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On Game Development

akbiggs.silvrback.com

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Re: On Game Development

#31

Post by CmonDev »

andrewb wrote: post #11
voltagex_ wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's ever too late to start. I've dabbled in some XNA, but next on my list is to make an old school "scene-style" 2D scrolling demo.

I've been playing around with MonoGame and it's not too bad. Considering Microsoft has stopped developing for XNA, it might be time to look into it. I've been using a component based approach to building my game from scratch and it's been an excellent development experience. Too often I feel like I'm in the deep end and unsure if I'll sink or swim. So I try, sometimes an idea works, sometimes it fails but it's all fu…

The time to look at MonoGame will be when they implement the Content Pipeline. Otherwise it is not a replacement for XNA.

Re: On Game Development

#32

Post by CmonDev »

fit2rule wrote: post #22
Macsenour wrote: post #16

I made games for 30+ years and I had this exact question about year 4. I was sitting at home, writing some 6502 I think, and my cousin called. She had to call to tell me about a Commodore 64 game she bought from FisherPrice. She started to describe it to me, an educational game where you controlled a penguin who dropped letters down a chute to form words. I had to interrupt her to explain, I had written that game. Sh…

On the flipside: I once worked for a major games vendor (won't say who) and had this terrible experience - worked 60hour-weeks 5 in a row, to get the online multiplayer backend running and able to support more than a few hundred users. Got it up, deployed, rolled out, in use. Come in the next day, the CEO and all the head devs are crowed around the server console, watching the stats after release, this conversation h…

Which geek did not play for 12 hours one day?

Re: On Game Development

#33

Post by ojii »

voltagex_ wrote: post #6
null_ptr wrote: post #3

Don't forget the stress relief video games can give. Society managed to make even sheltered 1st world lives stressful thanks to unrealistic expectations imposed on a personal and professional level. We're all apes though, despite all that's expected of us. And these apes love to wonder about their world and explore its every corner. Video games satiate this desire somewhat - and that will do, on a fucking Monday nigh…

Also http://www.childsplaycharity.org/

almost time for desertbus again. hilarious way to support childs play: desertbus.org

Re: On Game Development

#34

Post by phektus »

I see game developers, especially those one-man indie efforts, to be modern reincarnations of renaissance artist-cum-technologists. At their core is the artist that longs to explore unknown world through manipulation of certain mediums that may or may not lead to useful applications. I see the author as somebody that takes pride in seeing his work affect people's daily lives. An artist might not even care if anybody understands his work or if anybody cares about it at all.

Re: On Game Development

#35

Post by girvo »

CmonDev wrote: post #32
fit2rule wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the flipside: I once worked for a major games vendor (won't say who) and had this terrible experience - worked 60hour-weeks 5 in a row, to get the online multiplayer backend running and able to support more than a few hundred users. Got it up, deployed, rolled out, in use. Come in the next day, the CEO and all the head devs are crowed around the server console, watching the stats after release, this conversation h…

Which geek did not play for 12 hours one day?

Man... Half-Life 1 and the OG Unreal Tournament.

The former was more playing with Visual C++ 6.0 with the SDK, mind you. The latter was just hours and hours of team death match and CTF. So good.

Re: On Game Development

#36

Post by girvo »

CmonDev wrote: post #30
eropple wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd strongly recommend starting at a lower level than MonoGame. OpenGL isn't conceptually difficult (at least through vertex buffer objects) and encourages you to understand the actual process of what you're doing. I find it enlightening and it makes me better able to work in higher-level systems as well.

...or we could make actual games.

Depends on what your goal is.

When I was 11 years old, I was using GameMaker 3.5 (man I miss GML scripting, its what got me into programming in general) to build games, and get my ideas out. That was fun!

I'm 23 now, and am currently learning how to build games... this time, using C, SDL, and Lua embedded for scripting.

I also happen to have Unity3D installed on my computer, which I use for my actual game project, but I'm doing things the hard way and building my own engine and game on top of it as a learning process.

Just another perspective :)

Re: On Game Development

#37

Post by thenomad »

fit2rule wrote: post #22
Macsenour wrote: post #16

I made games for 30+ years and I had this exact question about year 4. I was sitting at home, writing some 6502 I think, and my cousin called. She had to call to tell me about a Commodore 64 game she bought from FisherPrice. She started to describe it to me, an educational game where you controlled a penguin who dropped letters down a chute to form words. I had to interrupt her to explain, I had written that game. Sh…

On the flipside: I once worked for a major games vendor (won't say who) and had this terrible experience - worked 60hour-weeks 5 in a row, to get the online multiplayer backend running and able to support more than a few hundred users. Got it up, deployed, rolled out, in use. Come in the next day, the CEO and all the head devs are crowed around the server console, watching the stats after release, this conversation h…

Some of my best memories from around that age involve playing a computer game for close to 12 hours straight. I remember spending at least a month of summer playing through the Bard's Tale on the Spectrum.

Indeed, similar things have been a rewarding experience for me for the majority of my life.

Last time I did something similar was at the release of WoW: Cataclysm, I think, with my girlfriend. It was a great holiday.

Re: On Game Development

#38

Post by GotAnyMegadeth »

CmonDev wrote: post #32
fit2rule wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the flipside: I once worked for a major games vendor (won't say who) and had this terrible experience - worked 60hour-weeks 5 in a row, to get the online multiplayer backend running and able to support more than a few hundred users. Got it up, deployed, rolled out, in use. Come in the next day, the CEO and all the head devs are crowed around the server console, watching the stats after release, this conversation h…

Which geek did not play for 12 hours one day?

Every now and then me and a school friend meet up and try to play through a game in one sitting. So far we've done Super Mario World, Mario 64, Diddy Kong Racing and Gears of War II.

Re: On Game Development

#39

Post by jdk »

I used to make MMOs and we'd often question why we were doing it when we'd read stories about people's relationships falling apart, kids flunking out of school, or other really negative things that happened when people played too much and didn't keep a handle on their life.

Then one day we got a letter. It was from a man who suffered a host of physical ailments, including quadriplegia, and could barely leave his bed, nevermind his house. In his letter, he wanted to thank us for making our game. He made friends, lead a successful guild, and could feel powerful and accomplishment in a way he couldn't in real life.

The stories would repeat themselves over the years, too... I know at least one very successful HN denizen met his now-wife in our game. Families would stay in touch and play together, groups of people who didn't know each other would raise money to help guildmates who needed surgery or had fallen on hard times and had trouble making ends meet, and so on.

It's for those people that I make games. (Or at least that's what I tell myself when I'm having moments of doubt and questioning why I spend so much time pushing bits.)

Re: On Game Development

#40

Post by fit2rule »

CmonDev wrote: post #32
fit2rule wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the flipside: I once worked for a major games vendor (won't say who) and had this terrible experience - worked 60hour-weeks 5 in a row, to get the online multiplayer backend running and able to support more than a few hundred users. Got it up, deployed, rolled out, in use. Come in the next day, the CEO and all the head devs are crowed around the server console, watching the stats after release, this conversation h…

Which geek did not play for 12 hours one day?

Those who had and did their homework, or wrote code, or tried to do something with computers other than just waste time.

Lots of geeks don't play games.

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