#82090 - noobdeveloper208 - Wed May 03, 2006 11:16 pm
i have no idea how to create a game i know nothing about programming or porting games but i really would like to make home brew games for my ds and to share with people online
#82109 - tepples - Thu May 04, 2006 1:04 am
Please learn C first. Google is your friend. Work through a C tutorial, using a native compiler (if you're on Windows, use MinGW or Microsoft Visual C++). Then once you know C, you can get started on the DS.
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#82149 - waruwaru - Thu May 04, 2006 5:35 am
<plug>
If you don't like C/C++, you can try DSLua. You can start by using an emulator on your PC first to try it out. :)
</plug>
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#82698 - thegamefreak0134 - Mon May 08, 2006 5:52 pm
If you've never programmed a game before, you probably need to start somewhere a little more simple than a DS. Programming for consoles is (arguably) much more difficult than say programming for a PC or something similar.
I recommend starting by developing on the GBA first, if you want to go for a handheld. The concepts you learn whilst doing this will help tremendously when moving up to the DS. As an added bonus, the development body knows a lot more about the GBA than the DS at this point, allowing you to make fully capable GBA games, where I don't think this is possible with the DS yet. There is no suitable emulator for DS, there are many for GBA. You can (easliy) pot GBA games on an actual cartridge and play them on hardware. this is possible on the DS, but slightly more difficult.
In the long run, start by learning C. (I would say C++, but you don't really need to do the whole object oriented thing at this level.) Once you have a good grasp of data and can make simple, yet effective console based programs, take a look at the GBA tutorials on this site. (Avoid the Crash Corse (pong) tutorial at all costs. Bad.)
Once you have a good grasp of GBA programming, (like can do good graphics in all of the modes and sound of some sort) then you should be ready to make the jump to programming for the DS.
This is all coming from a rather novice programmer as well. If someone disagrees with me, that's fine. Regardless, make sure you know what you're jumping into here.
A harmless blabber,
-thegamefreak0134
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#82703 - SevenString - Mon May 08, 2006 7:01 pm
Good advice, gamefreak.
Let me add that, because of the many similarities to the original SNES console, the GBA serves as a great platform for "console developer's 101".
In my career, I've gone from deving for Z80s, 6502s, and custon arcade hardware back in the early '80s, to later developing graphics tools at EA for SNES and Genesis titles, to developing PC and next-gen console titles.
So from the perspective of an experienced developer, I think the GBA is a fantastic platform that forces me to get away from thinking about the latest whiz-bang 3D fx, and get back to what's important: fun gameplay.
Oh, and noob, once you're up to speed in "C", try VisualHAM as a starting point. You can later migrate to DevKitPRO when you're ready.
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#82725 - Ant6n - Tue May 09, 2006 1:08 am
| thegamefreak0134 wrote: |
If you've never programmed a game before, you probably need to start somewhere a little more simple than a DS. Programming for consoles is (arguably) much more difficult than say programming for a PC or something similar.
...
This is all coming from a rather novice programmer as well. If someone disagrees with me, that's fine. Regardless, make sure you know what you're jumping into here. |
I disagree, but only a little. Game boy is an interesting point to start. Its not overly difficult, and you have good motivation to learn, because you can have simple things appear on screen and have it jump around or something (Woot!). I also strongly recommend going for gba first. get some nice wrapper library, like ham (?), and some c tutorial, or c book. read the stickies. there is a gba book and the tonc tutorials. good luck
#82728 - sgeos - Tue May 09, 2006 1:57 am
I recommend flash first. It makes dealing with assets easy. Getting assets on the GBA/DS is another step you can learn later.
-Brendan
#82734 - tepples - Tue May 09, 2006 4:01 am
Flash is expensive. Try MinGW and the Allegro library, which also makes assets easy along with everything else related to the low level of coding a cross-platform 2D game engine.
(Incidentally, GBFS was inspired by Allegro's datafile system.)
_________________
-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.
#82746 - sgeos - Tue May 09, 2006 8:17 am
I find that getting allegro to compile is a pain. Admittedly C/C++ source is better for a cross platform project.
-Brendan
#83178 - xproductions - Sat May 13, 2006 9:24 pm
C/C++ might be too difficult for someone with zero programming knowledge. (Low level stuff, pointer magic, etc). It would be better to learn to program Python or Java first, then try C.
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#83226 - thegamefreak0134 - Sun May 14, 2006 7:41 am
| xproductions wrote: |
| C/C++ might be too difficult for someone with zero programming knowledge. (Low level stuff, pointer magic, etc). It would be better to learn to program Python or Java first, then try C. |
I disagree. For what he wants to do, C++ would give him a great knowledge of the different kinds of data structures and such. Plus, you end up having to use pointers a lot anyway, so he'll need to know about them if he wants to go with GBA, regardless. I find other languages are actually more difficult to use if you need this kind of control.
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#83234 - keldon - Sun May 14, 2006 8:44 am
I've always thought that QBasic was a good start. There is much to learn in programming and pointers should be the last thing. Learn procedral programming, algorithms & data structures, OOP and Software Engineering - stick pointers somewhere after algorithms&data structures.
#83255 - tepples - Sun May 14, 2006 4:22 pm
Pointers are part of many data structures.
_________________
-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.