Programming/Game Development discussion.

Hey guys, I am curious how many fellow users of this site are either in college for programming/game development or currently working on game development of some sort. I am currently dual majoring in college in Computer Science and Technology, and Video Game Development. As well as working on a recent game project that I just brought onto. I just figured I would see if anyone would be interested in discussion of programming or game development on this site, which is something I think has been missing from these forums for a while. So if you guys are interested I would love to discuss any form of programming and game development here on the forums. Possibly even toss around some ideas for games and other such things, and if you are working on a game feel free to pimp it. I am really interested to see what other people here might be working on.

These two have released and developed games. I-smell has made a game. And Fobwashed is making one. They could probably give you some advice, that's all I got. I just play games.

I've been really interested in programming and I used to mess around with simple development software like Klik n Play when I was a kid. Now I'm studying Computer Engineering and I'm planning on specializing on Software Engineering. I've always meant to try something out, but I haven't found the inspiration for a personal project yet.

Heck, I wouldn't mind a friendly discussion about game development in general. I do it for a living, personally.

@Sjosz: Any projects you are working on now that you feel like discussing? I'm currently working on debugging this game I am working on, we are having an issue with the compass in the hud. While going north/south it works fine but when trying to go east/west the compass points in the opposite direction. Also if you are turned exactly 180 degrees away from the objective marker it will show up in your hud still and show you going further away istead of getting closser (because you are technically). Another problem I am working on is that while shooting at a friendly the bullets will pass through the hitbox and instead of stopping at the hit box like it should they fly through the character at a jacked up trajectory. Normally they shoot up after passing through the hit box. Kind of hard to explain that last problem hah. I think I almost have the compass issue ironed out though which is nice.

@Claude: I have actually been really interested to see updates on Fobwashed game. I loved what I saw last time.

@EquitasInvictus: Yeah I was in the same boat for a while. It is really hard to get motivation/inspiration when you don't have anything to work on. I wrote so many completely useless programs last semester for school, and just as practice. Got old after a while, it is nice to finally have some sort of actual direction and goal for sure. Its definitely worth trying out if you are interested in it though, there are a lot of really good tutorials for starting into the programming field.

@Claude: Yeah I thought about the fact that this should have been a blog after I posted it actually. But I will try and keep this updated as a non-annoying way to "bump" the thread. I just started working on a game so I will either end up making a blog for that or just updating it here depending on if this ends up getting any sort of traction.

I'm writing the story for a total conversion mod, but I have no experience in development or programming.

@ShadowConqueror: That sounds interesting - I always admire total conversion mods in how ambitious they are and when they get released it's almost as amazing as buying a new game. What kinda total conversion is it?

@ShadowConqueror: What game are you thinking about for this mod? I just got finished playing the mod The Worry of Newport, which is a mod for Crysis. It blew my mind, seriously one of the best things I have played in a long time.

Anybody interested in Linux development should check this thing out, I'm personally buying one so my parents can stream videos from our network: http://www.raspberrypi.org/faqs

Yeah, i develop vidja games. I gotta tell you man.... once you start making games at scale, your whole perspective on the gaming world changes. It's tight, I feel like I have the power to shape hearts and minds.

@matthias2437: I'm doing s Software Engineering degree. We don't have a game development course at my univeristy, so I'm trying to pick that up on my own.

I made a really shitty sprite based game in high school with visual basic using GDI, but am having a time of it trying to get DirectX to be fun.

How have you learnt to get all that business up and running? Are you using an existing engine? whats up?

@EquitasInvictus: @matthias2437: It was originally a Half-life 2 mod but it's been switched to Alien Swarm. Here's the link to the MOD DB page if you're interested.

I graduated last spring for comp-sci. Me and a friend have been developing a game since the summer. It's been going slow, since he has a real job, and we basically have to learn this stuff from scratch. We meet once a week in his garage to go over what we've done and to debug.

I say we start a Giant Bomb programming club where we act snobby and wear monocles and look down on those who aren't blessed with our talents. Who's with me?

lol, well I was in school for a Comp Sci degree, but I dropped out due to a combination of things mostly consisting of bad grades and being lazy. Lack of money wasn't helping either fyi. Now though, I feel like a complete failure and like it's easily one of the biggest mistakes of my life. Anywho, I'm aiming to go back no later than this summer/fall and finishing up. Don't really know why I felt the need to spill my life story, but whatever, I like keeping shit real with you mofos here.

Anywho, I don't have any 'real' game programming under my belt (just a bunch of shitty, normal, class project games), but I've been looking around for something that I can do on my own time and that will hold my interest. So far all of my ideas have been simply unrealistic for a single person or just not something I can't get my heart into. If anyone has any ideas for a one-man project just to start getting some experience then I'm all ears!

@bio595: the project I am currently working on if in UDK (Unreal Development Kit). I taught myself UnrealScript last semester in school since I was only taking 3 classes. There are actually a lot of really good free tutorials that you can use to become pretty fluent in most programming languages. UnrealScript is also not too bad to learn, if you have any knowledge at all of C++ then you should be able to get the hang of it pretty quick.

@ShadowConqueror: Tactical Horror RPG? That's pretty awesome. I love the games that are going to inspire that game. Do you have anyone interested yet that does know coding, and art design/modeling.

@BabyChooChoo: I like the idea of an elitist group for PROgrammers only. Haha. I would start off with a simple sprite based game. The first game I made was just a really basic sprite based plat-former. I'm not going to lie actually finishing a project and being able to play a game you made does pretty much throw motivation into high-gear hah.

@Sooty said:

Anybody interested in Linux development should check this thing out, I'm personally buying one so my parents can stream videos from our network: http://www.raspberrypi.org/faqs

It's just too bad about the proprietary firmware.

I'm trying to get into design. Most of my spare time right now is spent on a project that I'm going to bring to GDC in an attempt to get myself an internship. I'm not really much of a programmer (I'm using Gamemaker and intend to move into C# at some point), but I'll do anything to get into this damned industry.

Good idea for a thread. I'm starting to take the first steps into programming and game development. I'm switching my major to computer science next semester, so I'll be getting into more programming classes soon. Unfortunately, game development isn't a major at my university, so I can't double major. At the moment I'm using some tutorials and other vids to self teach myself UDK and blender in my free time, and I'm finding that to be a really fun experience. I have a few potential game ideas and mechanics rattling around in my head, and am looking forward to be able to turn them into a reality over the upcoming years with a few friends of mine.

@nintendoeats: Very nice, you definitely have to start somewhere. I started off modeling in Blender then realized that I prefered programming. Are you going to be attending GDC this year? I actually just picked up my pass for it this year. Can't wait for it, this is going to be my first GDC.

@MentalDisruption: Thankfully it's pretty easy to get into game development if you know programming in general. What UDK tutorials do you use? I went through about 5 of them last semester hah. I was quite surprised at how easy it was to find some good tutorials. Same with Blender actually, the ones they provide are pretty great actually.

@matthias2437: Nearing the end now fixing bugs on ME3. At this point I just want to see it done and in people's hands. Getting close to being done.

@matthias2437 said:

@MentalDisruption: Thankfully it's pretty easy to get into game development if you know programming in general. What UDK tutorials do you use? I went through about 5 of them last semester hah. I was quite surprised at how easy it was to find some good tutorials. Same with Blender actually, the ones they provide are pretty great actually.

I'm working my way through the vids provided on the sites for both programs at the moment. It's slow going because of how many credit hours I have this semester, but I'm getting through a handful each night. If you have any others that you recommend I'd appreciate it :D

A lot of my university modules cross over with the Games Tech dudes, the programming and 3d modelling ones specifically. Seems like they have a lot of fun with it, but my heart will always be with web development!

I'm interested in what level of programming knowledge you need to get into games development though, I've coded in Java for 3 years and picked up C++ this year. Never touched Unreal SDK or anything like that.

Yeah, I make games. I have two on the app store. Or, rather, they were on the app store. My dev license ran out a week ago (which means Apple pulled my games) and my Macbook died. So I'm waiting until my tax return shows up to renew the license and get a new Mac. In the meantime, I switched over to XNA. I have lots of knowledge/perspective on iOS development if you or anyone else has any questions about it.

I'm hoping to study games design this year. Fingers crossed I get in.

I'm doing my first year of Multimedia Computing and Animation which has quite a lot of computer theory and programming stuff as well as the animation side. We have been learning Java and some ActionScript so far, and I'm really enjoying it. As someone who's never programmed at all before I am finding it surprisingly simple to understand and I can't wait to get into the more complicated stuff and eventually being able to develop our own games.

i used to create maps for Counter-Strike and a bunch of other games but its been to long.. i moved from game design to webdesign so im totally out of it at this point.

a clan member of ours is doing a game development education in Canada though.. he's got a job as tester on the side.

you can download and play his game for free http://www.antonklock.com/?page_id=35

I've been coding a few things in my spare time (not doing a CS degree, you understand). The furthest along is my grand strategy game, but even that isn't in a playable state.

I'm a games programming student and I'm working with some people on a Facebook game at the moment, although that's more of a student project than anything else. Fobwashed seems to be the biggest guy on these forums when it comes to talking about games programming and I know Nintendoeats is very into game design.

I'm a designer at Easy Studios/DICE working on Battlefield Play4Free and Battlefield Heroes.

There's not many places on the Internets where you can discuss game development, so I hope this thread picks up!