Original Post
Alright, so I want to program a game…
I’m sure threads beginning like that are nothing new, but dammit, I’m serious about this. There’s a type of game I’ve wanted to create since I became familiar with the genre in 1992, but I never had the programming chops to take a serious stab at it (I’m more of an artist than a programmer, but I can pretend). I want to create a 2d turn-based strategy game along the vein of Langrisser(Warsong in the US). I suppose a moremodern comparison would be Advance Wars, or Fire Emblem, etc. I’ve always loved this style of game, and the beautiful thing is once the basic engine is in place, adding new scenarios seems like it’d be a breeze.
For those of you unfamiliar with those types of games, we're talking about something that looks more or less like this:
I’m trying to keep my requirements humble, but so far I’ll need at least the following:
1. Units that move around a square-grid map in a turn-based fashion.
2. A battlesystem where when one unit attacks another, health gets reduced, experiencegets rewarded, etc.
3. Units with specific characteristics such as attack, defense, movement, etc.
4. Terrain that modifies movement and combat variables
5. A system to purchase units with resources before each battle.
6. An XP system that keeps track of hero’s experience and levels them up accordingly.
7. Rudimentary AI
Those are the bare bones as far as I can tell at the moment. Obviously there are some bells and whistles I’d like, such the game cutting to a separate screen when combat takes place ala AdvanceWars/Langrisser, but that stuff can be tacked on later. I don’t have a lot of programming experience in general – I’ve done some basic stuff like NWN scripting and module design – basic if/then stuff, triggers,etc. Nothing earth-shattering. At this point I don’t even know what language to work in. I’ve been thinking about Java because I don’t see this game as being a resource hog (2d turn-based), but I’m open to suggestion.
Essentially, I’m not sure where to begin. I have noillusions about the complexities of programming, having spent many a night banging my head on my desk finishing a NWN module – but I figure if a few people in the late 80s could program something like this, all hope isn’t lost for me.
I’m sure threads beginning like that are nothing new, but dammit, I’m serious about this. There’s a type of game I’ve wanted to create since I became familiar with the genre in 1992, but I never had the programming chops to take a serious stab at it (I’m more of an artist than a programmer, but I can pretend). I want to create a 2d turn-based strategy game along the vein of Langrisser(Warsong in the US). I suppose a moremodern comparison would be Advance Wars, or Fire Emblem, etc. I’ve always loved this style of game, and the beautiful thing is once the basic engine is in place, adding new scenarios seems like it’d be a breeze.
For those of you unfamiliar with those types of games, we're talking about something that looks more or less like this:
I’m trying to keep my requirements humble, but so far I’ll need at least the following:
1. Units that move around a square-grid map in a turn-based fashion.
2. A battlesystem where when one unit attacks another, health gets reduced, experiencegets rewarded, etc.
3. Units with specific characteristics such as attack, defense, movement, etc.
4. Terrain that modifies movement and combat variables
5. A system to purchase units with resources before each battle.
6. An XP system that keeps track of hero’s experience and levels them up accordingly.
7. Rudimentary AI
Those are the bare bones as far as I can tell at the moment. Obviously there are some bells and whistles I’d like, such the game cutting to a separate screen when combat takes place ala AdvanceWars/Langrisser, but that stuff can be tacked on later. I don’t have a lot of programming experience in general – I’ve done some basic stuff like NWN scripting and module design – basic if/then stuff, triggers,etc. Nothing earth-shattering. At this point I don’t even know what language to work in. I’ve been thinking about Java because I don’t see this game as being a resource hog (2d turn-based), but I’m open to suggestion.
Essentially, I’m not sure where to begin. I have noillusions about the complexities of programming, having spent many a night banging my head on my desk finishing a NWN module – but I figure if a few people in the late 80s could program something like this, all hope isn’t lost for me.
