I'm a writer, 2d cartoonist. I want to get into 2d game development so I can showcase my artwork and designs.

What about Dark BASIC? Or is there a simpler/better language to learn. JustBASIC? - or will that restrict me graphically.

I want to build games like RTS: The Sims, Close Combat, RPG: Phantasy Star, FInal Fantasy, Adventure: Discworld 2, Monkey Island,

Arcade: Galactic Swarm.

I'm not sure about Python or Lua, they seem gargantuan.

I'm thinking small in scale, say 30 levels but big in mechanics and simple graphics.

Does anyone know anything about BlitzMax?

I would love to get this kind of look for my games - http://www.gamedev.net/page/showdown/view.html/_/polyherder-games-r52147

I have posted an early brief for my first game Mogul 1: High School Hustler here - http://www.gamedev.net/topic/660318-ive-given-up-already-now-i-want-to-try-again-gml-or-something-else/

I decided to go with javascript, html5, css and css3.

Hi. Please forgive me, but I'm not sure what exactly you're looking for. You begin by asking questions about different languages, only to end your post with a decision you've already made. If you've already decided what you're going to use, you should probably ask about tutorials or resources for those languages. Follow this link for a great resource: http://www.littlewebhut.com/ . They're also on YouTube, if you prefer videos like I do (http://www.youtube.com/user/tutor4u).

I read your linked post, and you appear to be extremely indecisive about what you're going to use to make your games. You should probably know that most programming languages are very similar to each other, so you should pick one that is comfortable and does what you want it to do.

So...

If you want to make a browser game, I recommend that you learn HTML5 and Javascript. CSS, called a cascading style sheet, only adjusts the appearance of a webpage. Little Web Hut (the link above) has tutorials for all three aforementioned languages.

If you want the game to run on the desktop, like a Solitaire application, then you have more free options.

Python (programming) and Pygame (graphics) are easy to use, easy to learn, and easy to make stuff with. For help getting started, I recommend visiting http://inventwithpython.com/chapters/ . Invent Your Own Computer Games With Python is a free ebook and it's what I used to learn Python and Pygame. For more Pygame help, most of what you need is here: http://www.pygame.org/docs/ . If you want to make stand-alone applications (.exe files), cxfreeze will allow you to do so. Otherwise, people without Python installed will not be able to use your programs.

C++ (programming) and SDL (graphics) are good as well. The syntax might be more difficult if you have no prior programming knowledge. I learned this after I learned Python. Anyway, here is something to get you started there: http://lazyfoo.net/SDL_tutorials/ .

If you have any questions or need help, feel free to ask. I'm currently learning HTML5, CSS, and Javascript, so I might not be able to aid you with that beyond providing links. I hope this helped. Best wishes!

It sounds like you're kind of a beginner, so welcome to the wonderful world of code!

For you, i'm going to go ahead and say the merits of a language should be gauged by the amount of information available targeting it rather than the complexity of learning it.

Say you want to write some pathfinding code (Pretty important for an RTS game), i'm going to go out on a dime and say you can find more / better resources about pathfinding utilizing C# or Javascript than you could using any flavor of basic. Also keep in mind you are not interested in learning EVERY feature of C# or LUA, just the small subset that targets what you are trying to do.

Even simple projects are complicated to code, there is a lot of hidden complexity. I would suggest using a pre-made engine as you are not trying to showcase your code writing skills. There are a few good options for you, the two prominent ones are Unreal 4 (Blueprints), and Unity3D. I haven't used blueprints myself, but from what i gather so far it's super simple artist friendly visual coding. With Unity you will most likely have to learn C#, but there are a LOT of references online for this. Just take a look at the Packt Pub books. And the 2D unity tutorials / resources are just growing larger and larger.

Anyway, best of luck!

inkdrips, you continue to open new threads on a monthly basis that basically revolve around the same basic question: what language/engine.

Now, your first threads were posted in august, where you decided to give Game Maker a try. You came back to game dev days ago stating you disliked game maker (without giving any reason why... of course you don't have, but it would help people understand your decision better), decided to use HTML and CSS even though you originally stated that CSS confused you (without stating why, again), which is a fine decision...

Now you are back asking about Dark Basic and all that stuff...

You opened a second thread on the same day as this one. Why? Is this thread still relevant, or will you now try out HTML like you stated in the other thread? If not, can you state why you changed your mind?

Please, the next time you come back here with the same question, tell us why language X or Engine Y was not to your liking, so that people can better help you.

I've been learning javascript - I liked starting to learn it because I was finding the process of learning it was fluid.

Alot of what I'd learned about C# still applies, but in many cases there are simpler solutions in javascript.

The only part I'm not looking forward to is learning the html, html5, css and css3, which you need to go underneath javascript.

What I find confusing is I always end up with bugs and I don't know why. Mainly I make changes to my pages half way through, and it doesn't like that.

It prefers you to plan it all out first and know how it's all going to go, so that you don't change your mind halfway through - which can change many things without you realising it.

Does that make sense?

I loved being able to open a blank dreamweaver file, write some code and run a program.

alerts is where I'm starting. I've hired a tutor (an hour each week) and I'm learning from books as well.

I was thinking of learning python as well, once I'm confident with javascript, but I'd like to utilise javascript for both games and websites.

Yes, I'm very indecisive, and I'm sorry if it's annoying.

I think of choosing a language as a big decision and I'm always indecisive when it comes to big decisions.

I chose javascript because I enjoyed the process of learning it.

I chose python as a second because I like local desktop gaming as well as web games.

I like javascript because you can see it working straight away, and I find it intuitive and fluid to learn.

I dislike html because if I change my mind and rearrange the code halfway through I get bugs.

But because I chose javascript, I will try to conquer html, css, html5 and css3.

just start somewhere! It doesn't matter if you start with C++, javascript, C#, Perl, Java, whatever.

Choosing your first language is not (or at least shouldn't be) that big decision you first think it is. True, some languages are harder to learn than others (Maybe C++ because of memory management?), and some are stranger than others and thus do not help as much with learning the basics (javascript is exactly such a weird language. Everything is fine until you a) try actually run and debug something, or b) try to touch the pseudo-OOP layers of javascript).

But really, every new language you learn helps with learning others.

About your html / css pains: yes, that is the downside to using the brwoser and html as your "GUI" system. In other languages, you had to implement code and a windowing system to get the same graphical output. Maybe less jarring differences in code syntax, still work to do.

For debugging javascript, have you tried Firebug yet? Might be easier than having to code in alerts every time you try to debug something.