To make a game...

Hello everyone,


Firstly, sorry if I posted this in the wrong forum because I don't know which forum should I post this to...

For your information,
I'm just an internet programmer,
which only know Flash, Javascript, Perl ( a little ) and PHP...
And.......I know some basic for Basic language...

Ok, here's my question :
What language/software should I use to make a game?
A 3D and networkable game if nessesary......
C? C++? JAVA?

Well, I know Flash could be used to make games too...
But Flash uses too much of resources,
and could not be used to make a real 3D game...
And RPG maker......well, I don't like that type of software......
which only depend on the software,
but not myself........

So, can anyone here tell me that what language/software should I use?
Thanks......


Regards
Stupid Khor

I suppose the first step would be to ask questions like:

Do you want people to play it through a web page or will they have to download it as a standalone app?

- I've seen some great webgames, but you have to really be conscious of how big the games files are and how you use any resources. I don't know flash at all, but I have gotten some really great 3d performance out of java. You just need to be efficient. And you wont be able to (sanely) get at hardware accelleration. Web games also lend themselves to client-server style, not peer to peer.

Do you plan to make use of hardware accelleration?

- If so, you are going to need to use DirectX or OpenGL or any of the various wrapper libraries people have made, which try to do a lot of the work for you. This would require C++ - though you can use DirectX from VB or Python etc, its gotta take a performance hit if its dealing with all the VARIANT crap (I may be wrong). If you arent needing accelleration, you can just use the Windows GDI (or Gnome, or whatever Macs have, etc) though your favorite language.

You can also get the Quake Engine or modify Halflife or something, which I havnt looked into. (I like learning how to do stuff myself)

Sounds like your best bet is to first try working on Flash games, and maybe seeing if you can identify why you think its a resource hog.

Thanks for your reply madox...

ok, for your first question,
hmmm......I would like to make an offline game.....
which mean people have to download it as an application...
anyway, I know web games could be in client-server style,
and I know how to do that......
but.....well, I just want to try something new instead of making web games...

For your second question.....
yes, I would like to try to use hardware accelleration...
and.....yes, I know that I'm going to use DirectX and OpenGL...
because I saw some people discussing this in another forum...
and what I was looking for is what language supports these sorts of hardware accelleration....
( 'cause I don't want to learn the wrong language...... :P )
Well, I found the answer from your reply......
thanks for your suggestion about using C++...
ps : sorry that what is Windows GDI and Gnome?

For your third suggestion ( about Quake Engine ).....
I'm just like you.......which like to do everything myself......
that's why I don't want to learn a software called 'RPG maker'...

Flash games.......well, I made some.......
very simple games thought......
but I just no idea on what game should I make......
and.......my math teacher hasn't teach us much about radian, cosine, sine and tangent yet ( I'm just 16 )...
so I can't make anything better now......
so.......why not learn some new language instead of waiting for my teacher?

Yeah, C++ is your best bet. Exp since you want 3D graphics in there too. If you get any books on 3D game programming, they'll all be written in C++. (or at least the VAST majority)

It is important to point out that game development is not at all a trivial task. You have to handle sound, logistics, graphics, a lot of details... each of these may involve coding in separate language (either because of performance or because pieces of ready to use code you may find)

First determine your audience (windows based, unix) then do some more research so that you wont have to re-invent the wheel on some aspects.

I suggest you stick with C++ and try using Open Inventor library. This way you'll hop over low level graphical stuff.
If you choose windows, DirectX has most of the ground covered here. I feel that the only drawback of using DirectX is that you’ll be developing under MS umbrella

I recommend to you using c++ in combination with some of the free 3d engines out there. If you are going to create your engine yourself and you want to use most of the actual features of modern graficcards you will not have much time for coding the game itself. Good 3d engines mean very much work. Take a look at Ogre3d, The nebula Davice 2 or chrystal space. They are all Open Source Grafik engines supporting newest technologys like pixel and vertex shader or offset mapping.

I would look in to the Torque Engine, if I were you. As Korbi pointed out, making a game from scratch is a very daunting task. Making it look good is even harder. Torque provides a good platform that allows you to make a game through scripting, then modify the engine when you become that advanced. Someone just published a book to help people familiar with programming get in to using the Torque Engine.

The community is great, and Garagegames has just released the first version of TSE, the Torque Shader Engine.

I don't know Torque, but it seems as if it costs money to use whereas Ogre3d Nebula and Crystal Space are all free and Open Source. So, when you want to know how a feature works or you do want a feature that isn't supported yet, you can add it yourself what is a real big advantage.

Modern commercial 3D games are written by teams of 20+ developers and artists working full time over a period of a year or two, with a budget of millions. I strongly urge you not to attempt to do everything yourself unless you:

(a) are a complete genius who knows C++ (or your chosen language) inside out and are brilliant at matrix & vector algebra, BSP trees, collision detection, rendering, AI etc

and

(b) have a LOT of free time on your hands.

There are a lot of 3D game engines available, some of which have been mentioned here. I really do suggest you take another look at them.

Dave - The Developers' Coach

It is definently possible to make a game on your own. Minions of Mirth, an indie RPG that was just recently announced, only has 2 dev members. He Josh Ritter didn't make the engine, though.

As far as Torque is considered, yes it costs $100 for the engine code and the Shader enabled version will cost $295, but you can still do scripting without owning the engine. Thats where you should start, though. You can do a lot just through scripts.

But 100$ or 295$ are much money for just playing around, and I assume noone starts into game development and works on a game immidiatly. Out of that Nebula has an excelent scripting interface, too. You can do mostly anything with pure tcl scripts. But IMHO writing a script isn't the way to make a game. So I recommend to use C++ with an Open Source engine.

Just a short related question, how is it possible to make Flash games multiplayer over the net? Like how is the data for the position of the other player etc sent from one PC to another?

For a great game development website with tutorials on simple spinning cubes to very complex stuff i don't understand take a look at www.gamedev.net they boast the largest game development referance section on the net.