Hi, I have recently started making 2d games. I am currently working on an online fighter/platformer (think ssbm) and ive come to a point where I believe I need to know more then I do. Obviously people have to learn from somewhere and I think I know where that "somewhere" is, books. I own a few c++ books and one about makings games (unfortunatly text based only). Anyways can you reccomend me some books on programming 2d games, 2d online games, anything in the 2d field I should know about. I would move away from SDL and onto 3d programming except for my lack of 3d models and skills. Considering that im underbudgeted and I want to start making games professionally I believe that 2d is the way to go. Have anything in mind?

Have you considered learning how to make a MUD? They're basically mmorpg's, that are text-based, not graphics-based. There are plenty of free codebases to start learning from, as well as a book or two.

It seems to me that once you can program a mud, and can program a 2D single-player game, you should be in a position to merge the two into a 2D mmorpg.

That does seem like a good idea but text programs just dont hold my interest anymore. I could probially do that to learn how the server and client work but I wouldnt want to work on it more then a day. Now that I have a job im just looking for books again that I can better my 2d skills with.

that "somwhere" doesnt have to be from a book. i have taught myself everything i know soley from writing code and posting / reading at gamedev. all the books i ever bought for game development (and even general programming) sit on my shelf and get absolutely no use. i just simply cannot learn from books, but everyone is different. just some food for thought..

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I could probially do that to learn how the server and client work but I wouldnt want to work on it more then a day.

Learning proper client/server programming is significantly more work than "a day". I think you might be under-estimating the level of dedication you need to have to a project like this to complete it.

The only way to learn that is to try, try again, though, so have at it.

Yes you are actuially correct. I just want to find a book or really basic tutorials. Everything I look at assumes I know what they are talking about. I dont know what byte order is! The only things I know are what a port and IP number are. I know what a server and a client does. That are it! I have a tutorial on my computer but it shows windows programming (which isnt what I was looking for, I was looking for a WINSOCK tutorial!) and doesent explain what its doing, just what its called. I want to find a basic of basics tutorial on how to program a client/server that sends messages back and fourth, allows multiple connections, connects two clients through IP addresses, and that is basicially it. The most basics you can find. I mean hell im only making a multiplayer fighter/platformer (think super smash brothers). All I want to do is make it so that a client can connect to a main server and check if an update is available and find other people to play with then have them create there own connection with each other and play the damn game. I have some code but it will not work correctly. Does anyone know where I can find a basic tutorial that shows me JUST what I want to learn and not a whole bunch of advanced things I do not care about at this time (They will be usefull sometime but right now I dont need to know them)?

google for "beejs tutorial". also, what API do you want to use? there are high level networking libs which simplify these things, such as RakNet. RakNet also comes with many examples and a few step by step tutorials on sending data back and forth.

Currently I am using Winsock but starting fresh with a networking lib wouldnt be hard (considering I done know what im doing). The game is written using C++/SDL/and Dev-C++ as the compiler.