Hello everyone. I love video games and decided to take the plunge and try and make my own. I know everyone has the dream of creating a video a game and then many of those dreams are crushed when they realize the effort and time required. I am probably in that category. I have an idea for a video game that i'm sure I will never be finished. But like I told some of my friends who may or may not help me, i'm doing this entirely for experience and improved knowledge. Whether it gets completed or not, I hope to learn many things from this.
A little about myself: I am a computer science major and have only been going to school for a short while (2 semesters). I am one of those dummies who didn't realize that I should have already begun coding and creating things before college... lol. With those things aside I will say that my school begins with java. So most of my experience is with it although i have written a few c, c++, and VB applications as well. As with most colleges at this point in time, I have no experience with actual graphics, just the basics of algorithm speed, searching, and sorting things. I am currently learning about object oriented design and how larger projects are put together.. so hopefully that will help me out a lot.
Now a little about the project: Aside from my love of video games, I love board games, role playing games, and tabletop miniature wargames. It is the latter of these I'm trying to create as a video game. As blizzard did with trading card games and hearthstone, I want to do the same with miniature table top wargames like Warhammer and WarMachine. I know I will never be able to get the same polish and epic awesomeness that blizzard has in hearthstone. But I want a fantasy turn based strategy game where players control a fantasy army. Before playing a game, they get to customize an army by choosing and customizing several units and heroes and then marching them onto the battlefield to beat their friend's army.
So now for some questions:
1. Should I start from scratch or use an engine like JmonkeyEngine? Is JmonkeyEngine a good choice? or is there a better one? Again I am only going off this because my experience is with java.
2. I have never really messed with networking but I would really like to be able to play this game online with friends. I know Jmonkey has some networking methods and classes already in it. I do have an old PC I could set up as a test server for just 2 people to play while we work on the game. Is that a good idea or is it dangerous to have a very limited security server in your home connected to the world wide web? Is there a cheap web hosting service you could recommend instead of a home server? Any good links to server/client tutorials?
3. I have already written up the basic rules of the game and how it should work. Many of my hit detection formulas require random numbers to represent "rolling". What is a good method to handle the random rolling in the game?
4. Where is a good place to start ? Silly question here but in school it seems every project is really small (atleast so far) Something the size of a video game is very intimidating. I have already created the rules and how things should work. I have created many of the classes for the game like for units. However, getting it all to work together in a game.. that is another story.
5. Any other constructive advice? Links to good websites that may help me? I'm still learning about jmonkey... I have been going through their tutorials. I will be using blender for the 3d models... which will just be banners for units ... for now LOL.
Note: I will be using this thread for any new updates on my project and for any new questions I may have concerning it. Thank you all for your patience. I know noobs like me get annoying.
