Game design help

fsci123

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Attention everyone, I am in the market to produce me a 3d game. As a resault i have been renting visual studio for a while at the local community colleges computer. Is there any template for a game? Does it need C++? How do i make applications?

I do own one game that is similar to what i will attempt to make: Starruler.
Is there anyway i can get my game to be like that?

Can someone guide me through the steps required?


Thankyou
 

jedidia

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Attention everyone, I am in the market to produce me a 3d game. As a resault i have been renting visual studio for a while at the local community colleges computer. Is there any template for a game? Does it need C++? How do i make applications?

You are pretty free in how hard you want to make it on you. You can select the language you want to write the game in, you can select the engine you want to use or make one yourself, or you can use a "game-maker" (RPG maker with a bit of scripting and lots of drawing can produce quite impressive results, but I don't know anything of a "4X maker").

If you want to go C++, Visual Studio is a free download. C++ is NOT used as much as some people think it is, especially in the games industry, where portability (to consoles, not to linux) is a top priority. Unity is pretty strong in that area, and as I hear pretty friendly.

Visual Basic is another alternative, although I wouldn't recommend it for games. The same goes for .net languages, unless you want to do your 4x game spreadsheet stile (like Aurora for example), in that case you safe yourself a lot of work using .net.

Since you're a beginner I would suggest a pre-fabbed 3d engine. You don't want to go through the trouble of writing your own, except if you want to learn to write your own. OpenSource candidates are Irrlicht, which I am using for my stuff and is ridiculously easy to use although limited (you won't get any state of the art graphics with Irrlicht without digging into the source code, but what you get is certainly enough for a first project).
And Ogre, which is a bit tougher to use, but also less limited.

In any case, no matter the aproach, start with a few general tutorials on programming to get the hang of the concepts. Once you know the common elements of your chosen language, you usually learn fastest by digging right into your favourite project. You'll re-write most of it at a later time, but it's still the fastest way to learn.
 

Hielor

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Alternately, you could always target the game for Windows 8 and utilize C++, C#, or HTML/Javascript to make it...
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/br229516


Doing so would give you the opportunity to put it into the Windows 8 app store and make money off of it down the road :)

Occasionally required disclaimer: Yes, I work for Microsoft. No, I'm not in advertising.
 

RisingFury

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Here's the best help I can give you:
Give up.

If you don't even know how to start, don't even bother trying to make a game. You're in way over your head.

Start with C++ tutorial, learn some basics, then try your hand at Orbiter DLL vessels. If you get there, only then should you even begin to start thinking about any games.
 

jedidia

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If you don't even know how to start, don't even bother trying to make a game. You're in way over your head.

In my expierience, "getting in way over your head" is a pretty good way to learn coding, although the first attempts are seldomly good for anything...
 

HarvesteR

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Well, I can only suggest you get Unity, and use it as your starting point.

There you'll proably be coding in C# (although you can use UnityScript or Boo). And Visual Studio is a great (and free) tool to code C#.

I'd advise against starting from zero in C++... Especially if you haven't any experience in programming.

If what you want is a game, above all else, you should really start off with an engine that already provides all you need to get started, and focus on building the game.

Unity is a very good engine, and the Indie version is completely free.

Cheers
 

Venus42

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There's various softwares for easy game making
 
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