I'm programming this game in OpenGL, mostly working inside an single EAGLView (I'm not that familiar with Views and other Cocoa concepts, my work to this point only involved using OpenGL to draw my game and calculating the logic myself).
I'm being told for adding a ton of features:
Send mails to Your friends when You achieve certain objectives in the game.
Interact with facebook ( I'm being told that I will provided with all the libraries I need).
Interaction with store kit !, buy weapons, Items, etc..
I would like to know, how effort and time will take to add those features... It's complicated to use GameKit ..StoreKit..MediaPlayer and other frameworks ?, considering that I only have worked with OpenGL to this point ?
Short answer: no, it's not hard to add those features.
Longer answer: depending on your background, if object-oriented concepts are new to you, it may take you longer to learn how to use the objects and frameworks. The only thing you can really do is read over the documentation and look at tutorials and decide how complicated it looks. Really, though, it's all well designed and thought out and if you have a programming background, a couple of the examples should give you plenty to start with and you'll get it all soon. And then come on back with your specific questions and smarter devs than I will answer them.
The hard part is all the details: weapons, items, etc.
Related
I'm thinking in doing my first ios game, I am new in ios programming and I need your advice.
The game will be very simple and 2d, imagine something like a card games.
My doubt is if i should use UIKit, spritekit, cocos2d... What is the recommended for 2d simple games with few animations?
Thanks you :)
i would recommend cocos2d, since it is widely used by many developers and can also be used for serious game development, so when you feel that you've picked it up and gotten familiar with the api, it will be something that you can continue using after the first one is released.
http://www.cocos2d-iphone.org/games/
As you can see, many successful games and it has a nice collection of features build it, so that is always handy even tho' in your first title and development training program you would also like to get as close as possible to basics which is the best way of learning, it will also allow you this.
I would not even consider UIKit as THE platform to approach at all.
as for spritekit, that could go ether way, i wouldnt use it, but it is not useless if you know what i mean.
As per your requirement, i would really suggest you CORONA SDK. Specially for simple and 2D game development. It's very fast and easy to understand and you can create game faster then cocos2d and objective-c development. Also it's support cross platform.
http://coronalabs.com/
With Corona, you will develop mobile apps in record time.
The idea of programming a risk-like game for iOS has been around my mind for more than a week, so I thought I should do something about it. I'm not an experienced iOS developer (I haven't done a real project, only tutorials), but I got some notions about both the language and Cocoa Touch.
So, the thing I want to do is a board game, similar to dicewars (see http://www.gamedesign.jp/flash/dice/dice.html). The maps will at some point have hexagonal-tiles, but if it is to much pain for starters, I don't have a problem with regular tiles for the beginning. I want the maps to be dynamically generated, not made in advance. There won't be much on the game screen : the map, divided in areas, the dices, and a HUD.
The main thing I'm grasping with right now is what to use to do the graphic stuff. I have no background in game programming, and very limited in 2D. For my purposes, should I go with Core Graphics/Animation, OpenGL, Cocos2D, or something else ? I would like to avoid starting with a technology, and halfway through the project, realizing another would have be more adapted.
I'm also listening to any advice about game dev in general, map generation, IA programming.. etc. If you have links that answers my question, feel free, I haven't found anything conclusive so far
tl;dr:
I'm wondering how should I do 2D for a simple board game similar to dicewars/risk. No need for collision stuff, just something to draw a map, update it, and display a hud.
Thanks for your time!
I'd suggest Cocos2d: Very easy to get started, has more than enough functionality to cover your requirements (including tile-maps built into the engine), has an active community, and has been the framework used by many successful games.
I need a 3D engine for a very specific task in Artificial Intelligence, and I'd like some input.
The first part is the trivial one - basically, all I need is a FPS engine (3rd person would be good, too), such that it allows me to navigate a room and interact with objects (if you have Java and Windows, I'm looking for something similar to the Give Challenge, but a little more up-to-date). Physics would be nice, but is not a must.
Now, the non-trivial part would be: I need to impose a virtual grid over this room, such that at any moment I can say "the player is located at B5 - now he moved to B6", and so on. I need to redirect this information to another system (namely, one which will give the player instructions about what to do) and, at the same time, send messages to the player, so I must be able to have a single point through which the game logic passes through; also, I'd love not having to write my own collision detection and such.
So far, I've tried:
the Source SDK: it seems a little overkill (since I'm not really planning to shoot anyone, at least half the code base is useless to the task), and since I'm not really a Windows developer, I'm spending too much time with the "easy" stuff (such as getting VS up and running). Plus, cross-platform would be really nice.
Blender game engine: while this worked decently, the interaction model seems a little weird, and some easy stuff (such as making sure the camera stays inside the scene or showing the mouse on screen) gets too weird too soon.
Crystalspace 3D: I've tried their demos, but it looks a little old-fashioned, and since that was one of the problems of previous engines (it's easier to get volunteers when your game looks nice) I'd like to try something else.
Now, maybe I'm asking a little too much for a single software, but I'd love some input. Can anyone suggest me an alternative? Or should I give one of the previous ones a second chance?
Try the UDK. All of the things you request are present, and it's free for personal/noncommercial projects. Here are some highlights:
Modern looking. The UDK features an intuitive-ish visual material design system, post-processing effects, Scaleform Gfx UIs from Autodesk, and more.
A visual scripting interface called Kismet that can control gameplay elements, the camera, and more.
UnrealScript, a scripting language similar in syntax to C, C++, Java, that gives you the ability to extend existing functionality or create your own.
Comprehensive documentation available on UDN.
Lots of community support outside of Epic, in places such as Polycount, Eat3d, 3dbuzz, and more.
Basically, "and more".
If what you're looking for is a professional, free (as in beer) engine that will allow you to focus primarily or solely on your differentiating gameplay features, Epic has set the bar high.
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My 11 year old kid brother wants to learn to program games. He has never programmed but would like to learn programming. His interest lies with games and game programming and he understands that it can be difficult but he wants to do that. So, obviously, I turned to SO folks to know what you feel on how he should go about it. Remember, please suggest on
Areas that beginners can choose,
how to begin in that area,
what to read in the beginning,
initial languages in the beginning etc.
Once the beginning part is taken care of, you may also suggest the intermediate and advanced stuff but this question is about very beginning level. If there are areas like Web games Vs. console games Vs generic computer games, then please advice on the areas. As I said he has never programmed, he might want to try all the areas and choose the one he likes the best. I hope this is not too much to ask for someone who is in this field but if this question is huge, please advice on how to break it into multiple questions. ~Thanks.
I started my programming career writing games when I was 15 and it was a lot of fun (even though I wrestled with C++ for 3 years just because "that's what's used for writing games"). My two cents:
Start with a programming language that is easy to use (NOT C or C++)
Get a beginners book for that programming language (not directed at games)
Decide on some API or environment that provides what's needed for writing games. I started out by doing snake, space invaders etc in the console, but any 2D-environment will do (stay way from 3D for as long as you can; there are much more important things to learn first). SDL/GLUT for OpenGL has bindings in almost any language. Pygame for Python looks promising too. Using HTML5's canvas-element, you could even write the programs in the browser using JavaScript. Im not sure what's best these days, but there you have some suggestions.
Find a community for inspiration and help when stuck. I used gamedev.net. Since we're on stackoverflow, gamedev.stackexchange.com should also be a natural choice :)
Start small. Very small. I mean really tiny. Then take small steps to new challenges. Please don't write an MMORPG.
The game design and graphics are fun, but focus on the programming (for now at least). When you've written a simple game, learn how to do the same thing better.
Set a goal. Imagine the game that you'd want to make. Don't try to make that one immediately, but make sure that each new thing you learn or make takes you one step closer. Don't learn what you don't need so to speak (there's simply too much too learn).
I wish you and your brother the best of luck, I never regret going down the path he's about to take!
For a beginning game developing enthousiast I think you can't go wrong with the combination Python + Pygame. Python is a great, elegant (and easy to learn) all-round language and lots of great tutorials are available for Pygame which explain the basics of (mostly) 2D game programming.
There's this post on Gamedev stackexchange where the poster is in literally the same position.
Quoting my answer from there:
I'm also 15, so I guess that could help? :P
I've recently started learning Python
(been doing C++ for a year or so), and
I'm finding it much easier to learn
than C++. There's a lot less pitfalls,
and you need little code to get
something on the screen - what I find
makes you want to continue.
And there's wrappers like Pygame and
Pyglet over SDL/OpenGL for the
graphics side.
And before he starts making simple
games, I would advise learning a
language for at least a couple of
months. (Of course, text based games
like guess the number and hangman are
good exercises during this time)
And for what to read; I can advise Invent With Python. It goes from learning the language in a very gamedev way - which is a good step to making sure he stays interested; I doubt many kids his age are going to want to learn all about variables and loops, moreso being able to make a game - all the way to seamlessly introducting PyGame and graphics.
It could take some time until he can program a proper game...
But as I see it, he should start with Java as it is easy to learn and good for basic games.
Starting out he wouldn't be able to do much more than a guessing game, but he shouldn't get frustrated, this will take time.
I think you should buy him a book on java, and start from the basics.
You would get many different answers on this one as it is mostly personal opinion...
Teach him the basics of programming: variables, declarations, properties, methods, arguments, classes, arrays, loops. I suggest C# as a starting language, it seems simpler than C or C++ to start with, in my opinion. Once he understands those concepts it shouldn't be extremely hard for him to jump in and follow some XNA tutorials on a simple game like pong or something.
Game Development, part of the Stack Exchange, is a great resource for these types of things. It's loaded with posts like this one.
How about instead of forcing him to learn a language first, get him involved in using a framework where he can readily see results to maintain an interest. Something along the lines of RPGMaker could be sufficient.
My reasoning for this would be that, yes, you want him to learn the basics of making games and introduce programming as well, but you don't want to burn him out on the formalities of a language.
If he is 14, then he is of high school age (assuming US based...), and there is a good chance that there are programming courses available to him there. Let him whet his teeth on those to grind out the difficulties of introducing programming, and then once he is interested in expanding beyond the bounds of the toolset introduce him to the answers posted by the other users.
My two cents...I've seen kids give up on programming before because they jumped right into game making and quickly got frustrated...
In the beginning, make sure you keep it fun. Try mocking old games like 1-stage of contra or air hockey. And use a programming language with easy implementation of timer. Because timers, I think are the easiest way to show some visible effects. I would recommend visual basic or objective-c (I know many people won't agree, BUT it is that damn easy with the power of Xcode). Thumbs up ! Have fun.
I agree with ChristopheD about Python and Pygame. When it comes to languages Python is great for beginners because it is very high level therefore so easier to understand and the syntax is clean and simple. And Pygame is a great library for learning game programming.
Eventually he'll want to move into C++, which as I understand is the go to language for game development. But Python and Pygame would be a better start, especially for an 11 year old.
A good series of easy to read online books are the following three:
http://greenteapress.com/thinkpython/thinkpython.html to learn Python
http://inventwithpython.com/ this site has two books, what to make games in plain Python and the other to make games using the Pygame library for Python. Once he gets through these three books he should be able to start making his own games in Python using Pygame and then eventually move on to more serious game development langauges/tools.
Write some simple scenarios for a game such as Wesnoth is maybe a good start.
Learning basis of programming is also important. A langage such as python is probably a good start.
The language is clear and easy to learn and teach.
And it is very extentable.
This is a -very basic- game source code (Butterfly adventure 1.0) made with javascript to start learn programming. Only basic codes (variable, if, switch, function, event, etc.) used.
It may be useful to start learning game development.
Play the game link
Source code link
Video tutorials (Only in Turkish) link
Screenshot
Have fun.
IMHO he should start learning C.
then switch to OpenGL later once he has the grip of basic C constructs.
I was just asked to talk about Objective C to a bunch of High School student for 20 minutes. They have no experience with programming at all. What topics should I cover? Should I define vocab such as Method, Class, Variable? Or should I do something else?
Any comments are helpful!
Since you obviously cannot possibly teach them anything practical in 20 minutes, instead why not try to give them teasers into what you can do (instead of how to do it) to encourage them to learn more.
One such idea I have seen is that you could demonstrate an application that searches for all local bluetooth devices and displays them on the screen in a creative way. (ie when they turn on their phone bluetooth their phone id will appear and start floating around the screen)
Only catch is if you have any really clever students you may end up with mobile phone names changed to swear words...
20 minutes gives you almost no time to chat about programming concepts. I would simply display a "hello world" type application and give a very high-level overview of the different tools and languages needed to develop this program.
I'd recommend doing something to show how the tools work and introduce objects as the building-blocks of the app. I did a demo in about one minute, drag a webview, textfield and a few buttons in IB and make a full web browser without writing any code :-). Explain that each of those things is an object and what that means in the context of the app for the remaining 17 (then take questions). I used that demo to launch a talk on MVC but that might be too much depth for your audience. For reference my talk is on slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/iamleeg/adopting-mvc-in-cocoa
How about telling them about Smalltalk history, the creative outburst at PARC, and the philosophy underlying this branch of OO language? Then quickly explain that ObjC is an attempt to pair this philosophy with an efficient, universally known language (C). Present NeXTstep and OSX as a further outgrowth of this, and land on the unusual features of the iPhone API (from a developer's perspective).
This will give them some history, a glimpse of the creative and technical issues faced by programmers, and a sense of the role computer languages play in the broader development of consumer computing. You can even show them some syntax comparing Smalltalk/ObjC/C/C++/Java, for example. Without going into detail, that might give them some sense of what a programmer's reality is like.
I would say no history. It's very vague as it is, let alone that AND programming together.
Do something like:
http://teachingkids.railsbridge.org/2009/08/15/teaching-ruby-to-high-school-girls.html