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Newcomers DBPro Corner / If I want a career in game programming, should I start with DB or go straight to C++?

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Nemesi24
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Posted: 21st Jun 2004 08:59
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I am going to be a senior in high school this year and I want to get familiar with programming games before I get to college. Should I start with something easy like DBPro or dive right into what the pros use? any advice is appreciated

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Don Malone
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Posted: 21st Jun 2004 14:43
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The answer is not really cut and dried.

Answer one - Most of the development firms (if not all) use a version of C so it would benefit you to learn C. So that is your main answer.

Answer two - It takes a long time to learn C (to the point it can make exceptional games) and it takes a huge amount of man hours to produce a game. The reason is that the language is the lowest level language in general usage today and can set any element of the system. As such, games have to do much of thier own settup on the systems. DarkBasic and similar programs remove you a step from this chore, and allow you to get into game development very quickly. It is relativly powerful and allows you to quickly achieve results to see if an idea will work. So from a design concept you are not hurting yourself by learning DarkBasic. You can create DLL's in C languages to extend DarkBasic and so even as you learn C you might still use DarkBasic and advance your designs. It is also difficult to get into game programming so if you can show a game you designed you increase chances of getting a job if you also know C.

Answer : It depends on what you want to do.

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zircher
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Posted: 21st Jun 2004 19:29
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My suggestion is to try out DB, DBP, or any other game dev language and see if that blows you out of the water. If you have the aptitude for that, you can move on to C/C++ as a career move.
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Filmmaker Screenwriter
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Posted: 21st Jun 2004 21:33
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I would start out in Dark Basic, because several commercial games have been made with it. You can then work into C or C++.

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Black Hydra II
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Posted: 22nd Jun 2004 03:26
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Most the pro's here know several languages. If you want to make a career out of it I suggest you learn a few. C is probably the most fundamental for a career, however, learning DB/DBPro can really give you a good picture of what game making is about before you start investing too much time.

In the end, DBPro is designed so people can make games/applications as a hobby. It can lead to better things, but that would require C.

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Balid
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Posted: 22nd Jun 2004 06:11
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Nemesi24,

I'd say give DB Pro (or classic) a shot first. Learn some good game programming concepts and tricks. Then apply what learned from using DB to something C++.

I think that the programming logic and experience from creating your first game will carry over into any language. This coming from someone who started programming at 14 with the original BASIC and NO graphics. To now at 34 knowing QBasic, Visual Basic, RPG (report program generator, AS400 mainframe = old school), some COBOL, some Visual C++, some XML, and sone HTML (then again who on-line doesn't know some HTML?). So take it for what its worth. In my option, your not going to hurt yourself by learning to make a game in DBC Dark BASIC classic) or DB Pro.

(But if you want a real challenge (learning experience) create your own 3D engine out of QBasic )

Balid
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megamanx
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Posted: 22nd Jun 2004 07:45
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I believe that both are good things to learn. Compared to today's commercial games, you will need to know C++ to get it working because C++ compiles to native machine code and will naturally run very fast and it also has the ability to create games for Playstation, Playstation 2, XBOX, GameCube, etc. by using some of the packages out there. Unfortunately, rapid prototyping with C++ is like getting an adrenaline rush from watching turtles race eachother, it's not going to happen. DarkBasic is definately suited for prototyping big games or creating small-to-medium sized games (DarkBasic games done compile down to native machine code, the games are ran from an interpreter which will naturally slow the engine down). DarkBasic is also good because you do not need to worry about the coding technicalities like you would with C++, you only have to worry about how your game will work and the logic behind it which will help later when you start programming it in C++.

If you're looking for a career creating top-notch games, then you'll want to learn both of these for the benefits I mentioned above. If you only want to create Windows games which aren't extremely complex, then DarkBasic is the tool to use.

Just my opinion.
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roswell
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Posted: 23rd Jun 2004 01:30
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Hmm...I like the answers above, but something seems to be missing. What exactly would you like to do with games? Would you like to design games, or program games. In today's gaming industry, the two are very different. As a programmer, you'll be given game snippets to code, and you may have very little input on the overall product. You may be able to define boundaries as to what is possible and what is not, but as for the gaming ideas themselves, you may be kept out of that process. As a game designer, or level designer, you may not have much control over the low-level mechanics of the game, but you can control the overall project. The great thing about DarkBasic, is that the projects are small enough to experience the best (and worst) of both fields. Play around with it for a bit, and then decide. If programming is what you love, start learning C. DarkBasic is great for big concepts (like loops, and functions), but C/C++ is king in the programming world. If you like Game Design more, start learning about management of big projects. Maybe pick up a language like UML, and start learning how to use that to define your projects. Look for information on basic documents like the Design Treatment, and the Design Spec. These are industry standards, and no game can begin without outlining every part in detail.

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Major Payn
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Posted: 25th Jun 2004 05:11
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I want to be a game designer, so is DBP the best for me (he he that rhimes), no really, I dont really like programming, I am more of an idea person, I like makin, levels and creating plot lines, and well designing. The only reason I use DBC is that it might, give me atleast a portfolio to show to any game colledge, and maybe they can see that I do have potential.

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roswell
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Posted: 25th Jun 2004 17:17
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I would think that DBPro would be a great way to flesh out a portfolio for an aspiring designer. It's a great way to get an introduction to programming, and how to think in terms of gaming concepts like loops and data structures. I would recommend, however, that you compliment every game you create with the proper documentation similar to what a real designer would need to do.

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Surreal Studio IanG
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Posted: 26th Jun 2004 15:03
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start in dbpro because youve got to learn the basics of programming before making games, and dbpro does this in an easy and quick way

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