Game Development 101
by subpacket on Jul.30, 2007, under General
So I’ve decided that I’d like to get into developing games… It’s something that I’ve always pondered over the course of many years, and I’ve tinkered here and there, but nothing of consequence has really emerged. Recently, however, I’ve decided that I’d like to try my hand at it once again.
About 6 months back, I bought a book “Beginning Game Programming” which teaches you the basics behind programming games. It concentrates on 2D game development for the most part, although it does touch on 3D in the last part of the book. I didn’t make it to the 3D portion, but I found the book to be well written. If you’re interested, you can find the book here.
The only problem I had with the book was that it was centred around DirectX and windows-specific programming. Now, me being a linux geek and all, that didn’t sit entirely well with me.
But I suppose if you’re serious about gaming, and want to make some cash, windows is the way to go since most games are on that platform.
Anyway, I stopped messing with games for a while.. Then got back into it again in the past couple weeks. I did some hunting around for books that taught a more cross-platform approach to game programming. The books I found were few and expensive. However, the internet being the wealth of information that it is, especially when it comes to open source software, I came across a set of tutorials that a dude wrote to introduce programming with the SDL library. Good tutorials so far, and all his lessons include the finished code and resources (images, etc). I haven’t finished off the tutorials yet but from what I’ve seen so far, they’re quite good. You can find the tutorials here: http://lazyfoo.net/SDL_tutorials/index.php
As I make some progress (and possibly some original code
), I’ll post it.
Scotty
August 7th, 2007 on 6:17 am
Why not concentrate on web based games?
That way you can take advantage of your php skills and get instant feedback on what is working and what isn’t.
And a few pennies of adsense would help keep you motivated.
Peter
August 7th, 2007 on 8:18 am
Yeah, I thought about that.. And consequently, I’m actually learning Flash at work, which is perfect for building games for the web. I may end up going that route.
Desktop gaming is something I always wanted to delve into. More of a personal preference, really. I find games can be a bit more immersive and involving on the desktop than sitting in a window on a browser. But it _is_ a pain in the arse to distribute, make updates, etc.
Anyway, thanks for the input Peter!
August 9th, 2007 on 1:04 pm
Not quite the style of game you are interested in, but since I have been working on this all day, I need a beta tester and you are elected.
http://www.pockethistory.com/hangman/hangman.php
I’m trying to learn php and JavaScript. A day or two a year of coding it seems to leave me rusty.
Cheers,
Peter
February 14th, 2008 on 8:14 pm
The RSS feed on this site has been quiet as a mouse.
Too much Wii playing and not enough development going on.
Perhaps you need to subscribe to gameinaday, or be inspired by How to Build a Game in a Week with no Budget.
Peter