Member Avatar for btbam006

Hey everyone, still pretty new to this site although I have used it many times to help me through problems i have had in the past.

I am currently going to school for game programming and have been learning C++ the past few quarters. So far we have only worked in the Win32 console and have made a Yahtzee game, tic-tac-toe, Tron and other basic programs.

What I am looking to do is start a side project on my own time to practice and build upon game programming, I am not 100% sure as to where to start but I would like to take the knowledge that I have and build upon it, and make a 2D either turn based game or just a basic side scroller action game. What type of programs would I need to use in order to make something like this?

Would this be where DirectX or OpenGL would come into play (still havent learned about those yet)? Or am I heading in the right direction? Also does this seem like something that is doable, or am I kind of jumping in too deep with this.

I wanna just get some opinions on where I can start as far as a program goes (if I need anything other then Visual Studio 2008). Basically, when I am out of school, I want to have a solid resume and have some good game programming experience in and out of school and thought a side project would be the best bet.

Thanks a lot everyone!

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Member Avatar for Mrinny

It depends on what kind of games you are trying to make in the future... because, the kind of games that you mentioned are simple things.

You could try to make in stuff flash. The tools are good and the learning curve is not too steep. Plus there are heaps of ideas and code snippets online to upscale the kind of games that you are making. Add the physics engine and you are a pro!

Choose your project and language based on what you want - better programming skills ,fancier games, faster online performance, pixel Vs. vector etc.

Member Avatar for light766

Yea I agree it really depends on what you want to make,

if you want to make something simple and for just the heck of it or to practice i recomend flash.

But in my opinon you should actually start worring about 3d because I belive everything is going to be in 3d in the future and you need to be ready for that.

I mean the iphone games are in 3d now. Not all of them, only some.. but its getting there. And there are alot of 2d games out there. It will be a big competition to make a good 2d game

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