First Steps

Hi

I would recommend start with the menu.

Something like this :

type
GameState = (gsStart, gsEnd, gsMenu, gsEndGame, gsInstructions, gsGame); // add your own if youd like to.

use case
GameState : gsStart := doStart; // custom procedure.

use a timer or system idle for timing and when the program is active it check the GameState.
Then in your custom procedures you program the basic framework.
Like drawing and freeing etc. etc.
Then work on linking the keyboard to navigate the menu.
Then you should have a basic framework.

Hope this helps.

i have always focused on reading theory books(Real-Time Rendering) and just doing Demos of advanced effects, but i have never really started to do a real game.[/quote]
Have you already implemented the classic games everyone suggest: Space Invaders, Tic Tac Toe, Tetris, Pac Man ?
This is the best way to start on game development because it gives you the first notions of how to fit the game logic together, labor a game loop, control events, etc.

After done that, you should be able to draw on the paper a complete concept of a game, designing its main actor, background story, actions, etc.
Then from there you can start building diagrams to illustrate how those parts will communicate in your program (choose a language and engine, so that you know what resources you have available).

Now, artwork is the hardest part in my opnion. I am good at game design, programming, storywriting, but artwork is not my forte and I have to find another person to cover that for me. In your mind you may have your game already drawn, working, textures and everything of the most beautiful quality (the GPU of our imagination is fantastic), but to bring it to life you will need to explain it exactly how you imagine it to the artist, so that he can interpret that and give his look to it. Therefore finding it already done on the internet is hard, and unlikely licensed for free use.
I recommend you to implement great part of the game (a big module) on provisory artwork with bad quality, etc. and just later on look for an artist that can collaborate with you.

At the end, you should have your game working, probably glitching in some annoying parts, not attending to your first ideia (maybe completely different from your original concept), but still it is your first creation. Note that, you evolved from an abstract idea to something solid, that is a huge gain, great way to get experience to start doing advanced stuff for your portfolio.

Hope it answers what you asked ;)

I did do a good tic-tac-toe with a (not so dumb) AI. Pac-man will be a good next project, i am sure that a simple 4 yellow dots will be good to model pac-man, and the best part is that I dont even have to worry about aliasing
I have written about a lot of advanced effects, i can just write the project, the story, model all the characters as Tiny, and copy-paste the effects needed from previous demos.

Hi

I would recommend start with the menu.

Something like this :

type
GameState = (gsStart, gsEnd, gsMenu, gsEndGame, gsInstructions, gsGame); // add your own if youd like to.

use case
GameState : gsStart := doStart; // custom procedure.

use a timer or system idle for timing and when the program is active it check the GameState.
Then in your custom procedures you program the basic framework.
Like drawing and freeing etc. etc.
Then work on linking the keyboard to navigate the menu.
Then you should have a basic framework.

Hope this helps.

What was that exactly???
One ore thing. Is there a way to animate the movements of a skinned mesh of a mesh like "tiny"?? a simple Resident Evil-style movement is what i am looking for. Hope anyone can point me to a tutorial of some sort.

aa.. i was learning 3d graphycs and finally i'v got enough experience to model for games. you dont need to know how to model, just get 3ds max or any 3d modelling program and make primitive objects spheres boxes and try to import them into your engine. then download modelled obj files from internet or download 3ds and convert it to obj (using deep exploration or 3ds max itself). ofcourse if you'r plannig to use obj s as your primary model format.
here is my advice. learn how to import obj files into engine, how to read vertex coordinates and keep them into one big data container (structure,array, as you like. i use structures.). then use these coordinates to draw vertices inside your engine and this way model will be imported. its not that easy so.
then learn how to open images and texture them onto your objects. , learn about normals, normalisation, smooth shading, lighting, (well i guess you know most of them already im stuck on smooth shading right now.) grab enough knowledge and then go grab some 3d scene room or terrain they are free . import them as your level. learn about collisions and program gravity so your cars tanks objects interract with walls, ground and stay on them, let them jump, run, and then ofcourse record this in a file and send it to game development companies . that's it i guess...
i dream to make a small videogame... who knows maybe my dumb little engine will have some price one day heh.. iv overwritten obj importer 6 times and its still dirty and unfinished.
if world will go crazy and they will put license on everything, tell me and ill give you one tank i modeled some time ago.