The good news: Somehow I convinced my school to give me an entire school year in which to independently use one of their nice pc''s to work on programming. Specifically writing a game... And they are giving me credit for this. The only interaction I have to have with a teacher is to show them that I''ve accomplished stuff and then I get an A. Nice huh? The almost good: It was about 3 or 4 weeks into the school year that I convinced them to let me do this. Then it took them until last week to find a copy of msvc++ for me to use in the district, and finally this week (6 and a half weeks since school started!) they will actually be getting it to my school so I can install it. The bad: I have no clue what to do for a project... I have quite a bit of experience with c/c++, and other language I used before it, a small amount of win32 experience (all I need to know of it to get a game running atleast) a small amount of directdraw knowledge, and a hefty knowledge of 3d theory (including creating my own low-tech 3d rendering engine for dos from scratch that rendered a couple small models and manipulated/morphed them). My question to all of you is... Does anybody have any ideas for things I could do for learning 3d graphics and creating a small 3d game? The teachers and administraters at my school have no clue about programming so I really would like ideas for something that would look very eyecandish and be easy to do, while still helping me learn how to use directx. Can anybody out there help me out with some ideas please? --Drakonite

Drakonite your post is in the wrong forum (I have been told by the moderators to let them handle the ''wrong forum'' stuff, but i can''t resist).

First of all go here and after that go here or here.

Making a 3d game is a difficult, i recommend you start out here.

I agree with Jonas :D Hop to the ''beginners'' forum I would say...

The game have to be..

Fast to get into ... hmm, easy to present to theacher.
something she, he seen already..

Fast action .. flashy...

Pinball??

having just reciently done this exact same thing i can tell you that your best bet is to go with tetris. its easy and a good way to work on classes, directx, and is a game you already know. i picked up the "learn computer game programming with directx 7.0" and it was not that bad from there. i would also tell you to pick up some books on anything that looks like its having to do with class diagrams. that way you can setup your classes quicker and get to the fun stuff which is the programming.

Okay... I''m not asking a beginner question on how to program, I''m seeing if anybody has any ideas for a design for a game I could make, that would be flashy yet simple...
I''m asking for an idea for a design... hence I asked in the game design forum...

Hm... Pinball could work... Needs to be 3d... I could probably do that...

--Drakonite

quote:
having just reciently done this exact same thing i can tell you that your best bet is to go with tetris. its easy and a good way to work on classes, directx, and is a game you already know

Okay, let me clarify... I''ve been programming for a while, and have written games using dos graphics, and gdi. Tetris would take me about a week. That includes re-learning how to set up win32 and directx (haven''t done it for a while).

I am not a newbie to programming. I am new to direct3d though. I have used win32 api calls before, and have some experience with using directx, so doing that much will just take me a couple days to refresh my memory (day=50min class).
What ever my project is HAS to be a 3d game (part of the description of it already given to the school).
The project also has to atleast appear to be complex, so a tetris clone wouldn''t pull it off (although I plan to make one along the way.)

So please don''t flame me telling me to go to the beginners forum. What I am asking is if anybody has any ideas for a general design of a game which seems complex yet wouldn''t be trememdously hard to make.

--Drakonite

Have you checked out NeHe Production? They have a Zelda Clone Source Code ...

3D, yet fairly easy to build...

How about a simple flying game? It is a 3D setup, but the
world map can be 2D and if you describe it as a sim then
you don''t even need enemy units.

Also you could do some flashy tricks with the exaust trails
and the weapon/flare effects.

If it''s a school project, and you don''t want to turn off the same teacher(s) who will give you a grade, I''d suggest going for something non-violent.

Taking the flying game idea, how about a UFO flight sim? I haven''t seen this type of game made very much.

You''d get your hands dirty with 3D graphics, but not have to do heavy research into aircraft physics. Since it''s a fictional craft, you decide how it handles.

You could add gameplay in the form of evading radar sites, jets that would try to shoot you down, and reporters trying to take your picture. (well, maybe not the last one )

You could add something like trying to beam up cattle and poor saps on lonely roads.

All of this would give you experience in:
* 3D gfx programming
* simple AI in a 3D environment
* terrain (even simple flat terrain with a texture would work, just call it Nebraska )
* creating unusual gameplay
* non-violent gameplay that may be more impressive to a non-gamer


Just a thought...

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Just waiting for the mothership...