeing all these neat games and stuff going on...it is kinda depressing, but rather than feel depressed, I feel motivated!

You should to, just pick some basic game and start working on it! I decided I'd *try* to make a breakout similar to this one, since I ended up playing that forever. Actually I *would* be further along, but it so happens I've decided to start making my web page.

So, just web programming for the next few days, then comes the adding my old content, then finally, adding some new content, tutorials and such. That and college is enough to keep me busy computer wise. If I only had more time...(hence why I'm posting this at 2:25am [lol]).

I'm sure you will find your way again, if not make tic-tac-toe again! If you need you can count on at least one person to come to your aid [smile] Ok back to work for me, until next time -
September 04, 2005 02:23 AM
MustEatYemen
Starting out is tough, the first hurdle is going from
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
cout << "Hello World";
return 0;
}


To something that buffers input, passes that input to a event system to trigger things like Fire or OpenMenu, which will then get rendered to the screen on the next draw pass.

Unfotunatly don't recall many tutorials on GDNet covering stuff like that, and diving into setting up just a window in win32 to then use for DirectX stuff is a big leap.

It'd suggest getting the hang of C++ in a console setting first. Don't worry to much about graphics, just setup a very simple menu system or something that is more complex then just a linear hello world app.
September 04, 2005 04:51 AM
ukdm
It may sound silly but even Pong is a great starting point. Go to an OpenGL site like NeHe, get the basic framework code up and running and then Pong is just a matter of a few lines and some mouse input. From there Breakout is a small leap away and tetris a leap past that.

Tutorials are the best way to learn as books usually present you with a few hundred pages of introductory rubbish first (esp beginner books). After reading this I am not surprised most people need a break. Tutorials on the other hand usually get you straight in there, if they are good.

Back at Uni I was told you should always buy a book above where you think you are experience wise. It does work, a beginner buying an intermediate book may get a little lost but with perserverence and a massive resource like GameDev on tap you quickly catch up.

Keep at it!
ukdm
September 04, 2005 05:53 AM
Staffan E
There are lots of people here who would recognize themselves in what you're describing, me included.

Even though I've programmed for like ten years I have no complete game to show off to the masses, altough many unfinised projects laying around.

I think it's a good thing to remember that game programming is a creative art, and that creativity goes up and down. Sooner or later the motivation will come around. It always does.
September 04, 2005 06:07 AM
Laz
I'm in the same shoes as you. I may have screenshots of something I'm working on, but it's been the same thing for almost a year now. Don't fret, just keep at it. Crack them books open and break out your IDE. Write hello world, write a number guessing game, write battleships.

We've got an entire community here willing to help you. In fact, I just PM'd one another GDNet+ member the other day asking him for some advice, so if you need help on a one-on-one basis or something, don't feel too shy to send someone a PM. Most of the people around here are actually nice, heh.
September 04, 2005 06:56 AM
superpig
I'm a big proponent of the view that you shouldn't make games using the "popular technologies" like C++ just because they're popular - there are many, many, many ways to make games, and tapping code into a text editor is only one of them. A guy like Ernest Pazera has made a bunch of flash games with a development turnaround time of a few days on each one; he's also the author of the MakeDeez Games project which may interest you.
September 04, 2005 09:39 AM
mikeman
Quote:
I'm a big proponent of the view that you shouldn't make games using the "popular technologies" like C++ just because they're popular - there are many, many, many ways to make games, and tapping code into a text editor is only one of them. A guy like Ernest Pazera has made a bunch of flash games with a development turnaround time of a few days on each one; he's also the author of the MakeDeez Games project which may interest you.


A bit OT, but I read the MakeDeez Project and there's a line I've heard many times before, but never understood: "Modern games are too darn fancy". I've heard a lot of times people saying stuff like "15 years ago a game didn't need shaders to be any good", like shaders was even an option then.I never got it.

Most good games were always fancy. Then, it was 256 colors, scaling and parallax scrolling. Now, it's shaders. Pick any classic you want(including Pong), most of them had top-notch graphics for their time, and many did things that noone had seen before.

Using OpenGL or D3D for fancy effects is as hard as it was drawing sprites in VGA 15 years ago or drawing dots on the TV set 30 years ago(actually, it's much easier). Why amateurs of today should be so lazy as to use tools to make small games with graphics outdated 20 years ago?

Contrary to what most say("if you start to make an engine, you'll never finish a game"), most of the succesfull or promising games I've seen in this site(Eternal Lands,Gang Wars,Morning's Wrath...) were programmed pretty much from scratch. I have yet to see here an amateur game of this calibour made with an existing engine as the experts suggest. What's the explanation for this?

Anyway, cppgirl: I didn't understand if you want to be a programmer or something else. You said you find C++ boring, so why are you doing it?
September 04, 2005 01:03 PM
ArchWizard
If it makes you feel any better: those of us who are actually making games feel kinda crappy when we see the better games that others are producing. That's why I don't vist dgreen's journal very often anymore (it's nothing personal, man [wink]).
September 04, 2005 04:18 PM
superpig
Quote:Original post by mikeman
I have yet to see here an amateur game of this calibour made with an existing engine as the experts suggest.


Counterstrike?
September 05, 2005 03:25 AM
mikeman
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:Original post by mikeman
I have yet to see here an amateur game of this calibour made with an existing engine as the experts suggest.

Counterstrike?


That was made by a whole dedicated team that later joined Valve. I was talking about small indie games made by the people here, which most of them work on their own or maybe with one other teammate.

September 05, 2005 05:26 AM
benryves
Quote:I can't focus anymore to read C++. It's boring.
I find all programming books dull, confusing and generally Not Fun. I now adopt the I'll-pick-it-up-as-I-go-along mentality, and it seems to work.
September 05, 2005 05:57 AM
superpig
Quote:Original post by mikeman
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:Original post by mikeman
I have yet to see here an amateur game of this calibour made with an existing engine as the experts suggest.

Counterstrike?

That was made by a whole dedicated team that later joined Valve. I was talking about small indie games made by the people here, which most of them work on their own or maybe with one other teammate.

It only became a "whole dedicated team that later joined Valve" because of the work of two or three people who put it together in their spare time. Early CS, before most of the team members had joined, was as much an "amateur" game as Eternal Lands or Morning's Wrath.

And what makes you think Gooseman never visited these forums? [grin]
September 05, 2005 09:48 AM
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