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2D All the way! / Question / Advise

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Famdari
13
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Joined: 3rd Sep 2010
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Posted: 3rd Sep 2010 18:02
Hello!,

I've purchased DBPRO to create some mini-games I've been wanting to make for a while now. (I will want to demo these at some point to a 3rd party.) But I'm wondering if it's overkill for what I'm trying to do. Some advice / input would be appreciated.

A bit about me. I've been a Database programmer for 20 years, but the last time I wrote a game was when VB6 was current. (2002/2003) A lot has changed since then, and I find the methods I used to code in VB6 back in the day are not supported anymore in the newer Visual Studio version.

Anyhow, the basic mini-game I'd like to create will be similar to those "Match 3" type games that are popular now. You have game boards of various sizes/shapes with different colored objects (gems/shapes, etc...) scattered on the boards. The user clicks X or Y adjoining shapes of the same type, they disappear, more shapes are added, and the score goes up. Etc...

I could code something like this in MS Access in a few hours, but it obviously would not look pretty. IS DBPRo my best option for someone new to the more recent programming technologies? Is there something easier I should try first?

Oh, I also need to be able to read and write data from the game to a file/DB. The players abilities will increase over time and affect board layouts, special abilities, etc...

Thanks for any advice,

Fam
LBFN
16
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Joined: 7th Apr 2007
Location: USA
Posted: 6th Sep 2010 05:35
Quote: "But I'm wondering if it's overkill for what I'm trying to do."

I definitely do not think it is overkill at all. DBPro could be used to make a match-3 game, though it will take you more than a few hours to create it.

Quote: "IS DBPRo my best option for someone new to the more recent programming technologies? Is there something easier I should try first?"

The best option for you? Only you can answer that. From the background that you have listed, you should be able to do this with DBPro. If you do struggle with something, people on the TGC forums overall tend to be helpful (as long as the coder is willing to put forth their own effort and not depend on others to code everything for them). I would say that the 2D board is probably one of the least-visited boards on the site and that the NewComers DBPro Corner board would help you get an answer more quickly.

Quote: "Oh, I also need to be able to read and write data from the game to a file/DB."

Easily done with DBPro's file commands.

Quote: "The players abilities will increase over time and affect board layouts, special abilities, etc... "

You could code in all of these things.

Of course, there are a number of tutorials available on this site. Below is a link to several good tutorials to help you.

http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=115633&b=7

You might want to make a pong type game for starters, just to get the hang of how coding is done with DBP.

Good luck to you and welcome.

So many games to code.......so little time.
Famdari
13
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Joined: 3rd Sep 2010
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Posted: 9th Sep 2010 17:19
Thanks for the advice. I decided to give it a go. I bought a book to help me get started as I've been out of the loop so long.

My largest concern was the ability to R/W to a file from DBPro, and that looks easily do-able.

Thanks again,

Fam
Famdari
13
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Joined: 3rd Sep 2010
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Posted: 9th Sep 2010 20:58
Thanks for the advice. I decided to get a book on DarkBasic Pro to help get me going; it's just been so long that I've been out of the loop.

Looking forward to the adventure
LBFN
16
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Joined: 7th Apr 2007
Location: USA
Posted: 10th Sep 2010 01:16
You're welcome

I would suggest 'Hands on DB Pro' if you have not purchased a book already. I have this book and it has a lot of good stuff for helping you to become acclimated to the language.

So many games to code.......so little time.
Grog Grueslayer
Valued Member
18
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Joined: 30th May 2005
Playing: Green Hell
Posted: 13th Sep 2010 17:47
Quote: "My largest concern was the ability to R/W to a file from DBPro, and that looks easily do-able."


Yes, but it's quite annoying that the file has to be deleted before you can write a new one. Darkbasics native commands do not make it easy to take a file, open it, change it a bit, and close it again. It has to be opened, copied to another file or memblock, changed, then the entire file is resaved.

But there is a solution thanks to IanM for making IanMs Matrix 1 Utilities Plugin which he allows us all to have for free (I really think he should sell it). He has a wonderful set of datafile commands that allow better file handling that make it easy to open a file, edit it, and close it without having to rewrite the entire file for any little change. IanMs Matrix 1 Utilities Plugin is chock full of many other useful commands that 99% of us use every day. Join the 21st century and add it to your Darkbasic Pro today!

http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=85209&b=18

Famdari
13
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Joined: 3rd Sep 2010
Location:
Posted: 13th Sep 2010 23:34
Thanks for the information on the file editing. I'm definatly going to look at that!

Update: I'm so glad I game it a go. I read the book Friday, and started coding Saturday. Very easy and straight forward. (Granted I'm writing an easy game to start with, but it's still nice to have it go smoothly!!)

Thanks for the advice and encourgement. I'm really enjoying it.

Next thing I need to learn is making sprites. Boxes shapes can only go so far
Van B
Moderator
21
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Joined: 8th Oct 2002
Location: Sunnyvale
Posted: 23rd Sep 2010 17:17
DBPro is great for these smaller game designs - once you get the hang of it, you'll be knocking games out over a weekend if you want. I'm sorta in the same boat, except I arrived here a few years ago - full time IT engineer, using Access and VBA mainly, it's good to get away from VBA and onto some fun coding .

Health, Ammo, and bacon and eggs!

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