I'd just like to tell everyone that I'm moving this blog to a new website. The website has more versatility and interactiveness so I figured you guys would enjoy it more. Okay well there's a link on the sidebar and here's a link:http://gamecorner.spruz.com/
It's still in its infancy, but if you would like to go check it out, be my guest.
have fun!!
-YoYo
So I am slowly moving everything I have on this blog to a website that I've been working on. The site has more interactivity with a forum, blog and other cool stuff. Here's a link.
So check it out!!!
Feel free to comment on the site and give me your opinions!!!
-YoYo
So, you’ve been a gamer most of your life. You fell in love with video games. One day you realize you can make your own games, wouldn’t that be cool. You begin researching the subject and you realize you have to learn computer programming languages. You say, okay let’s get started and you buy a bookshelf worth of computer programming books. You open them up and you begin to read what these computer languages are about and they start teaching you about the basics of programming. As you continue to read, the more confused you get about computer programming. You begin to ask yourself HOW IN THE HELL CAN SOMEONE DEVELOP A LANGUAGE FOR COMPUTERS?
My dad majored in computer science and I remember that was the first question I asked him when I tried to learn HTML for the first time; a computer language used to develop websites. My dad told me he used to teach some classes when he was a grad student and his students would ask him the same thing.
Understanding the concept of using a computer language is not too hard to explain, but when you have no direction, learning a computer language can be confusing and difficult. Today I’m going to try and help you understand this concept through teaching you the easiest programming language ever; HTML. I know that you want to make video games, not websites. This is the first language I learned and it really helped me develop a base to understand the overall concept of computer programming. If you don’t understand this, it will be very difficult to write programs, let alone make video games.
If you just bear with me, you will develop a much greater understanding of computers and languages and you will put yourself ahead of everyone else who has already stopped reading this blog.
Let’s begin.
The first thing you need to understand when looking at computer programming and games is the program that is developed for the game tells everything that system needs to do. In order to write the program you need to use a computer language to do this. Computer languages were developed because once computers were invented during the 1950s, people realized that they can’t just talk to their computers using our ‘human-style’ languages. We had to develop computer languages with rules and guidelines that the computer could understand. Like Spanish, English or eve latin, computer languages also have their ‘grammar rules’ and ‘sentence structures’. Each line of coding has to be grammatically correct or the computer will not understand what you are telling it and your program won’t work. It’s as simple as that. The hard thing is learning the grammar and the rules and being able to apply them. Since I’m going to be teaching you HTML, it will be much easier for you to understand the grammar concept of computer programs.
One thing to remember before we start is each language has their own set of grammatical structures and rules that you need to follow. Some are more similar than others, but just remember to keep that in mind.
The Language of Websites
HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. This language is used to tell the Web Browser how this page will be shown and designed. What’s really cool about using HTML is you can write the program using Word or even NotePad. (Ironically enough NotePad is the better choice of the two.) So to begin, you will need to open NotePad, or a program that is equivalent.
The overall structure of writing an HTML document (think of it as writing formalized paper) has the same basic structure as every web page ever written. This is what it looks like:
Like in any language, you need a subject in each sentence so the person you’re talking to know the people, things, places or ideas you’re talking about. It’s the same when writing in HTML. As you can see there are angle brackets, < >, around the words HTML, HEAD, TITLE and BODY. These brackets tell the computer that this is the subject I want to talk about.
The first subject is , which signals the beginning of a document written in the language HTML. The second subject is which signals the section of the document where you put general information about your webpage, such as the
I'll be writing a few more articles soon. Don't worry. Hehe. They will come. Out of curiosity, what articles do you guys want to read? Contact me to make a request. I'll see what I can do.
Well have fun gaming!!
YoYo
I remember when I first realized I could make video games I got really excited and decided I wanted to just right in head first. I downloaded programming software, played around with it and just started making a game. After a while everything became very difficult to do and I was forced to make decisions I wasn’t ready to. I had nothing planned out and I didn’t even know what kind of video game I waned to make. All I knew was that I wanted to make one and become a millionaire like the guys over at Bungie.
You've probably noticed what things are wrong with what I did. Heck, if you’ve even found this article you’re probably feeling the same way too; you just wanna go out and make a game. That’s good that you have enthusiasm and energy but we have to put all of this in good use by making a well developed GAME PLAN. I don’t know if making a plan first sounds stupid or if you think it’ll slow down your process, but this is the FIRST MOST IMPORTANT STEP YOU WILL MAKE!!!! You NEED a plan because you need to know what you want to do, what you can do, what works and what doesn’t and you need to know all of these things before you do anything. Your game plan will determine whether or not your game sinks or floats because with a very good well developed plan, you’re game will most likely be a very good and enjoyable one. Your plan has to allow your game to flow and if it doesn’t, players won’t stay to play your game. The level of game flow is the first thing players notice when they play your game and the first thing that allows them to determine whether or not they want to continue playing.
Making a good game plan can sometimes be easy and sometimes be hard, but in the end, worth every lasting moment. Since you’re most likely a beginner you will probably not be able to make extraordinarily amazing and detailed graphics and you may not be able to program a fighting system like the one in Prince of Persia: Two Thrones. It’s OK if you can’t though. You can still make an amazing awesome game without all of these things. Since you won’t have many of the things AAA games have, you will need to fall back on a very well planned game outline. Think of your game plan as your storyline, like in the original Star Wars movies, the special effects sucked compared to what we have nowadays. What makes these movies memorable is their storyline. The audience has this great adventure to fall back on, so they can still enjoy the movie with out the crazy amazing special effects because the storyline is so good that it supports the movie.
To help understand a game plan better, we’ll be writing a plan to make a copy-cat version of the original Pong game. I’ve chosen this game because it’s simple and most everyone has at least heard of it, so it will make learning how to write a plan much easier. We will also make this game with Flash Macromedia because it’s a very good beginner’s program. (If you don't have the program, it's okay because we're not actually making a video game.)
1. What’s your goal?
You need to figure out what it is you want to do. In our case, it’s making Pong.
2. What’s your platform?
Our platform will be the PC. To get more detailed, the internet. Flash allows you to export the files so you can upload them on to the internet and host them on a server. Nice.
3. Player interactiveness
How will our player interact with the program? We’ll be programming this game so that the player can use the arrows on their keyboard to move the pong player up and down.
4. The opponent
The player will be playing against the computer that will follow the ball wherever it goes. Since we want the players to win every now and then we’ll program some sort of mechanism that slows the AI’s ability to catch the ball every time.
5. Environment Physics
The environment is the game and every game has some sort of physics set in place. To better understand the physics element, think of this as a list of rules that the program has to abide by.
• In our case, we have to think about the physics or rules necessary for Pong game play. The ball will bounce off of the player paddles and the top and bottom sections of the environment or ‘screen area’.
• The ball will bounce in such a way that will allow the players to control the direction the ball moves
i. If the ball hits dead centre of the paddle, the ball will bounce perpendicular to the paddle
ii. The further away from the centre the more angled the ball will bounce off
• The longer the ball is in play, the faster it goes.
• If the ball passes either paddle a point is scored to the opponent.
• When a point is scored, the ball is reset and placed back into play.
• The winner is the first to score five points.
• When the game ends, the player will be directed towards the main screen with the option to replay the game.
6. Look and feel
What will the game look will? What kind of colour schemes will it have? Is it 3D or 2D?
For our game, it’s going to have a retro 2D look to it. The only colours will be black and white.
As you can see this plan isn’t very complicated. Maybe now you can see in what ways the game can get complicated, especially when you think about the environment physics and game play.
One thing that helps when developing a game is to look at it in the most basic way as possible. Let’s say you want to make a more advanced version of Pong. (This is actually what I’m doing right now.) I’m making a more modern version of Pong just for fun. One of the things I needed to do first is look at the original Pong. That is the most basic my program can get. Now that I’ve studied the basic Pong and programmed it, I decided to come up with different ways to enhance it like adding obstacles in the screen environment that the ball can bounce off of. This makes the game play more complicated because now you either try and avoid these obstacles or use them to your advantage.
Just remember, build your game from the base up. Once you have a strong base you can begin to add layers like how I’ve been doing. This makes building the game less of a hassle because most of the time people are doing too much at once and then get disorganized and the game turns to slops. So remember to start with a good base and build it up to where you want it to be. In order to do this you have to think outside of the box and look at your game in the simplest way possible.
Hope this helps!!!!
-YoYo
It's always nice to sit down relax and play a great game. From the classic retro games to the new God of War games, there's always something for everyone. It’s sad why not everyone can appreciate games though. Essentially games are just interactive stories that bring you out of the world of the mundane into a universe of endless possibilities. This is why there are so many different types of video games because it allows the developers to express themselves in creative, spontaneous and interactive ways.
Ever since the first Pong game introduced in roughly thirty years ago, games have evolved and changed the way we play drastically. Graphics have gotten better, music is more dramatic, processors and hard drives have become bigger and stronger and there’s no end in sight to what video games can’t do at this point; since technology is getting better by the second. These advances in technology have not only changed the way we play but also how the developers make them. Programming video games became so easy normal neighbourhood kids began developing games to their hearts’ desires. Now with the new advancements in video game industry, making games is a stressful and time consuming process especially for AAA style games. (The term AAA game refers to the most popular games that are developed by companies such as EA Games, Ubisoft, Bungie, etc.)
AAA games aren’t the only kind in development though. Independent game developers program all different kinds of games like flash games for example. Flash Macromedia is a program that allows animators to make little animations and gamers to make video games. These games aren’t high tech geniuses like Halo or Gears of War, but that doesn’t mean these plays aren’t fun and enjoyable. If you’re a beginner programmer starting off with Flash games is a great idea because it allows you to build the basic and necessary skills you need to understand how game development works.
1. THE PLAN IS ESSENTIAL
The very first thing you want to do before you get into the nuts and bolts of creating your game is to first plan your game out. If you’ve suddenly had an idea for the greatest game in your whole entire world, write it down. Think about it, brainstorm, come up with a storyline (if the game calls for one), and write down how the game will be played (1st person, 3rd person, etc).
There are many more things you will need to consider when writing a plan, but that will be covered in more detail in another post.
2. Figure out the game platform
What platform will your game run on? PS2? Xbox? Pc? If you’re a beginner you will most likely not be writing a game for platforms PS2 or Xbox. The first platform you will be programming on is the PC.
Now that you’ve figured out your platform what are its limitations? When we’re trying to figure out limitations we need to think in terms of processor, ram, graphics, etc. What things will limit you from creating your masterpiece? You will always be limited to what you can do graphically be of the type of graphics card you have, limited in memory, length and speed of your game in terms of processor, ram and all those other goodies as well. You need to first look at what you have in terms of hardware and figure how much you can do with this.
There will be more to come about this subject later.
3. How will you program it?
What programming software will you use to make your game? Flash? RPG Maker? These programs are possible ones to use. You can google game programming software and find many more.
Do research on these programs and try to figure out which one will be better to use in terms of the nature of your game. Look at your game and figure out what qualities of these programs will best help you bring your game to life. Is your game in 3D? If it is, then you will want a program that is capable of programming 3D games.
More on this topic later.
4. Computer Languages? What?
Alongside with graphics, the computer language is the most important thing to consider. You need to learn computer languages in order to program your game. Since there are a dozen different languages you have to figure out which language you need to learn. Going back to the programming software you’ve chosen, you need to find out what languages the program works with. Is it C? C+? ActionScript? As soon as you figure this out you need to go out and learn it. There are books you can buy, you can go to a college or university and take some courses and even major in computer science.
The easiest program to start with is ActionScript, which Flash Macromedia uses. There will be tutorials on some of these programming languages later.
5. Graphics
Now we have to thing about graphics. Since you’ve got your plan all finished, this will mean you already have your ideas for graphics drawn out. It’s okay if you don’t have EVERY piece of artwork fully completed as long as you have the general idea planned out you should be able to manage.
What we have to do now is find out what graphics software we’ll be using. Again consider your programming software and find out what capabilities it has in terms of graphics. Some programs will give you the workspace to make the graphics right on the program, while with others you’ll need to use other third party programs. The simplest program you can start with is your Paint program that you have on your computer.
You’re graphics may not look perfect, but with a little more practice you may get them to look better. If you’re not an artsy kind of person, maybe you have a friend that’s an artist. This is always the perfect time to have a partner in crime to help with these things.
6. Let’s get started!
You’ve got your plan, you know how to program, you have the graphics, now it’s time to write the program. During this process you may be changing parts of your plan to accommodate for unexpected glitches that may have occurred. Just remember, your plan is a nice layout, you’re allowed to play around with certain aspects of your game.
More on this later.
7. Test your game
Play your game and see how it flows. Are there problems or glitches you didn’t see before? This step allows you to make gameplay modifications like is the game too hard or is one part too long, etc. You need to make sure your game flows.
You can also show off your game by having your friends and/or family play it and give you their opinions. This is the hit or miss step where you find out if your game is fun or not. Most likely you’ll only have to make some tweeks to the overall design to make your game more fun to play. If you have to take your game back to step one that means your first plan wasn’t good enough. Hopefully at this point though you will know your mistakes and be able to write a new and improved plan.
More on this later.
8. Show your game to the world
How will your game be published? Are you just going to host it online or do you think it’s good enough to go to a publishing company? There are many things to consider at this step and very careful measures you’ll have to take.
More on this later.
Now that I’ve given you the basic steps to game development and design you can begin to think about what you want to do in order to develop your first game. If this is intimidating to you, don’t be discouraged. Anyone can make a video game with the right resources and if you have any questions feel free to contact me. My goal is to help you be able to make your own video games.
Good luck!!!
YoYo
This is YoYo speaking and I've decided to create a blog that provides information to readers about game development. Creating games is a new hobby of mine and I've learned a lot. In a few months I'll be posting some flash games that I'm working on right now.
I will try to be as helpful as possible with any questions you may have about video game development and the like. Eventually I'll be adding information about popular video games as well.
So stay tuned and be on the lookout for new posts!!!
-YoYo
