Making a game

[Saga]

I remember reading that you were coding the game in C#, and I just want to know what kind of project was used to make Grindea. I'm really tempted to use the Windows Form because it's easier to set up, but I can really forsee it coming back to bite me in the future, so...

I have an idea for at least a game engine that I really want to act on, but I'll need something to test the classes and functions in. If anyone could give me any advice at all, it would be much appreciated. I understand how I'll code everything but the graphics, which I know next to nothing about. I could always just read tutorials on MSDN, but there's so much information and I'm sure there will be a lot of information to sift through before I actually get to something useful.

Thank you for any help you can provide.

 

[Teddy]

The game is used with the XNA 4 framework, which is a (now abandoned by Microsoft) very basic game skeleton that you can do pretty much anything with. It's good, but I would probably recommend Game Maker for 2D games, and Unity for 3D games (with Unity you can also use C# syntax).

While XNA is still good, and many successful games have been made with it, the community is dead and there is no support from Microsoft, so I don't recommend learning it these days.

WinForms is not a good framework for making games, unless you're going to make something that's purely clicking buttons (and even then you can probably find a better engine out there)!

My advice is to look up either GameMaker or Unity and follow some tutorials to get started.

 

[KoBeWi]

If we are at recommending game-making tools here...
GameMaker and Unity are probably the most popular ones. Many great games are created with them, and while GameMaker is mostly used for 2D and Unity for 3D, they both support both 2D and 3D actually. Big advantage is that they are both free to use and have great communities.
The disadvantage is that they are heavy tools and also you get limited ability to sell your game. At least with Unity, I don't know GameMaker enough to say if it's like that.

Unity has an light-weight and open-source alternative: Godot. It comes with single executable and runs lighting-fast (compared to Unity, which I called "heavy tool" earlier). It provides export modules for different platforms, all for free, so you can even start developing on Android right now. It also has a very nice Python-like scripting language.
Disadvantage of Godot engine is that it's much less popular, so you get less tutorials and smaller community.

If you'd like to avoid programming, GDevelop allows you to make games without touch the code at all. It's like open-source alternative to The Games Factory (someone might still know it).

And if you'd like to go full-programming mode, my personal favorite is Ruby/Gosu. It's a bit like XNA - provides a basic skeleton to make games. However, it simplifies all operations to the point, where you can load and draw image with just 2 lines (provided that you create and overload a window, which takes additional... 5 lines). It's very easy to use and you have full control over your game.
However, it's also very limited in functions. If you want more, you'd need to use pure OpenGL operations, which is more complicated. Also, it's pretty much not popular at all. Probably most of games created with it were for Ludum Dare >.>

btw, I used XNA too, briefly. All tools I mentioned above are easier too use. Especially because C# isn't a very friendly language.

 

[Saga]

Thanks for the suggestion, but Gamemaker doesn't agree with me. My overall goal here is making an engine, and I certainly know enough programming to do it. I just need something for graphics so I can test the files. I guess I'm gonna look into XNA, because it sounds like it's what I want, but I may just end up going back to DirectX and C++.

Thank you for the help.

 

[KoBeWi]

Just curious: why do you want to make your own engine? Using DirectX sounds like lot of work and, unless you have a team, it might be not worth it. That's a very long-term thing.

 

[Saga]

I plan for this engine to be long-term. I want to build an engine from scratch because I want to make a more realistic fantasy. A mixture of Monster Hunter, Final Fantasy, Xenoblade, and Zelda, where the world is constantly moving while you're casting. There's a bit more involved, but the bottom line is that I can't really use something that just creates the game itself. I'm a junior in high school, and I chose this as a project. It doesn't even need to be finished, just something I can build off until I can actually get a team


And you have to admit, having a good plan for a game with an original, functional engine to build it around can be a good way to gather a team.

 

[KoBeWi]

Wait, there's also FNA. It's basically an open-source, cross-platform reimplementation of XNA. It's compatible with XNA, but it's still updated and supported, because it's not made by Microsoft.

 

[Saga]

Oh, that sounds perfect. Thank you, I'll look into it.