yeh, J2SE is what you need although if you don't want to write Java code for mobile devices then you don't need J2ME, but I would still learn with J2ME, there is just something so cool about writing programs that run on mobile phones with bluetooth functionality LOL ;o)

Netbeans is quite nice but can be kind of slow, I have found JCreator LE to be a really good IDE - which is what I use, probably the best IDE out there as it's easy to use, easy to setup etc...

have alook at the many IDE's out there, Eclipse, NetBeans, JCreator, DR Java etc... but JCreator wins everytime for me ;o)

good coding!

thanks virtual X, i'm havin another problem atm.. does anyone know the exact most recent JDK? coz' on my tutorial it mentions using JDK 1.6... but i can only find 1.5 for download, is there that much difference between them? if i used 1.5 instead of 1.6 would everything still work? thanks xx

thankyou M-E.. i'll stick with 1.5 at least for a while :)

thanks for the link for the tutorial as well , seems pretty helpful so far even though i'm only a little way in, so thansk again. :) xx

Quote:Original post by qprmanzz
hi i'm brand new to this forum.. so hello everyone here :)

Hello [smile]

Quote:but i've gotta say first i have no money at all to spend on software or nything like that.. so any free soloutions to my problems would be appreicated :)

It'll probably be a good idea to set money aside for a book or two. Yes, there are plenty of free tutorials online, but the problem is that they pretty much all suck. (or only focus on very narrow and specific subjects, and assume that you're already a decent programmer)

Quote:i did about two months worth of lessons with c# but found out nothing really to do with game development..

Programming isn't to do with game development now? [wink]
You have to learn a bunch of things *before* you can make a game. And most of them are best learned by focusing on them, and forgetting that it could also be used for games.

When you're learning programming, you need to focus on learning programming. Which means yes, spending time on non-game related books/lessons/tutorials/exercises/projects.

More specifically, don't bother with graphics. Work on console (text-based) apps until, well, until you're a decent programmer. Adding graphics is not really relevant to programming. It won't teach you anything new about programming (which is what you need to learn), it'll just pose a bunch of distractions.

Quote: and don't really like the idea of xna (besides my comp doesn't seem to want to download it anyway :() and as i've heard that java is quite a commonly used game programming language, and apparently offers lots of online tutorials i was wondering what i actually need to download to get to work.. can someone please list litrally everything i need to get and just briefly explain what does what, just so i literally have a direction to go in, or if anyone feels java is a bad choice and they have a better one please mention :)

First, C# is generally considered a better choice than Java.
Second, if you can't be bothered to learn programming through C#, what makes you think you'd do it through Java?
You still have to go through all the programming (ie. non-graphical) bits.
But *if* you decide to try Java, you need to download the Java SDK (or JDK) from java.sun.com
And then you might want an IDE to write your code in. Eclipse (www.eclipse.org I think) is free and pretty good.

Quote:
oh, and by the way, i'm kinda looking for something thats a bit simpler on the graphical side of things for now, just like simple 2-d, capabale of making sega-style graphics?

You're aiming too high [grin]
Start out without graphics. If you want to make games, you can do hangman, or maybe a text-based adventure.

Quote:It'll probably be a good idea to set money aside for a book or two. Yes, there are plenty of free tutorials online, but the problem is that they pretty much all suck. (or only focus on very narrow and specific subjects, and assume that you're already a decent programmer)

i realise what your saying, and loads of people say how money helps to get better things, buti litrally have none, and no way of getting any to spend on a book.. i jus figure if i use enoough online tutorials and maybe this site :) i'll eventually be able to teach myself what i don't know.

Quote:
Programming isn't to do with game development now?
You have to learn a bunch of things *before* you can make a game. And most of them are best learned by focusing on them, and forgetting that it could also be used for games.

When you're learning programming, you need to focus on learning programming. Which means yes, spending time on non-game related books/lessons/tutorials/exercises/projects.

More specifically, don't bother with graphics. Work on console (text-based) apps until, well, until you're a decent programmer. Adding graphics is not really relevant to programming. It won't teach you anything new about programming (which is what you need to learn), it'll just pose a bunch of distractions.

oh, don't get me wrong i realise things must be learned before you begin game programming.. after a few months of looking and finding out things about it i realise it isn't that easy :P it's just with C#.. i couldn't find any websites at all that helped me advance from where i was.. i could do basic things but i was pretty limited.. and when i found out that xna was the typical graphics program (i think i got that sentence right :P) it kinda scared me off to be honest, i realse not to start with graphics, but i would like to do some simple graphics first rather than really nice looking 3-d landscapes straight away, that and my comp spat xna right back at me lol.

Quote:
First, C# is generally considered a better choice than Java.
Second, if you can't be bothered to learn programming through C#, what makes you think you'd do it through Java?
You still have to go through all the programming (ie. non-graphical) bits.
But *if* you decide to try Java, you need to download the Java SDK (or JDK) from java.sun.com
And then you might want an IDE to write your code in. Eclipse (www.eclipse.org I think) is free and pretty good.

i know i've already kinda mentioned about this but i just want to get something straight.. it wasn't that i couldn't be bothered to learn c#.. i spent quite a few months slaving away learning new things most weeks.. it's just that i thought c# was nothing to do with game development, i heard from places its very different to other languages and i heard lots of people use java so i though i would try that instead.

Quote:
You're aiming too high
Start out without graphics. If you want to make games, you can do hangman, or maybe a text-based adventure.

don't worry lol i didn't mean right now :P.. just as and when i do start getting into graphics after i'm comfortable with the programming side of things i would like to start with 2d tbs games (like shining force, as i really enjoy playing those games and they don't depend too much on graphics.)
either way, thanks for the extra links posted everyone :)

EDIT:
after reading what spoonbender said about c# it got me thinking... to be honest the times i spent using c# i found it quite comfortable and i could somehow get to grips with it.. i just thought it was more a language for applications than games.. so now i have a few questions.. WOULD c# be a good language to stick with as i have a little bit of earlier experience with it? is xna capable of making 2-d graphics? is xna free does anyone know?
and also are there any other graphical designers (don't really know what theyre called) other than xna that work with c#? i'd be happy to carry on learning that language just i always read that it was aimed for applications and so thought i was on the wrong road completely.. thanks for all the help so far everyone xxx

[Edited by - qprmanzz on June 3, 2007 12:35:40 PM]

Yes, you can make 2D games with XNA, in fact most of the games coming out for the framework are 2D. You should download XNA Game Studio Express and have a look in the documentation. In there you will find a set of easy to follow tutorials which tell you how to place a sprite (a simple 2D image) on the screen, and how to make it animate and bounce around etc..

Edit: Sometimes I forget the documentation is online... http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb203893.aspx

Just to say that XNA is not a 'graphical designer', it's actually an extension to the .NET framework, with lots of special classes and tools designed to make game programming easier. To be honest I don't think you will find making 2D game programming any easier with Java then you would with XNA, especially if you already know a little C#. :)

Edit: Oh yeah, XNA is completely free, but in order to get your game to run on an Xbox you need to pay a $100 subscription fee. That's completely optional though and if you are just making Windows games you will not have to worry about it.

thankyou darktimes.. i didn't realise you could make 2D games games with xna.. thats made me alot happier now :P
so, when yo usay it's an extension to the .net framework.. does that mean i do all of my c# work in there rather than the visual studoi 2005 express edition i've been using so far.. not all to sure on whether you use both for different parts or it's a all or nothing type thing.

very very happy to know it's free as well :) lol and as i don't have an x-box shouldn't have to worry about that either.. thanks again for the response dark times explained alot of what i was wondering about, if you (or someone else :P) could just clear up whether i just use xna game studio express and stop working with visual studio 2005 express edition.. or if i have to combine the two to get any results, thanks yet again xxxx

EDIT: sorry again.. but what exactly do i need to download for xna.. theres something called XNA game studio express 1.0 refresh? is that the right thing or does it just let me play the games created with xna? thanks xx