This is more of a member introduction than anything and I didn't see a section/thread for it, so pleae remove it if it isn't allowed.

My name is Tyler and I'm about to start developing an in-browser side scroll racing game. I've been into internal combustion engine building and some sort of offroad racing for over 15 years (currently race ATV Motocross) and would like to apply that knowledge to a game as most that I've found lack the sort of capabilities that most real-world enthusiasts would like to see.

I have a little html coding experience from years ago, so a few basic concepts remain but are all but useless at this point. I'm undecided on the development software, but I'll do that research on my own as I don't expect others to find the information that is already out there. I'm unopposed to any feasible options but I will be researching the less-expensive options first.

Most of what I have at this point are only ideas of what I'd like to achieve. I'm sure the rest will fill in with time. If there is anything that I should know that isn't obvious after a decent amount of research, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks in advance for any assitance that I'll receive over time.

Hey there Tyler,

First things first, welcome on GameDev.net and I'm glad that you would like to get into the game industry,

or at least make a fun game!

Second things second, I see in your post that you don't expect people here on GD to help you with 'very common' and 'already solved problems',

but then you are wrong I guess, as the community here is really very friendly, so you don't have to be afraid that people will start yelling and you

telling you that you are stupid or something like that, because I'm pretty confident that that won't happen.

And then finally third things third ;P, as I said I'm glad that you chose to follow the path, as everyone else on this forum did. I can tell you, it won't be a

very easy path, but if you have a goal (and I see you have) and you are willing to work for it, then you are basically 100% guaranteed that you eventually will

achieve your goal.

To learn where to start your game making adventure exactly, I recommend to read the FAQ first. But I will add my advice to it, to hopefully help you even a bit further.

For now, it's wise to park the game you have in your mind to the side of the road for sometime. If you want to make a game yourself,

it is crucial to know how to program, as you need to tell the computer what to do, when the player does..... As you probably know from your experience with HTML (this is a big plus), there are many programming languages around. Some famous languages are C++, C, C#, Java and Python. For now, it doesn't really matter which one you chose. The only thing that is really important is that you are comfortable with the language and that you like the language, because, as the programming languages have a lot common, it isn't that hard to learn one, if you already know another. Don't be afraid to experiment a bit with some different languages to find the one that suits you the best, you can only learn from it.

If you chose a language, get a good book on the basics and start with that. But remember, from only reading you won't learn how to program. You have to practice. After you know some basics, start making some small text-based (in your console) programs/games. For example guess the number or Tic-Tac-Toe. Just keep learning and practicing until you are comfortable and starting to get a good programmer with the language (at least the basics). If you walk into problems, don't hesitate to ask it here, if your best friend Google isn't able to help you!

If you know the language, you can start using an engine or an graphics library. Now you can start making game with 2D or even 3D graphics. But start small!

As you can't make a ferrari if you don't know how to build an engine, you can't make your dream-game, if you don't know how games/game-mechanics work. So,

start by making small games like pong and start by increasing the difficulty of your games until you are comfortable with how games work and how to make them.

If you think you know enough, just go for it. Give this game you have in your mind a shot. If you get stuck big time and can't find a way out, don't

loose you confidence. Just take a step back and make some more 'smaller' game and give it a shot again.

If you have more questions or want to know more, don't hesitate to ask them.

Good luck on your journey, and remember: Dream big, start small!

RaoulJWZ

Moving to the lounge.

Welcome!

why sidescroller/2d? certainly it's good to keep things simple at the start, and a 3d physics engine is more complex than 2d,

you could go with a "2.5d" scheme, which gives you a 3d view like wolfenstein or doom or like my user image. much of the physics can still be kept to 2d behaviour eg. ground plane aligned or vertical + horizontal vector.

to get there from 2d only took me two steps - to figure out how to translate points from 3d space to 2d screen space, and that points in 2d space can be connected with lines and polygons (and i guess most stuff does that for you nowadays).

the first part is simple.. if you draw top-down on paper, and put the camera at a single point, of course it's a straight line to any other point. realise that the screen we are rendering is not at the camera point, but a short distance in front of it, so if the camera is (0,0) and we put the screen plane at (0,1), we know if an object is at (200,100) then it would be scaled to (2,1) :) the screen plane is usually called 'frustrum'. if you turn your head, then you need to rotate all the world object points by a 2d matrix, very simple. same for tilting view (2.5d is better for ground plane stuff that is based around a vertical orientation because of gimbal lock - eg. air movement requiring 3d rotation requires full 3d engine).

i find 2.5d only slightly more involved than 2d. of course i find it's always best to go with whatever idea is strongest for you :)

Second things second, I see in your post that you don't expect people here on GD to help you with 'very common' and 'already solved problems',

but then you are wrong I guess, as the community here is really very friendly, so you don't have to be afraid that people will start yelling and you

telling you that you are stupid or something like that, because I'm pretty confident that that won't happen.

That's great to hear! That's the most pleasant response that I've ever gotten to a first post on a forum lol.

I'm brewing a few questions today as I've already gotten my hands on Unity Personal and Xamarian 5.9.4. I'm working on this at the moment:

I've found a few differences between Xamarian and the previous MonoDevelop version that came with the Unity download. I'll be downloading a number of C# editing softwares (text editors, whatever they're called. clarification, please?) and trying the same codes on each to see how I like each one. I'll probably lean mostly on the one that acts as I think it should. I've been through software selection with music recording softwares, so I understand the importance of having something you can think with, rather than having something you have to think about.

why sidescroller/2d? certainly it's good to keep things simple at the start, and a 3d physics engine is more complex than 2d,

you could go with a "2.5d" scheme, which gives you a 3d view like wolfenstein or doom or like my user image. much of the physics can still be kept to 2d behaviour eg. ground plane aligned or vertical + horizontal vector.

to get there from 2d only took me two steps - to figure out how to translate points from 3d space to 2d screen space, and that points in 2d space can be connected with lines and polygons (and i guess most stuff does that for you nowadays).

the first part is simple.. if you draw top-down on paper, and put the camera at a single point, of course it's a straight line to any other point. realise that the screen we are rendering is not at the camera point, but a short distance in front of it, so if the camera is (0,0) and we put the screen plane at (0,1), we know if an object is at (200,100) then it would be scaled to (2,1) the screen plane is usually called 'frustrum'. if you turn your head, then you need to rotate all the world object points by a 2d matrix, very simple. same for tilting view (2.5d is better for ground plane stuff that is based around a vertical orientation because of gimbal lock - eg. air movement requiring 3d rotation requires full 3d engine).

i find 2.5d only slightly more involved than 2d. of course i find it's always best to go with whatever idea is strongest for you

2.5D isn't so much out of the question, I just view 2D as a more immediately achievable option. I don't have any kind of timeline in mind as it'll likely be a project to work on when I'm off work. Fix this, improve that, add such-and-such until I'm happy with it. I'll probably start with something small like a maze or tic-tac-toe (as recommended) before moving to a super-simple tower defense game and beyond. These are really just ways that I think will help get my mind wrapped around things.

Something like this: http://dreamcarracing.com/ is a somewhat comparable idea to what I'm hoping to go after, only I'd like it to be more in-depth and with more control over user-edited parameters, as well as more parameters to actually edit.

Also, my work schedule will allow quite a bit time (4 on, 4 off) for me to put towards it.

2 questions before I go:

1. Any recommended software to write C# in?

2. Is it preferred for one user to have a running thread or to post each topic/issue seperately?

Thanks!

I'll be downloading a number of C# editing softwares (text editors, whatever they're called. clarification, please?) and trying the same codes on each to see how I like each one.

If they let you compile and run programs, potentially with debugging features, they are called IDEs (Integrated Development Environment). If they just highlight the syntax of a language (functions in one color, variables in another, etc), then these are just editors with syntax highlighting (Notepad++ comes to mind).

I would recommend the Microsoft's Visual Studio for C#. I would also recommend learning the languages structure and syntax as it is key for programming. After you have master those really well I would recommend learning Object Oriented Design as this will be key for controlling your program as it grows.

I know this sounds like a lot of information... the truth of it is... it is a lot of information but that is alright :)

https://www.visualstudio.com/

Pros to Visual Studio:

1. C# is Microsofts language, so it probably good pratice to use their editor.

2. It also supports C++ and other languages, which you might be interested in later.

3. It is widely used so information and support is everywhere.

4. Commonly used in Software Development companies so you can add it you resume.

Start small, and don't burn yourself out. If it feels like to big of a project, it most likely is and you should scale it down then add later.

I hope this helps, let me know if you need anymore information about programmer :D

The perspective on how the code itself relates to everything else is beyond me at this point as I'm only now at the realization that there is more to it than what I understood before, which isn't much. I think it would be best for me to stick to using C# (which I've come to like) strictly for game development purposes until I become proficient enough to branch out and see what else it is capable of.

I'm currently tinkering with Visual Studio just to get a feel for it.

Going through a Tic Tac Toe build atm, I'll see what issues I can identify. Again, I'll be using Unity 5 and Visual studio.

C# is much different than HTML. Pretty much all the languages mentioned here are different than HTML.

It will take awhile until you get a feel for the IDE (Visual Studio) but once you do you will continue to find new tricks and short-cuts especially when your projects grow in size.

Feel free to PM with any questions, and hopefully I will be able to help.