Crispin Wellington wrote: > On Mon, 2002-10-14 at 10:22, Jason Stechschulte wrote: > >>I know there are a lot of programmers on this list, so I'm hoping >>someone might be kind enough to help me. I already am a so so >>programmer. I'm comfortable using Perl and PHP and I have a little >>experience in C/C++. >> >>I'm now thinking of taking the next step and starting a real programming >>project. I'm thinking of writing a game. My question is this: Does >>anyone know of a book that doesn't teach you a language, rather it >>teaches you how to do an entire project. I'm more interested in >>something that says by going through this book you will create this. >>Then the book focuses on that one task from planning to final >>implementation. > > > I don't know of any book like that, but there are many books that are > language specific, and can be interpreted in terms of your own chosen > language. > > If your project is 2D and you want to develop it rapidly and robustly, > and want it to run on all sorts of machines (not just linux) then I > recommend using Python with the pygame library (bindings to the SDL > libraries). Python has extremely string OO including multiple > inheritance. Pygame is a high powered and cross platform game dev API. > The games will run on Windows, Mac, Linux and BSD. Its also an ideal > chance to teach yourself IMHO the second best programming language in > existence today. Ive been programming computers for over 10 years in C, > C++, Java, Assembler, Perl, PHP and when I found Python it was like > discovering a hidden secret. Only LISP will server you better (all IMHO > of course... no fundamentalist language flame wars please). > > Python can be slow, especially in large nested loops, but coding half > Python, half C is very, very easy (many, many times easier than in other > languages like Perl, Java etc). So in the end you may wish to optimise > parts of your code in C functions. Optimisation is always best at the > end of a project (Python even has a complete code profiling system built > in so you can work out where delays are!). But with todays computing > power, and a 2d game, your bound to have oodles of CPU cycles to burn. > Check out the pygame website www.pygame.org > > You can distribute your python games as standalone executables (carrying > all .dll or .so dependencies) using "Installer" when its finished. You > can even sell it (Python's license is quite liberal). > > If you want to sell your game, and need it to be *high speed* binaries, > then C/C++ is probably the way to go. > > Kind Regards > Crispin Wellington
While most games are developed for Windows systems, you can find a lot of useful information at gamedev.net and such. Also, the book "Linux Game Programming" might be a help, even though it doesn't take you through a project so much as describe the tools available and what can be done. Most books don't really take you through the process of a game, but "Game Architecture and Design" is a nice read that takes you through the design process in a way that will make you organized. The "Game Programming Gems" books might be a good reference for different coding samples/ideas. As far as walking you through from start to finish, Gamedev.net is your best bet. Warning, it is Windows-centric mostly, although there is a *nix forum and I find the forums to be very helpful. Hope this helps! Gianfranco -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
