Sorry your browser is not supported!

You are using an outdated browser that does not support modern web technologies, in order to use this site please update to a new browser.

Browsers supported include Chrome, FireFox, Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer 10+ or Microsoft Edge.

Newcomers DBPro Corner / A word (and some questions) on how to begin your DB programming life

Author
Message
Code Machine
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 21st Jul 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 27th Jul 2004 01:02
Calling everyone who has something to say about beginning your DB programming life.

This is my 3rd attempt at starting to write some decent games in DB and DBPro , and I thought I'd just share some thoughts about how people should start. I'm not a noob, I haven't written much in DB yes, but I have enough experience in programming languages to feel I have a good idea of how things should go at the beginning. Even then, as I said, it's the 3rd attempt, and that's simply due to picking the wrong type of games to try at the beginning.

Instead of jumping into the deep end, I've had a good think about how to plan a program, even a simple one. Other websites/people on this forum seem to suggest games like

Pong
Breakout
Tetris
Pac-man (if you fancy a crack at some AI)

These are just starters for 2-D games yes, but I agree that they provide a great starting point for many budding programmers in general, whereas DB is geared strongly to 3-D which is alot for a complete beginner in my opinion (which you might decide is nonsense). It is my intention to complete these projects by myself (warning: the graphics will be complete rubbish), and only then I might decide to venture into the world of 3-D and onto something which might look like a real game.

I was hoping for other peoples opinions on how they started. I know about some suggestions, and many people say 'do pong', but I was just wondering, particularly from those people who are making good games with DB (assuming no previous game programming experience), How exactly did you start, and what games did you write to get you where you are now? Also, can you think of any other 'starter games' which could be included in that list? I'm just trying to have some kind of plan with what games I should attempt, and what I should expect to do afterwards.

Thanks, and sorry for the waffle if you're not interested in any of this.
PantheR RIP
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 7th Jul 2003
Location:
Posted: 27th Jul 2004 02:04
Hmmm... I've started with DBClassic. Don't remember what exactly i wrote at first... Some simple progs in 2D i think. But very soon i've found the existance of DBPRO - it is more suitable to begin an education and this is the final instrument of game creation i think =) So start with DBPRO - examine all tutorials included! If you are not familiar with 3D programming - try to understand how this one works on a simple 3D snippets. My first true project was a 3D bomberman... =)

That's my point of view!
Code Machine
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 21st Jul 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 27th Jul 2004 05:54
Anyone else?
Interested since I'm assuming all the succesful programmers out there started on something a little smaller than huge RPGs and the like.
Elron
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 22nd Jul 2004
Location: TX
Posted: 27th Jul 2004 06:02
http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=35939&b=7
this was my first project in DBP

I come from a level design background and have always been of the opinion that the best way to learn is "feet wet".
I purchased DBP last weekend and before that had never done any programing. Following the "feet wet" policy i started breaking up code snipets and cutting and pasting from the help files till I had what i wanted.

Now the down side:

For the most part i have no idea what i have done

E

DB Pro/AMD 1133/384 MB ddr/NVIDIA GeForce4
"if it's not broke, i have not tried"
Phaelax
DBPro Master
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 16th Apr 2003
Location: Metropia
Posted: 28th Jul 2004 04:28
First thing I ever successfully did was an ASCII pacman in QB. Took me days to write it. The majority of the code was just DATA statements designing the map. Now, I could probably write this in 5 minutes.

"eureka" - Archimedes
Yart
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 23rd Jun 2004
Location: Turkey Sandwich
Posted: 28th Jul 2004 04:45 Edited at: 25th Jan 2012 17:08
I started when my brother was like... dude I got DarkBASIC Pro... and I was like WHOA!... what's that? So my brother tried to drag me into learning it for over a year so we could work on a game we were planning... and I was too freaking lazy! Until recently I was like Ok ok ok ok ok! So I tried it and it hit me like an addiction! Now I just can't stop using DBPro! (But I regret not using it sooner for I could have been much more advanced!)

I still suck at it though because I am easily distracted... I started by making a Pong game through that one tutorial on here and added more stuff! (Source below, EXTREMELY glitchy! Don't ask how!)


Now the stuff I do is... umm... ok so I got majorly sidetracked by Morrowind and the gun modelling bit ( http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=35998&b=3 ) got me to come back here after I tried to implement that into Morrowind then I decided to start back up in DarkBASIC before I got zoned into killing Cliff Racers.

That's about all... oh yeah and my Airplane program. http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=35995&b=6

Oh yeah, did I mention before I came to DarkBASIC I learned maybe 10 commands of C++ and maybe 15 or so of Visual Basic? lol

Pie!
demons breath
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 4th Oct 2003
Location: Surrey, UK
Posted: 2nd Aug 2004 01:17 Edited at: 2nd Aug 2004 01:17
You can make those games like Pong and Breakout in 3D using darkBASIC. I'm currently working on a 3D breakout (you can download the game so far from my website at http://db1games.topcities.com) -it helped me to learn to use objects more code-efficiently and things like that, as well as learning some maths (stuff like how to use pythagorean theorum or whatever its called for collision - i didnt know it before I started working on breakout) and using subs to load different levels and stuff.

Am I the only one here who's really confused?
Tim Ballisto
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 10th Feb 2004
Location: Right behind you.
Posted: 3rd Aug 2004 04:43
the first thing i did was editing the 'iced' demo and the free-flight examples into completely different things. just mess with the programs for a while. I also have an fps base in the code base somewhere, run a search on that and try editing it.

another thing i did early on was change the scrolling matrix program from fast track into a racing game.


Programs for programmers.
Daris Xiao or Benjy Wright
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Dec 2003
Location: Face first in a bowl of soup.
Posted: 3rd Aug 2004 04:54
I think the best way to learn how stuff works is to take apart other peoples programs and modify them and then put some of the peices back together, and (am I making any sense?) then memorize the commands and what they do.

Hey, Timballisto! From Mossflower? I'm making a game based on Redwall!

Login to post a reply

Server time is: 2024-11-27 04:47:07
Your offset time is: 2024-11-27 04:47:07