Creating Video Games

Does anyone know of a program that would allow you to create a simple strategy rpg game, or even better one that you can get to go online?

I’d be willing to learn a programming language, but the problem is I don’t even know that capabilities of any of them!

For example, I would be looking to create game’s such as;

http://www.tibia.com/abouttibia/?subtopic=screenshots
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-pirates5/diablo2.jpg

An extremely dumbbed down version, but going with the strategy game concept;

http://www.supremecommander.com/

I understand that these game’s take years to make with an experienced team, but I would still like to learn how to make an interactive video game on the computer.

Does anyone have any suggestions/comments/guides?

This might be a good place to start. My brother (14) has been learning it in a high school class, he’s made a few (very) basic things with it.

http://darkbasic.thegamecreators.com/

[quote]RebornTN wrote:
Does anyone have any suggestions/comments/guides?[/quote]

You have to be interested in programming.

Being interested in games won’t get you anywhere if you want to develop them.

Go and learn programming.

Otherwise this might aid you.

[quote]Spry wrote:
RebornTN wrote:
Does anyone have any suggestions/comments/guides?

You have to be interested in programming.

Being interested in games won’t get you anywhere if you want to develop them.

Go and learn programming.

Otherwise this might aid you.

[/quote]

Yea, I would like to know which programming language would be best for learning to create simple video games. I know that many are used for creating websites and the like, and that would be a waste of my time.

Thanks for the link also.

[quote]Squiggles wrote:
This might be a good place to start. My brother (14) has been learning it in a high school class, he’s made a few (very) basic things with it.

http://darkbasic.thegamecreators.com/[/quote]

Thanks for that.

Keep those link’s/information coming people, if you would.

Best language? Hmmm.

Tough question. I suppose you could use Visual C# (or BASIC) to make a windows GUI app fairly quickly (which for a RTS might make sense).

You can get free copies form Microsoft’s site (Visual C# Express).

Then again, you would need to know about the different languages, etc. and understand what you want to program yourself.

That DarkBASIC looks good for someone like yourself.

You can find many simple-to-use game creators. It is actually pretty easy to create both simple and complex games through them, because most of the scripts is already made and for those that isn’t, there is some very good tutorials. But it is probably ALOT easier to create a FPS than an RPG.

http://www.fpscreatorx10.com/ (directX 10)
http://www.fpscreator.com/
Game Studio - Wikipedia
just some examples, and there is another one which I have used myself for fun, which I just can’t think of

I used to have the same ambition. I never even started so I know nothing about it. However, I asked one of my CIS professors (I’m in accounting, but required to take several computer classes) and he recommended Microsoft’s .NET platform using C# (pronounced C-sharp).

I can’t find the e-mail he sent me with details. I am just going off of memory.

I’d definitely check out the open source stuff too.

[quote]Kreal7 wrote:
I used to have the same ambition. I never even started so I know nothing about it. However, I asked one of my CIS professors (I’m in accounting, but required to take several computer classes) and he recommended Microsoft’s .NET platform using C# (pronounced C-sharp).

I can’t find the e-mail he sent me with details. I am just going off of memory.

I’d definitely check out the open source stuff too.[/quote]

Alright, thanks. Try to find that email xD

[quote]Spry wrote:
Best language? Hmmm.

Tough question. I suppose you could use Visual C# (or BASIC) to make a windows GUI app fairly quickly (which for a RTS might make sense).

You can get free copies form Microsoft’s site (Visual C# Express).

Then again, you would need to know about the different languages, etc. and understand what you want to program yourself.

That DarkBASIC looks good for someone like yourself.
[/quote]

How about using this? It looks like a combination of C## and the DarkBasic

http://gdk.thegamecreators.com/

I’m a big time Unreal Tournament enthusiast and have made many maps for the game.
(Just for fun and for my UT clan)

http://www.sayunkle.com/UNK/index.html

Game design has many different facets to it, there is the graphical aspect for textures and a multitude of other things.

There is the 3d design of buildings, weapons, vehicles, etc.

There is the programming aspect which can be subdivided into different parts such as computer AI or the basic gaming engine.

The gaming engine can be the most critical part of game design and learning it can be crucial.

Unreal editor is one of the leading engines in the industry, but there are several others out there.

Learning C+ is just one aspect of it.

[quote]50_Caliber wrote:
I’m a big time Unreal Tournament enthusiast and have made many maps for the game.
(Just for fun and for my UT clan)

http://www.sayunkle.com/UNK/index.html

Game design has many different facets to it, there is the graphical aspect for textures and a multitude of other things.

There is the 3d design of buildings, weapons, vehicles, etc.

There is the programming aspect which can be subdivided into different parts such as computer AI or the basic gaming engine.

The gaming engine can be the most critical part of game design and learning it can be crucial.

Unreal editor is one of the leading engines in the industry, but there are several others out there.

Learning C+ is just one aspect of it.[/quote]

So you think that learning C+ would be important if I want to create a game engine/ use someone elses 3d models? I want to create how the player interacts with the game, get into the details of like what happens when you do this etc. I would end up using someone else’s models/textures Im guessing, or use a program to edit into my own.

Do you have a free program/any advice for this?

Creating things like Diablo 2 take a whole team of skilled programmers, world designers, audio-guys, people working with graphics, etc.

How old are you? What do you plan on studying? If you really want to end up making games, I might give you some advice on what to learn, etc. (I’m taking a M.Sc. in computer science myself, and we have a “Game programming” path we can choose if we want to).
I would recommend starting with some easier language, probably Python. Getting right into c++ or something like that might take the motivation away from anyone.

If you just want to experiment a little, doing something that resembles programming a little but gets results much faster, try out Scratch:

We use it on students the first week or two, just as a motivation for the rest of the study.

[quote]pinkponyz wrote:
Creating things like Diablo 2 take a whole team of skilled programmers, world designers, audio-guys, people working with graphics, etc.

How old are you? What do you plan on studying? If you really want to end up making games, I might give you some advice on what to learn, etc. (I’m taking a M.Sc. in computer science myself, and we have a “Game programming” path we can choose if we want to).
I would recommend starting with some easier language, probably Python. Getting right into c++ or something like that might take the motivation away from anyone.

If you just want to experiment a little, doing something that resembles programming a little but gets results much faster, try out Scratch:

We use it on students the first week or two, just as a motivation for the rest of the study.[/quote]

15 years old, I plan on going into either some sort of computer programming profession, or going into chemical or civil engineering depending how school plays out.

Thanks for the link, and I am taking a class on Alice in school, but it is rather lame and you cannot do much with it.

DarkBasic is good until you run into its flaws. Like internal errors with actual commands… conflicts between commands… commands that don’t do shit… etc

just save yourself the trouble and learn C++. That’s what most big games programming companies use in the first place. Your highschool might have computer science courses… mine does. Those will help alot. I’m currently in AP Computer science… after Computer Science 1 & 2 last year.

It’ll be slow getting started… and there will be times where you’ll be confused as hell and frustrated enough to give up… but just stick with it. You’ll be thankful later.

Learn C++ and you can learn anything.

I went QBasic → VB 2.0 → C → C++ → VB 6.0 → C#.

My favorite language is C# it merges the world of VB interfaces with my favorite coding style C.

My personal opinion. Spend a little bit of time with a good game creator to ascertain what aspect you really like about the games… ie. making the graphics, coding, planning the process. But don’t spend a whole lot of time with this game creator if your interested in the coding aspect as it won’t have much carryover.

[quote]krazykoukides wrote:
Learn C++ and you can learn anything.[/quote]

I absolutely agree. But I do believe that a 15 year old boy that is not a real geek, would have a more fun time learning a language where you don’t spend your first months scratching your head and fighting with the compiler about your syntax.

I absolutely recommend you learn Python, or some other simple programming language. The fact that you have a “python shell” (it does stuff while you type, if you want to) makes it a useful and fun toy. With fancy libaries you can make games etc. in it too :slight_smile: (pyGame, for instance… or some other openGL library, etc).

Where do you guy’s think I should learn C++ or C#?

Is it something I can get in the library, or will that be an outdated version?

Is there anything I have to download for C++ like compilers? If so, what do you guy’s use?

With regard to Pony, I would rather learn something I can use in a career now, since I can absorb information very fast. And I always have a lot more free time now then I will ever have again I think.

As to learning.
-Pick your language
-Grab a Project style book, one that has you complete it from start to finish. Make sure it has multiple projects in it.
-Get a reference book for your language.

For instance one book I had would walk me through creating one piece for it in one chapter, then have me add another piece to it in the next chapter. Each chapter wrapped up the functionality and was complete. There are also, other project books that will have you create completely different projects from chapter to chapter. Those are nice as well.

Well I seem to be a little older than many posting here (not THAT much older spry!) so I started with ZX basic on the old ZX81’s.

I couldn’t really get it to do what I wanted so I taught myself Z80A assembly language. This left me in good stead for later but is no longer needed given the modern languages of today.

I’d recommend getting a few books on C++ and downloading a compiler. Work through the examples and just see if it thrills you or not.

It can be a very long, drawn out process to produce a viable program, especially a game, but maybe like I did you’ll find that it’s the programming you enjoy more than the specifics of what you are programming.

You could look at doing some work in Flash too - tricky to wrap your head round at first but just look at how many fun little Flash games are on the interweb.