Commercial game in Visual Basic?

I believe they exist but there''s really no advantage other than it''s Basic.

If you''re going to seriously pursue game programming, learn C++.

Ben

[Icarus Independent | Jump Down The Rabbithole | Tombstone: Vendetta ]

www.angelfire.com/id/impeachment

I''m currently working on a game in VB. Although it will be freeware, I think it could be commercial quality. I had a beta released, but it''s been taken down now. The game is comming out in a couple of weeks.

www.safrosoft.com

I did a 3D engine and my four elements contest entry was in VB. I never got to the commercial quality art so I''ll never know if it is factually possible. (Is that a word) I''m sure you can do it.

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www.abstractworlds.com/closeapproach

Close Approach is a first person Direct3D accelerated asteroids shooter.

Is it commercial quality? That's a matter of opinion, but I personally would position it in the shareware / budget value games market. I sold the first version of the game as shareware (sold about 40 copies at £5 - so don't give up your day job), before signing a 2 year exclusive deal with a publisher who was unsuccessful at getting it into retail. Now that I'm free from the publisher's contract, I'm looking into updating the game and selling it again (via shareware or another budget publishing deal).

For me there was really only one main advantage of writing a game in VB: knowing VB already and being stronger at VB than C/C++. Since there's so much to learn about game making having to learn another language at the same time would just add to your workload. However if you want a job in the games industry I would recommend C/C++. Also you can't really get away from C/C++ even if you do use VB, considering the wealth of tutorials and samples in C/C++, and the much larger C/C++ game developer community.

I'm currently working on a new version with improved eye-candy, e.g. lensflares, better textures, etc.

Edited by - abstractworlds on October 9, 2001 12:39:18 PM

This is my take on Visual Basic vs C++ as a game platform:

Advantages:
+ Higher level language than C++. Everything else being equal this should lead to higher productivity.
+ There are more VB than C++ programmers out there. This means it''s easier to get help, find third party libraries etc.

Disadvantages:
- The finished product will need to be shipped with 5 or so diskettes of DLLs and other supporting files.
- Some graphics operations are slower, as you code them on a higher level. For some games this will matter, for others it won''t.

However, the biggest advantage/disadvantage which make the ones above pale in comparison is: Which tool do you know best? Take the tool you''re most familiar and finish a game prototype. If it doesn''t work the way you want it to, it should be easy to either fix it or port it.

Aiming for the perfect solution often gets you no solution at all. It''s better to do something which is good enough. This is really what engineering (as opposed to science) is all about.

Oh, I''m rambling. Time to end this post.

/Martin



... we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender...
Winston Churchill, June 4 1940

quote:

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Disadvantages:
- The finished product will need to be shipped with 5 or so diskettes of DLLs and other supporting files.
- Some graphics operations are slower, as you code them on a higher level. For some games this will matter, for others it won''t.

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Dis1: What kinda idiot still uses floppies?! (no offense to floppy lovers :-))
Dis2: Yes the graphical ops in VB are damned slow, that''s why most VB coders use the GDI or DirectDraw.

Well all the D3D stuff will run at same speed in any language as the core D3D renderer doesn''t change between languages :D

Hrm, are there more VB programmers then C++? I''m sure there may be more VB then C++ in general (sure, I still have doubts, hehe), but I would imagine that there are more C++ programmers that code GAMES then VB which could verywell alter the "easiness" of getting help and such for VB and risk making that Advantage obsolete. Please, correct me if I''m wrong

Never forget, All your base are belong to us!

I''ve heard that there are 3,000,000 VB coders on Earth (or was it in the US?I forget now), but some of them also know C++, there''s overlap. I''m not sure how many know C or C++.

The advantage of VB is that a lot of the tedious work has been hidden to make write some code faster and easier. The hard part is when you hit your head on the limitations of VB, now you have to work twice as hard to do something simple, like parse a customized binary network packet.

VB was the first language i learnt, i find it ard to move away from it now, after being so used to t.
For ages i couldnt understand the simplest of C++ code, until i found a tutorial which was
right for me. Im still not able to program anything graphical in languages other than VB (yet)
Im still tring to learn C++ (and direct x) but i stil use VB a lot.

Im currently making a 2D side scrolling space shooter with VB
Its working really well.
I use the Gdi DLL to Blit my sprites.
I use the user32 DLL for keyboard input and hiding the musecursor.

Thats 2 DLLs (not too bad) even direct x is a DLL (or group of them, i thinks)
The code runs at a reletavly decent speed (the only real slowdown in execution speed is
that my computer is a S**T 100Mhz and thats why is slow, not because im using vb)

It rus smoothly, the images and animations are flickerless an smooth so i cant complain.