Hi all, I've been over here on gamedev a long time ago, just noticed I registered in 2002 omg... anyway I've given game dev a bit of a long pause all these years, since then I've finished my degree and am now working in a software dev company, we mainly code very low level c stuff that goes on our own hardware and so it is kinda very far away from game dev. BUT I'd like to get back into it, and to do so I decided to start making the good old tetris again using C++. It has been a few years since my last attempt so I guess plenty of new stuff's around. Last time I think I was using Directx if memory serves, but I'm wondering maybe if I should go with SDL? Basically my question is, if you'd start tetris today what lib would you use and language? Hope you guys can point me in the right direction!

I used C with openGL and glut (for setting up openGL and windowing) and made a basic tetris in a few hours.
C++ is overkill for a tetris IMHO, but if you want to learn C++, then do it with that.

But I'm not a programmer.

If I wanted to start a Tetris game today my first choice of language and library would be Python and pyglet -- I've not yet tried pyglet but have heard good things and have been meaning to give it a go when I can spare the time -- PyGame would be my next choice of library as one I've already used.

The other option I would seriously consider is targetting the Flash player using FlashDevelop (or if you can afford it the excellent tools provided by Adobe).


You could also consider C#/XNA - they're an excellent choice to work with, and the only reason I wouldn't consider them myself is that I haven't yet had the pleasure of trying out C#.


If you're planning to stick with C++ you may want to look into SFML as an alternative to SDL; a new version of SDL is apparently in the works, but in the meantime SFML is a more modern, OOP-styled library with a growing community and good documentation.

Hope that helps! [smile]

thanks a lot guys, very quick replies ;)

Yes I'm aware that making a tetris in C++ might not be the wisest choice but I'm making it to get back into game programming and since I'm already familiar with it I'd like to give it a go.

I might try C# in another project as I've done some a long time ago ;)

I'm going to look into SFML thanks a lot

Thanks, I'm using SFML and it's very good