How I make game?

[Jostain]

So yesterday the local college had a "Do you like programming" event where they had a introduction to Java programming. They didn't really teach you anything useful since it was only 3 hours so it was more of a suitability test.
Now I know nothing about coding and every time I have read/heard about coding on a more advanced level than the fact that it exist I have been lost but the experience was still quite enjoyable and it might be something I want to learn on a professional level.

Anyway the gist of this is that I enjoyed it enough to pick it up as a hobby and if I still enjoy it when a new semester rolls around I might jump on the 2 year program.

The reason I put this in the gaming section is because I will try to learn stuff by making a game with increasingly advanced features and if I am not horrible at it I might post updates on the general progress and perhaps a playable version.

This might end with this post or continue for a long time but what I would like to ask about is any links to tutorials and stuff you might know about.

Currently Ive got greenfoot and has done the "crab game" tutorial on its website and I also got BlueJ with textbook in PDF.
Just to make things clear. It is Java I want to start with because that is what the college recommends and that is what they use to teach. I know programmers like discussing different programming languages and how they are better or worse then java and all that will be lost on me because I don't know enough to make an informed decision about it anyway.

[Keab42]

Java is a good foundation language. Graphics in base Java are a bit of a nightmare, but I'm sure any good game tutorial will show you how to use proper graphics libraries.

My advice is follow the tutorials and try to get your head around how Java is structured. Once you understand the structure even if you're not sure of the exact syntax for something you can usually follow what's going on.

Also if you learn game programming in Java you should be able to make games for Android as it's based on Java, so you might have more luck finding tutorials there.

[Elomin Sha]

If you want, have a look at Game Maker.

[SecretsOfMoon]

I really wouldn't have all that much of a look into game maker and other similar software, especially if you want to actually learn to do proper programming. And as much as I hate java, I must admit it's a pretty good language to start with considering it's managedness and all that. From there on the learning curve to c#, c/c++ and php are also fairly shallow, and a lot of the fundamentals of programming are largely language agnostic, so even going to something like python or delphi or cobol will be much easier after the basework is done.

[Jostain]

Yeah I Looked into game maker and one of "selling points" they used was that you don't need to do any coding.
Using game maker would probably be more fun in many ways and save me these head aches but it would not be as rewarding.

As it is now, even doing the most minor things gives a big sense of accomplishment.

[Elomin Sha]

Having used Game Maker, if you want to get things to work, like getting your character to stick to a moving platform you NEED to code.

[Volafortis]

I've learned the functional skeletal coding behind C++, Java, and a few others, and I'd have to recommend Java as a starting point.

[Jostain]

Soooo... I have not updated this in a long time. Mostly because I cant talk about it without sounding special.

All I can say is that I am slooowly making a basic structure for the game. It will be a turnbased/strategy/rougelike/RPG game whatever the hell that means.
All you need to know really is that airships are central to the theme.
The game will also have a large number of spells and abilities.
So what I want to ask is for spell suggestions that would be fun to have in the game.

Its a basic brainstorming session where you come up with really specific spell and if I like them I will try to incorporate it into the game. Under spells also includes artifacts.

Example:
"Duelers Sphere"
allows the caster to grab a creature and warp into an arena cut off from the outside world for x number of turns or until caster is defeated.

The graphics will be limited to tilebased so the graphical representation is not the primary concern here. its more of a flavor text and game mechanic thing. The reason I put this up is because I want the spells to be imaginative and fun to use and the more ideas I get the better.

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

Channelled lightning has always been sexy in my eyes.

Oh and if you could fuse Lightning and Fire together into some sort of spell basis and actually be viable it'd make me happy.

Kinetic spells are always fun. Like picking up enemies/objects. Compelling enemies/objects.

Spells that utilise the environment are always fun. However it's probably hard to evade the Red Explodey Barrels Troupe.

[Tim]

A spell that makes the enemy go insane and attack itself.

[Metcarfre]

Flying monkeys.

[Geoff_B]

How about a spell that summons a powerful demon but has only a 50% chance of attacking your enemy, otherwise it attacks you? Then after it's killed the enemies there's a 50% chance it comes after you, otherwise it unsummons?

[Jostain]

@Merrymaker_Mortalis
The lightning is already on the list as a basic attack nicknamed
"Palpatines Unlimited Power"
The thing about lightning and fire I did not understand. I am yet to decide on the explodey barrels. Lore wise there is not really a need for gunpowder or other combustables due to the high number of magic users.

@Tim
I like it.

@metcarfre lore wise they make sense since almost everything is flying one way or another. But I think they need to be familiars or just plain enemies.

@Geoff_B
I like that one. I do plan on have magic circles being part of the magic mechanics. Some circles are traps and some have positive or negative effects while inside. One could be summoning circles.
The way to deafeat the demon if it goes berserk would be to either murder it or somehow push it back inside the circle.

My aim is that all spells will be usable by npcs as well so it also opens up for some nice demon cult scenarios.

[Drdiggit42]

Are there going to be different kinds of spells for different classes? ie. Black Mage - Black Magic.

Either way I've always like time attacks like haste and slow. Also, things like sandstorm, firestorm, icestorm, et cetera. I like the idea of them doing dot to both enemies and allies.

[Metcarfre]

Flying sharks.

Flying bears.

Flying squirrels.

[Jostain]

Are there going to be different kinds of spells for different classes? ie. Black Mage - Black Magic.

Either way I've always like time attacks like haste and slow. Also, things like sandstorm, firestorm, icestorm, et cetera. I like the idea of them doing dot to both enemies and allies.

It wont have locked classes because I never liked that in games. All characters will be able to cast spells but people that are professional mages are naturally much better. The main limiter will be Action Points where a skilled mage require much less time than a fighter type character. Skill in specific spell is also a thought where you get faster with each use and some of that skill spilling over into similar spells.

What I want to accomplish really is to encourage the player to use a lot of different spells depending on situation rather than going with the fireball and iceshard agains fire monsters.

The combat side would have a similar system where you have a lot of different attacks that have different effects.

both spells and "skills" will have a lot of movement based effects. hindering movement or forcing movement.

This is all far into the future tough.
I intend to start a program studying programming next year that will be 3 years so I dont expect to have anything that I can be proud of for another 2 years.
I could write up a kind of design document that I have been slowly shaping if anyone is interested. Its always nice to have input.

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

@Merrymaker_Mortalis
The thing about lightning and fire I did not understand./quote]
It's just combining elements, sort of like Magicka. I just have a fetish for Fire and Lightning and it's rare for a game for me to wield both powers at once. If they do it's a game I don't enjoy, it's Fable 3 or if you go double the same element it's a lot stronger than mix and matching.

I am yet to decide on the explodey barrels. Lore wise there is not really a need for gunpowder or other combustables due to the high number of magic users.

It was a metaphor for fake-environment interactions.

If you can do something like, if you cast a fire spell on a woodland area you start a wildfire. Likewise if you cast AoE lightning storm.
Or if you cast frost in a wet environment you freeze the areas with water (swamps, lakes, rivers). Maybe if you cast rock-related spells (earth) you can block water ways and direct flow.
Water extinguishes Fire. Fire evaporates water and melts ice.
Dynamic interactions with the battlefield.
Cast lightning onto a pool of water and shock all units in the pool.

Friendly fire?

Magic and Mayhem had that sort of system but it was only for fire and lightning. You got shocked if you were in water when lightning hit it. Fire burnt the landscape and spread. So you stayed on the charred parts of the map or ahead of the burn. Walking into water removed burn.

[Jostain]

Ah I see.
The basic system will be set spells rather than mixing and matching. I did however get this vision of a spell crafting system.

When a someone uses magic they gain magical experience.
That experience is then taken to a library/lab where you have a bunch of spell parts such as push/pull/hold/slow.

you use experience to buy parts and level them up.
Then you invest experience to make it not blow up and press generate.
If nothing explodes the new spell gets named after the character that made it and a free name part. Merrymaker´s flaming bolt for example.
You then basically have the choice of having a lot small spells or save up for one huge extravagant spell that takes several rounds to cast.

I like the environmental stuff even if the water examples are not lore compatible (the world is one big great desert). I plan on having some spells only work with certain things such as sand storm only working where there is sand and Golem only working where there is a rock to make it from.
pushing people into things will be a solid part of combat. usually pushing people off things.

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

Using fire on sand will turn it into glass?

You can then cast a water spell to make it slippery.
Shatter it to cause damage to units standing on it.

(I'm awful at carrying a dialogue with brain storming)

[Jostain]

The spell would specifically be made to create glass surface.
Not a pure Fire = glass effect tough. Mostly because glass does generally not work like that. That is why the magic needs to do the glass bit rather than the heat.
I want to add environmental damage such as scorch marks on the ground and sand could have pebbles of glass in the sand but that would be aesthetics. water and ice spells will be very limited due to general lore.

The basic premise is that most of the world is a great desert and the little water that is available in the form of vapor is either absorbed by plants or by the gigantic flying cities that travel the desert.
Needless to say wildlife is almost nonexistent. Most of the critter found in the wild or in dungeons are some kind of magical construct or beings that for some reason do not need an external water source.

Most of the dungeons will be crashed cities where the flight core is broken for some reason.

[cardmaniac]

I'm in the casual gaming industry (so yes, it's not as cool as hardcore games, but it's still a lot of fun). For better or for worse, the frontend is usually coded in Actionscript 3 (flash). I learned AS3 at that company with the Kongregate shooter tutorials: http://www.kongregate.com/labs and I think they teach it very well.
And a lot of companies use AS3, so it's good to learn. And it's similar to java. The other language which will become important is probably html5.

[Jostain]

yeah I will try an branch out into other languages once I have a proper grasp of java. I did dable in AS in school while making homepages but our teacher was useless at it so I never got any good foothold.

In other news. Game Assets are hard. Today I spent a good couple of hours making a fence to go around the zeppelin and its looks shit. I have basically stolen the art of zelda a link to the past but everything needs to be changed to fit with the stuff I want to do.

[Jostain]

A quick game design question.

Its about dialogtrees and if they are fun or not. When playing baldurs gate the main thing that has always bothered me about conversations is that there is a mouth indicating who in the party is talking but none of the options actually reflect what the character would actually say. Minsc for example still have evil options.

So what I was thinking is that rather than having a dialoge tree one could simply have a set dialog depending on who you send to do the talking (with the option of having other characters cut in if stuff are not going the way you want)

So...

are you for or agains dialogtrees?

[Drdiggit42]

That depends. If it's not going to have an impact on gameplay, then no. If it allows you to gain allies and make enemies, then yes

[Jostain]

Lets say you have a situation where you could either solve it in a diplomatic manner or in a violent manner.
In baldurs gate you would go trough a bunch of lines that in the end would result in those 2 options. Skyrim works pretty much the same way.

The way I imagined it you would instead decide who would do the talking from your party and he will more or less select the options that matches his character design.

So if you let the giant meatshield he will probably first try to intimidate the person and if that fails fight. If you on the other send a lawful good mage he would naturally try to negotiate a solution and avoid violence.
The interrupt would be your basic control over the conversation where you can let different party members cut in and take over the conversation if the intimidation tactic fails.

So if you have a crew of violent psychopaths most of the solutions to interactions will be violent and psychopathic.
Unless you have one clever character that you let do the diplomacy and send in the psychopaths when diplomacy fails (that would be the mobster party).

This does however assume that there will be no main character or rather all crew members will be the main characters.
it also means that there will be a fuck-ton of different conversations depending on who is talking to who.