Questions from a beginner

Tuesday, May 8, 2012 - 16:04

Hello all,

I am new to this forum and website as a whole and essentially new to any type of programming. I recently finished a grade 11 course in java, and am generally competent with computers, but other than that my skills in terms of programming and game design are limited/basic.

A few of my buddies and I are thinking of making a game for either our own amusement or perhaps even for the app/android store down the road (yes I know these use different languages). We are not delusional, and are not looking to make the next angry birds with fancy graphics or something of the like. We are however planning to make a simple game somewhat similar to the popular ipod games Haypi Kingdom and Emross War. Note, these games have no moving images whatsoever and are mostly 2D and are text based when it comes to describing the outcome of a battle or mission. They are very simplistic in nature, and from my basic understanding the game is basically a bunch of images with buttons plastered on top. (Please take a look at one of the sites below if you are unclear about the games I described).

Clearly the stuff like actually making multiplayer is a different story but that is a bridge that is miles away, so I am hoping that someone with knowledge of such a project could tell me if my buddies and I are way over our heads here. Is this idea feasible? I think it is possible because buttons and photoshop are not that complex and there is a massive amount of quality 2D artwork out there, but if I am completely misjudging the complexity of this project please let me know.

Thanks!

Squishy

http://www.haypi.com/kingdom/index.htm

http://www.emrosswar.com/games/emross-war/index.html

bart

joined 13 years 5 months ago

Tuesday, May 8, 2012 - 17:38

Making a single player turn-based strategy game isn't necessarily all that hard, but as you said, multiplayer is a long, long way off (and it adds tons of complexity).

Not counting multiplayer, what you're thinking about is on the ambitious side of realistic for a group of beginning programmers. I wouldn't call it particularly easy, but I think your biggest hurdle for a game like this is going to be generating logic, content, and art (as opposed to actually writing code, which probably won't have to be all that complex).

My advice is this:

Try to keep the rules fairly simple, at least to start out with.
Try to keep the amount of content (structures, items, enemies, etc) fairly limited to start with.
Avoid animations and special effects for now. It'll be hard enough without these. :)
If you're going to be writing this in Java, be sure you use Object Oriented Programming to your advantage. Buildings should all be based on a common class, items should all be based on a common class, etc.
You may eventually want to think about integrating a scripting language, but in all honesty if you're just getting started, I'd recommend that you hard-code your unit types, buildings, etc. Don't get into scripting on your first project. It adds a layer of complexity that you don't want.

In closing, if you are very careful about making sure things don't get too complicated, and you're prepared for a big project, I believe this is probably doable, provided you're prepared to stick with it. :)

Bart

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Questions from a beginner