Programming, computers, etc. [Serious]

[atomtengeralattjaro]

Here is a pretty decent list over engines and what they can be used for.

There is also http://youcanmakevideogames.com/ and http://kotaku.com/5979539/a-beginners-g ... video-game

Say I wanted to make a fairly basic 2D side scroller. What game development platforms would you recommend? I have Clickteam Fusion from a recent Humble Bundle thing, and there's also Unity and other popular environments. There are also other things like Pygame for Python game development, etc. I just need a starting spot, I guess.

Unity is very versatile, and I kinda like it. It may or may not be worthwhile for you to get into, depending on how much would you like to achieve.
I've never used Clickteam Fusion, but from what I can tell, it might be easier to use for simple stuff like this than Unity.
No idea about pygame, I guess since you like python it should be easy enough for you.

Really it depends on whether or not you'd like to move on from the simplest side scroller and do something more later, in which case it would be best to start with something that can give you more options and freedom down the line. Or if you just want to throw together something quick.

[Anonymously Famous]

That is a pretty cool list, Shai. Thanks! What the list calls Multimedia Fusion is the one that came with the Humble Bundle, so I might start with that, or I was thinking of looking into Haxe, so I might try the Haxe framework that's mentioned. I've also looked into Unity before... And PyGame is on the list of frameworks...

Also, thanks, atom, for your reference links. I'll be sure to look at them!

So I guess I've narrowed things down somewhat. Now I just need to do the hard parts: Look into the engines/frameworks, and find time to actually do stuff!

[Shai'tan]

I find that finding time is the toughest part.

[Anonymously Famous]

I find that finding time is the toughest part.

This is a true statement.

[lunar_furor]

Say I wanted to make a fairly basic 2D side scroller. What game development platforms would you recommend? I have Clickteam Fusion from a recent Humble Bundle thing, and there's also Unity and other popular environments. There are also other things like Pygame for Python game development, etc. I just need a starting spot, I guess.

Honestly I reccomend following this series of guides. They worked well for me, I made 2 proof of concept games that I'm kinda proud of but don't know how to share

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... hqlJnsltJq

with free gamemaker. You'll get used to the front end backend thing, and naming conventions. Just as a thing to do, especially with their latest updates GameMaker is looking real good (resource use wise, they have tuned up the engine and language a lot). After that I'd branch out to unity/unreal for anything, because they are just more powerful in general.

[Anonymously Famous]

Thanks, lunar! I'll take a look at it!

Edit: Of course, now I've found a lot of other cool new frameworks and engines and such... I think I just need to pick one and get going on it.

[lunar_furor]

Thanks, lunar! I'll take a look at it!

Edit: Of course, now I've found a lot of other cool new frameworks and engines and such... I think I just need to pick one and get going on it.

How's your regular programming skills?

Code: Select all

If(skills == "good"){
    return "read up maybe an article on each, pick the one you like most it won't matter";
}
else{
    return "pick either gamemaker and follow the tutorial, or the python one and find a tutorial.  Maybe program a little first";
}

[Anonymously Famous]

There's a logic flaw in your code. It doesn't account for "excellent" or "expert".

I'm okay with programming. I also saw that GameMaker isn't the only one that has little to no coding involved, so there would still be several options. I thought Godot looked interesting, so I downloaded that last night and looked at it a little. I'll probably go through some tutorials later this week or something. It looks like the script it uses is Python-based, and since I use Python more than any other programming language (though I've used several), I thought it might be good.

[lunar_furor]

There's a logic flaw in your code. It doesn't account for "excellent" or "expert".

I'm okay with programming. I also saw that GameMaker isn't the only one that has little to no coding involved, so there would still be several options. I thought Godot looked interesting, so I downloaded that last night and looked at it a little. I'll probably go through some tutorials later this week or something. It looks like the script it uses is Python-based, and since I use Python more than any other programming language (though I've used several), I thought it might be good.

I've heard great things about Godot though I haven't used it. I only know Gamemaker which lets you go straight code
or codeless if you want. Godot I believe does the same though now that I think about it. You should keep us up to date on your experiments and lessons! I'm curious to see how it is as a platform.

[atomtengeralattjaro]

I thought Godot looked interesting, so I downloaded that last night and looked at it a little.

So every time it's compiling or slows down for some reason, you can say that you're... waiting for Godot?

[Anonymously Famous]

Yes you can.

lunar: I haven't had/made much time for it, but I have gone through some of the tutorials. It has a 2D and a 3D mode, each of which use different engines (which makes it more efficient than Unity for 2D games). First impressions are that it's much like Visual Studio, in that you use a WYSIWYG type environment to set up your objects, and then a code editor environment to add event handlers, etc.

One thing I like about Godot, probably because of who I am, is that they make it easy to import and export your strings for translation. I'm not sure how other game engines handle that, because I haven't looked into them much.

[Anonymously Famous]

Double Posty. Because relevant. Copied from my post on the Daily thread, just in case anyone is interested in some video game programming software and/or eBooks:

Humble Bundle currently has a bundle that includes Game Maker: Studio Professional and the modules for HTML5, iOS, Android, and Windows UWP (Windows Mobile, basically). There's also a bundle with eBooks for Unity and Unreal Engine. I can only rationalize one, so I think I'll go with the one that actually has the game creation environment (plus some games) instead of the one that has a bunch of books about environments (though those environments are free). Decisions, decisions... ACTUALLY... I can rationalize one full bundle and a lower tier of the other, so maybe I'll get some eBooks, too.

[atomtengeralattjaro]

Also a bit relevant:
just found this new web tool that kinda works like Flash used to, except it's not Flash
http://wickeditor.com/
it's still in development, but it looks like it's going to be a cool learning tool / actual tool for making animated little movies or games, just like flash.

[Anonymously Famous]

That's pretty cool. And it's all cloud based?

[assdef]

[atomtengeralattjaro]

computer-like things flew to the Moon when you were in your twenties, grandma.

[Anonymously Famous]

Today, I created four versions of the same image to illustrate graphics localization to my class:

• A Photoshop-like file with a text layer to demonstrate copy/paste localization (Gimp, because I have easier access to it. I think I have Photoshop at school, but while I'm not at school, I don't)
• SVG, since XML files are configurable through translation tools, so you can put them directly in the tool
• HTML using a version of the image without text, then using CSS to put text on top of the image, to demonstrate indirect use of images with text on top
• A flat, rendered image, to demonstrate the nightmare of not having some access to the text. I made sure to use a background in the image, too, so that it wouldn't be as easy as erasing the text and putting in the translated text.

Anyway, I thought that was close enough to the topic of this thread to warrant posting it here.

[assdef]

I think we should change the subject of this thread to be "General computer nerdery"

[atomtengeralattjaro]

Isn't that pretty much what it already means?

[Anonymously Famous]

That it does.