6 replies to this topic

[Majesticz]

3D sports strategy game is what i want to make. For instance a game like NFL head coach.

This game would be great if it had alot more stuff added to it. And it is so buggy its not even funny.

Which game engine should i use? Alot i have read are all about making mmo first person shooters etc.

Any advice would help?

I know i am new to this and will probably get flamed =) but thats ok as i am just looking for something to start with to get my hands dirty.

[starstutter]

I hate responding with my own url, but here:
http://www.devmaster...ead.php?t=13176

[fireside]

Blender is probably a good place to start if you don't yet know how to model. The game engine has a pretty good physics engine and it uses python which is a good starting language. It's also free, which I would recommend using free engines and tools to start with because you'll find there is a lot of work and learning required and that way you won't waste money on a commercial engine until you are sure you want to pursue it. It's also really better to start with 2d, especially in strategy games, because they tend to use grid systems and astar path finding and it's easier to understand in 2d at first. In which case you might want to look at pygame or pyglet.
http://www.pyglet.org/

[starstutter]

fireside said:

also really better to start with 2d, especially in strategy games, because they tend to use grid systems and astar path finding and it's easier to understand in 2d at first.

hmmm, not totally sure if I agree with you there. As a whole, 3D is countless times more complicated, no doubt, but most 3D stratagy games take place on a 2D grid anyway, so I don't think it would be much different in that aspect.

[alphadog]

Beyond the standard advice of "start-small-build-up", "coding-is-not-playing-solitaire-so-get-ready" and other pearls of wisdom starstutter has collected in his other thread, I think the give away statement about your naivete is: "This game would be great if it had alot more stuff added to it."

Sometimes, a development team has these things called "deadlines"; they don't have an unlimited amount of time and resources. If you think you can add more than EA to this genre, by yourself, with probably limited skills (although you haven't laid them out) and have it done before you grow old and tired... well, good luck.

And, one of the big design decisions is always how complex to make a game. There's always the desire to add more and more, but at some point you've taken a game and turned into a full-blown representation of reality, and the game is lost. Sometimes less is more...

Anyways, on the "start small", find a good 2D engine and start building your prototype. Think of it as a simplified first pass. I usually recommend: Haaf's, PTK, pyglet, Pygame, SDL, SFML, Torque or FlatRedBall, each for different reasons. If you are a newbie, find one with a good community and good tutorials.

Good luck.

[fireside]

Quote

hmmm, not totally sure if I agree with you there. As a whole, 3D is countless times more complicated, no doubt, but most 3D stratagy games take place on a 2D grid anyway, so I don't think it would be much different in that aspect.

The logic is identical, yes, which is why I would recommend starting with 2d. You don't have to worry about matrices, etc, and you can focus on just the strategy logic. I've just been going through this with a little game I'm working on in java with a 3d engine and mouse picking, turning the character in the proper direction, gui, etc, is a pain that probably would be better to wait on for a beginner. The identical logic can be used in 3d after it's worked out. Plus 2d, in my mind, is better to become familiar with a programming language. There are all kinds of functions in 3d engines that obfuscate the language principles because they are pretty complex. In Blender you use a bunch of logic bricks, which is nice in a way, but people have trouble later making the jump to python scripting and never make more than very simple games.

[starstutter]

Yes, you are right and I slightly misread your statement about the logic. You didn't say it was any more complex, but would be harder to understand with 3D movement and matricies, and that's true.

One thing I will say though is that if a beginner can, he should try to use 3D math instead of hackish 2D substitutions, such as sin()cos() combinations for finding angles (speaking from experience). Those work fine in 2D, but you have to start using dot product and normal directions when you move to 3D, and it's pretty tough to unlearn. So to the OP, you can make a 2D game, but do yourself a favor and use 3D based math. And by that I mean use 3D math algorithems with the third dimension cut off. It should work just fine I belive.