help for a beginner

Helix

as some of you know, ive been in the business of writing about games for years now, but since most of my time is spent critiquing the work of others, i thought it would only be fair that i try to learn the basics of putting something together myself.

ive had an idea for a while now, which ive whittled down to its barest of bones in order to make it a vaguely reasonable long term project to put together myself. ive got a design background so im fairly au fait with the basics in that respect, from building designs to storyboarding etc., however i lack even the slightest clue as to where to start from a technical standpoint for this particular project

essentially, what i want to make is a side scrolling platformer. it'll be almost entirely 2d in scope, however i would like to have the ability to have a few 2.5d sections, where the character moves into foreground or background layers on occasion. that's not a dealbreaker if it's incredibly difficult to do, as it's not integral to the overall scope of the game

i have a very specific aesthetic in mind which ive arrived at both out of simplifying the process as much as possible, and in trying to sculp an identity for the title. this process involves high definition photography of real world settings highly stylised and stitched together to build level backdrops, character models (a huge number of images per character strung together ala stop motion to create each animation etc), pickups and environments.

now, you folks know a hell of a lot more about this stuff than me, so basically im looking for a couple of pointers here, namely;

a) is this approach really going to be as simple as i actually think?

b) what is the best, and most accessible engine or development tool, for such a straightforward (i hope) project. characters will move along the horizontal plane, be able to jump, be able to crouch/roll and, most importantly, be able to use various pickups in order to progress. the pickups are the most important thing in the overall idea here. they're essentially what underpins the entire point of the game, so it's important that they can be done relatively well.

c) i want to make this compatible with the xbox 360 controller, even though it's a pc project. is this straightforward?

d) physics. physics physics physics. im crap at maths, but the physics will need to be just right here (im not talking a physics based game or anything, everything just has to have a weight to it if it's going to work). is this something that's going to make my life a lot more difficult, or is it something that can be done easily using the right engine?

i want to do this myself, and im aware that it'll probably take me years given the relative lack of time ive got, but im willing to put in the time wherever necessary within reason. what i don't have time to do is go about learning everything from the ground up. much as i'd love to take that approach, it's not realistic. if that means some features ive planned cant be worked into it, then so be it. im not aiming for anything here beyond a reasonable concept demo.

all advice welcome! danke

docdolittle

I'll try to write a more detail post tomorrow if you want, but XNA sounds like your best bet. It has the code for the 360 controller with the PC and there are plenty of guides and tutorials on the internet, especially for side scrolling games. It uses C# which I thought was really nice to use while coding in XNA.

The physics that it sounds like you want are pretty easy to make too. I'm pretty sure you'd be able to find most of the stuff you need here on the XNA site

You could honestly do this in a lot of different game engines, from flash to unity... It will just be what you prefer in the end.

Helix

cheers man! a bit more detail would be great particularly if you've got a bit of experience in this end. i know xna is definitely something that's recommended to a lot of people alright, but like i say i dont really have the time to spare to go from the ground up. are there code libraries in the public domain that i could take and perhaps modify some code from (i pick things up quite quickly from a modification standpoint, rather than a creation one)

the most important thing for me really is that it's not an unrealistic project? you reckon it could be done by one person over a year or 3 based on the vague outlines ive given?

ive got a couple of java and c++ books, would it be worth getting a c# one if i was going this route?

Anima

I'd say you'll need some help. If you could get someone with a bit of programming experience it would save you a lot of hassle and time.

If you go it alone, definitely start learning programming as soon as possible and set the bar low initially. Programming is fine but when you encounter a problem you really have to know what is going on.

I don't think it's an unrealistic target at all. You seem to have a clear idea of what you want and that's a great start. Now you just need to figure out how you're going to realise those ideas and just get each feature done gradually.

RedXIV

Anima wrote: »

I'd say you'll need some help. If you could get someone with a bit of programming experience it would save you a lot of hassle and time.

I agree. The worst part I found about learning to code was trying to figure out what went wrong and you really need someone who knows what they are doing for that.

For the record I complete get that you can modify much easier than create but that really leaves you with a very limited scope in what you can do. I'd second XNA as a tool though, it comes with great sample pieces of code and tutorials and the community is very strong.

The only thing is in your first post you say you want to understand the basics behind the games. Unfortunately, at this stage, that's practically a vocation in itself. I'm not saying its not do-able but you're talking a serious level of commitment to get an even half decent level of code understanding.

gizmo

I'm going to disagree with the above posters, quite strongly in fact given what you've said in your OP. Unlike Retr0gamer who I gave some advice to in this thread, you very much seem like someone who wants to make a game rather than learn how to make them. In this case I can't recommend Unity strongly enough. It is ideal for what you want to do. It will give you control over the gameplay elements which matter to you, provide a fantastic workflow with the editor, scripting and asset import options, has solid documentation and a fantastic community to back you up. In short, it will let you focus on the business of making the game rather than the nitty gritty on how the engine behind it all works.

There is still some learning involved with respect to using either C# or Javascript but there's plenty of tutorials on the subject, both from a generalist viewpoint and Unity specific, and as such, it's incredibly easy to get started.