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A boy growing into a man.

Gaming Knight · 2001-05-27T02:36:50

Dear Gamedev.net forum readers Hello. I am new to this site, so I would like to introduce myself. My name is Jermaine Anthony Clarke III, my nickname is Gaming Knight. I am looking forward to meeting and chatting with each and every person here possible. but before I do that, I would like to tell a moderately long story. The reason why I am here, is because I am a 17 year old boy growing into a man, turning 18 in 3 months, and so far, I have nothing to really be thankful about, as for what I have accomplished. I have attended school, and learned things that I didn''t want to learn. I have knowledge that makes no sense to me thanks to these schools, and I am looking to make a positive change. About a few months ago, I was sitting with my friends, playing videogames, and rantng about how some games to me are not worth my time playing. And while I was playing these games, I often asked myself the question "What if I made a videogame?" but I took no serious account into it, because I didn''t think I was the type of person to create such a thing. One night, I went to sleep, and I had a dream about a little girl that seeked to grow into a woman, and live the life she wanted to live. By the time I woke up the next day, I realized that the dream that I had was a sign for me to make this girl into the molding of my desire. My desire was to make her into a videogame because the information that I had on the girl was on the length of a epic saga. Days, weeks, even a month or so passed by, as I dreamed about the girl more often, and as I did I got even more information, and more desire to make her into a videogame. To make sure that I did not lose such valuable information to me, I wrote down everything that I dreamed about in concerns of the girl. My friends have MTV Music Generator for the PSX. For no reason at all, I began to make music on it that had a videogame like musical feel to it. Intro music, suspense music, RPG like music, Action music, Credits music, game over music, I just about made all types of videogame music. And everytime I saw the girl, the music fitted perfectly with her. I then had ideas to make write ups of adventures for her, and they too were the adventures that could be found in videogames. I then made a poor excuse of a drawing of her and I sat down with the pictue and stared at it for about a day. I then drew her again, and when I showed the second picture to my friends, they said that she looked as if she was drawn by a professional. But I never drew anything in my life. The aura and Charisma of the girl made me draw even more pictues, make more stories, create more music, and work even harder. My family has seen my progress, and has decided to support me the best way they know how, by getting me a computer. I should be getting it on my birthday. My friends decided to give me game development software for my arriving computer, and so far I have studied the instruction manuals of the software and came to a more understanding of how it works. The only problem is that with all of the resouces that I have now and will soon have, I don''t know much about programming. I have read many examples, and even experimented with a few blueprint writings. But I never actually composed a program of a game before. One of my friends pulled me to the side and told me of this place, because he said that the dream that I had was a calling, and if anyone can help me get to th goals that I am seeking, Gamedev can. I have sat here for weeks, watching the everyday postings and writings of this site, and I feel that this place is just about too good to be true. However, I was scared that if I posted here, people might consider my dream as a joke, and that would crush me. However, I remember what my ninth grade science teacher said to me once. "He who expresses himself in a crowd and laughed at, is a fool for 5 minutes. He who does not express himself at all is a fool forverer". And so, brings me up to speed on myself, posting this message. As a new person here. I don''t have any guidance around this place, nor do I have anyone to talk refrence about here. I only ask for the good people of Gamedev to just give me a little push in the right direction. If I must buy a game developing book, learn how to compile a program, e-mail every person that people tell me to e-mail, I''ll do it. I am very serious with my dream, and I am determined to make my dream, into a reality. There will be a day where people will walk down the normal everyday streets of their neighborhoods, and see my name, and when they see my name, they will say to themselves "Hey, that''s GamingKnight, the fameous game developer". When that day comes, then, and only then, will I take a day to rest, and look back at what I have accomplished. I thank you for reading, and look forward to smiling and talking with everyone here. May we all make our dreams into a reality. This boy you see here dreams about making games. With his passion and dedication for the love of games, he will one day grow into a man who will talk about the games he has made. Gaming Knight. "That''''s what I am."

General and Gameplay Programming Programming

Started by Gaming Knight May 21, 2001 03:23 PM

22 comments, last by Gaming Knight 23 years, 8 months ago

felisandria

739

May 22, 2001 10:47 AM

Hi Gaming Knight, welcome to the forum, nice intro.

As a few people have noted, it''s not too hard to keep me as my usual sunny cheerful moderator self, just avoid posting off topic stuff here (random thoughts go in the lounge, help wanted goes in help wanted, I hate it when people put help wanted stuff in here), don''t yell in your topics and try to make them descriptive, and avoid flame wars.

A lot of people have already said you''ve started on a difficult journey. They are 100% right. The first thing you need to realize is that this isn''t easy, and it can be really frustrating... but with some hard work and stubborness you can get somewhere. Just be willing to spend the time it takes doing stuff that seems sometimes stupid, sometimes trivial, sometimes pointless compared to where you eventually want to be, because in programming you have to start small and learn from the bottom up, and the little text program that lets you hit enter to get a random number that you write today is going to be part of the guts of the full-fledged RPG you write 5 years from now.

Be patient, be stubborn, work hard, and ignore the naysayers.

-fel

~ The opinions stated by this individual are the opinions of this individual and not the opinions of her company, any organization she might be part of, her parrot, or anyone else. ~

Anonymous

May 22, 2001 01:12 PM

Gaming Knight!

Your story touched a chord inside me, and that, I tell you, is very rare. I guess it''s because it reminds me of myself. I''ve had strange fantasies floating around in my skull since the gods know when, and making games have always been one of my dreams. I will advise you to do and think as I do:

I started out directly with C++, and it is, in my opinion, the best language for making games. C++ allows you to take control over every tiny aspect of your programs. I started out with reading "C++ Primer Plus" by Stephen Prata. You can find it at Amazon at:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1571691626/o/qid=990554109/sr=8-2/ref=aps_sr_b_1_2/104-3239355-6156711

It gave me a good basic knowledge of the language. After that, I found a free library, "Allegro", that is designed for game programming. When I had learned C++, using that library made it possible for me to make a funny game.

The homepage for Allegro: http://www.talula.demon.co.uk/allegro/
To get in touch with the nice Allegro community: www.allegro.cc

Read books, this site''s got alot of good recommendations, look in the books section. Read tutorials, lots to find on the ''net, GameDev''s programming section is stuffed with ''em!

Have the right attitude, analyze things so that you will not undertake improbable tasks. Above all: keep fighting, every bad experience is a learning experience. Enjoy what you do!

Questions? E-mail me at: kakkafruitti@korridoren.zzn.com

MARS_999

1,627

May 26, 2001 07:50 PM

"C++ Primer Plus" by Stephen Prata is a great book to learn C++. I have that book, but it is the Signature Series. Forget those learn C++ or C in 24hours books they skip out on some info and cut short the why its that way info. This book is really good and will teach you all the basics of C++. I started out in C++ and found it very hard at first to learn but stuck with it and now can do some simple coding and I am working on a text rpg game and then on to a 2d game. =) Best of Luck!

Windows 98/SE/ME SUCKS!
Deal with it!
if(windows crashes)
run Linux
else
yeah right!!

RESIST WINDOWS XP!!!!!!!!!!
RESIST .NET TECH!!!!!!!!!!!

Impossible

134

May 27, 2001 02:34 AM

Scary, kind of reminds me of myself, except I've been drawing since I could pick up a pencil and I've been coding for like 8 years now. I too have dreams of becoming a game developer (well more then that, but you need to take things one step at a time) and I will also be 18 very soon (in July.) Keep at it and you'll have get good results.

badcontent.net

btw, could you post some of your art or music, or at least give a link to a site with them. I'd like to see\hear your stuff.

Edited by - impossible on May 27, 2001 3:36:50 AM

A boy growing into a man.

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