Project ideas?

[kaduuk]

Hey guys,

I've ran out of project ideas...

I'd like to write a program which will take a while to make and which makes me think (a lot, with a lot of complicities) and makes me learn a lot.

Most of my programs till now have been calculator / computing programs (my first ever was a calculator, then I did some conversion programs and a lot of project euler ones) so i'd like to not do that :P

Thanks in advance,

Cheers!

[Philip Lee Bridson]

Hi there,

I think this is the wrong place for this type of question.

However, it would be hard to suggest something without knowing your skill level.

Kind Regards,

Phil.

[Disch]

I find game dev to be very fun and challenging. Try making a simple game.

[m4ster r0shi]

Ok, this is going to be long :P

Try writing a RPG. It may sound simple but it can really push both your design and programming skills to their limit and beyond.

A first approach would be throwing some global functions and variables in your text editor, and then feed that to your compiler. Something like this:

//...

string player_name;
int player_level;
int player_HP;
int player_attack;
int player_defense;
//...

string monster_name;
int monster_HP;
int monster_attack;
int monster_defense;
//...

void player_attack();
void player_level_up();
//...

void monster_attack();
//...

int main()
{
    //...

    return 0;
};

//... 

Then, you'll realize that you can organize this global mess in an object oriented way. Like this:

//...

class Player
{
private:
    //data
    string name;
    //...

public:
    //functions
    void attack(Monster & target);
    //...
};

//... 

Advanced mechanisms like inheritance and polymorphism will gradually come into play:

class Entity
{
protected:
    string name;
    //...

public:
    virtual void attack(Entity & target);
    //...
};

class Player: public Entity
{
    //...
public:
    virtual void attack(Entity & target);
    //...
};

class Monster: public Entity
{
    //...
public:
    virtual void attack(Entity & target);
    //...
};

Eventually, you'll have to make some major design decisions. How will you implement your hero's class system? Will there be classes or will it be a skill-based system? If there are classes, will you implement them using multiple inheritance, like this:

class Wizard: virtual public Player {/*...*/};
class Fighter: virtual public Player {/*...*/};
class BattleMage: public Wizard, public Fighter {/*...*/};

?

Or composition, like this:

class Role {/*...*/};
class Wizard: public Role {/*...*/};
class Fighter: public Role {/*...*/};

class Player: public Entity
{
    vector<Role*> role_list;
    //...
};

?

And what about your skills/spells? Will they be leafs of a fixed inheritance tree, like this:

class Spell
{
protected:
    int mana_cost;
    int cooldown;
    //...

public:
    virtual void Use(Entity & caster, Entity & target)=0;
    //...
};

class OffensiveSpell: public Spell
{
    int damage;
    int critical_chance;
    int critical_multiplier;
    //...

public:
    virtual void Use(Entity & caster, Entity & target);
    //...
};

class DefensiveSpell: public Spell
{
    int magnitude;
    //...

public:
    virtual void Use(Entity & caster, Entity & target);
    //...
};

class Fireball: public OffensiveSpell {/*...*/};
class Heal: public DefensiveSpell {/*...*/};
//... 

?

Or will you implement a scripting approach, and perhaps add the option for the user to create his own spells, like this:

class Action
{
public:
    virtual void DoIt(Entity & caster, Entity & target)=0;
};

class ModifyHP: public Action
{
    int amount;
    bool is_damage; //or heal?
    bool target_self; //or enemy?

public:
    virtual void DoIt(Entity & caster, Entity & target);
    //...
};

//other basic actions derived from Action here
//...

class Spell
{
    vector<Action*> action_list;
public:
    void Use(Entity & caster, Entity & target)
    {
        for (int i=0; i<action_list.size(); i++)
            action_list[i]->DoIt(Entity & caster, Entity & target);
    }
    //...
};

?

And we haven't even talked about the Item system and many other things (game map, game areas (towns, dungeons, etc...), npcs, scenario...). The possibilities are endless.

Finally, another big decision -> Will this be console-based or will you use a graphics library? Disch might tell you here to use SFML or something like that, but I'd find a better idea to write a text-based RPG with Disch trapped in the console and trying to escape :D But, in the end, the choice is up to you :P

Useful link -> http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~amitp/gameprog.html

[PanGalactic]

Take an existing C or C-ish C++ library and put a nice, modern C++ API on top of it.

[Mike200]

i was also loooking for a project. Then sombody sent me link
http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/articles/12974/ , and on this you'll find an example about mutant bunnies which i'm now tackling. You might find it worth a look.....

[kaduuk]

Hi guys!

Thanks for the replies!

I think I'm going to do the RPG :) It seems really nice and challenging.

I forgot to say I'm a bit of a beginner, but that doesn't matter, cuz it makes it all the more challenging.

So I think I'll first just make it console based, and then go into something like SFML (or go the whole other direction and start doing winAPI programs, which I'll do once I'm botherd to learn it :P)

So thanks guys for taking the time to reply (especially m4ster R0shi) and for helping me out.

I'm going to start right off!

Cheers!