Hi All

I have just started exploring game development, mainly because I have had an idea for a sport management/boxing promoter type game running around in my head for some time now.

My question is around databases. Do I need one if so what is recommended and any tutorials?

I have been looking are for some time now for this information and this genre of game doesn’t seem to have many tutorials.

I need to be able to generate and store new caricatures at different points in the game and have the stats go up and down. The user needs to be able to see all the numbers and be able to select the caricatures (e.g. for fight 1, 2, 3 etc).

I plan on using VS (Windows Form) to start with then look at upgrading it to Unity. I will be using C# mainly.


Any thoughts?

Thanks for the help 


Hello Razor,

I would like to congratulate you on your idea. I am an avid boxing fan and I greatly enjoyed games like WCBM and Titlebout that simulate the sport. I am a novice when it comes to game programming. I would say the key to this kind of game is the database, the queries and the logical implementation of numerical values to implement the nuances of the sport, while allowing the player to effectively manipulate the outcome through implementing appropriate strategies.

I am not sure where you are going with the avatar idea. Do the avatars represent different fight strategies? So that the player selects a "stick and move" avatar, or a "look for KO punch" avatar at the beginning of a round to provide modifiers to the boxers standard stats. If so I would make the avatars a separate class that provides modifiers to values in the database. This way you need only create two implementations of the fighter class and two implementations of the card class for each fight. I would love to hear more about idea and if it possible for me to contribute, I may be interested in that too.

My question is around databases. Do I need one if so what is recommended and any tutorials?

A database is just a collection of data, something you can also store in a bunch of class objects or so (I don't know C#, my naming of C# things may be off).

As for filling the objects with data, you can look into reading a file. I would go with a text-file, so you can edit it easily. When the program starts, it first reads the file, and loads the objects with its contents.

That solution is an order of magnitude simpler to program and manage than a real data base, and will suffice for a long time.

I have been looking are for some time now for this information and this genre of game doesn’t seem to have many tutorials.

That's normal, tutorials are short introductions into something, nothing more. Beyond that, you come in with your own ideas, and combine various techniques and ideas to your unique game. This is what makes each game and each project unique!

I need to be able to generate and store new caricatures at different points in the game and have the stats go up and down. The user needs to be able to see all the numbers and be able to select the caricatures (e.g. for fight 1, 2, 3 etc).

I assume you mean "characters", but yes, sounds good. Define various properties of a fighter, and use random numbers to fill them. Next problem is displaying them to the user, and having the user select the fighter.

Deeper down, you have the problem of two fighters with values for all the properties that you generated above, meeting each other. What are the possible results here, and how do you decide that? Again this is much random number territory, I think.

Good luck, and for more questions, ask (although I might not be the best person to answer them due to lack of Windows and C# knowledge).

Thanks for the quick replies

Hi Lucas

The sport I am planning is not Boxing, Its just the closest sport to what I am planning I could think off. But saying that a Boxing promoter game would be a good idea. I will start considering it.

Hi Alberth

Sorry for the typo. It will be a mix off posting using my phone at midnight and dyslexia. Thanks for the tip about the text files. I will have a look in to it. Are you able to amend the dater? For example Character 1 has improved his x stat through training.

As for the stats and how they interact I have a excel doc where I am working all that out.

Thanks for the help.

Sorry for the typo.

No need to be sorry, I was just not sure what you meant, so I clarified my interpretation to avoid that you attached the wrong meaning to my reply.

Are you able to amend the dater? For example Character 1 has improved his x stat through training.

After reading the file, you have all data in memory, and you can change the stats as you like (in memory). This works until you close the program. At that point, the in-memory copy dies, and with it, all changes you have made since you loaded the data from file.

The next time you start the program, it will load the same file again, so you start at exactly the same point where you started the previous time.

The solution to this problem is to write a new file with all the changes that were made during the game before the current session ends. The next time you play the game, you load that file, and you have all the changes again, so you can start off where you left the previous time. That means you not only need reading a file, but also writing a file.

There is however one big caveat here. Suppose your friend arrives and wants to play the game too. Obviously, he shouldn't start at the point where you are, right? He should start at the initial starting point of the game. In other words, he needs the very first version of the file to start playing.

I'll leave it you to work out how to do that. As a hint, you need more than one file here.

If you get stuck, ask, but please give it some thorough thought first, it's not that difficult.

Thanks for the info. 'Save and Load Game' is something I need to look in to.