How do I get started on a game?

Hello, I am fairly new to this forum - apart from a couple of months of lurking and reading.

I'm not new to programming having released an Amiga 1200 game way back in the 90's which I doubt anyone here would remotely remember. It was called 'Munch' and was a fairly complicated Pacman derivative. A demo of that game was released on several popular computer magazines of the time and several full versions were sold.

I've been lurking about several forums to get a flavour of the current indie / bedroom programming scene and have downloaded several game development environments.

Construct seems to be a fairly popular IDE given the activity on the forum - there is one other IDE / development system that seems much more active but I tried out their IDE a while back and did not like it.

That's the background, now on to the nitty gritty...

I want to have another crack at developing some games but my knowledge is based on outdated methods - 'Munch' was written entirely in AMOS Professional Basic (stop sniggering at the back ) - Amos was extremely competent at the time - especially after the source was compiled.

To help me get started I wondered if some of you guys would hold my hand while I walk through my game idea (it's nothing new) and show me how to do what I want to do as I progress. I will give an outline of the game in my next post.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to starting my first project in Construct.

regards,

Crypt.

This is what got me hooked on Construct 2. I learned a TON and actually started with nothing and ended with a full working game in a couple hours. I always recommend this as a place to start for people wanting to learn the program.

https://www.scirra.com/tutorials/313/cl ... kout-video

I'm in the same boat as you. It's coming to me slowly, as I don't have any kinda formal bg in programming. I am trying to make simple games first and as I do more, it's seems to be clicking well. I think because there are so many ways to do any one thing, it's difficult to just take it all in. I'd suggest you pick a point ( game or whatever) and work form them. Hit me up if you need anything and I'll do my best to help out. "blind leading the blind " HAHAH ... all good tho..

blackcrypt welcome to C2. I used to review Amiga games (and I think even the A1200 when it came out) for a local (au) mag back in the day but perhaps Munch didn't get a local release, but then again there were zillions of games ... Anyway, anyone who knows what an Amiga is, is my friend. AmigaBasic FTW Just ask away and you'll get plenty of answers on the forum.

I am currently working my way through the breakout tutorial suggested by Burvey although I have read it/watched it before, I'm actually watching and doing now. I suppose I should say that I'm using the free version of C2 until I'm sure that I can get on with it.

only advice is since you have some game development background already, if you want to built a game quick, keep it simple and make many mini games while working on your big game. I found many of the templates provided in the C2 editor very helpful with understand how far i have to go to built the game.

Ah! Another Amiga alumni.

I remember learning how to draw with Deluxe Paint like it was yesterday (mostly because I haven't progressed much since then)

I'm sure you'll find C2 to be more than capable to build most games you can think of. It's a great program. I can't offer any more advice than some of the more veteran people on these forums, but I'm sure you'll get along with C2 just fine.

2 Amiga guys on the same forum?! Never happens!

codah LOL I started with spectrum zx 81, then Vic 20,Commodore 64,tried BBC, then went back to Amiga 500, 1200, and so on. I use to use CLI on amiga

The game logic is mostly the same, only the way to achieve the target is different.

I'm currently experimenting with Game Boy programming (the classic one, not the color) and the logic behind a game is still the same. One major difference is that the limited disk space or limited Ram is no longer a problem. There is much more room for creating more complicated code.

There are a lot of tutorials on this website wich will help you further with understanding the program and how to do stuff.

Good luck programming your game. I'm curious about your game idea!

What I want to do as an exercise in learning how to develop games in c2 is not new or revolutionary in fact I wrote a similar game way back when I was just a teen on a c64 in commodore basic, but I do have some game ideas that I want to save as a 'real' projects further down the road.

As for my full history, I've had and learnt to program the following computers : Vic 20, C16+4, C64, Amiga 500, Amiga 1200 and then sadly on to PC which I never continued programming apart from HTML and CSS with a little bit of Javascript. Incidentally I have Cloanto's Amiga Forever package installed - the full version from a virtual CD download. There are many memories stashed right here on my PC.

For the last 5 or so years I've been a bit of a Halo geek in that I learnt from scratch how to model in 3D apps such as Sketchup and 3DS Max - I made several fairly popular Halo Custom Edition maps - the most popular of which was my "bc_raceway_final_mp" on Halomaps (the link was removed - not enough rep ) which got around 40,000 downloads - I'm not ashamed to be blowing my own trumpet here - I'm pretty proud of that map. If you've played Halo Custom Edition quite a bit then you will probably have played on it.

I'm loving the nostalgia here and the chance to make new friends and learn something new - and the forum is superb.

Ok, is it possible to embed my latest effort directly in the post so interested people can try them out? - Solved.

How do I scroll a background image/layer? - Solved.

I have noticed that a lot of demos / examples I try to play through the browser (firefox) seem to stutter violently at the start and some just completely hang a few seconds in. Can anyone explain what is happeneing here?

blackcrypt

First of all, anyone who produced anything during the first "console wars" has my respect. You guys paved the road for us newer gamers.

I am also starting to use Construct 2, and so far I've learned TONS from Youtube tutorials (I have a playlist) and help from the forums. I also quickly realized that the free version is very limiting if you want to work on something big right away, but maybe for mini games it's fine. I guess it's up to you.

From my end, if I can help you with anything - right now I don't know much but I'm dedicating hours of my week to learn and apply - just send me a PM, I'll be more than glad to test your game or give you advice.

While I'm new to the intricacies of Construct (as you could probably see from my forum posts, they've all been weird, specific questions) I do know how to start out designing games. Start out with what you know you can make. You should try recreating something you made in the past, or a game you liked playing a lot, maybe not halo, but one that you understand all the logic behind and know you can complete. Don't be afraid to use the forum, and make sure you finish something, finishing something will help you understand the process in Construct all the way through, even if it's a small game. Good luck!

I've been playing around with the ideas from the breakout clone tutorial....

I've added a scrolling background - basically 2 tiledbackground objects that are set to move down the screen at 10*dt and when each one goes off the bottom of the screen its y value is set to -window.height. Nice and simple but I'm getting a gap occasionally between the two images which gets wider/more frequent the faster the background is scrolled. Is there a solution for this?

Also, I would like to have the block actually appear to shatter into small pieces when hit - I have an animation (just a puff of dust) in place at the moment - What's the best way to do this?

The graphics are all done by me except the spacey image - which I made seamless.

codah LOL I started with spectrum zx 81, then Vic 20,Commodore 64,tried BBC, then went back to Amiga 500, 1200, and so on. I use to use CLI on amiga

hehe ZX81 is already advanced