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I need some guidance

Started by protomelvin Aug 19, 2012 at 5:47 AM 7 replies 1.7k views

Original Post

Aug 19, 2012 at 5:47 AM

Hi, new to the forums, but I'm looking to get some guidance. I have only recently started studying programming with C#, and I'm looking to design an RPG with an overhead, isometric viewpoint, in the same vein as Breath of Fire series of games. I haven't studied for very long, having only just finished doing my first Game Loop, but I intend to keep at it. The current book I'm learning from deals more with creating a platformer, which I have little interest in at the moment. I'm going to try and finish the book so I can get a better handle on the fundamentals.

My request is for guidance on where to go from there, what to study and what I need to learn to make the kind of game I'm suggesting. I know it's somewhat of a tall order for a beginner to be tackling such a project, but it's the kind of game I want to make. If anyone has any helpful information, I would be very grateful.

AdrianC

Aug 19, 2012 at 5:58 AM

Well, what are you using to handle the graphical part of your game? DirectX, XNA, etc?

protomelvin

Aug 19, 2012 at 6:03 AM

I haven't quite gotten that far into the book yet so I'm not sure ^^;; What would be the most recommended if I just wanted to get it running decently on PC?

WhiskyJoe

Aug 19, 2012 at 11:39 AM

Finish your book first. I don't know what book it is, but generally you will get a good grasp of the fundamentals it is trying to teach you and you can iterate on it, use the concepts taught in that book and apply them to your own game. But you were already planning on that

Your next step would be to lay out what you exactly want to make, get a good grasp on what you are using and if that fits your need. I'd personally go for XNA (which is just a wrapper around directx anyway) as there are plenty of tutorials out there that cover pretty much everything. (google "xna isometric tutorial" and you'll get plenty of hits).

Just make sure you know what you want to do and search for specific stuff you don't know how to handle yourself and apply your newly acquired knowledge.

Good luck!

Jaap85

Aug 19, 2012 at 1:41 PM

If you like to get some guidance with your first project, but you don't want to create a platformer, you could try the book "Visual C# Game Programming for Teens". This helps you design a 2D RPG / dungeon crawler from the very beginning. Although it is not exactly what you are looking for eventually (which is i believe called 2.5D) it might suit you better than creating a platformer first. Or, depending on your learning curve, you could first finish the platformer, then the 2D RPG and finally move on to 2.5D.

ndssia

Aug 19, 2012 at 1:51 PM

I believe you can actually use Platformer code to form the World Map part of your RPG; just turn off gravity, change the map, add a few extra animations (looking up/down), and voila

Regarding the rest of your question, I personally believe C# and Java are the easiest for beginners to pick up; XNA 4.0 is a C# Framework, and is great for those just starting out; great debugging tools, and you aren't throwing things like memory management and pointers into the mix just yet.

TiledLib by Nick Gravelyn, together with Tiled Map Editor will get you off to a roaring start in terms of building an RPG.

protomelvin

Aug 19, 2012 at 3:24 PM

Thanks for all the advice! I'll definitely keep it in mind as I work away.

Another question I had was, if I'm working with XNA, would it be problematic if I eventually wanted to design something for Playstation? Or if I want to make my project compatible with Playstation?

ndssia

Aug 20, 2012 at 3:19 AM

Very little of your work would be reusable for PS3.

I wouldn't worry about that just yet though, Cell programming is not recommended for beginning programmers.

protomelvin

Aug 20, 2012 at 3:47 AM

Ohh, okay. Well, I'll forget about it for now and just work on building up my skillset, then. Thanks ^^

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