#18054 - xadeu - Fri Mar 19, 2004 9:37 pm
I was interested in starting my first game this weekend
and was wondering where to start. I believe I have the
knowledge of how to do it but I need to actually start
practicing what I read.
I will be making PONG (no giggling or heckling please) I have been in college 4 years and have yet to make a "graphical" game.
So I was wondering...where do I start?
Should I make a sprite for each element in the game?
2 sprites for paddles...
1 sprite for ball...
or can I reuse the paddle sprites?
I don't know...
Thanks
#18058 - sajiimori - Fri Mar 19, 2004 10:11 pm
I think you should use Allegro or SDL and make a game for your computer first. In SDL you can use SDL_FillRect() to draw everything with solid rectangles (just like the original). You could change it later of course, but this would keep things simple to start.
#18064 - dagamer34 - Fri Mar 19, 2004 11:57 pm
I think Tic-Tac-Toe would be a lot easier since you don't have to handle constant input from the user.
It was my first game. But I have yet to make another one...
Have you made a game before, at all? If not, then the first thing you need to do is get a pencil and paper and plan it out. You don't have to write a 200 page design document but you need something so you don't stray away from your original ideas unintentionally.
The "my plan is in my head" plan doesn't work very well unless you think about it 24/7/365/*however long you're gonna live*
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#18065 - sajiimori - Sat Mar 20, 2004 12:01 am
In the case of Pong, I suggest eschewing the design step and writing code immediately.
#18067 - yaustar - Sat Mar 20, 2004 12:15 am
Best to keep things on a K.I.S.S basis, (Keep It Simple Stupid) when first starting out...
In Pong, the most difficult and important step would be calculating the angle of 'bounce' on the bat. Research and planning is needed here
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#18068 - poslundc - Sat Mar 20, 2004 12:30 am
| yaustar wrote: |
| In Pong, the most difficult and important step would be calculating the angle of 'bounce' on the bat. |
Unless you choose to add friction to the bat, it's probably the easiest step... you just negate either the horizontal or vertical speed (depending on whether the paddle is on the y or x axis).
Dan.
#18069 - yaustar - Sat Mar 20, 2004 12:38 am
ture..although the developer admitted (i think) that 'spin' was a myth in Pong and it worked in the similar way as it did in arkanoid (trying not to give too much away)
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#18074 - darknet - Sat Mar 20, 2004 1:53 am
On the programming side of pong on the GBA..
I know a few people have written pong and posted their source. I know that kind of stuff has helped me on my first game endeavour =)
-Good Luck,
-Mike
#18082 - xadeu - Sat Mar 20, 2004 3:55 am
| Quote: |
| Have you made a game before, at all? |
Yes, I wrote a game in Common Lisp called Gomoku, (5-in-a-row Tic Tac Toe),It was for artificial intelligence class, basically I would play against the AI that I wrote for it.
#18084 - johnny_north - Sat Mar 20, 2004 4:07 am
Sure, pong is a perfect place to start, I'm sure there's plenty of source out there if you get stuck. I think you were looking for some initial direction:
2 sprites - one for each paddle
1 sprite for a ball
The only things that sucks the fun out of this is that one of the paddles will need to be controlled by the cpu, unless you want to get into creating a multiplayer version (http://www.gbadev.org/index.php?ID=215)
Otherwise (don't read any further - hints listed below may spoil your fun):
check for player input
update player paddle position
calculate cpu paddle based on ball position
update ball x&y
check for ball collisions with either paddle or any side of the screen
wait for the vblank
update the OAM entries
repeat
#18092 - xadeu - Sat Mar 20, 2004 6:19 am
| Quote: |
| I think you should use Allegro or SDL and make a game for your computer first. |
Don't you think it would be easier for me to wade through getting PONG to work on GBA EMU than learning a whole new API?
Won't I gain more experience with coding an easy GBA game to build up to other games, than taking a while to learn another API and avoiding the real task at hand? (GBA )
#18093 - sajiimori - Sat Mar 20, 2004 6:42 am
I think you're overestimating the complexity of SDL, overestimating the relevance of GBA's details to game programming in general, and underestimating the value of printf. (And yes, I know about VBA's debug output SWI.) But do what you like.