Comments on: I still want to make a game, you know

By: Chris Case

Chris Case — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:44:59 +0000

As an indy game developer for the past few years, I have a couple suggestions.

First, for your first game it makes a lot of sense to pick either consoles, or PCs. You don’t want to muddy the water with having to design for both on your first go.

Second, in terms of engines, what you pick above (Console vs PC) will limit what you program the game in. I haven’t done any Console work (simply because PC games are /much/ simpler to produce), but I can speak to the PC game engines mentioned. I’ve used Irrlicht, Ogre, and Crystal Space before (CS was my long standing favorite because the community is wonderful), but the problem with all of them is that they are, primarily C driven. (By this I mean, C, C++ or C#) While that’s not a bad thing (believe me, I’ve been writing C++ code for over a decade) they’re poor language choices for a game engine.

I would recomend Panda3d: http://www.panda3d.org/

It’s used by Disney for their games, and a lot of it’s design comes from Carnegie Mellon. The past part of it, is that it uses python as the main language you write your game in. From experience, you can get a simple proof of concept out the door in 1 – 3 months. Doing that with any other language is much harder.

If you’re interested, my group is currently working on a 3rd/1st person sneaker (a la Splinter Cell/Assassin’s Creed), but a good deal of our code (including our PhysX implementations) could be directly applicable to a Myst style game… We’d be interested in sharing code/resources, or potentially working on it as another project with you.

Feel free to contact me (I assume you have access to the e-mail field of your blog? ;) If not, my contact’s on my site.) if you’re interested.

By: Bob Redford

Bob Redford — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 09:09:25 +0000

Anything new on this? Are you actually making a game?

By: Argon27

Argon27 — Tue, 13 May 2008 21:51:57 +0000

Im still in school but id be glad to help. I am currently learning how to use XNA game studio and just bought a behemoth book on game programming in C++. Im only a freshmen in high though… :(

By: Tiago donascimento

Tiago donascimento — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 20:14:46 +0000

ben why dont u create a system that plays multimedia fusion and game maker games. there is a huge group already contributing to this including myself.

i mean check it out

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=multimedia+fusion

just look around. this program makes it easy for anyone to make there own video games. and all that math and c++ can be used to if u want.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU8AllDgNzA this is what im making. please answer back as i would like to here your thoughts on this.

By: Burley

Burley — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 20:21:53 +0000

it is my dream to be a voice actor for cartoons/movies/videogames. i can help with that.

i could also help with a plot line.

By: Jason R.

Jason R. — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 23:26:57 +0000

I know Java and am currently learning Cocoa (you know, the Mac language), and would be glad to help. My dad also owns a recording studio in my house and I therefore have access to an extensive library of pretty much any sound effect you could imagine. Everything from toilets flushing to tape dispensers to the launch of the Saturn I rocket. and more. My dad also plays the keyboard and writes music really well, so if James here wants to write the soundtrack I could get it recorded professionally.

As a side note, there are a lot of game making applications out there that require no programming knowledge whatsoever.

-Jason

By: James Middleton

James Middleton — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 05:04:54 +0000

this sounds awesome, im a musician i could help write a soundtrack, i do art could help with art work, ive played too many games – i could help with game testing, contact me im on msn, bomernee@hotmail.com would love to get on the ground floor of this project ive done some merchandising and promotion stuff i make t shirts as well have you got a t-shirt supplier for benheck.com? ill do you a great deal for you!

By: What_A_Legend

What_A_Legend — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 10:04:17 +0000

Hey man, Love your work. Been meaning to try and get in to this my self, but my mian focus is around programming. I have knowledge of ASM and C++ which would be useful for game programmiong contact me if you want any help.

By: Loki

Loki — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 17:44:57 +0000

Give me about 3-4 more years to finish my degree and I’ll help. XP
Not much I can do outside of basic Java right now, good luck at any rate if your work with software is as good as what you do with hardware I’m sure it’ll be a success.

By: royalestel

royalestel — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 01:27:25 +0000

I’ve worked on an unpublished and a published game title. Love the Myst games. Love the Wii platform. I like your concept. Let me know if you’d like my help. I do modeling and texturing.