Thanks for replying everyone :)

turt99 , that method seems cumbersome to the computer , but i'll try it :)

btw, I just read about SDL_ttf , does any SDL API user use it here? if so , is it hard to understand or not?

Quote:Guys, i want to make something clear ...

Game Development won't be my career. I have no intentions to make 3D games or to participate in projects to make serious games. I just want to be able to make cool 2D side scrolling games such as classic mario or megaman , or at least a space shooter. I want to make games for the fun of it , thats all.

Bingo. You just overestimated yourself right there. Mario and Megaman are much more complex beasts than you might realize (if you've never made one before). I've been working on a "simple 2D sidescroller" for the last 11 months now and all i can do is jump around and shoot. It's nothing even close to a game yet, but at least it functions.

I'll just reiterate what Oluseyi said: Game programming is capital H - A - R - D. Don't give up though. You'll get frustrated many times, fail many times, want to kill your computer many times, but in the end, you might get a functioning "cool 2D sidescroller" if you work like a dog for the next 2-3 years. This is not an exageration, but best of luck on your project(s).


As for SDL_ttf, i have used it and it works fairly easy and straight-forward. Read the documentation and header files and in a day or two you should be able to get something up and running understandably.

Quote:Original post by Coder21

Game Development won't be my career. I have no intentions to make 3D games or to participate in projects to make serious games. I just want to be able to make cool 2D side scrolling games such as classic mario or megaman , or at least a space shooter. I want to make games for the fun of it , thats all.

So shall i stick to SDL in that case or check Allegro? (i heard its good and easy)

getting into the game programming may be difficult, and yes, it takes too mucho time, even for doing a "simple" game like mario or megaman.....

you have to read, and read and read.....spend hours (or even days) to get something "easy" to work.

i learned sdl in a week or so.
this 2 links were the ones i used.
http://www.gamedev.net/reference/programming/features/sdl2/
http://www.libsdl.org/intro/toc.html

with those 2, i made a pong game.....
i recommend you to start making your own pong clone.....i think its the easist and the best way to see how a game should be structured.

though, i decided moving to allegro (http://alleg.sourceforge.net/) , because i think its a much more complete API (you can see both documentations and you will see)...

www.vermilliongames.com
download the game demo, i know the person who did that game (it is going to be commercial), it was done with allegro (and openGL of course). That can show the power of that api.

Quote:though, i decided moving to allegro

(http://alleg.sourceforge.net/) , because i think its a much more

complete API (you can see both documentations and you will see)...

hmm... ok you make me think twice about spending time on SDL. If

Allegro is more complete as you say , then shall i stop wasting my

time on SDL and learn Allegro instead?

Are APIs similar in anyway btw? I mean will learning an API make learning a more complicated API easier?

Quote:Original post by ishpeck

Quote:Original post by paulecoyote
You might like to try C#, the .NET has the MSDN, and the DirectX SDK has awesome tutorials and examples. . . .

Switching languages doesn't make game development any easier to do.

Unless you are going from assembly to C# [grin] Anyways Coder21, you said that SDL seems low on resources and you are right. But then again, a lot of things are low on resources. All of the tutorial across the net are basically the same one's just tweaked and modded a bit. Now that is am over generizalation because there are quite a few good original ones, but not widely used in the public domain.

One thing though Coder21, is that you would not be wasting your time with SDL. You are still leanring the basics of game programming, of which you can use with either Allegro or SDL to achieve this means. It cannot be quantified which one is 'more complete', it just depends on what you need to do and how you want to do it and how long you are wanting to dedicate to it.

Turt99 brings up an important and correct point in his first post. If you simpy follow tutorials, then you are less inclined to learn how to solve the problems on your own. There is a tutorial syndrom of which sometimes beginngers want to find a tutorial that tells them how to do this and that - basically be spoon-fed the answers. This is not that good for you - even though using tutorials as a tool is a good idea. Basically I am just saying that tutorials are great, but they should not be the crux of your operations - more just as one tool you can use to aid you.

Heck be adventerous! Download both Allegro and SDL and start working with them at the same time. First get the basic application working for both of them. Then move on from there. You should be able to find one *you* like the best. This is the best advice I can give you - people's opinions help out, but you are the only one that knows what you like, so you must gauge which you think is better. You can start trying to do X in SDL and X in Allegro and see if one is more complete then the other, who knows, they might be both seem equal to you.

- Drew

Quote:Original post by Coder21
...then shall i stop wasting my time on SDL and learn Allegro instead?

Switching libraries doesn't make game programming any easier to do. Some people change languages and/or libraries every time they hit a road block. That'd be like changing bicycles every time you fell as a child. Those people haven't made anything useful, much less approaching games, yet.

Drew and Oluseyi , thanks for your replying. I think i'll stick with C\C++ and SDL then untill i grasp the concepts of game programming :)