Making your own game

**wupwup** · September 29, 2012, 08:14 AM

Ive done a very small amount of modding and i was wondering how hard it is to write your own game. I see there are lots of free engines out there. Time consuming i can deal with, but i was just wondering if it was possible and if anyone here had done it before?

Im considering blender, as i have used python before. The game i want to make is a team based strategy shooter. Slightly similar to xcom. However most of the games i see are FPS's.

**keinmann** · September 29, 2012, 10:42 PM

Originally Posted by wupwup

Ive done a very small amount of modding and i was wondering how hard it is to write your own game. I see there are lots of free engines out there. Time consuming i can deal with, but i was just wondering if it was possible and if anyone here had done it before?

Im considering blender, as i have used python before. The game i want to make is a team based strategy shooter. Slightly similar to xcom. However most of the games i see are FPS's.

Me...

You might have seen my threads around "The Basement" here. I'm currently developing a commercial game engine; not technically a game but it will be used to develop games. It is a platform/API-agnostic engine targeting the .NET and Mono Frameworks, using DirectX and OpenGL as back-ends (as well as allowing software renderers and other APIs). Needless to say this is a massive amount of work; fortunately I've just got two more professional programmers aboard. We're also working on seeking venture capital to expand to full-sized team of 20, which would make the development process exponentially faster. Our current target is to finish within 2yrs with a near complete implementation of the engine's design/architecture. The engine is 100% written in C# (save some dynamically emitted SIMD CPU instructions; if we decide to use it), and will be the first of its kind in more ways than one. The major target platforms are Windows, Linux, Mac, BSD, XBox 360, PS3, iPhone/iPad and Android.

I've been programming video games and all other sorts of imaginable software (from compilers and linkers to operating systems and drivers, to Windows apps and mobile apps) for over 7yrs. I'm mainly fluent in C, C++ and C# and a bit of x86/x64 assembly language (Intel syntax). I've also worked at game/engine development companies as a programmer and minor executive prior to founding my own company and this project. And I will be the first to tell you that developing games is very hard and extremely challenging and time consuming. The average game (strictly speaking of commercial-quality games, not hobbyist projects) takes 2yrs for a team of 20... just to put it into perspective. MMOs and very complex simulations (e.g., IL-2 Sturmovik, ARMA II and III, etc) can take up to 5-7yrs to develop for a team of 50-200.

This being said game development is not all bad. With the challenge comes fun, and you learn new things constantly. There's nothing quite like working your *** off to write a complex game or simulation and seeing the code and artwork transformed into a breath-taking, photo-realistic scene before your very eyes.

If there's anything specific you'd like to know other than that just ask. Writing games from scratch is a LOT more difficult (and very different from) modding. But the skills do share a common background thread. It's a lot easier for an experienced modder to step into game programming than someone with no experience in either.

**wupwup** · September 30, 2012, 01:09 PM

Yeah, I looked at your thread a few days ago, i cant say i understood much but its a very nice triangle :p I guess my only real question is what engine you would suggest to start with because once i have done that i can use their tutorials to learn the basics. Blender caught my eye, but only because i have heard of the 3D modeling software before and because the wikipedia article had a nice picture.

So, which engine would you suggest for a game Similar to the TW series with real time battles separate to a turn based map, and an XP / currency system? If you need more detail as to what im planning then just let me know, Cheers

**keinmann** · September 30, 2012, 05:03 PM

Your best bet is to start learning to program if you want to make a good game, rather than paying for a game engine (in which case you would still need to know how to program). Download Visual C# Express (free) from Microsoft. Then I suggest downloading the XNA Framework and starting with some tutorials and learning game programming. XNA is easy to get started with. But if you're up for more of a challenge and want to develop games professionally you can download SlimDX and learn DirectX programming. Optionally, if you're up for even more of a challenge then go to C++ and the DirectX SDK. But I really recommend starting with XNA first as it's easier to learn and start making things happen. Programming is going to take a long time to learn as the learning curve is steep, but creating games isn't easy.

**wupwup** · September 30, 2012, 06:03 PM

I will start with the XNA and c# tutorials then, it sounds like a good move. Does that mean i dont need an engine? Is it possible to write a full game just with the XNA and c#?

The reason i ask is so that i have direction. If i have the game i want to make out planned and laid out logically in chronological order of what needs to be done, then i will know what to learn in what order.

**keinmann** · September 30, 2012, 09:16 PM

Originally Posted by wupwup

I will start with the XNA and c# tutorials then, it sounds like a good move. Does that mean i dont need an engine? Is it possible to write a full game just with the XNA and c#?

The reason i ask is so that i have direction. If i have the game i want to make out planned and laid out logically in chronological order of what needs to be done, then i will know what to learn in what order.

Oh yes indeed. XNA is 100% capable of making a complete video game for PC, XBox 360, Zune, Windows Phone and even some other platforms. It has a few limitations that are a problem for me as an engine developer, but are highly unlikely to cause you any issue just writing a game for PC or XBox (or whatever). XNA is a complete framework for making writing video games a lot faster and easier, eliminating the need for complex, low-level "boilerplate" code (that consumes most of the time developers have for projects). That's what makes XNA nice. Even though XNA is not suitable for my particular engine project I still like to use it to write mini-games, test graphics theories, prototype things, etc. Some very impressive games have been written with it. On youtube there are lots of samples of very high-quality work done with XNA.

In fact, the last time I checked about 50-60% of video games were written directly against the DirectX or OpenGL APIs without using any commercial engine as middleware. In other words the game application (and/or its accompanying DLL libraries) were its own engine. And XNA is basically just a wrapper framework for DirectX9 to make things easier and faster to develop. Programming is what makes or breaks a good game. If you know how to program then you can "talk to" the operating system, system APIs, graphics APIs and hardware; and you can put anything on the screen you want that your hardware is powerful enough to render!

**Bolkonsky** · September 30, 2012, 09:26 PM

Originally Posted by wupwup

I will start with the XNA and c# tutorials then, it sounds like a good move. Does that mean i dont need an engine? Is it possible to write a full game just with the XNA and c#?

The reason i ask is so that i have direction. If i have the game i want to make out planned and laid out logically in chronological order of what needs to be done, then i will know what to learn in what order.

Yeah, like keinmann said, lots of people do it.

Games that leap to mind are Magicka, Terrarria, and Bastion. All three of those are very popular and well recieved. If you don't mind losing Windows Phone 7 and Zune compatibility, you can get access to a full array of DirectX 10.1 framework, as well.

**wupwup** · October 01, 2012, 04:02 PM

Been using the c# thing and done some coding. So far i have done up to making a working calculator, next its a script based RPG with random damage. Its quit fun, and not too hard so far.

**Bolkonsky** · October 01, 2012, 06:39 PM

Glad to hear! When you get to actual XNA, give this website a shot:
http://www.riemers.net/

I found it pretty easy to follow, some good tutorials on there.

**M. Laveur** · October 01, 2012, 10:44 PM

In my personal experience, unity 3d is a great, really easy to learn and code and versatile. The only down side is that you can't "publish" your games unless you have a license.

**wupwup** · October 02, 2012, 05:38 PM

Well ive done alot of scripting over the last few days, and ive almost got Pong to work

. I got it right up to the point where i put in the collisions between the paddles and the ball, and then the tutorial broke

It told me to copy their code so that i knew everything was right and that seemed to break it. I will have a go at building the script from the beginning again tomorrow and doing the missing step myself.

What do i do after that though? Im really tempted to try and mock up a simple, easy and short one level version of my game. Like a single battle in a TW game. Just to get used to things like scripting AI and tweaking the combat system, but thats a huge step up. How do i go from something as simple as pong to something as complicated as a 3D tactical shooter?

**keinmann** · October 02, 2012, 11:29 PM

Slow down a bit... don't try to jump from Pong to a FPS lol... Work on rendering basic 3D scenes with cameras, lighting, shaders, etc... And learn 3D math and rendering theories... you need to know about vectors, quaternions, matrices, etc... and about shaders, materials and lighting...