Programming Simple Games

[Knights]

Hey guys, I've been wondering of a good programming language to program simple games with.

I'm thinking of potential 3D games, but for starters 2D games.

So, this language would need the ability to "import" or create images.

If anyone has any ideas on a nice and simple and great language for me to use, that would be excellent.

Thanks,
Knights

 

[seph ir oth]

I found that Visual Basic is good for learning the basics (if/then, for/else statements, and how to apply them, made duckhunt with VS ), but after that, you move into flash and C++ to make well-made animated games.

 

[elmstfreddie]

You say you should move into Flash, but actually Flash is a great place to learn. You can easily make animations, and the script is VERY easy to understand. Of course, learning from scratch is a total pain. I suggest for 2d games use Flash, then, go to flashkit.com/tutorials and read up on some of the game tutorials.

 

[seph ir oth]

You say you should move into Flash, but actually Flash is a great place to learn. You can easily make animations, and the script is VERY easy to understand. Of course, learning from scratch is a total pain. I suggest for 2d games use Flash, then, go to flashkit.com/tutorials and read up on some of the game tutorials.

I dunno, I find that people who jump right into game programming lose certain aspects to coding, such as other useful ideas for different statements. Eh, whatever you feel comfortable with works, I guess.

 

[mase]

You say you should move into Flash, but actually Flash is a great place to learn. You can easily make animations, and the script is VERY easy to understand. Of course, learning from scratch is a total pain. I suggest for 2d games use Flash, then, go to flashkit.com/tutorials and read up on some of the game tutorials.

If you are just starting out with programming I suggest you use flash 8 if you're gonna use flash. Flash CS3 with AS3 is too complicated for new programmers that don't know any bit of the C programming language.

 

[elmstfreddie]

Adobe already made a new version of Flash?
Boy, I wish Macromedia wasn't bought out.
Sorry for the offtopicness

Edit > I googled, there's no such thing as Flash CS3 apparently.

 

[mase]

It comes with Adobe CS3.
http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/

 

[Icyculyr]

Personally I could never get flash going

I use vb, it is good for designing games, but even better is XNA Game Studio 1.00

It is specificly designed to create XBOX 360 and Windows Games, it uses C# as its language, and is quite similar to pretty much all C type languages...

The best tutorial for this ever (3d games)
Pwnage Tutorial

The first is a mountain, the second is a flight simulation with bullets and shooting stuff which is cool. (You make them)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/downloads/default.aspx

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/directx/aa937795.aspx

It may be a slight hassle to find all the bits and set it up, but it is totally awesome. and they are free

 

[Jindo]

If you are just starting out with programming I suggest you use flash 8 if you're gonna use flash. Flash CS3 with AS3 is too complicated for new programmers that don't know any bit of the C programming language.

You can make flash with AS2 on CS3 .

I'd go with Flash or Game Maker, I may start posting flash tutorials here if enough people start asking about them xP.

---

btw, get on msn mase! xP.

 

[Knights]

Flash, is that free? Last time I tried to get flash I had the impression that it costed money.

The XNA thing looks really good, I'm fooling around with it at the moment.

I'm "sort of" a beginner with programming, but I've done a little C++ and other languages and mapping WC3 really helps, as most of the GUI triggers relate to all the commands in most languages.

Game Maker is pretty boring, I've made some simple games with it, but it's kinda "easy" for me..if you know what I mean. I'd rather have a pure language and graphics softwear then a GUI one.

Thanks for all the ideas,
Knights

 

[New_U.S.]

Don't do Visual Basic, you will get bad programming habits from that.
Do-
C++ - if you're really seroius about this and are willing to take the time to learn it + Directx (dont get a visual c++ compiler, a normal one is best)

or

C# - a simpiler version of c++. I would suggest this for you b/c its easier to learn, plus Microsoft came out with an addition to it called the XNA framework which makes game making easy. You can do both 2d and 3d games for windows and the 360.
C# Compiler- http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/visualcsharp/
XNA framework- http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=12ADCD12-7A7B-4413-A0AF-FF87242A78DE&displaylang=en

 

[mase]

Flash, is that free? Last time I tried to get flash I had the impression that it costed money.

And why would that change? Lol.

 

[Knights]

Yeah, Visual C# and C++ cost money and a compiler for C++ also costs money.

I'm looking for free programs

And why would that change? Lol.

I had the "impression" it costed money, but nowhere did I see a price or anything, so maybe it was ALWAYS free, I just had the "impression" that it costed money..

:nuts: Meh I'm going crazy tryin' to explain it.. It doesn't matter, I'm now preeety sure that it costs money


But yeah, so far thanks for the excellent help,
Knights

 

[New_U.S.]

Yeah, Visual C# and C++ cost money and a compiler for C++ also costs money.

I'm looking for free programs

umm, no

Visual Studeo Express editions are free... the links above at my last post are all free and heres a good free c++ compiler

free c++ compiler http://www.bloodshed.net/dev/devcpp.html

 

[DDRtists]

Good luck, it takes a long time to learn how to code 3D games.

Better learn that Trig fast. ;P

 

[Knights]

I'm starting with 2D of course..

Oh yeah, and with my Visual C# it gives me the impression it's a "trial" for 30 days, after that I need to add a "registration key"..I assumed you needed to pay for that?

Well anyways thanks for the help yet again, and thanks for the C++ compiler,
Knights

 

[Jindo]

I'm starting with 2D of course..

www.yoyogames.com now owns Game Maker, which is an easy to use Game Maker, the demo is available for download, and if you like it, you can purchase a registration code for $20, which unlocks a ton of extra features .

 

[Miz]

Yes Game maker is good for 2D and sometimes 3D (Mainly Shooting games)
You just have to get your own sprites unless you want to get the resource packs which I suggest getting them all

 

[Knights]

Yes but, Game Maker is mostly GUI am I not correct? I mean it's fun and all, but I was thinking more of a pure launguage based way, like how JASS is compared to GUI in WC3 mapping. Except it needs to be easy to import images or models..instead of having to create them yourself within the program or instead of having a confusing way to add the image that you cannot figure out

Well, thanks again,
Knights

 

[SFilip]

Game Maker contains a high level language (language exclusive to it) you can use to do complex things like online games.
In fact I would really suggest GM to you...things you can do with it easily require a lot more efford somewhere else.
C++ in it's pure form can only do the engine. You need a separate library/SDK to for graphics and another for sound. For this I recommend SDL, you only need some basic C++ knowlege (syntax for instance) to use it.

For 3D games you can use 3d RAD. A very long time since I last checked there, but it appears to be completely free now (as opposed to the old version which only had a limited demo for free).
Also it also has a high level language IIRC so this might be a great thing to use for 3D games.