Ok Michael, Looks like you've made a good choice so I am going to start you off in the right direction. I have written a Game loop. This is the basis of any game you will ever develop as far as 2D and 3D goes. It is in the form of some mild pseudocode just to make it easy to understand but the flow holds. You can convert it into C++ as you go along. So here goes ============================================ if defined MAC load MAC specific libraries else if defined LINUX load linux specific libraries else if defined WINDOWS load windows specific libraries end if load splash screen load other libraries remove splash screen play game demo ( in new Thread) while(not SHOW_ME_MENU) check for user input to stop demo & show menu end while show menu options check and wait for user input on menu (start game, options, view high scores, quit etc) on menu, start game (user picks "start game") load scene load enemies load player set player state to USER_ALIVE load scores and timers (this is the main game loop) while( USER_ALIVE ) check for user input (moves, shoots, being hit, die) then run AI (Artificial Intelligence) move enemies based on AI resolve collisions (based on location of enemies, player and environment) draw graphics based on new location of moving objects and environment (These end up being the Frame eg like in a move... Frames per second 60fps for smoother graphics transitions... of course if your loop is slow then you are in trouble so you need to figure out how to optimize your graphics... pre rendered scenes and enemies etc) play sounds update scores and timers end while show menu options check and wait for user input Quit game (user picks "Quit") Save State and any persistent preferences Free up memory & resources exit game ============================================= And there you have it. A wire frame you your first and every game you will make Steve Obbayi SKYPE: sobbayi http://sobbayi.com http://blog.sobbayi.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "MICHAEL AKUNGA" <michaelakunga@gmail.com> To: "Skunkworks Mailing List" <skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke> Sent: Friday, April 9, 2010 7:37:04 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: Re: [Skunkworks] C++ Game programmer geek Steve and Aki, oooo hhh! am like shhhhh that is too hot but know what @Steve First great thanks there you came down like GEEK DUDE , those details should have taken you time and I realy appreciate.things straight 1. I am thinking of arcade sort of game/ adventure 2. Being a beginner, Single user and multiplatform am not clear where you advice my start but I percieve you recommend C++ on condition or by that I already know C++ in details, and I say I do have sufficient knowledge. as for 3D 2D or text I will reject text and request complexity of the remaining two and what you recommend for a begginner Patience? yes I am and will be patient. that is insight, mvumilivu ula mbivu, thanks I will get you offlist. I appreciate. success in you game you are doing. @Aki, thanks and great be your game you developing at the moment, you are the Obama type and I belive I am "Yes we can" I notice you introduced C# there but am very green in it although i can catch it soon but at last you cleared on C++ and I believe we are in one circle with Steve , -- C++. I like your, is it a PSEUDO CODE or ALGORITHM wherever but it gives an insight of what I should be looking at, Imagination and creativity also came up as ASSET TOOLs so am composing myself so that I don't drive reverse the long trailler to some Hotel near the highway, LOL, so the best bit is I am composing myself and I will reach you offlist soon and we share further. thanks atleast you and steve have put me on the track. thanks alot I appreciate the concern. On 4/9/10, aki <aki275@googlemail.com> wrote:
Listers, sorry for this one but felt it was too important to leave out for this thread. Trying ti limit my contributions as much as possible. Incase others are interested, here goes :
@Mike, sorry I forget to mention the key element of game programming. This is called collision detection which gives way to Artifical Intelligence ( AI ). AI is another crazy block to know, its my long term study plan. How does it work? : Simply if you have a player running across the screen and an enemy appears, it would be really silly that the enemy to do the same thing each time, thus making the game boring. You will need to build in un-predictablity that the computer generates so that each time a player lost a life when attacked by the enemy, it has different behaviour. The core of any game is AI and that drives the difficulty level. In my "final" year, my task is to complete the game sequel " Kenyan Sniper : 630pm ". But here's the deal : I want the end user experience to be action packed and realistic. I cannot have game situation where the enemy fire tracer bullets only for the player life to be lost, so when the game loads again into 2nd life, the same tracer situation exits so the player knows how to find the enemy tracer. Sorry, the game would be a dump! Look into these things too on your way towards learning and suddenly you will realise that a few lines of the game plan have actually become pages and pages of code. But thats the good part, creativity at its best. :-)
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-- MICHAEL A. AKUNGA (+254) 0726 174 815 michaelakunga@gmail.com michaelakunga@yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Skunkworks mailing list Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks ------------ Skunkworks Server donations spreadsheet http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AopdHkqSqKL-dHlQVTMxU1VBdU1BSWJxdy1f... ------------ Skunkworks Rules http://my.co.ke/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=94 ------------ Other services @ http://my.co.ke