New To every prgramming langauge-looking to build a 2d game

[Thocrun]

I was thinking about putting up my own game, server and distributing a program to run the program on the server which would make game play happen kinda like runescape but 2d and has a client and server I plan on just playing with the code while I have free time, if you have any good links for me please post


Thanks,

~~Thocrun

[h3ckboy]

umm, if you are new to programming it might not be the best idea to do a mmorpg. Or atleast anything with networking.

start with something simple. for example http://www.cokeandcode.com/spaceinvaderstutorial.

but remember if you work hard you can get to that goal of yours in a short while.

I have onlybeen programming a year, and I am working on a multiplayer game

[Seecon]

Yes if you are new to programming all languages then a MMORPG is definitely not a good choice to start. It took many years to plain open WoW. Networking takes a lot of learning, then after the core is down you add more which involves things like calculations for combat and features etc. MMORPGs are just too much to encompass to a single person (if you really want to succeed) much less a small team.

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[Eli Delventhal]

See this thread:

http://www.java-gaming.org/topics/my-highschool-class-is-making-an-mmorpg/18545/view.html

[SimonH]

kinda like runescape

If Andrew Gower can do it then you can! You just need to be persistent  - about 5 years before making any money, but when you do... $$$$
The keyword here is dedication. If you want it enough (and you have no social life) then you'll succeed!

[fletchergames]

If Andrew Gower can do it then you can! You just need to be persistent  - about 5 years before making any money, but when you do... $$$$
The keyword here is dedication. If you want it enough (and you have no social life) then you'll succeed!

If you work really hard and spend the money you need to spend, you might succeed if you get lucky.

I'm not saying you shouldn't try.  I'm just saying that you won't necessarily become the next John Carmack overnight.  First, learn a programming language (preferably Java).  Then, figure out how to make games with that programming language.  Then program some simple games.  Then program a single player RPG.  If, after all that, you still want to program a MMORPG, learn about networking, buy a server, and program your MMORPG.

Some books to read (after learning Java):

Developing Games in Java (by David Brackeen)
Killer Game Programming in Java (I forget who wrote this)

They're a little bit dated, but they're the best sources I know of.

[Alan_W]

There's lots of books on standalone games programming (I recommend brackeen's book), but not much on networking.  If you do anything real-time with networking, you'll quickly find lag to be a problem and you end up doing lag-compensation, which results in your game estimating lag and doing predictive movement of other players.  You end up doing game calculations in multiple time 'zones' which can get very confusing.  Another issue is bandwidth.  If your game has a lot of state data, you can't send the lot every frame, so you have to filter out all state that isn't important and rate limit the rest according to the dynamics of the object.  There's also an issue with scalability on the server.  For instance, in a large world, it quickly becomes impossible to collision check every object against every other object, so collision detection must be based on local groups.  Similarly the renderer must only visit local scenery when working out what to draw. A last issue (which won't be a problem if you are using a server) occurs if you use peer-peer comms to try to reduce server bandwidth.  This can be important if you end up using a home server and dynamic DNS, which is the cheapest way to get a server you can run code on.  Then you need to look at UDP punch through techniques.  I wrote a simple multiplayer FPS and found I needed to do all of the above.   Of course the game was only a simple demo, so after some initial interest, it soon was devoid of players.  Lesson learnt is that it also needs computer controlled content to make it interesting even in single player.  Overall, it's a lot to do.  Not impossible, but definitely requires ninja like programming skills and loads of time.

[h3ckboy]

@fletchergames:
heck, you dont even have to buy a server.

dyndns.com a lifesaver

[pjt33]

If you work really hard and spend the money you need to spend, you might succeed if you get lucky.

Quoted for truthery. Of course, as artists we care more about people's reactions to our games than the money (don't we? Guys?) but even then it takes some luck.

[h3ckboy]

Quoted for truthery. Of course, as artists we care more about people's reactions to our games than the money (don't we? Guys?) but even then it takes some luck.

yeah... I guess... doy ou listen to eye of the tiger a lot