Designing Games

I was wondering if anybody knows where I could find every thing about making a video game. (EVERYTHING!) I just wanted to do some personal research. It also helpful if I could find out about specific programs relating to designing video games. Thanks! =)

Well, it depends on what sort of game you want to make. If you want to make a 2D RPG similar to the old-school Final Fantasy games, there is a design suite called RPG Maker that you can track down that allows you to create a sprite-based game quite easily.

If you want to make a proper video game; ie like the current Final Fantasies, I suggest you study an I.T. degree in college and apply for a job in a games development company. The sort of programs they use are many and varied – a programming suite for the actual code, which is usually a variant of C++ or C#, and a character model designer such as Maya or 3D Studio MAX. And of course programs like Macromedia Fireworks for texture design, and Microsoft Excel for designing the Physics engine.

Yeah Raidenex is spot on. I`m currently learning 3DSMAX 6 in college and i`m pretty used to it by now. If you want get into the games industry doing in-game graphics check out 3DSMAX or Maya, although from what i hear maya is more used for CGI sequences.

So i`d advise you to do like i`m doin and try it out in college. Although, like me you should probably get used to it a bit even before entering college, it helps a lot.

P.S If you do get into 3DSMAX, send me a PM or email for asistance.

If you have money try www.clickteam.com

Dosent 3Ds max cost a load?Try downloading a trial before you get it to be sure.C++ is probably a good idea.You can learn on the net but my friend got a book on it so something like thats good to.

i think the real bitch would be how you transfer your purdie graphics from 3dsmax to a working game engine. O_o i serisouly can’t even grasp the idea of making an engine to begin with. where do you start? gravity?

i think the real bitch would be how you transfer your purdie graphics from 3dsmax to a working game engine. O_o i serisouly can’t even grasp the idea of making an engine to begin with. where do you start? gravity?

a physics degree helps.

Along with a sound knowledge of Direct3D libraries.

i think the real bitch would be how you transfer your purdie graphics from 3dsmax to a working game engine. O_o i serisouly can’t even grasp the idea of making an engine to begin with. where do you start? gravity?

Like Raidenex said, a physhics engine helps. Although if your really into the thought of creating your own game try and find people that want to help. For instance, you`d have a group of people, and each one is assigned a job. So if your speciality is 3dsmax someone else does programming, physics etc..

Although it would be very difficult to find people interested and qualified.

yah that’s true. i’m not interested in making games personally. i’d much rather transfer my ideas into a book or movie if i really wanted to tell a good story or whatnot. unless i come up with a killer new puzzle game that’s never been seen before or something. but i can’t come up with anything like that.

i was just wondering how "engines" are made. mostly because i think the half life engine is the shit! i mostly love it cause its allowed lots of people to make beutifual and excellent mods based on it. (tfc, cs, fa, ts) and well i’m just a huge fan of the old half life and i think its engine is perfect. (mostly because it runs beatifully on my old 400mghz pc) i have great respect for fantastic games that run on my old pc. makes me appreciate game makers. not like all these new games that take up 20 gigs of hd space and you need 2 supercomputers to run at a mere 30fps. just to find out it sucked at the end. O_o (yes i’m exaggerating [sp?])

anyway. while thinking one day, reflecting on hl engine, and the q3 engine and how it was used in american mcgee’s alice, i just suddenly realized.. "damn..how ARE engines made?" i’m thinking, if you can make an engine, then you can make anything. i wonder if tetris uses an engine.

based on what little i know, i’m assuiming an engine, is like…the physical world of a game. limitations set upon all the objects shown/used in the game. that’s my idea. please feel free to correct me if i’m wrong. i love to learn.

An ‘engine’ is just the base code of the game – usually game code is written in C++. It is a collect of programs, or modules, that let the game know how to interact with itself and the player.

For instance, the code below is used to calculate the momentum of an object – it’s written in Java, but the language is very similar to C++.

/* name: MomentumCalculator.java
**
** author: Lee Parkins
**
** date: 11/03/2005
*/

import TerminalIO.*;

public class MomentumCalculator {

ScreenWriter writer = new ScreenWriter();
KeyboardReader reader = new KeyboardReader();

double momentum;
double mass;
double velocity;

public void run() {
writer.println ("***********************");
writer.println ("* Momentum Calculator *");
writer.println ("***********************");
writer.println (" ");
writer.print ("Please enter the mass of the object (in kg): ");
mass = reader.readDouble();
writer.print ("Please enter the velocity of the object (in m/s): ");
velocity = reader.readDouble();

momentum = mass * velocity;

writer.print ("The momentum of the object is ");
writer.print (momentum);
writer.print (" Ns (kgm/s)");
}

public static void main (String [] args) {
MomentumCalculator tpo = new MomentumCalculator();
tpo.run();
}
}

This year in college i`m going to being doing Java, can`t say i`m looking forward to it though. Although, even if i do have a geniune talent for it, i`m going to stick to 3d and try and get into the industry on that alone.

Also Tact: Your right, write it into a book or even some sort of comic/storyboard. That`s what i`m going to be doing quite soon. Might aswell get your ideas onto paper, you never know when you`ll lose interest.

This year in college i`m going to being doing Java, can`t say i`m looking forward to it though. Although, even if i do have a geniune talent for it, i`m going to stick to 3d and try and get into the industry on that alone.

They won’t have any interest if you can only design 3D models – if you want to get into the games industry, they’ll expect you to have a knowledge of coding as well. Java is a good language to learn, because it’s relatively straight-forward, and is similar enough to C++ to be able to transfer your skills across.

Also, you’ll find knowing the code controlling your models will help you decide where to put points of movement, etc, when you’re doing your initial design.

They won’t have any interest if you can only design 3D models – if you want to get into the games industry, they’ll expect you to have a knowledge of coding as well. Java is a good language to learn, because it’s relatively straight-forward, and is similar enough to C++ to be able to transfer your skills across.

Also, you’ll find knowing the code controlling your models will help you decide where to put points of movement, etc, when you’re doing your initial design.

Very true. Well, the most ideal situation is that i get a broad knowledge of a few areas that cover computer games. I`m starting my second year of college next week and it`s a two year Multimedia course so i`ll see where it takes me. But i must say, i`m fortunate to of had a good knowledge of 3dsmax prior to my first year. And after coming out of the first year with 5 Distictions and 5 Merits, i`m very optimistic about next term.