Hello, I am Verek. I have been playing games for the better part of my young life, and I have always wanted to make my own, or at least be involved in some part of the development, mainly concept design, programming, and music. (Is that an odd combination?) Just like any other hobby/profession, I am sure it costs a bit of money to get started. Now, I''m poor, very poor, but I don''t have a job cause I''m still a kid, so I can always beg my parents if all else fails, but...If I were looking to get myself equipped, what would I need? I''d really like to get some of the music production software/hardware, because not only can you use it for games, you can use it for...ummm...music. Also, programming, what exactly do you need, how much does it cost, how can I learn, etc. Basically, right now all I have is a computer, and it''s not even a very good one: Pentium III 600MhZ, Windows 98SE/Mandrake Linux, 128 MB RAM, GeForce 2, and a SB Live. From my perspective...it looks like I''m in a pretty poor position right now...but I love games. I''ve always had ideas for games, and game music. I always think to myself, "Man, I think a (particular type of song) would have fit much better here." As I''m sure many others of you have. So, any help will be appreciated. Thanks. Why?!?

Well, first you need to learn a programming language. I would highly recommend learning C++, being the industry standard and most widely used programming language (well, plaing old C may more widely used, but learn C++). For this task, nothing beats a good book. Sam''s "Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days" is very good. If you want free, here is an online C++ tutorial (though I highly recommend picking up a book):
C++ Programming

Now, you will also need a compiler to compile the code into a program. You can either shell out the cash (~$100) for Microsft Visual C++, or you can download the free Dev-C++, which can do most of the things MSVC++ can do. You can get Dev-C++ from here.

You''ll need to learn how to program before you can make games. After learning a language, your best bet is to choose a graphics API (Direct3D and DirectDraw or OpenGL). But hold off on that until you learn to program.

I am not into music myself, so I can''t comment on that area. If you don''t get any worthwhile responses here, there is a Music and Sound forum.

Hope that helps.

quote: Original post by Verek
Hello, I am Verek. I have been playing games for the better part of my young life, and I have always wanted to make my own, or at least be involved in some part of the development, mainly concept design, programming, and music. (Is that an odd combination?)

Just like any other hobby/profession, I am sure it costs a bit of money to get started. Now, I''m poor, very poor, but I don''t have a job cause I''m still a kid, so I can always beg my parents if all else fails, but...If I were looking to get myself equipped, what would I need? I''d really like to get some of the music production software/hardware, because not only can you use it for games, you can use it for...ummm...music. Also, programming, what exactly do you need, how much does it cost, how can I learn, etc.

Basically, right now all I have is a computer, and it''s not even a very good one: Pentium III 600MhZ, Windows 98SE/Mandrake Linux, 128 MB RAM, GeForce 2, and a SB Live. From my perspective...it looks like I''m in a pretty poor position right now...but I love games.
I''ve always had ideas for games, and game music. I always think to myself, "Man, I think a (particular type of song) would have fit much better here." As I''m sure many others of you have.

So, any help will be appreciated.

Thanks.

Why?!?

dude your PC is better than mine i got a PII 350 Mhz ,windows me,64MB RAM and an ATI raqe pro

dude ur pc is better than mine, i got a p166mhz, 32mb ram :D

anyways..if u wanna do music, go to www.modarchive.com and download a tracker and some samples...

its totally free and u can make high quality music..

a tracker is the software you use to make the music...
like..and samples..well its like instruments..synths, basses, guitars, pianos...

i would recommend you to start with FastTrackerII, its a really good tracker, and the most common..one bad thing with it is that it is for DOS, and the highest mixing quality is 22.1k khz.

to download fasttracker, go to www.modarchive.com, then go to the software section.