Tutorialized Game Developing..

[Knuhl]

Hi, this is my first time in this Forum so.. HI!

First of all: sorry for my englisch, Im german and many words are out of the dicitonary ;)

Me and my friend "invented" a little game and we hoped to play it on the computer.
I do have little programming experience, but i don't now many of the essential things for this kind of programm.

So now: What is the game about?
The idea of the game is easy, in an area (sharp edges, no rounds) are 2 or more cannons. They both do one shot, this shot is drawn as a line and it is getting reflected at the borders of the area. The aim is to hit the enemies cannon.

Rules:
arrival angle = emergent angle
no direct kill - first shot has to be against a wall
yes you can kill yourself

My vision of the program looks like this:

On the left side: the game field. You place your cannon and enter the direction of your first shot. on the right side you control the game, there are buttons like: one step forward, one step continuos forward (whit the possibility to enter the speed), jump to finish.

Id loved that it would be possible on all platforms, but if it is easier id agree with a win-only version...

I hoped we could act this thread like a little tutorial - how to draw (i only know canvas from delphi), building a window etc. - i know you maybe dont want to explain everything, maybe you post a bit of code pieces with small marks for those who want to read more about that.

I hope i dont expect too much, Id love to read through your ideas.

Greetz, Knuhl

[Bazzy]

I think you should start with building some classes for your game (eg: cannon, cannon_ball, wall )

[Scipio]

I have no expierence at all with game programming, but if you want to have graphics and music etc., you may want to use DirectX (or someting familiair). If you know the basics of C++, I believe that this is a good place to start (not from my own expierences, but from what I have heard):
http://www.directxtutorial.com/Tutorial9/tutorials.aspx

Good luck

Ps. I got the link to this tutorial from PP :)

[Bazzy]

I think that if Knuhl hasn't got much expirience on programming that DirectX would be a bit hard.
In my opinion is better starting from something simple

[Scipio]

@Bazzy
Yes, I agree.

@Knuhl
Bazzy is right. Using graphics is harder then it may look like, and you need a valid understanding of the language itself first. After that you can always come back and start learning DirectX :)

[helios]

I disagree. For a programming beginner, DX might just be too much, what with all the preposterous function signatures. I think SDL is more suitable.

[Scipio]

You disagree with what?

If the OP understands the basics of C++ he can try to learn DX. If he dont, I think SDL wont be a good idear either.

[Duthomhas]

I know this is a C++ forum... but I think you are better off going over to PyGame. Pygame is a (nearly) direct port of SDL for Python.

PyGame - python game development
http://www.pygame.org/

------------------------- installation -------------------------

Install python
http://www.python.org/download/
Python 2.6 Windows Installer http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.6/python-2.6.msi

Install pygame
http://www.pygame.org/download.shtml
pygame-1.8.1.win32-py2.6.msi http://www.pygame.org/ftp/pygame-1.8.1release.win32-py2.6.msi

--------------------------- tutorials ---------------------------

Next, you will want to take a look through some tutorials to get you started.
http://www.pygame.org/wiki/tutorials

------------------------ documentation -------------------------

Python itself is very easy to learn and use. If you ever need help with python itself, visit the Python Documentation.
http://www.python.org/doc/

And the SDL/PyGame Documentation is here:
http://www.pygame.org/docs/


I really think that pygame is the best way to get into game programming.

As for the game itself, you only really need some very simple math and and bounds detection to control the trajectory of the 'cannonball'. The pygame tutorials will go through enough to get you going.

Good luck!

[Knuhl]

Thanks for all the nice answers and sorry that im answering now.

I agree with Bazzy, but if it would be "a great advantage" i could try it out.

Thanks to Duas, I like the idea with python because i've already made experiences with
python and I liked it quite a lot. I'm gonna read through some tutorials and maybe start with
the structure etc.

Thanks for the first suggestion, Knuhl

//Edit:

I read a little bit about pygame, and i think it is the easiest way to realize my game.
But because this is a C++ Forum, I'm gonna post it on a Python forum, if anyone is
interested, you can have a look at here:

http://z7.invisionfree.com/pygame/index.php?showtopic=252

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