I want to create a computer game (yes I know it's hard beyond belief. I know I'm only 10. But I'm extremly gifted!......and all of my family has some wonderful knowledge of computers). But I don't know where to go. I don't know what I need. I just need your help!!!

I may be able to hellp you after the holydays! I'm gonna go to a summer camp whereyou make your own game with a team of people.

Now crating your game isn't very easy. Trust me! and it's a lot of work! Just imagine if you're making a shooter game, you have to think of the following:
-Levels
-Skins
-Animation
-Programming
-...

First of all you've got to make your own levels. Now I make my own levels for a gmae I play, and it's quite easy. But I am not sure how you create your own maps when you make your own game.

Then come skins, I have never made skins myself. But you probably make it with a 3D software. Like Bryce, 3Dstudiomax, Cinema4D. But niether am I sure about that.

Animation, is for example when you click the shoot button that a little bullet fliesin the air. and that you see the effect happening. Neither am I sure how to do this.

And then programming, which I'm not going to explain. But trust me that is the hardest of all!

And there are a lot more things you have to do before you can make your game.

Of course you can take the easy way out! ;) and make your own games in Flash MX. It's hard, but a lot easier compared to making your own computer game.

If you have questions on how to make Flash MX games, ask in the flash section!

I may be able to tell you more about how to make real games after the summer ;D

-Jasper

first you need to decide on which langauge you want to program in. i'm a java programmer so i recommend java :) there's also c++. javascript, cgi, asp, php, perl, blah, blah, blah arent worth much. there all pretty much scripting languages and you won't be able to do game programming with it.

i recommend java 'cos you'll be able to write stand alone apps (including games) and in the future you'll be able to do web stuff if you decided on it. with c++ it's pretty much stand alone apps and it's a killer to port but it's fast. so you'll probably end up using c++. just keep in mind that c++ is getting old. it probably won't go the way of the dinosaur (extinct) until java increases performance. there are technical reason why java is slow but i'm sure you don't want to here a big-o-long lecture.

once you decide on which langauge then you'll need to learn basic object oriented programming. don't panic, it's a concept not a programming language. there's also data structures, algorithm and others but most of which you'll learn by doing. there are classes in all the stuff if you wanted but at your age you can just learn by doing.

pm me if you need help with oop or coding.

Amicus, how did you go about learning java? I am thinking of learning PHP but I'm not entirely certain that it's worth my time considering the things that I publish online..... I don't do databases and all that so I don't know. I am definately gonna work on my javascript more but is java useful and stuff? Hard to learn? Do you recommend any self teaching sites (free ones)?

when i was a kid i was programming as a hobby, just like everbody on this forum :). i personally shy clear from scripting langauges 'cos there slow and you can't do anything fancy with them. i think the only languages worth the time is c++ and java.

i like java 'cos it's easy and free, yaaaay free. i get everything java related open source so it's no big deal. once c++ dies out java will be the dominant langauge.

as for c++, it's high points are the it's a proven langauge and it's sooooo fast :). it's downfall is that it's not cross platform. it's tough as nails to port it over to other platforms. it's not like that way with java. there are more differences but that's just one.

here's a java tutorial from sun (they made java) http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/ click on 'Your First Cup of Java', it's a pretty good one. there are java tutorials all over the net, it's not hard to find java stuff. those teaching sites mostly teach the basics (the advance ones are pretty hard.) but they're pretty good. i learned java in school but i learned most of the advanced stuff on the job.

you'll definitely need to get comfortable working with databases 'cos every job you get will have a data source. i personally use mysql. java is extremely usefull, with languages like php, perl, asp, html, javascript, etc. you're pretty much stuck to the web. java can build websites, standalone, cellphone, pda applications. pretty much anything from the smallest to the largest program. java and c++ is an actuall programming langauge and not a scripting langauge.

if you decide to get into java and need help just pm me and i'd be more then happy to help, give pointers and answer questions.

I would recommend C++. from what I have read, most commercial games are written in C/C++, and I doubt the language is going to die out anytime soon.

C++ if written properly doesn't have to be hard to port. if you use a graphics library such as OpenGL that has Linux and Mac ports, and you avoid OS specific functions, all you should really have to do is recompile the code on the target platform. don't get me wrong, Java is far more portable- that was the idea of the language, creating a language that could be used on ANY target platform.

you might want to look into http://www.gamedev.net
there they have some tutorials and a forum that you might find helpful.

if you have any questions, feel free to ask. someone here should be able to help or at least point you in the right direction :)

any game programming will most likely be done in c++ 'cos it's faster. that's what's wrong with java it's way to slow and it's killing me.

c++ is gonna die out just like c as soon as java gets better performance. c++ is already starting to die out. it's just a slow death 'cause of the speed thing. it's difficult to port c++ unless you're using 'ifdef' which makes the code difficult to read :(.

c++ will always have a place as legacy code (hee, hee, hee :p) c++ will always be there in some form 'cos it's a proven langauge. what can i say it's a good language just old.

in java it's 0-3 lines of code depending on how it's written (if it's me it's only 0 lines :).) in java in order to port your not changing the application the lines of code your changing is to the look and feel. you can actually write the code to grab the native look and feel so you don't have to change any code.

i think it's the speed thing that's holding the language back.

Originally posted by amicus
c++ is gonna die out just like c as soon as java gets better performance

but C isn't exactly dead :P

C is still really popular just for beginning to learn C++. that's how I learned- in school I took the beginning programming class, then a C++ class, and this year, AP Computer Science, which is in C++. (next year it switches to Java and the courses this year are in C++ and Java, but that's beside the point- the College Board just does whatever they want anyway)

plus, from what I've read, C and C++ are the two dominant languages in commercial development.

personally, I would recommend learning C then C++ if you want to create a game somewhere down the road :)

it's gonna really be tough getting a job using c. c++ is a little easier to find a job but jut because c and c++ is still around doesn't mean you want to do it. there are still code written in cobol. not to mention there are still main frame systems.

just because they're still around doesn't mean you want to use it. for instance you can still go out and buy a ford pinto (probably on ebay) but why would you want to. you can still get i386 systems but why it's old and doesn't do much. when you can get a new one that does more.

windows core langauge is written in c 'cos it's fast but it's not a oop language. the interface is written in c++ 'cos it is a oop language. there's definitely still a market out there for c++. the jobs are definitely harder to find though. 'cos it's not portable. changing code every time you want to port isn't portable.

most schools are starting to teach java and less c++. i'm an advisory member at school here and java is being taught more. c and c++ is dieing out. most of the prerequisite classes are all taught in java. oop, data structures, algorithm, blah, blah, blah, it's been a while for me :)

c++ is a good language and it's been proven to be a good language. it's just getting old and it's just not portable. java is easier to work with and you "write once and run anywhere". no code changes.

anytime you change code there's a possiblity of introducing bugs so you have to go through qa again. it's not just the code modifications, it's also the associated cost of changing code. there's alot of factors that has to be concidered and as the senior java developer it's my job to concider all that.

but getting back to dude128 question. as a game programmer you'll most likely want to learn c++. just because it's faster (watch out for them memory leaks :).)