Choosing a program to design a shootemup (newbie)
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Howdy folks!
Me and 2 friends decided that instead of just discussing video games, we should try and make one. We decided a shootemup would be a good first project.
What I'd like is a fairly simple program like SEUCK, however, knowing me, I'll probably try to make it do impossible things. To start with, here's a few prerequisits:
o Four way sideways scrolling
o Upgradeable weapon systems
o End bosses
o Parallax scrolling
And a couple of pipe dreams I'd really like:
o Weapons shop between levels
o Quasi 3D sprites (actual, or pre-rendered)
o Scalable sprites (fits in with the 3D bit above)
I can pick up languages pretty fast, but I won't be the only one coding - so perhaps the simpler the better. I was thinking I could make a flash game, but that wouldn't really do it or me.
Can anyone recommend a program/languages to use that would fit the first or both the criteria above?
Like most beginners, I think youre getting way, way ahead of yourself. Try making a really simple, textbased, "guess-my-number" game in whatever language/program youre going to use. If you can do that, you can begin to think about the longterm goals.
Good luck!
Good luck!
Author
Quote:Original post by Mizipzor
Like most beginners, I think youre getting way, way ahead of yourself. Try making a really simple, textbased, "guess-my-number" game in whatever language/program youre going to use. If you can do that, you can begin to think about the longterm goals.
Good luck!
Thanks for the quick reply, but I was thinking of one of those GUI drag and drop kind of things (if applicable). However, I 'm not a novice at coding, I want something that will be simple for my friends to pick up as well. I've previously coded in:
68000 assembler (Amiga)
Basic
Blitz basic
Pascal
Flash
I've made a good few games in my time (in fact Blitz basic would be perfect for this if it was still around), including making a shoot em up (with paralax scrolling!) and a simple ascii beat em up using pascal.
So while I want kind of newbie advice, I'm not that new ;)
Hehe ok then. But Im afraid my suggestion still stands. Even if you could make something maybe even more complicated than you describe, your friends wont. And if you want them to be into the project and find it interesting, its important that they feel they can contribute somehow. Which they wont if you go bananas with your initial idea.
But since you will use these drag-n-drop kinda programs I guess textbased stuff is out of the question, although they are great for getting ones head around the programs flow in programming.
May I suggest something still very simple but that can be made (I assume) in the drag-n-drop program, like... Pong?
But since you will use these drag-n-drop kinda programs I guess textbased stuff is out of the question, although they are great for getting ones head around the programs flow in programming.
May I suggest something still very simple but that can be made (I assume) in the drag-n-drop program, like... Pong?
I might as well and go ahead and suggest Game Maker. Although I have never used it, I know of a couple of people here who use it just to get a basic gameplay design made, so they know how the game will play. It also has their own scripting language built in I believe. It might interest you, since your friends also want to help.
Chad.
Chad.
Author
Quote:Original post by Chad Smith
I might as well and go ahead and suggest Game Maker. Although I have never used it, I know of a couple of people here who use it just to get a basic gameplay design made, so they know how the game will play. It also has their own scripting language built in I believe. It might interest you, since your friends also want to help.
Chad.
Thanks Chad, does anyone else have experience with this? Might this be what I need?
I feel like it could accomplish the prerequisites.
Quote:Original post by Soop_I've only played around to get a feel for using it, but from what you've described you should be able to make your game using Game Maker. If you've got the money to buy a copy Flash would also be more than capable of this, although you've already mentioned you'd rather not use it.
Thanks Chad, does anyone else have experience with this? Might this be what I need?
I feel like it could accomplish the prerequisites.
If you were looking more for a simple programming language than an authorware solution then you might try Kid's Programming Language, or perhaps Blitz Basic (it is still around, seems to be quite popular at SHMUP-DEV [wink]).
I agree with Mizipzor's suggestion that if your friends want to help and are less experienced it may be a good idea to walk through something fairly simple such as a Pong game together first while you both get familiar with whatever tool or language you decide to use.
I'd say give Game Maker a try, it won't cost you anything but some of your time to try it out, and it's capable of everything on your list except perhaps the '3d sprites' (you could of course do the pre-rendered thing though).
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