I''m thinking more and more about the usefullness of something in big bold letters saying that RPG''s aren''t very good first projects. This especially goes for MMORPG''s. I guess it wouldn''t work in the "For Beginners" link, since none of them ever look at that. Maybe we need some kind of alert thingie on the chat room and message board pages that alert to things like "first game", "making a MMORPG", "need people to help", etc.

I made my first REAL game using The Games Factory Pro:
http://www.geocities.com/powerful_hero/Ponging.zip

Let me know what you think.

tarzan_apeman@hotmail.com

Last Day Sale for Multimedia Fusion 1.5, A game authoring tool much more powerful than The Games Factory Pro.

http://www.clickteam.com

(Today only, the home version of MMF is $99 USD, and $269 USD for the Pro version... don''t wait, I got it, and I love the power!)

Mark Rein of Epic Megagames once told me, "Make a game you love, you like. If you don''t love it, nobody else will." Don''t make a game that you know can only be 80% complete. If you like it as you''re making it, stick with it. There''s no reason to stop. The number of projects doesn''t always matter. It''s the quality. Don''t stop at 100%. Make it 110%. If you want people to play this game, you have to offer either something fun or at least something memorable, and if it''s neither of these things nobody will play them.

Eternity is relentless

quote: Original post by Dwarf with Axe
"A game coder is not truely a game coder unless that game coder has coded useless garbage that was once seemingly the best, but is now the worst."

Hey! You stole from the Elven Game Development Bible.

I'm going to have to stand up for my people! I'll meet you near the coast of Candlekeep, at the shore of the Sea of Swords, three moons from now to fight for the royalties

Anyway, this is a very true statement. You have to code some games that no one really wants to play; they are small, possibly don't have a point, maybe not even complete. Then you can move on to bigger things like RPGs.

Good luck.

Edited by - Drizzt DoUrden on February 16, 2002 8:07:20 PM

Well, I'd like to say that my first windows game was all of
those things!

Imagine this:
Space invaders using the GDI, with only one level, one life,
etc...
basically, the things hit you, you lose, you kill all the
things, you win.
I did it because it was easy.
And yes I didnt finish it...I could have made score, lives,
levels, a game menu...
I dont know if this is good or not but I got bored out of my
friggin mind with it. Sure, I could load in any bitmaps I wanted
for those things, but I couldnt code it anymore. If I wrote
one more line I think I would have jumped off the roof of my
house. Basically the point I think I'm trying to make is to
relate my own experience of that (very limited as its the only
game I ever made...(I'm just starting to learn DirectX stuff)
and to tell that if you find that you cannot continue because
it will bore you to death, just stop. I dont think we should
be burning ourselves out on our first program. Just because
you didnt polish something out fully I dont think means that
you can't complete everything you start. Dont get me wrong
though...if you find that you are not interested in making
any kind of game, maybe you should not be making games.
In short, yes your first program should be short and stupid.
No, you dont have to finish it.
Yes, you should finish other programs. (I mean a finished
program is just one more bullet to your resume)

-Lohrno


Edited by - Lohrno on February 16, 2002 8:36:05 PM

The only problem with this idea is that it''s not too difficult to get a game half-way done. If you consistently leave projects unfinished, then you develop that habit.

I''m not saying make something small, by all means, that''s the way to learn. But make something small and complete.

quote:
The number of projects doesn''t always matter. It''s the quality. Don''t stop at 100%. Make it 110%.

I think this is very true. Although it''s just my opinion.

Take care,
Bill

Stole it? Bah! I''ll wash me beard in yer blood Drizzt! By the way, my axe has a +4 to hit flower eaters! (if yer bein'' a druid)


ANYWAY (back to the point) =)

If you don''t start small, you will start big. If you start big, you will stop approximately 62.61% of your project and start with something new.

Trust us, because we (at least, _I_ did) made the mistake of starting big.


May yer constructor have a +2 to memory checks,
~Dwarf


Complete amatures whose only relevant skill is programming undertake to design games with no further preparation than their own experience as game players. Those who overrate their own understanding undercut their own potential for learning.

quote: Original post by Dwarf with Axe
Stole it? Bah! I''ll wash me beard in yer blood Drizzt! By the way, my axe has a +4 to hit flower eaters! (if yer bein'' a druid)

I''m a ranger, and I fight with two scimitars. Plus I live and train with Bruenor Battlehammer, a Dwarf king, so I know the Dwarven fighting technique.

quote:
Trust us, because we (at least, _I_ did) made the mistake of starting big.

I made the mistake of starting big, along with the mistake of not knowing anything about computers. Eventually, I came to my senses. It wasn''t untill just recently that I have been able to actually make (small) games and I have been programming for 3 years.

If you start small, the results will start showing in alot less than 3 years.

I looked at the site you posted and checked out the job descriptions. First off, you were asking for "very experienced" staff; for a first game I would suggest just getting something down. The first game I ever made was just a bunch of blocks shooting other blocks in a 3D world. All it had was a plane(Terrain), and a health counter...Nothing that big. My art was crappy, my sound was just a bunch of ticks, the physics were terrible. You could actually be a bit more creative than me to start with (Then again, I was in DOS). Another thing, an RPG is really a bad thing to start out with, I would know. Since you have to come up with alot of story line and stuff. Last but not least, you should include a better .

That''s my 2 cents

quote: Original post by Dwarf with Axe
And now, a reading from the Bible of Dwarf:
[snip]
In short, don''t expect to create a game your first time out. Expect to write approximately 62.61% of a game, quit for another idea, then write approximately 21.88% of that game.
[snip]

Mwuaaahahahahahah.... :-)

Thanks dwarfe for this good time I coulnt just stop laughing
for a long time reading your post.... is just that it recall myself.

I donnot count my project since the good old time of amiga, even I completed some nice application I never completed a game even I had very good result.

But THIS time I promise I will... well... perhaps

My last one "Combat Sail Simulator"
Combat Sail Simulator''s forum


Dan