Quote:Original post by Rhaal I am a huge RPG fan, and love the old school 2D console games. I also love the 2D old-school CRPG's like Exile. (Where can I find this abandonware now?)
This site is packed with a ton of the old games. You may find what you are looking for here. Home of the Underdogs
To OT, no matter what, take your time to learn the concepts you work with. Don't just copy code, try to understand it. It will make your learning much easier as you go. Good luck.
Quote:Original post by Rhaal I am a huge RPG fan, and love the old school 2D console games. I also love the 2D old-school CRPG's like Exile. (Where can I find this abandonware now?).
Now, who doesn't love old-school 2D RPGs? ;) When you mentioned exile did you ou mean this: clicky
Quote: Just remember. Text RPG's are 2D, so you're not cheating yourself :)
I'm curious, what are "text RPGs"? Are they like Zork or something like Nethack and other rogue-likes?
Quote:Original post by tentoid Now, who doesn't love old-school 2D RPGs? ;) When you mentioned exile did you ou mean this: clicky
I'm curious, what are "text RPGs"? Are they like Zork or something like Nethack and other rogue-likes?
You rock for the link! Rating++!
You are also correct on the games you mentioned. I should have said Text Adventure for clarity though. Speaking of which. Have you found a name for your RPG yet tentoid?
Quote:Original post by Rhaal You are also correct on the games you mentioned. I should have said Text Adventure for clarity though. Speaking of which. Have you found a name for your RPG yet tentoid?
Not quite yet. I might release a "public beta" version of the game soon and by that time I hope that I have found a name. So still searching..
If this is your first project, then just start hacking away at it. You will NOT get the perfect design on your first attempt. It just won't happen. Accept the fact that eventually your codebase will become a giant mess, and you will have to rewrite. Probably many times.
Good code design only comes with practice and experience. Each time you rewrite you will create a better and more flexible system. Just keep learning, applying new ideas, and enjoy the learning experience, because chances are, you will not complete your RPG on the first attempt...unless it's an extremely simple RPG. So try not to get burned out.
Realistically, I would not start with an RPG if I were you. You're just setting yourself up for a lot of frustration when you realize after 5k lines that you need to do a complete rewrite. I would start simple with Pong, Breakout, etc.
"If I have seen farther than other men, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants." -- sir Isaac Newton
Any other tips huh? Well, the only thing I can think if is that whenever you have to rewrite code, examine your old code very closely. See why the design didn't work and also try to see what parts of the design did work.
I've been programming for about 4-5 years now, and the only "real" (read graphical) game that I've made is Pang, a remake of pong with a twist. I started making a tetris style game but failed miserably, since I didn't think ahead very much (if at all).
as said above... spend most time on planning. after you have planned everything carefully your coding should be like building something from a construction manual. i always had an idea like "i want to make a xxx (no pr0n, just xxx as a placeholder for a genre) game.". after the idea i had the immediate urge to code something. i fired up visual studio and began coding. after maybe 1 day i realized that something was missing... no problem, just put another function here, some other variables there... what? i need that variable in this function? just make it global in case i'll need them in other functions as well :) after a while you see more and more problems and you end up with a pile of code which even you dont understand (you can still remember beginning the project 2 days ago). finally i gave up because i didnt feel like writing it all over again. now the thing i learned out of this experience (maybe one has to make this experience): if you have an idea keep it in mind and play with it. take a deep breath and relax to repress the urge to code immediately (use head against wall method if breathing and relaxing fails). grab some paper and write down what you want to achieve (some kind of todo list). then think about what data structures you want to use. think about how your functions will interact. you will see that you'll encounter maaaany many problems in the planning phase. every error that you can avoid while planning saves you lots of headache, pain and worries. i dont know how much you already know about programming because you didnt mention your experience but it can never be pointed out often enough because i still have problems to repress my coding urge when i have a new idea.. i hope this helps and i hope you dont feel tutored if you already knew all this.
good luck with your project BiGF00T
PS: i think the first code i wrote was on my atari st (long time ago) but i had several times since then when i didnt code for months. so i still dont have the coding skills that some dedicated teens have. now i study software engineering and that way i can always say "i'm learning for university" when i code. helps my conscience a lot ;) i made some games using turbo pascal (mode 13h) but after this i paused for too long time and had to relearn many things that changed in the time between turbo pascal stoneage and today. currently i'm learning a bit opengl (after trying directx) and the next project will be dx again. from now on i'll never stop learning new stuff... its too hard to catch up after a while
Now get down on your hands and knees and start repeating "Open Source Good, M$ Evil", smacking your head against the pavement after each repetition. Once you have completed your training you may change your first name to GNU/, to show that you are free from the slavery of the closed source world. -Michalson
maybe im crazy, but i don't plan out a single line of code for my game. and for planning out game features, well i dont exactly do that too much either [smile]. i've been working on an online RPG for the past 6 months, and have been coding and adding things as i thought of them / wanted to implement them. my code is NOT a giant mess, the only globals are instances of my core classes, accessor functions are kept to a minimum... theres only some minor problems im having with data replication in inheritense tree's, but other then that, the core of my engine is pretty slick. im not trying to discourage you from planning out your game / code, but, for me it wasnt required. i simply dont have the attention span to plan out all my code and design [smile].
however, maybe because this isnt my first project i have a feel for the code. ive made a few games in the past (only simple games, like pong and pacman). after programming everyday for a certain amount of time, you start to "see" the code. it's hard to explain, but...
one thing i should note, when i want to add a new feature to the game, i don't just open up the IDE and start coding. i start out in notepad, and right out my ideas in english. then ill write some pseudo code, and then some actual C++ code. only when i have the complete design written down in notepad and everything is connected do i "drop it in" my engine. this has worked for me rather then planning everything out from the begining.
i also know of at least one other person who doesnt plan out their code. they have been very successfull in developing an adventure / RPG game over the past few years, and he plans on making a decent amount of money selling it shareware.
