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DarkBASIC Discussion / Teacher to Help Noob: Wanted!

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iron programmer
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Posted: 16th Jun 2008 22:47
I am a noob. I used to a lot better at DarkBASIC, but time away from it has reverted me to a noob. Can someone willing to take me on as a private student respond by saying "Help the noob."? Here is my offering to show that I will work hard:



mi keety tot mi gramer?
Libervurto
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Posted: 16th Jun 2008 22:51
If you look at the thread below this "Noobs Wanted" I am recruiting for new members for my Noob Ganes team, you sound like you would benefit from this.

It is far better to complete a 10 line program than to start a 10,000 line program.
iron programmer
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Posted: 20th Jun 2008 02:45 Edited at: 20th Jun 2008 02:46
Whereas I'm working on Obese's project, a tutor willing to help a noob is still needed! Please, if you want to take me on as your Apprentice, respond by saying: "I'll take you as my apprentice!"!

mi keety tot mi gramer?
LBFN
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Posted: 20th Jun 2008 21:41
IMO 'noob' here is considered a derogatory term for those unlearned individuals that are lazy and do not wish to put forth the effort to learn tutorials, study code snippets, etc. to increase their skills using DarkBasic. They simply want others to provide code for them while they sit back on their haunches and do little to advance their knowledge.

You strike me as someone that legitimately wants to learn, but you're new. To me, you are not a noob, but perhaps a 'newbie' (there is a difference).

It probably will be difficult to find a mentor, but there are many people here that are willing to help those that help themselves. Anyway, there is usually more than one way to accomplish programming objectives and having more than one viewpoint is good. So, show yourself as someone that is willing to put forth the effort by completing tutorials, searching for the answers when you can't find out how to do something, study code snippets, read 'Hands on DarkBasic vol. 1' (or similar materials) and then if you're still stumped, ask.

Of course, I intend to help you when I can.

BTW, without having the media for your Sumo wrestler game, it cannot be run.

Best of luck to you,

LBFN

sinisterstuf
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Posted: 27th Jun 2008 02:41
I'm often bored these days. I will help you if I can and if you're still interested?

When the going get stuf,
the stuf get's sinister
iron programmer
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Posted: 9th Jul 2008 02:21 Edited at: 9th Jul 2008 02:22
Sweet! Where do we start? When do we start?

mi keety tot mi gramer?
sinisterstuf
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Posted: 9th Jul 2008 15:48
Well I don't know how much you know or what you're interested in achieving but you should probably add me on msn. Tell me when/if you do.

No, contrary to popular belief my name is not actually 'Sinister Stuff' but 'sinisterstuf', a misspelling resulting from the latter having too many characters with no spaces in between

oh well
Sinani201
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Posted: 10th Jul 2008 01:06
We're all willing to help, but I'd just recomend reading TDK's Tuts and joining OBese87's Newb Game Team.


Sinani201
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Posted: 10th Jul 2008 01:06 Edited at: 10th Jul 2008 05:51
Oops! Double post. Sorry about that.


iron programmer
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Posted: 10th Jul 2008 04:42
I don't have MSN.

mi keety tot mi gramer?
Irojo
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Posted: 10th Jul 2008 04:42
@Sinani
Whoops You double posted.
And Iron Programmer Dropped out of The Noob Team.

I urge you to watch the film "Who killed the electric car". Support electric cars! Did you know their used to be more electric cars then gassoline cars?
sinisterstuf
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Posted: 10th Jul 2008 20:01
Well, if you don't have msn then sign up! You can use the email adress you used to register with TGC.

No, contrary to popular belief my name is not actually 'Sinister Stuff' but 'sinisterstuf', a misspelling resulting from the latter having too many characters with no spaces in between

oh well
iron programmer
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Posted: 11th Jul 2008 01:56
Anyway, let's start with Beginners All-Purpose Symbolic Instructional Code (B.A.S.I.C.) standbys, then advance to 2D.

mi keety tot mi gramer?
sinisterstuf
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Posted: 12th Jul 2008 11:04
wtf!?

Well... No, my name IS actually 'sinisterstuf' not 'Sinister Stuff', a misspelling resulting from the former having too many characters with no spaces in between

thanks CattleRustler!
iron programmer
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Posted: 12th Jul 2008 17:42
Am I over-zealous?
My E-Mail is [email protected].

mi keety tot mi gramer?
LBFN
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Posted: 13th Jul 2008 01:09
What do you mean by B.A.S.I.C. standby's? If you are referring to the DBC commands that are available to you, or to learn how to use them, you could always go through the help file to learn the commands and what they do. There are helpful examples there too.

If you did the code in the snippet in the first post then you have at least some basic understanding of DBC programming. Did you go through some of TDK's tuts? Have you made a pong or breakout type of game yet?

LB

iron programmer
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Posted: 13th Jul 2008 01:49
Pong/Break-Out= No.

B.A.S.I.C.= The commands under BASIC in the DBC Command Menu.

Help Files don't tend to help me out. When it comes to programming I learn faster with a flesh and blood teacher.

mi keety tot mi gramer?
LBFN
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Posted: 13th Jul 2008 02:38
Before you do anything, plan out your game and basically how you will accomplish your programming objectives. Since you are new, what you need to do may not be obvious. Some planning I would do for a pong game (in a nutshell):
1. What size of screen do I need? will 800 X 600 X 32 be adequate?
2. 2D or 3D? (2D in this case - using sprites)
3. Title/menu screen
4. # of game modes (I would say 2; 1 = vs. the computer and 2 = vs. a human opponent)
5. Options? (no, not for now. Typical options would be sound or music volume, player controls, etc.)
6. Need 2 paddles, 1 ball (later on, you might want to add some extra balls, but one will work for now), main game screen(s), image for extra paddles, possibly a background screen.
7. Basic gameplay: Ball moves in four directions (up/left, down/left, up right, down right), bouncing off of four walls and the paddles. If the ball goes beyond a player's paddle, that player loses a paddle. The first one to run out of paddles loses. Allow players to play again once a game is over.
8. Make the images needed for the sprites (ball, 2 paddles), perhaps a background image (if you want). I use MS Paint to draw them, but any paint type program should work for this. I personally will record the upper left and lower right x and y locations of the images on the bitmap, and will pull these images off the bitmap when coding. There are other ways to do it, but this is my pref.
9. Plan any arrays and main variables you will need. I usually use two dimensional arrays [i.e. dim paddle(2,4) or dim ball(3,5)]
10. Now is the time to start coding. Init/setup the screen, setup arrays and variables, grab sprite images and the background image, draw/load game screen, set initial positions, tell the player(s) the game is going to start
11. Create a main do-loop. It should be concise and should contain the following: move player 1's paddle, move player 2's paddle, move the ball, check for collision with the ball and the boundaries and with the players' paddles, check to see if the ball went beyond a player's paddle - if so, check for game over or if the game needs to restart. Once the game is finally over, declare the winner and allow the game to be played again or to quit.
12. When quitting, delete any remaining sprites, change the screen back to where it was when the game started and end the program.
13. There are many other things that could be added to enhance the gameplay (barriers, extra balls, a 'gravity' hole, powerups (speed ball, slow ball, large ball, small ball, sticky paddle, etc.) Before you add on, the above should be in place and the game actually working properly.


Get started on the list and see what you can do. When you get stuck or have a question, let me know. You can email me if you like.

LBFN

sinisterstuf
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Posted: 13th Jul 2008 12:59
Oh I get it, you were reffering to the core command set. Well, I will email you I guess. What LBFN is true. Before I make something I always spend the night before lying thinking of what exactly the program is going to do. Then I think of how it's going to do it. Then I think of code for it. Then the next day I write down the code, and adjust stuff and polish it off. (these are normally small projects, bigger ones take longer to code than just a day, obviously). I don't get why you left the team though, we're gonna make a pong game there so maybe you would like to help?

Well... No, my name IS actually 'sinisterstuf' not 'Sinister Stuff', a misspelling resulting from the former having too many characters with no spaces in between

thanks CattleRustler!
Syncaidius
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Posted: 13th Jul 2008 13:16
Quote: "Help Files don't tend to help me out. "

Uh Oh, I've heard that a lot on these forums.

iron programmer
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Posted: 13th Jul 2008 18:30
You guys have to email me first. Parental Controls are still on from when I was 12.

mi keety tot mi gramer?
Sinani201
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Posted: 14th Jul 2008 07:26
If only my projects were organized like this.
If you really want a good structure tutorial, there is a Pac-Man one. Although it is for DBPro, the part about setting the structure still applies to any programming language.


iron programmer
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Posted: 19th Jul 2008 18:14
Hullo?

mi keety tot mi gramer?
LBFN
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Posted: 20th Jul 2008 02:07
iron programmer

I emailed you a few days ago and you never responded. I assumed you weren't interested in pursuing this.

iron programmer
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Posted: 20th Jul 2008 02:46 Edited at: 20th Jul 2008 02:46
Oh! I was logged off. My computer has a nasty habit of when my email automatically logs off, it doesn't receive email. Please re-mail me.

mi keety tot mi gramer?
LBFN
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Posted: 20th Jul 2008 05:22
Re-emailed you.

iron programmer
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Posted: 21st Jul 2008 00:20
CRAP!!!!!!! I still didn't get it! Just post it here on the forums please.

mi keety tot mi gramer?
LBFN
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Posted: 21st Jul 2008 01:11
I sent you an IM request for Yahoo.

Have you completed steps 1 - 9 of the list above? You should not move forward with coding until you do. If you have questions, let me know.

LB

iron programmer
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Posted: 21st Jul 2008 01:57
Sorry. Outta luck on the IM request. My computer can't support IM'ing. Steps 1-9: let me work on those.

mi keety tot mi gramer?
iron programmer
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Posted: 24th Jul 2008 03:59 Edited at: 6th Aug 2008 16:05
I'll be gone until Saturday. Sunday at 1:00 P.M. is my hour of best programming/inspiriation anyway.

mi keety tot mi gramer?
iron programmer
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Posted: 6th Aug 2008 16:09
The only reason I'm post this and not editing is because then the post appears as if someone new added to it, so hopefully people will respond.

I want to do this, but I'm really busy(or I trick myself into thinking that). How do I self-motivate myself and just make me do it?

mi keety tot mi gramer?
sinisterstuf
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Posted: 6th Aug 2008 16:36
You have to want to do it. If you have no interest in something then I doubt you'll have the motivation. Maybe what you need is an inspiration.

[UNERROR 16: able to retrieve user signature]
1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55... you like?
Irojo
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Posted: 6th Aug 2008 16:48
...or set yourself a goal. For example. In one week, I'm going to have this done.... etc.

LBFN
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Posted: 6th Aug 2008 17:00
Oftentimes, people want to achieve instant satisfaction with what they do without considering the effort needed to attain their goals. Think about it; how many people have purchased DB/DBP and immediately want to crank out a MMORPG? It's not gonna happen anytime soon; very likely not at all.

For me, it's a hobby that I really like doing. As I learn new things, it helps me to want to learn and do more. I'm sure it will seem odd to you, but I would rather make a game than play one, though I do like to play games.

You should consider what your goals are and whether or not you are willing to put forth the effort to attain those goals. I would suggest having one large goal, i.e. a game idea, with smaller goals to be attained in the process to bring you to the point of achieving your primary goal.

If you are all excited in the heat of the moment about making a game (or make yourself do it), that excitement will soon fade when you realize it takes planning, thought and effort to put together even the simplest of games. When you run into something that doesn't work like you thought it would, or you can't figure out how to accomplish something, or have bugs that are really hard to figure out, etc., etc. you will possibly get discouraged because it simply isn't as easy as it seems. If you consider that these things will indeed come up and look at them as a challenge for your brain instead of an obstacle, you will likely do well.

In essence, if you endeavor to learn and stick with it, it is a fun and rewarding hobby. Some go on to even make money from what they like doing.

I wish you well in whatever you do.

LB
Libervurto
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Posted: 10th Aug 2008 02:17
It's really annoying when you come up with an awesome idea for a game and then realise how much work it would take to make it
I want it NOW!

I'm not sure how useful a tutor actually is, a lot of programming is just pure playing around with commands and learning new and better ways to do things, there are plenty of people on here who will answer your questions when you get stuck.

It is far better to complete a 10 line program than to start a 10,000 line program.
Ed222
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Posted: 10th Aug 2008 02:44 Edited at: 10th Aug 2008 02:55
Quote: "then realise how much work it would take to make it "

unless your using things suchs as 3D Game Maker,FPS Creator,ClickTeam Game Factory,Yo-Yo GameMaker,etc. Ever notice how someguys on youtube make great games then you think they're great coders then you find out that they actually used one of the above

iron programmer
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Posted: 11th Aug 2008 04:47
I HAVE INSPIRATION!!

My friends and I were building a giant crossbow, and I drew out the plans, and really enjoyed it, and then some people quit, and I realized that plan was kinda like programming, and I came up with a goal/game-plan, and one of my friends had a bunch of good ideas for it, and so now he's my designer. I'm going to try to make a platformer.

mi keety tot mi gramer?
sinisterstuf
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Posted: 12th Aug 2008 21:25
thats fantastic

over and out

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