Game Programming

[Return 0]

For those of you that love games and game programming... two new masterpieces have been created:

Darksiders
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdHZqmrhb3Y

Dante's Inferno
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUOZRRU_Dyg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSr_vMOXEH4

Enjoy!

[chrisname]

Meh. The games they produce now are stupid. From a programmer's perspective they're good - they make advances with things like AI and graphics and physics and things like that - but most of the games that they make recently are pathetic.

I like games like the first few Sonics. I must sound like I like pretending to be one of 'those' people, who play only old games, but really, the games they make now are pathetic from a gaming point of view. Too much emphasis is placed on graphics. I bought one of the recent call of duty games, I think it was "world at/of war" or something. I was like "... Cool flamethrower... [five minutes later] damn this is boring."

I also love Rayman 2. It was so much fun.

I like game programming when someone good does it. I'm no good at it though, so I just like to play around with SDL and stuff.

[Return 0]

I have to agree with you. Last week I went out and bought Sonic's Ultimate Genesis for xbox360, which has like 40 old sega games, streets of rage 1 - 3, all of the sonic's, shining force 1 & 2, all the phantasy stars, golden axe etc... The two games I mentioned appeal to me because of their unique story and dark world as well as the game mechanics. I'm always trying to understand how they may have accomplished a particular element of the game. I don't recall any game ever trying to play out Dante's Inferno. The graphics are fantastic of course, but most of the games suffer in length and story. We'll see how these do.

I have two projects I've been working on for some time. I'm building a 2d game engine for a shining force/FF Tactics style game and I'm working on a 3d project which I'm still fleshing out some of the details on, experimenting with particle effects.

[chrisname]

I don't care about the story. Sonic has no storyline, except "First Sonic ran through Stage 1, and then he span around the little sign thing so that it had his picture on it, and not Dr. Robotnik's. He then did the same for EVERY STAGE IN THE GAME but it was still quite fun." The new Sonics, new Spiros and such are boring. I wonder if I can get a playstation emulator so I can play Spiro...

Good news, I can!

By the way, your game sounds interesting.

[firedraco]

Sonic wins, as does SoR. I've only played/beaten SoR 1 and 2 though, don't remember how I did on StH.

Btw, that game sounds cool, let us know how it turns out!

[chrisname]

I don't think I ever played that.

[arcadiu]

Meh. The games they produce now are stupid. From a programmer's perspective they're good - they make advances with things like AI and graphics and physics and things like that - but most of the games that they make recently are pathetic.

I like games like the first few Sonics. I must sound like I like pretending to be one of 'those' people, who play only old games, but really, the games they make now are pathetic from a gaming point of view. Too much emphasis is placed on graphics. I bought one of the recent call of duty games, I think it was "world at/of war" or something. I was like "... Cool flamethrower... [five minutes later] damn this is boring."

I also love Rayman 2. It was so much fun.

I like game programming when someone good does it. I'm no good at it though, so I just like to play around with SDL and stuff.

Chris you sound like the kinda guy who wouldn't touch a PS2 because its not retro enough :) But seriously now, you are right too much time is almost wasted on graphics instead of building a friendly UI and introducing better AI maps, removing bugs and general things like that. To many people are like OMFG crap graphics = crap game because they cant bear to look at a game very low resolution however its the gameplay and levels that count IMO.

[chrisname]

Chris you sound like the kinda guy who wouldn't touch a PS2 because its not retro enough :)

I'm not. I just think most of the games they make now are stupid. I still love good graphics and physics and what not, but I tend to think that good gameplay is far more important. The sonic games have good gameplay. So I love them. If they had photorealistic graphics while you jumped on top of things to kill them and what not, so much the better, but the gameplay is still good, and that's why I like them.

I agree that people get too hung up on photo-realistic "OMG I JUST SLIT THAT GUY'S THROAT AND IT WAS LIKE REAL LIFE" but on, for example, GTA IV, I still love how when you hit something in the car, the damage isn't generic like in previous GTAs and in most other games - if you hit a tree, there will be a tree-shaped gap in the front of the car whereas on other games some part of your car will appear damaged in the same way it did when you reversed into the car behind. The physics, rather than being generic, are specialized. What's also good is that you can tell that they didn't just create an event for each plausible crash - that would be ridiculously time-consuming. They just have the skill to produce a physics engine that can do that for them.

[arcadiu]

I still love good graphics and physics and what not

Wow someone appreciates physics engines aswell? I think thats really what makes everything stick together and come to life. What do you think of little big planet? Its a platformer like Sonic and its 2d.. to a degree.

[chrisname]

I've not played it, but I've heard that it's very fun.

I think you'll find many of the programmers on this site will appreciate the components of game engines. We are programmers after all...

[NGen]

All of the previously 'good' game companies are pumping out crappy games. The only games I've seen that were worth looking into were from either smaller companies or indie developers.

[chrisname]

Exactly. And the prices are going up, too, whereas now you can get good games like Mortal Kombat for free and run them in emulators...

[Mythios]

You know a game that really surprised me was the Kingdom Heart series. I laughed at it when it first came out and now I can't get enough hah! New one for the DS comes out in around a month. WooHoo!

Oh yeah the reason I love it is - I think the mix of FF and Disney is actually a really good story line. The game play is great and addictive ( to me ).

[NGen]

You know a game that really surprised me was the Kingdom Heart series. I laughed at it when it first came out and now I can't get enough hah! New one for the DS comes out in around a month. WooHoo!

The story idea is definitely more on the 'childish' (my friends moreover describe it as 'gay'), the execution of the battle system is amazing. I can't stop playing it. I beat KH2 a while ago, but I'm still just playing because the fighting so fun.

[firedraco]

^Dissidia FF for the PSP has that kind of fighting system too, you might want to check it out. I think I've been playing it for 16 days straight >_>

[rvbman47]

If you wanna make games in C++ you should check out the Bullet Physics library at www.bulletphysics.com

It's really cool. It has been used in games on the PS3, WII, PC, and even in rendering the movie Bolt. It works really well and makes it much easier to make a game.

I used it to make virtual dominoes! and it was easy!

[NGen]

I'd rather make my own. It would be a good learning experience.

[chrisname]

Another game I really love is Pokemon Blue. I play it virtually every day. I guess its because I grew up with it. Apparently in the new ones you get 3D graphics and tri-axial movement! Finally! That sounds great!

/sarcasm

[DrChill]

I still have pokemon blue on gameboy color

[firedraco]

^Me too. Although the save data has died, so I can't play it anymore...I think yellow (maybe red) is the only one that has decent data...gold/silver/blue/crystal all died >_> and my memory stick thingy I have some saves on is basically broken.