Quote:Original post by mattnewport
I'd second the recommendation to try XNA. It's designed to make it possible for individual hobbyists to put together simple games and it cuts out a lot of the hassle of just getting something simple up and running under straight DirectX / Win32 with C++. It's well supported and has a growing community around it.

It is certainly possible for one person to make a simple 3D role playing game but it does require more dedication and time commitment than many people are willing or able to dedicate to a hobby. If you have the time and the motivation though it's achievable with straight DirectX and C++. XNA will definitely save you time though. If you're more interested in the artistic side than the programming aspects you might be better off using a higher level graphics engine like Ogre or a complete game engine like the Torque engine to save you having to learn a lot about programming and 3D math just to get a 3D model moving around on screen. Making a mod for an existing game similar to the kind of thing you want to make is another option - for an RPG something like Neverwinter Nights or Dungeon Seige would give you a ready made base for building a fairly sophisticated RPG.