Ideas on Programs
Author
I have a final program I have to do for my engineering class. It can be anything. My professor even said it could be a game. Since I am one of the brightest students in his class he expects a great program from me (he told me this to my face). So I was wondering if you guys have any ideas of programs I can do. It can be anything. It also has to be in C. I know everything including pointers, references, strucs, loops, strings, the whole nine yards (no API or any graphics just ASCII). But don't get me wrong I am no expert so try to keep it somewhat plausable. I have I believe 4 or 5 weeks to finish it. Thanks in advance for the ideas.
I would take the opportunity to learn something new. 4-5 weeks is not enough for a decent game, but perhaps a cool demo. Your lack of graphics experience is a slight handicap, BUT you could stull pull something off. Remember that graphics are more impressive than any raw algorithm. If you had both, you'd be ubercool.
So a simple graphics demo would be something you could easily pick up using something like SDL or basic OpenGL. A particle system, fireworks, raindrops, fire, waves, that sort of thing. Check out libsdl.org in their list of projects. There are a lot of demos there. You could use that just for inspiration. Picking up SDL for example, is almost trivial. I had something up and running connected to my game project in six hours. Before that, i had zero graphics knowledge and had only console output. It's really simple.
If you do this, a minimal amount of interaction makes it *that* much more impressive. I really like this demo/toy
So a simple graphics demo would be something you could easily pick up using something like SDL or basic OpenGL. A particle system, fireworks, raindrops, fire, waves, that sort of thing. Check out libsdl.org in their list of projects. There are a lot of demos there. You could use that just for inspiration. Picking up SDL for example, is almost trivial. I had something up and running connected to my game project in six hours. Before that, i had zero graphics knowledge and had only console output. It's really simple.
If you do this, a minimal amount of interaction makes it *that* much more impressive. I really like this demo/toy
Have you considered an MMORPG?
Kidding aside - 4-5 weeks is not a lot of time, particularly if you have to learn a graphics API as well.
I'd probably stick to something very simple, but make it very polished. By simple I'm talking Tetris or Pacman - anything with major assets (ie a side-scroller) is going to take too much time on top of everything else.
The alternative is to forego the graphics and do it all in ascii - maybe a card-game - something like solitaire or poker. If you kept the games simple, you could do something like a virtual casino - roulette, craps and blackjack, for example.
Hope these ideas are of some help!
Jim.
Kidding aside - 4-5 weeks is not a lot of time, particularly if you have to learn a graphics API as well.
I'd probably stick to something very simple, but make it very polished. By simple I'm talking Tetris or Pacman - anything with major assets (ie a side-scroller) is going to take too much time on top of everything else.
The alternative is to forego the graphics and do it all in ascii - maybe a card-game - something like solitaire or poker. If you kept the games simple, you could do something like a virtual casino - roulette, craps and blackjack, for example.
Hope these ideas are of some help!
Jim.
Author
I didn't necassarly mean make a entire fully functioning game. I only meant something impressive. I have 4 years of c++ background (although i have to relearn classes and better learn how to do algorithms). This program has to be in pure C. And makeing a particle engine(simulation (the easy kind like eariler said)) or somehing simple sounds nice. I did once make a window and initilized directx before. But that was maby a year ago and I don't know how to do that anymore. Asci games sound nice. And a card game sound nice also. I just wish I knew how to play some of the card games you said (rules and such). But because I do have alot of programming experience i would love to make a simple graphics demo. Like a cube or some lines or a rotating cube what ever. I don't have much API programing experience but if there is something you guys think I can learn and implement in 5 weeks then i'm all ears.
I would definitly consider a blackjack game u can easily create the program with or without OOP ive done blackjack in both easily. The rules are simple and will only require minor math calculations and some booleans. The user really only has 2 main options of input and in some special cases will have a couple more. You can find complete rules for the game here http://www.ildado.com/blackjack_rules.html and if that isnt complete enough just google it, you'll get a ton of results.
Keep in mind:
1) that a each deck only has 52 cards 4 of each number value, so you will want to make an array as the deck, when u deal just pull cards from a random index then set that index to some sort of flag indicating the card is drawn
2) after each round you will want to reset the deck, in psuedocode:
declare counter to increment through the array and set it to 0
for each card # value do this { //ie 2-10 then
-- for 4 times do this { //as in each of the 4 suits
---- assign the card value of the outter loop in this position
---- increment the placeholder in the array index
-- }
}
for 4 times do this { //assign the value of ace as 11
-- assign 11 to the position
-- increment the position in the array
}
for each face card do this { //jack - king are all worth 10
-- assign 10 to the position
-- increment the card position
}
3) Ace is 11 unless the player or dealer busts then it turns to 1
4) The odds are best to stay on 17 or Higher so have the dealer do this unless the players card value is higher, then the dealer must hit
A few ideas to spice up the game are:
1) Make it multiplayer since it is a turn based game where all players play against the dealer.
2) try to incorporate graphics, if not use some cool ASCII characters to make cards, i dont remember the exact character #s but i know you can get spades and clubs etc
3) Store the highscores in a saved file
i hope this helps! it might be a little simple for ya but if u could get some graphics in there it would be really solid!
if you have any questions just let me know!
Keep in mind:
1) that a each deck only has 52 cards 4 of each number value, so you will want to make an array as the deck, when u deal just pull cards from a random index then set that index to some sort of flag indicating the card is drawn
2) after each round you will want to reset the deck, in psuedocode:
declare counter to increment through the array and set it to 0
for each card # value do this { //ie 2-10 then
-- for 4 times do this { //as in each of the 4 suits
---- assign the card value of the outter loop in this position
---- increment the placeholder in the array index
-- }
}
for 4 times do this { //assign the value of ace as 11
-- assign 11 to the position
-- increment the position in the array
}
for each face card do this { //jack - king are all worth 10
-- assign 10 to the position
-- increment the card position
}
3) Ace is 11 unless the player or dealer busts then it turns to 1
4) The odds are best to stay on 17 or Higher so have the dealer do this unless the players card value is higher, then the dealer must hit
A few ideas to spice up the game are:
1) Make it multiplayer since it is a turn based game where all players play against the dealer.
2) try to incorporate graphics, if not use some cool ASCII characters to make cards, i dont remember the exact character #s but i know you can get spades and clubs etc
3) Store the highscores in a saved file
i hope this helps! it might be a little simple for ya but if u could get some graphics in there it would be really solid!
if you have any questions just let me know!
I reccomend you stay within the bounds of what you already know. I don't have a particular suggestion for a program, but learning something new involves alot of work aside from the work of making something impressive, so in 4-5 weeks you will either be stretched thin or not finish the project.
Quote:Original post by Nothingness
Makeing a particle engine(simulation (the easy kind like eariler said)) or somehing simple sounds nice.
Boids demo!!! If you start out with a fireworks demo, and get it working it would be quite easy to convert it to a flocking demo (which is what i did). 2D Flocking is pretty simple, which would let you concerntrait on getting the graphics going but it looks very cool. If your just learning graphics go with something like SDL or allegro - both are really high quality and have heaps of tutorials out there (my personal biased prefernce is for SDL because you can use it with OpenGL if you like). This is definatly something you can pull off in a month, and while it'll be a bit of work it'll teach you heaps of be a nice intro into games if you want to take it further later.
Quote:Original post by kaysik
....Flocking....
Nice demo boids...
You could do the same thing with flocking of a set of characters, like using $ flocking with $ and £ flocking with £ ....
Also ASCII interactive graphics is always impressive, make a bitmap2ASCII converter and then mayby a scrollable image or something...
Author
Well I found out I have about 7 weeks to finish it. I am really thinking of some simple graphics display. Are there any more suggestions for those. Thanks.
Physics always look impressive, even when single cubes are tossed around.
I suppose there are tons of papers and other resources out there so I would definitly look that up if it's all for show. It will also show that you know a bit math and how to implement algoritms.
A raytracer would also be within reach, and with quite simple tricks do amazing stuff (like reflections and shadows). If that's not enough challenge, make it realtime.
That's two of concepts from the top of my head. I'm not really a fan of games as a showproduct since you need to get the gameplay really neat to make something impressive.
Albert
I suppose there are tons of papers and other resources out there so I would definitly look that up if it's all for show. It will also show that you know a bit math and how to implement algoritms.
A raytracer would also be within reach, and with quite simple tricks do amazing stuff (like reflections and shadows). If that's not enough challenge, make it realtime.
That's two of concepts from the top of my head. I'm not really a fan of games as a showproduct since you need to get the gameplay really neat to make something impressive.
Albert
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