Programmers
- Started
- Last post
- 53 Responses
- nh
Done a couple of google searches but it's just not working out.
I'm going to attempt to make an online game, a card game (similar to magic), does anyone know of a place to start. I'm a bit out of my league but that's why I'm going to try. Maybe just some sites, books, keywords, anything. I'd like to keep a db of some of the info on the players machine's and have the games run across the net.
Thanks for any help.
- tfs__mag0
ummm keeping a db on the players machines or using a db to store info about the players machines? The latter would be pretty easy. As for the game itself, the best way to figure things out would be to write down exactly what it is you want to do, and then make a list of what you need to do to make it happen. then it's as simple as going down a list until you reach your goal. As far as programming, you have a few options. PHP,ASP, or good old fashion .cgi would be options worth considering. You're kind of vague on your post.... hope this helps?
- sparker0
i have three books that have something like that in them, one is a lingo (director) game development book.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obido…
it have multiple game types in it as tutorials.
the second is a flash mx game development book...it is green and blue with a frog on it. (i can't find it on amazon for somereason).
and finally, the flash/xml book has an example about building a tarrot card game.
you might look into those three.
:)
- toastie0
what are you writing this in?
- nh0
Thanks for the advice. Sorry if I'm a bit vague, I'm really jumping in over my head here so I'm sort of on step one.
The only reason I wanted to keep a db/images on the users computer is so that it ran faster.
I'm sure you've heard of magic but I don't know if you've played, but it's very similar. I'm thinking of writing it in VB and I have everything written down that I want it to do.
For now, I want to make it so that two users are able to play eachother. They each have a "deck" of cards and the decks have a variety of cards. They have stats on the cards like how much power they have, how much they cost, and some actions on the cards like, (for simplicities sake) Kill another players charchter.
So I'm thinking I need a db full of cards and how they are used (possibly in another db), basically I think I'm going to have to program every card so that all instances are accounted for. Now the play area would sort of grab the card from the db and load it into code so that it's stats are open to change etc.
All of the cards will be images so I want to put them on the users machines to save loading times. I was thinking of trying to code it in VB. I think I'd rather make it less of a web application and more of a software game.
Hopefully that makes it a bit more clear.
Thanks for the book listings I'll check them out.
- nh0
On another note, if it would be just as easy in Flash (and able to port over to something larger possibly) then I may want to take that route because I know actionscript fairly well, but at the same time playing around in new fields may be worthwhile too. I really am just looking for the best solution, and there are possibilities that there could be up to 1000+ cards, so it may get kinda large.
- ********0
- mitsu0
if you have no experience in vb, you'll have a lot to learn with such an ambitious starter app.
i'd go flash on this one unless you think you have the motivation to follow through with this in vb.
if you decide to take the vb route i can help you with info about blitting, backbuffering, winsock, database, etc. and even point you to a few good online resources... but seriously, this will be quite an undertaking for your first vb app.
- nh0
quite an undertaking is sort of what I'm going for mitsu so any info you could give would be really helpful.
I can write some mean VBA apps and know vbscript for asp pretty well so hopefully I have one of my steps sort of covered.
I know there is some technical stuff that is going to blow my mind, but it's been awhile since I blew my mind and I quit smoking ganja about 1 month ago and have more motivation than I could ever imagine.
Any info or resources you could give me would be much appreciated. Sort of looking for an information overload if you could provide it. :)
- mitsu0
for all things vb related go here: http://www.vbforums.com/
and as on all forums, search previous threads before posting as almost any question you might have has probably already been answered.
for game development, this is also an invaluable resource:
i don't know how much vb development is mentioned here, but general game programming concepts are certainley covered.
- toastie0
my advice is learn C++, it's not as intimidating as it sounds, and once you start, you'll realize what a joke VB is.
Download a free compiler, get a book and start-a-codin'.
- nh0
Thanks a bunch those will help tremendously.
Any books you could recommend that sort of follow what I'm trying to do. Printed word is often easier for me to digest.
- nh0
What makes C++ so much better.
Someone please warn me if I'm starting some Mac/PC type thing.
- mitsu0
"and once you start, you'll realize what a joke VB is."
i do all of my game programming in c/c++, but vb is an invaluable resource for creating tools that helps build game engines, do debugging, test out concepts, etc. and i'm a much more productive developer becuse of it, so i can't agree with you saying that vb is a joke.
- toastie0
VB is not really a programming language. It's a scripting system made by Microsoft, that requires VB's own dlls (essentially executables) to run it. It's not cross platform, it's slow, and it can be quite obscure to work with.
C++ is better because it has dozens of compilers aross every platform, it's object oriented, infinitely expandable, oh i dunno, there are a million reasons.
- toastie0
mitsu: I agree that VB is nice for GUI programming, but that's not to say that there's nothing better. Ever try Python? It has binding to many GUI systems, and thus has ability to create GUI programs as easily as anything VB can do.
- sparker0
there is also delphi/kylix (pascal) or python to consider.
- toastie0
plus ther are VERY easy to use GUI toolkits. I use FOX mainly.
i wrote this map editor for a game im working on in FOX with python bindings in ONE day. And it runs on Windows/Linux/MacOSX natively. I think that's better than VB can do :)
- mitsu0
for me, it's not an issue of something being better, i just have a wealth of experience in vb and can open it, drag a few controls on a form, run a test (without having to save a project first - which is a huge time saver) and be done with it and back to my c++ project, sometimes faster than it would take for me to set up a basic win32 app to do the same test.
there's no such thing as better, it's what do you prefer, and what makes you more productive.
- toastie0
mitsu: yeah, of course, it's all about that :) im just a big fan of cross platform programming, so even tho i use windows 75% of the time, i try not to write anything in vanilla win32. Even stuff i write for windows only, I try to write in FOX or wxWindows, just because win32 is a mess and those toolkits make it ALOT simpler.
- sparker0
mmmmmm. portable code is better.
:)