Re: [Audyssey] being creative.
Hi, Glad to be of some help. While we are talking about Python you'll want to keep a close eye on formatting and indention. Python doesn't use symbols like braces, brackets, to indicate blocks of code which makes it easier to program, but it does require pretty precise formatting. I know NVDA and some other screen readers will tell you how many tab indentions are on a line so it is certainly possible to keep track of the formatting if you have that enabled in your screen reader of choice. Just thought you might want to be aware of that fact. Cheers! On 11/21/10, Lisa Hayes lhay...@internode.on.net wrote: Thomas, Many thanks I will take your advice and thanks for where I can get it. Lisa Hayes --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] being creative.
I wasn't aware, but thanks for making me so. Lisa Hayes www.nutrimetics.com.au/lisahayes - Original Message - From: Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Monday, November 22, 2010 4:43 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] being creative. Hi, Glad to be of some help. While we are talking about Python you'll want to keep a close eye on formatting and indention. Python doesn't use symbols like braces, brackets, to indicate blocks of code which makes it easier to program, but it does require pretty precise formatting. I know NVDA and some other screen readers will tell you how many tab indentions are on a line so it is certainly possible to keep track of the formatting if you have that enabled in your screen reader of choice. Just thought you might want to be aware of that fact. Cheers! On 11/21/10, Lisa Hayes lhay...@internode.on.net wrote: Thomas, Many thanks I will take your advice and thanks for where I can get it. Lisa Hayes --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
[Audyssey] being creative.
Hi all, I'm wanting to start creating games, but cannot program for peanuts, how can I start something simple and learn at the same time/ thanks. Lisa Hayes www.nutrimetics.com.au/lisahayes --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] being creative.
Hi Lisa, Well, in order to answer that question it might help to know more about what exactly you want to create. As I often tell people every programming language and toolkit has pros and cons. Lets look at a few for a moment. If you are only interested in text adventure games like interactive fiction then something like Inform would probably be your best bet. It is very simple, written for a inexperienced programmer, but isn't good ffor much else other than interactive fiction. For that reason it is pretty specific for that genre of game. On the other hand there is an all purpose scripting language such as Python that is very simple to learn, and can write anything from a story driven interactive text adventure up to something more complex like SoundRTS. In fact, I know of a couple of screen readers like Orca and NVDA written in Python so it is a pretty powerful language with a pretty easy learning curve. Then, there is the Microsoft .NET sweet of languages like C# .NET and Visual Basic .NET. These are a bit more complex than Python, but what makes them nice is there is a huge amount of defined classes that wrapps the Windows API giving you access to just about everything through one common interface and set of libraries. This is were many Windows professional developers are heading do to ease of use, and the fact that the ..NET Framework is a very powerful piece of software. .NET can be used to write the simplist text adventure to full featured Windows applications like vidio games, office sweits, you name it. In terms of total pay off .NET is probably the best option if you are thinking of learning to program something else besides just games. Still in terms of games we have Rail Racer, 3d Velocity, MOTA betas 1 through 10, etc all written in .NET. Now, if you are tthinking of just writing games BGT is really going to be your best bet in all likelyhood. Besides the engine being written in C++ Philip has made it possible to access everything you need like DirectX, Sapi, Windows timer controls, etc all in one tool without having to read manuals and programming guides for all that stuff. So for anyone just interested in games BGT is probably going to be anyone's first choice, but isn't the only option. So if you can give us a little more idea of what you plan to do with your skills once you get them the list and I can help stear you towards the best solution for you. HTH On 11/20/10, Lisa Hayes lhay...@internode.on.net wrote: Hi all, I'm wanting to start creating games, but cannot program for peanuts, how can I start something simple and learn at the same time/ thanks. Lisa Hayes www.nutrimetics.com.au/lisahayes --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] being creative.
Hi Thomas, So, Phillip did just basically rap the necessary C ++ founctions? Best Regards, Hayden -Original Message- From: gamers-boun...@audyssey.org [mailto:gamers-boun...@audyssey.org] On Behalf Of Thomas Ward Sent: Saturday, November 20, 2010 9:26 PM To: Gamers Discussion list Subject: Re: [Audyssey] being creative. Hi Lisa, Well, in order to answer that question it might help to know more about what exactly you want to create. As I often tell people every programming language and toolkit has pros and cons. Lets look at a few for a moment. If you are only interested in text adventure games like interactive fiction then something like Inform would probably be your best bet. It is very simple, written for a inexperienced programmer, but isn't good ffor much else other than interactive fiction. For that reason it is pretty specific for that genre of game. On the other hand there is an all purpose scripting language such as Python that is very simple to learn, and can write anything from a story driven interactive text adventure up to something more complex like SoundRTS. In fact, I know of a couple of screen readers like Orca and NVDA written in Python so it is a pretty powerful language with a pretty easy learning curve. Then, there is the Microsoft .NET sweet of languages like C# .NET and Visual Basic .NET. These are a bit more complex than Python, but what makes them nice is there is a huge amount of defined classes that wrapps the Windows API giving you access to just about everything through one common interface and set of libraries. This is were many Windows professional developers are heading do to ease of use, and the fact that the ..NET Framework is a very powerful piece of software. .NET can be used to write the simplist text adventure to full featured Windows applications like vidio games, office sweits, you name it. In terms of total pay off .NET is probably the best option if you are thinking of learning to program something else besides just games. Still in terms of games we have Rail Racer, 3d Velocity, MOTA betas 1 through 10, etc all written in .NET. Now, if you are tthinking of just writing games BGT is really going to be your best bet in all likelyhood. Besides the engine being written in C++ Philip has made it possible to access everything you need like DirectX, Sapi, Windows timer controls, etc all in one tool without having to read manuals and programming guides for all that stuff. So for anyone just interested in games BGT is probably going to be anyone's first choice, but isn't the only option. So if you can give us a little more idea of what you plan to do with your skills once you get them the list and I can help stear you towards the best solution for you. HTH On 11/20/10, Lisa Hayes lhay...@internode.on.net wrote: Hi all, I'm wanting to start creating games, but cannot program for peanuts, how can I start something simple and learn at the same time/ thanks. Lisa Hayes www.nutrimetics.com.au/lisahayes --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] being creative.
Thomas thanks for this I'd start with straight text adventures and progress up to sound games and windows games so I guess start with inform and progress on/ is that what you'd say and where can I get the languages you mention here? thanks again for any help. Lisa Hayes www.nutrimetics.com.au/lisahayes - Original Message - From: Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Sunday, November 21, 2010 2:26 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] being creative. Hi Lisa, Well, in order to answer that question it might help to know more about what exactly you want to create. As I often tell people every programming language and toolkit has pros and cons. Lets look at a few for a moment. If you are only interested in text adventure games like interactive fiction then something like Inform would probably be your best bet. It is very simple, written for a inexperienced programmer, but isn't good ffor much else other than interactive fiction. For that reason it is pretty specific for that genre of game. On the other hand there is an all purpose scripting language such as Python that is very simple to learn, and can write anything from a story driven interactive text adventure up to something more complex like SoundRTS. In fact, I know of a couple of screen readers like Orca and NVDA written in Python so it is a pretty powerful language with a pretty easy learning curve. Then, there is the Microsoft .NET sweet of languages like C# .NET and Visual Basic .NET. These are a bit more complex than Python, but what makes them nice is there is a huge amount of defined classes that wrapps the Windows API giving you access to just about everything through one common interface and set of libraries. This is were many Windows professional developers are heading do to ease of use, and the fact that the ..NET Framework is a very powerful piece of software. .NET can be used to write the simplist text adventure to full featured Windows applications like vidio games, office sweits, you name it. In terms of total pay off .NET is probably the best option if you are thinking of learning to program something else besides just games. Still in terms of games we have Rail Racer, 3d Velocity, MOTA betas 1 through 10, etc all written in .NET. Now, if you are tthinking of just writing games BGT is really going to be your best bet in all likelyhood. Besides the engine being written in C++ Philip has made it possible to access everything you need like DirectX, Sapi, Windows timer controls, etc all in one tool without having to read manuals and programming guides for all that stuff. So for anyone just interested in games BGT is probably going to be anyone's first choice, but isn't the only option. So if you can give us a little more idea of what you plan to do with your skills once you get them the list and I can help stear you towards the best solution for you. HTH On 11/20/10, Lisa Hayes lhay...@internode.on.net wrote: Hi all, I'm wanting to start creating games, but cannot program for peanuts, how can I start something simple and learn at the same time/ thanks. Lisa Hayes www.nutrimetics.com.au/lisahayes --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] being creative.
Hi Lisa, I can't answer all of them, but if you google Inform, you'll find it almost immediately. Best Regards, Hayden -Original Message- From: gamers-boun...@audyssey.org [mailto:gamers-boun...@audyssey.org] On Behalf Of Lisa Hayes Sent: Saturday, November 20, 2010 11:07 PM To: Gamers Discussion list Subject: Re: [Audyssey] being creative. Thomas thanks for this I'd start with straight text adventures and progress up to sound games and windows games so I guess start with inform and progress on/ is that what you'd say and where can I get the languages you mention here? thanks again for any help. Lisa Hayes www.nutrimetics.com.au/lisahayes - Original Message - From: Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Sunday, November 21, 2010 2:26 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] being creative. Hi Lisa, Well, in order to answer that question it might help to know more about what exactly you want to create. As I often tell people every programming language and toolkit has pros and cons. Lets look at a few for a moment. If you are only interested in text adventure games like interactive fiction then something like Inform would probably be your best bet. It is very simple, written for a inexperienced programmer, but isn't good ffor much else other than interactive fiction. For that reason it is pretty specific for that genre of game. On the other hand there is an all purpose scripting language such as Python that is very simple to learn, and can write anything from a story driven interactive text adventure up to something more complex like SoundRTS. In fact, I know of a couple of screen readers like Orca and NVDA written in Python so it is a pretty powerful language with a pretty easy learning curve. Then, there is the Microsoft .NET sweet of languages like C# .NET and Visual Basic .NET. These are a bit more complex than Python, but what makes them nice is there is a huge amount of defined classes that wrapps the Windows API giving you access to just about everything through one common interface and set of libraries. This is were many Windows professional developers are heading do to ease of use, and the fact that the ..NET Framework is a very powerful piece of software. .NET can be used to write the simplist text adventure to full featured Windows applications like vidio games, office sweits, you name it. In terms of total pay off .NET is probably the best option if you are thinking of learning to program something else besides just games. Still in terms of games we have Rail Racer, 3d Velocity, MOTA betas 1 through 10, etc all written in .NET. Now, if you are tthinking of just writing games BGT is really going to be your best bet in all likelyhood. Besides the engine being written in C++ Philip has made it possible to access everything you need like DirectX, Sapi, Windows timer controls, etc all in one tool without having to read manuals and programming guides for all that stuff. So for anyone just interested in games BGT is probably going to be anyone's first choice, but isn't the only option. So if you can give us a little more idea of what you plan to do with your skills once you get them the list and I can help stear you towards the best solution for you. HTH On 11/20/10, Lisa Hayes lhay...@internode.on.net wrote: Hi all, I'm wanting to start creating games, but cannot program for peanuts, how can I start something simple and learn at the same time/ thanks. Lisa Hayes www.nutrimetics.com.au/lisahayes --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding
Re: [Audyssey] being creative.
Thanks Hayden, Google is our friend. Lisa Hayes www.nutrimetics.com.au/lisahayes - Original Message - From: Hayden Presley hdpres...@hotmail.com To: 'Gamers Discussion list' gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Sunday, November 21, 2010 4:12 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] being creative. Hi Lisa, I can't answer all of them, but if you google Inform, you'll find it almost immediately. Best Regards, Hayden -Original Message- From: gamers-boun...@audyssey.org [mailto:gamers-boun...@audyssey.org] On Behalf Of Lisa Hayes Sent: Saturday, November 20, 2010 11:07 PM To: Gamers Discussion list Subject: Re: [Audyssey] being creative. Thomas thanks for this I'd start with straight text adventures and progress up to sound games and windows games so I guess start with inform and progress on/ is that what you'd say and where can I get the languages you mention here? thanks again for any help. Lisa Hayes www.nutrimetics.com.au/lisahayes - Original Message - From: Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Sunday, November 21, 2010 2:26 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] being creative. Hi Lisa, Well, in order to answer that question it might help to know more about what exactly you want to create. As I often tell people every programming language and toolkit has pros and cons. Lets look at a few for a moment. If you are only interested in text adventure games like interactive fiction then something like Inform would probably be your best bet. It is very simple, written for a inexperienced programmer, but isn't good ffor much else other than interactive fiction. For that reason it is pretty specific for that genre of game. On the other hand there is an all purpose scripting language such as Python that is very simple to learn, and can write anything from a story driven interactive text adventure up to something more complex like SoundRTS. In fact, I know of a couple of screen readers like Orca and NVDA written in Python so it is a pretty powerful language with a pretty easy learning curve. Then, there is the Microsoft .NET sweet of languages like C# .NET and Visual Basic .NET. These are a bit more complex than Python, but what makes them nice is there is a huge amount of defined classes that wrapps the Windows API giving you access to just about everything through one common interface and set of libraries. This is were many Windows professional developers are heading do to ease of use, and the fact that the ..NET Framework is a very powerful piece of software. .NET can be used to write the simplist text adventure to full featured Windows applications like vidio games, office sweits, you name it. In terms of total pay off .NET is probably the best option if you are thinking of learning to program something else besides just games. Still in terms of games we have Rail Racer, 3d Velocity, MOTA betas 1 through 10, etc all written in .NET. Now, if you are tthinking of just writing games BGT is really going to be your best bet in all likelyhood. Besides the engine being written in C++ Philip has made it possible to access everything you need like DirectX, Sapi, Windows timer controls, etc all in one tool without having to read manuals and programming guides for all that stuff. So for anyone just interested in games BGT is probably going to be anyone's first choice, but isn't the only option. So if you can give us a little more idea of what you plan to do with your skills once you get them the list and I can help stear you towards the best solution for you. HTH On 11/20/10, Lisa Hayes lhay...@internode.on.net wrote: Hi all, I'm wanting to start creating games, but cannot program for peanuts, how can I start something simple and learn at the same time/ thanks. Lisa Hayes www.nutrimetics.com.au/lisahayes --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web
Re: [Audyssey] being creative.
Hi Hayden, Oh, a lot more than that. BGT is basically like its own little API because it wraps a number of libraries such as DirectSound, DirectInput, Sapi, and I'd imagine various other Win32 API functions and libraries as well. He has incorperated Angel Script, a scripting language, into BGT which simplifies matters as you don't need to know C or C++ to use BGT which is a nice addition. Take PB Streemway for an example. That is the library that drives the audio engine for BGT and it is a rather useful library in of itself. First all the hard work of wrapping DirectSound is done for you. You don't have to mess with all the low-level grunt work like writing custom load functions to load sound files into memory and create a DirectSound buffer. I can say from experience that is truly grunt work in the extreme. However, Philip has gone several steps beyond that. Besides being able to load PCM wav data he can load compress file types such as ogg, supports encripted ogg and wav files, it can open an encripted packfile which he uses to good effect in games like Q9 and Kringle Crash. Right there BGT just through that one library shaves weeks off the time of game development not to mention makes it easier for new developers to get something constructive done, because they don't have to be a very skilled developer to do it. For example, take the act of creating a custom function to load a sound file into memory. This might shock you but DirectSound and XAudio2 aren't able to do this on their own. You have to write a custom function to load your wav, ogg, mp3, wma, file etc and then give it to DirectSound or XAudio2 for mixing and processing. There are tutorials out there on this and the Microsoft platform SDK has documentation on using MMIO to load sound data, but here we are talking about doing hours of research to do something that should be a simple task but is not. Streemway simplifies it for you, because it has a custom function sw_LoadFromFile() that loads files and creates a DirectSound buffer for you. Yay! In other words BGT not only wraps the Windows libraries, but packages everything in one nice toolkit that allows you to skip all the low-level crap like writing your own function to load sound data, and get on to the good stuff like writing the game itself. Who wants to spend time learning how to write a custom function to load a sound file, or cast a standard ascii character string to a unicode wide character string just to pass a line of text to Sapi. Not only is that vboring it ends up just being mindless grunt work just to do something fairly basic. This is why C++ is not a beginners language. It is too low-level and requires too much skill to master quickly. That is also a big reason why C# .NET is becoming the industry standard for general appplication programming for Windows. The .NET Framework, like BGT, wraps everything and you can get on with the business of programming whatever it is you want to write without spending countless hours on low-level grunt work. If you use SlimDX for .NET you don't have to fool with custom functions to load sound data, because the .NET library already includes that basic functionality built in. When dealing with strings the System..String class does all the necessary conversions behind the scenes so you only need to deal with one string type as far as the developer is concerned. If you enter a standard ascii string like Hello world! the .NET Framework is nice enough to convert it to unicode for you automatically. Another big yay for developers. BGT does something similar as a string is simply a string of text, and you don't need to get specific about type etc. Cheers! On 11/20/10, Hayden Presley hdpres...@hotmail.com wrote: Hi Thomas, So, Phillip did just basically rap the necessary C ++ founctions? Best Regards, Hayden --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] being creative.
Hi Lisa, Well, if you want my personal opinion I think you might be better served with starting out with a general purpose programming language like Python instead. Inform is certainly fine for writing interactive fiction, because that is exactly what it was designed to do, but there is a major down side to starting out too simple. What I am saying is Inform was designed for people who have a specific interest in writing simple text adventures with absolutely no programming background or education. Problem is it doesn't really teach you anything constructive in terms of programming either because it doesn't get into topics like functions, classes, variables, etc in any depth to carry over to another programming language. As a result if you wrote a few text adventures and wanted to write something else, maybe like a Space Invaders clone, you'd have to start from scratch again anyway since Inform simply wasn't designed to create that kind of game. So I'd pick Python. It is slightly more complex than something like Inform, but the pay off for learning it is huge. It is one of the fastest growing languages for hobbiests, is totally free, and there is litterally thousands of pages of free documentation out there for beginning to advanced Python programmers. Its open source nature means it will remain free and well documented where languages like C# .Net, by Microsoft, will cost you something to learn because it is targeted towards professionals rather than a programming hobbiest just wanting to tinker in her own home with games. Here is a very simple example how Python is. (You might want to turn punctuation on at this point.) #Guess the number #Version 1.0 #By Thomas Ward #Selects a random number and asks you to guess it #Import the random module import random #Declare variables loop = 1 choice = 0 #Enter game loop while loop == 1: #Select a random number number = random.randrange(1, 10) #Print message print Enter any number between 1 and 10. print Enter 0 to exit. # Get tthe user's choice choice = input(Enter selection: ) if choice number: print Sorry, number is to low. if (choice number: print Sorry, number is too high. if (choice == number: print Congratulations! You guessed it. elif choice == 0: loop = 0 print Exiting Guess the Number. #End while #End program As you can see from this Python program I have just written a fairly simple guess the number game in a very few lines of code. In fact, most of the space is just taken up with comments to let you know what is going on, and some spacing to make the code more readable. Otherwise there is only like 10 lines that really matter. The rest is just for you and I to keep track of the program flow. I've heard a lot of people who say Visual Basic is the easiest language to learn for beginners, but I can say from personal experience Python is far easier than Visual Basic which is primarily why I'm suggesting it for a new game developer like yourself. With a language like this you could be up and running writing your own text adventures in a couple of weeks depending on how quickly you pick up new things. Later on if you wanted to create your own Troopenum, Judgment Day, Shades of Doom, etc you would have to learn an API like PyGame or PySFML which really isn't that bad. Definitely far easier than DirectX or some of the more professional APIs like that. To get the Python runtime and development system head over to http://python.org and for the largest source of manuals, tutorials, library reference guides, etc head over to http://docs.python.org which should get you up and running in no time. Later when you are ready visit http://pygame.org for the PyGame API, game tutorials, and yes hundreds of free sample games with source code to help you learn how to program games in Python. HTH On 11/21/10, Lisa Hayes lhay...@internode.on.net wrote: Thomas thanks for this I'd start with straight text adventures and progress up to sound games and windows games so I guess start with inform and progress on/ is that what you'd say and where can I get the languages you mention here? thanks again for any help. Lisa Hayes --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] being creative.
Thomas, Many thanks I will take your advice and thanks for where I can get it. Lisa Hayes www.nutrimetics.com.au/lisahayes - Original Message - From: Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Sunday, November 21, 2010 6:32 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] being creative. Hi Lisa, Well, if you want my personal opinion I think you might be better served with starting out with a general purpose programming language like Python instead. Inform is certainly fine for writing interactive fiction, because that is exactly what it was designed to do, but there is a major down side to starting out too simple. What I am saying is Inform was designed for people who have a specific interest in writing simple text adventures with absolutely no programming background or education. Problem is it doesn't really teach you anything constructive in terms of programming either because it doesn't get into topics like functions, classes, variables, etc in any depth to carry over to another programming language. As a result if you wrote a few text adventures and wanted to write something else, maybe like a Space Invaders clone, you'd have to start from scratch again anyway since Inform simply wasn't designed to create that kind of game. So I'd pick Python. It is slightly more complex than something like Inform, but the pay off for learning it is huge. It is one of the fastest growing languages for hobbiests, is totally free, and there is litterally thousands of pages of free documentation out there for beginning to advanced Python programmers. Its open source nature means it will remain free and well documented where languages like C# .Net, by Microsoft, will cost you something to learn because it is targeted towards professionals rather than a programming hobbiest just wanting to tinker in her own home with games. Here is a very simple example how Python is. (You might want to turn punctuation on at this point.) #Guess the number #Version 1.0 #By Thomas Ward #Selects a random number and asks you to guess it #Import the random module import random #Declare variables loop = 1 choice = 0 #Enter game loop while loop == 1: #Select a random number number = random.randrange(1, 10) #Print message print Enter any number between 1 and 10. print Enter 0 to exit. # Get tthe user's choice choice = input(Enter selection: ) if choice number: print Sorry, number is to low. if (choice number: print Sorry, number is too high. if (choice == number: print Congratulations! You guessed it. elif choice == 0: loop = 0 print Exiting Guess the Number. #End while #End program As you can see from this Python program I have just written a fairly simple guess the number game in a very few lines of code. In fact, most of the space is just taken up with comments to let you know what is going on, and some spacing to make the code more readable. Otherwise there is only like 10 lines that really matter. The rest is just for you and I to keep track of the program flow. I've heard a lot of people who say Visual Basic is the easiest language to learn for beginners, but I can say from personal experience Python is far easier than Visual Basic which is primarily why I'm suggesting it for a new game developer like yourself. With a language like this you could be up and running writing your own text adventures in a couple of weeks depending on how quickly you pick up new things. Later on if you wanted to create your own Troopenum, Judgment Day, Shades of Doom, etc you would have to learn an API like PyGame or PySFML which really isn't that bad. Definitely far easier than DirectX or some of the more professional APIs like that. To get the Python runtime and development system head over to http://python.org and for the largest source of manuals, tutorials, library reference guides, etc head over to http://docs.python.org which should get you up and running in no time. Later when you are ready visit http://pygame.org for the PyGame API, game tutorials, and yes hundreds of free sample games with source code to help you learn how to program games in Python. HTH On 11/21/10, Lisa Hayes lhay...@internode.on.net wrote: Thomas thanks for this I'd start with straight text adventures and progress up to sound games and windows games so I guess start with inform and progress on/ is that what you'd say and where can I get the languages you mention here? thanks again for any help. Lisa Hayes --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list
