My Own True Story...

jsmawais · 2003-07-10T19:48:52

Hi. I was very keane to become a game developer. My country is not a highly developed country(Pak). In my city, I found not even one book on DirectX or Game programming. I searched everywhere throughout the city, but couldn''t find any book. I then bought a book on 3dsmax and C++. I learned C++ from a book and also learned some 3dsmax from the book "Mastering 3D Studio Max 4". My brother told me that he could to help, too. I taught my brother a little 3dsmax and allowed him to practice. We both started making some 3d objects for our game. When a very small level with some dumb buildings and houses was made, I told my brother that I want to "render" this level by a C++ program. When I opened up MSDN Documentation and looked at the Direct3D Documentation, I got horribly shocked! It was extremely dreaded. I was bad at math. I couldn''t understand the calculations of normals, vertexes, etc. Every thing was difficult to learn. I was not a good C++ programmer. I stopped the making of 3d models and started to strengthen my C++ skills.I was very sad and I sad to myself. It''s just to difficult. It needs a very fast and strong brain. I then learned a little windows programming using the Win32 API(not MFC). After that, I searched the web for some good DirectX tutorials and articles. Some tutorials were on Direct3D 8(at that time). These tutorials told me that I had to download the DirectX 8 or 9 SDK(DX9SDK is 222 MB!!!). I had a 56K modem. I asked a cousin in US to download it with his BroadBand ISP. He donwloaded it, burnt it to a disc and sent it to me but it was a bad download! I was very sad but then I said to myself. I don''t have the SDK though still I can compile Direct3D samples that are on the MSDN CD! I was very disheartened to write a game. I searched the net and one day found this GameDEV.NET. I looked at its "For Beginners" section and saw the order of topics. DirectDraw was placed before learning Direct3D. I then copied a few DirectDraw samples from my CD and looked at their code. I then used a combination of both the documentation and DirectDraw to create a bouncing ball DirectDraw program. I then learned to write a game console using the articles here at GameDEV.NET. Then I game away full effort and created a Tetris clone game "Blocks". I was very happy. I then created a BreakOut clone "BlastThru". After that I tried to create PacMan but failed to because of problems with electricity system of my country which trashed my CPU. My hard disk, modem, CD-Rom and VGA card got out of order. I am thankful to my parents who bought up a new CPU. I also added a CD-R to my CPU because of the fear. I was very sad that I lost all the source code of my games but I remembered that I had uploaded Blocks and BlastThru both to my website with source code(still available here). I downloaded both the games with source code and made a console to make another game. I successfully wrote a cricket board game, BatBowl. Now-a-days I am creating my own 2D game "The Brutal Vengance". Right now its 20% done. This whole success is only due to the help of GameDEV.NET. The people here guided me when I got into a maze. The articles here helped me to learn every thing properly. I THANK ALL PEOPLE AT GameDEV.NET WHO HELPED ME IN THIS QUEST. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

For Beginners

Started by jsmawais July 08, 2003 08:13 PM

16 comments, last by jsmawais 20 years, 9 months ago

Anonymous

July 08, 2003 11:48 PM

I''m 100% serious. They just fill up the bottles with tap water and like sugar and food colouring or something. Of course, a bottle of coke''s only like 10Rp anyway, so it''s not that big a deal. But, if you''re not from there, you can get really really sick... just gotta be careful where you buy it from.

You can find the white powdery stuff there too, but it''s more likely to be real than fake.

jsmawais

122

Author

July 09, 2003 08:13 PM

Hi.
Well, you know I once went to London. If I drink coke of both UK and PAK in two separate glasses, the PAK glass will contain about 10 spoons sugar! Also, it''s hard to say but 3dsmax 5 is like nothing. A Rs. 40(Below $1) CDs are available. These are cracked and pirated. They don''t contain manual, so, you have to smack your head in book stores finding books on these softwares. Also, books of DX were unavailable. I searched almost all the big bookstores and libraries of the city but couldn''t find anything. Still, though, I respect my country. My country has made one game, suprisingly. It was made by Neural Arts Company and the APTECH institute. I don''t know wether it got published or not. It was a 2D fighting game named "Death Trap". Well, as for Direct3D, I haven''t started learning it, yet. Now-a-days I am making my own 2D game, so, I don''t want to jump into D3D right now.

Anonymous

July 09, 2003 08:24 PM

It looks like it got published:
http://www.neuralarts.net/

- dreeze

Anonymous

July 10, 2003 12:03 PM

quote: My country has made one game

Well, you can be the one to change that eh?

Nice story - shows that hard work pays off

Pipo DeClown

804

July 10, 2003 01:26 PM

RP.. rupees

(Zelda)?

.lick

klems

513

July 10, 2003 02:16 PM

Keep up the good work!
Don''t worry about the 3D maths, if you keep going at it like this, they''ll be no problem for you. Everything is possible if you only practice hard enough.

"For crying out loud, she has fishes coming out of her head on either side. How can you find this hot?!"

"If anyone sees a suspicious, camouflaged factory being carried across the desert, they should report it immediately."

JohanOfverstedt

136

July 10, 2003 02:28 PM

Way to go dude!

My game: Swift blocks

DISCLAIMER: If any of the above statements are incorrect, feel free to deliver me a good hard slap!My games: DracMan | Swift blocks

jsmawais

122

Author

July 10, 2003 07:48 PM

Thanks for your appreciation. Hey, anonymous poster, you look to me from Pak or Asia. Also, I think there are a lot of people in Pak who could make a game. Actually, people here like to learn Visual Basic because it''s easy and straight forward. So, a found a BCS professor who didn''t even knew what was MFC! Some people still have a lot of talent and the keaneness to make games and software but they can''t just be promoted out due to the lack of money. Also, the people of Pak just hate study because of the system of study here. In school, what you all have to do is just "drink" your 150 pages book into your brain without understanding it and give the paper and take marks. This the most biggest reason why Pak programmers are not really practical and aren''t smart enough to develop games. Well, this is some of the reasons(I think) why there are no real programmers in Pak.
Thanks again for your comments!

My Own True Story...

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My Own True Story...

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