Stroppy said:
>> I have a feeling that AI would be the biggest time sink.
3d models. all those building and units and animations. AOE AI could be done in a couple days with a state/expert/A* system. maybe an additional 1/2 week to 1 week to tweak. Probably kick ass over other systems, too.
The biggest time sink depends on how experienced you are and your motivation to the area of development. If you start with AI and gameplay code first and work on that a lot to make a functional game, your game could still need some improvement in the graphics and menus. It depends on what parts you decide to work on first.
What 3D models? AoE is a 2D game. And you don't produce actual assets when the objective is to learn game programming (see first post).Stroppy said:
>> I have a feeling that AI would be the biggest time sink.
3d models. all those building and units and animations. AOE AI could be done in a couple days with a state/expert/A* system. maybe an additional 1/2 week to 1 week to tweak. Probably kick ass over other systems, too.
can i get that game engine please.=-)Dude, AI is easy...
while(!won) win();
man hours, lines of code, mesh, textures, etc are all subject to skill and implementation. a skilled programmer is likely to produce the same game an less skilled programmer is able to produce in much shorter time, and most likely with more efficient code. This holds true for pretty much all trades.
man-hours, lines of code, number of meshes, textures, sprites, audio files required. level maps required,How do you measure complexity?
What 3D models? AoE is a 2D game. And you don't produce actual assets when the objective is to learn game programming (see first post).
2d sprites from 3d renders.
missed that part about the overall objective. better go re-read the post!
wow, where to start?
i started with a text mode dungeons and dragons clone.
but these days?
probably start with 2d vs 3d. get your feet wet.
something simple, but a bit more than tic-tac-toe.
a top down or side view arcade game most likely.
pinball has that whole gotta model gravity and realistic collisions thing going on.
what kind of games do you like? that's important to keep you motivated.
What 3D models? AoE is a 2D game. And you don't produce actual assets when the objective is to learn game programming (see first post).
2d sprites from 3d renders.
missed that part about the overall objective. better go re-read the post!
Yes his post made me think that I missed something too. But, nowhere is it mentioned that "the art part is forgotten". a game is still a game, a needs arts. this takes time, a lot of it. And fine-tuning of the unit prices, the building prices, the map's resources, the units speeds, attack strength, defense strength, the speed of workers to extract wood, food, gold, rock, the technology improvements... the list goes on. To a person alone, I state again that it is impossible.
First you need the games like tic tac toe to get your basic programming skills in the language of choice..
From their move on to 2d graphics I would say use some open source lib to make things a bit simpler - get used to the game pipeline - updating and drawing
Here you could make a simple top down arcade.. try to get smooth movements and nice looking animations.. Focus less on original gameplay and more on the production value of what you are doing.
After that I would say your ready to tackle using opengl or direct3D for graphics and whatever you want for sound - start getting in to the more technical
details - keepit very very simple.. but go 3d here if you are planning on getting in to it. Get a model to draw on the screen. Get some movement with input on the keyboard. Maybe don't even try for a game here - rather try to get very comfortable with using new technology - understanding shaders and matrix transforms. Work your way up to textured meshes , then meshes with full on materials (normal maps and specular maps and such). This is probably one of the most important steps if your planning on going 3d - which you probably should even if your making 2d games.
Once you get comortable with either openGL or Direct3d or I guess some other api of choice that is capable of 3d graphics - once you know how to use shaders and how to do transforms and how to efficiently structure your data for feeding to the graphics API of choice.. then its time to step it up to a real game focused production.
This is where the fun really starts (though the learning process is fun too) - this is where you might try and get a small team together to help out - people who are in the same boat as you. It would be great if you can get artists to help you out - make sure that if you work with someone at this point they know close to the same as you because if not it can create some stressful situations..
Or if your going alone then get designing. Always take steps of functionality before planning to far ahead - If your working alone I would suggest keeping the scope of the game reasonable - especially if you don't have someone for artwork. Maybe you could make some kind of simple fps with 4 levels and a boss. If you make it to this point - you'll know what you want to make.
Keep with it though!
If you can do Tic-Tac-Toe, then you are on your way to learn Java graphics.
An arcade shooter clone is more manageable if you have know the internals of Java graphics (ie Canvas class, how to draw images on the screen) some basic logic to make the enemies move independently or your character at your will, Rectangle class for collision detection). This is what I have been doing for 3 months by myself.
You must write good code to maintain the codebase of a game. The more features you add, the number of classes increase so good coding style is a must.
If you have enough experience with your programming language, I will say the arcade shooter clone will test how much you know about your language. I will say it is a good challenge. It will teach you programming skills no book can possibly do.
Before the arcade shooter clone, I knew an idea of what a Canvas was and how collision detection works. But when you start implementing it is even more cool!
I would say you can grab art online for educational purpose so you can speed up the game development process. Solving how to implement certain features in a game is more than enough on your plate. Keep the game simple enough that you can make the game happen. Challenge yourself when you have done implementing the simple features.
On a side note: Start using inheritance and polymorphism if you have not already done so. Inheritance and polymorphism is powerful! ArrayLists are awesome because they keep track of its size for you. Use them.
