Newb here- 2D game engine-> Top Down-racing-shoote
Monkey Forums/Monkey Beginners/Newb here- 2D game engine-> Top Down-racing-shoote
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| I am looking to build a game that has the following characteristics. I haven't learned any code yet. SO I might miss something important. Here is what I want: 2D Top Down View re-sizable resolution and zoom-in zoom-out. space ship Building with tractor beam :D Ship movement, thrusting/collision physics. Online WAN Multiplayer What can help me achieve my goal? I dont have to do this alone, finding programmers? How much will it cost? just in programing. |
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| Look for PushMatrix () fot zooming Brl module for multiplayer |
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| When you're just getting started, you probably shouldn't think about hiring coders to do that work for you. Part of learning game design is knowing how to construct the elements of the game to a level of detail that knowing the language is merely a formality. To articulate this, however, you need to have some experience doing it, which used to require learning a programming language of some sort. These days, you have many tools at your disposal, including Monkey. However, Monkey may not be the easiest tool to start with. It is, however, one of the more rewarding ones, if you want to learn it. You should start your game on the assumption that you'll have to do it alone, and treat anyone you can manage to hire along the way as a bonus. Otherwise, I hope you have a lot of money! Good, reliable coders who can implement your vision don't come cheap. Start with the help docs that come with Monkey, and check out the tutorials. If the syntax is too confusing, an introduction to programming concepts on the internet somewhere could be helpful. Like this: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Introduction_To_Programming From there, you'll want to start coming up with the design docs for your game. This is an important step, and crucial if you're not using a Rapid Application Development tool. There are so many moving parts in a working game that you basically have to design a "manual" to how the game works, a schematic if you will, that helps you and other coders focus on implementing each and every part. This is how you would get started with it. You have a general idea right now; you need to break it into its component parts, and eventually explain how every single part works. How detailed you need to be with that explanation before it gets turned into code depends on your experience, the tools you're using, and the people you're working with. But it's usually far more details than most people think. Start with the general, and dial your way down into the implementation details as needed! Good luck on your project. |
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| Thanks, What would you suggest to me then? |
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| The first thing you should do is watch these videos http://www.monkey-x.com/Community/posts.php?topic=3318&page=first The next thing you should read a few books on game design, game physics, data structures. You should also find tutorials on the net for these subjects. Of course they will be written for another language such as C/C++, Java, C# etc. But the math and principles should be the same. The next thing you should do is start writing simple games first. Trying to run before you can crawl is a recipe for disaster. Use google to search for tutorials on how some things maybe accomplished. A game is not just programming. You will also have to deal with graphics and sound. Before using any thing from the internet. Make sure you can legally use such material for your intended purpose. This means reading licenses and the copyright. You can hire someone to do these assets and programming for you, but they come at a price. And as you will be relying on a third party, they could leave you high and dry with a financial headache. There plenty of tools for you to create such assets. My experience with these is if you want good results, be prepared to pay for them and stay away from the cheep tools as they tend to be a waste of money. My favourite tools are Paid: PhotoShop, Cinema4D, UVLayout, Ultimate Unwrap 3D ( I use this just to convert 3D object formats), Genetica seamless texture creator, TexturePacker and FL Studio Free: GIMP, Blender, Audacity, Graphics Gale, ShoeBox Sprite Atlas maker Note: Some free tools can come with restrictions on how you can use assets created with such tools. A lot of the tools I listed have loads of tutorials on how to use them for various things. |
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| On the conept thing. I can tell exactly what needs to be done and that with very high precision in most parts of the game. The person just has to code and do graphics. Al-tough I can also design graphics pretty good. learning a language coding and programming is super time consuming. Sadly. Also if a coder#programmer happens to leave, how easily can another take his work? Can you actually instruct someone to do something understandable for other coders? |
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| Well, there have been pretty good suggestions already but just in case these were not enough.... I can tell exactly what needs to be done and that with very high precision in most parts of the game. I don't want to discourage you but a lot of people underestimate the amount of work and time and communication (=$) required to create software. It is advisable to create a game design document (GDD) first with at least text written down how the game works and sketches / doodles featuring the mechanics of the game. You can then continue to outline levels, enemies, environment, ui and so forth. You may ask why this is relevant to your situation. To get an overview of how much everything is. Really. An oversimplified thought experiment can easily show flaws in cost evaluation. Lets say you have 5 enemies. each has 3 animations containing 3 frames (very unlikely & cheap looking). You hire a cheap artist that only takes about $10 an hour. There will be 5*3*3 = 45 images to draw (or to render) (assuming no rework - that is perfect specification from you and perfect understanding+work by the artist). This is going to be a whole lot of money. And you still have nothing. Same with programming. Take this rough estimate for programming and do the math yourself To guide your team and communicate your ideas clearly. *YOU* may know *EVERTHING* but transferring these ideas and synchronizing them with team members takes a lot of effort and dedication. A single(!) change in your plan (>>this is not what I was thinking off<<) usually means you need to pay for the rework or changes. Oh, and I also advise you to draw your game concept a second time, take scissors & pen and play it on paper or at least prototype it on some way. It is the worst to find out once all money is spend that your game is not even fun to play. learning a language coding and programming is super time consuming. Sadly. Even if you are 50 you could benefit from a new skill for ~25 years before you die (western world). This is a lot of time you can use to do brillant things. If you have trouble starting start with simple things like programming for kids or scratch before you enter to the land of real world programming. Also if a coder#programmer happens to leave, how easily can another take his work? Can you actually instruct someone to do something understandable for other coders? It depends on the programming language, project size, skill of the programmer, documentation of the project, the cleanliness of the previous programmer, You(= pricing & communication skills), etc... A bad structured undocumented project with randomly changing specifications will always be bad to handle no matter how you hold it. |
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| agreed with Pharmhaus; if you think you know exactly what needs to be done then you should have no problem writing it all out in a design doc. You may find out that you end up running into more question marks than you realize. Don't hand-wave away the importance of this, nearly everyone ends up biting off more than they can chew at first. At the very least you can be more prepared than someone in over their head who didn't draw up a map first. But that's just for you, to start with. When you start bringing on other programmers, you have to make sure the design doc clearly communicates all the things that need to be done and preferably how. Perhaps the best bit of advice I can give is also the simplest: Be prepared to work very, very hard. You wanna be ready for this, and most people here will tell you that sometimes this stuff gets to be all-consuming. Research, study, actual work on the game, concepts, prototypes, all of that stuff takes time, hard work and most of all the willpower to continue. |
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| Thanks. I guess the price is kinda hard to guess from your end. This is going to be a lot of documentation, I think I estimate it well. lol. ( I actually wrote nothing official so far) Maybe if I bring the entire sketch overview you guys can give me a price estimate. I've seen some videos on programing. On topic: Simply, you can give me an indication on pay/time of the programmer. This would be useful to get a better funding idea. ...and everything that factors pay I know its not a static answer. of course. |
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