creating your own computer game

Caroluna · Post by **Caroluna** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 8:10 am

We're a homeschooling family, and one of the goals of our homeschooling group is for the parents to lead classes in different topics.

The group we work with helps to make sure that all the bases are covered (reading, writing, math, foreign language, PE), but above and beyond that it's great for the kids to learn about what really floats their boat.

When I ask my son (age 12) what he would like to do for a living, he says he wants to make computer games.

OK! So I am thinking about stepping up to the plate and leading a class.

This is something I know very little about.
I would like for the class to be a combination of fun and educational.

Here's my ideas so far.

1 game engine
My husband and son have already been working with a very simple, freeware, first-person shooter game engine.
They could demonstrate this program.

2 The kids could learn some basic vocabulary
...first-person shooters (FPS)
...real-time strategy (RTS)
...single player games (SPG)
...non-player character (NPC)
...massively multiplayer online real-time strategy (MMORTS)
...massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs)

3 projects
The kids would have series of projects to work on, starting with very small ones (which I hereby dub "lame games") and working their way up to more complex games. Some projects would be individual and some would require teamwork. They would be responsible for making flow charts for these games, making decisions about the appearance and sounds, and (ultimately) presenting their work to the "boss" of their "company".

Whaddya think?
I'd especially be glad for project ideas.

Innocent Bystander · Post by **Innocent Bystander** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 8:52 am

My son has been doing this sort of thing with a company in Maidenhead, Berkshire, UK, called "Funtech".

Most of the complicated stuff he was learning has been in the rendering and 3-d imaging.

He has been suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for two years now, and although the Local Authority still has financial responsibility for his education, they don't have the resources to teach him on his own for the advanced courses he wants to do in computing - so it seems likely they will pass this responsibility to Funtech.

As one of their "Star Pupils" they comissioned him to create a game for them. They have these games on monitors in their waiting room. It's a bit of a change from the old dog-eared magazines. Their best pupils get to create games, and their applicants get to play them!

I also mess about myself with a games program called "multimedia fusion". I tend to end up making screensavers. One of my favourites is a homage to Bridget Riley, where four sets of concentric circles bounce very slowly around the screen, making moiré patterns when they intersect.

One of the easier games to create in this kind of environment is "air-hockey". You've seen the game in arcades. I've created my own in a couple of hours. This would suit the beginners.

One of the more complicated games that I've struggled with is "Tangrams". It sounds simple, but is actually quite complicated to code - even to design the program structure needs careful thought.

I tried to make a five-a-side soccer game along similar lines to air-hockey, and found that the way I had made controlling the players was remarkably difficult. My son named this game "Chicken Football", because it felt like trying to steer a chicken.

Innocent Bystander · Post by **Innocent Bystander** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 8:53 am

Here's a link to the Funtech Website, so you can examine the competition.

http://www.funtech.co.uk/mainWelcome.htm

Innocent Bystander · Post by **Innocent Bystander** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 8:59 am

I see multimedia fusion 247 is available as a free download from ZDnet.

Is this what you are using?

chrisoff · Post by **chrisoff** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 9:00 am

Maths and Programming (proper programming not just pulling blocks together in a WYSWIG editor). That's what he needs to learn.

Or possibly graphic design/project management.

But certainly a basic grounding in high level maths and solid programming in a modern language would set him up nicely for later study if games development is what he wants to do.

Not as fun as the DIY game building packages you get, but they're far too basic and top level to be of any long term use.

The only other thing I'd say is that the kids are probably way ahead of you on the basic vocabulary part of your plan. If you don't play games and your son wants to make games, chances are he already knows about everything in your list there.

Innocent Bystander · Post by **Innocent Bystander** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 9:11 am

Chris is right. On the one hand, there is a certain amount of discipline required to complete even these high-level games. On the other, they're never going to be acceptable as a qualification, or even be much use informally.

Learning a proper computer language would be a far more serious endeavour, more promising and more rewarding.

Caroluna · Post by **Caroluna** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 9:47 am

Innocent Bystander wrote:My son has been doing this sort of thing with a company in Maidenhead, Berkshire, UK, called "Funtech".

Most of the complicated stuff he was learning has been in the rendering and 3-d imaging. ...

As one of their "Star Pupils" they comissioned him to create a game for them. They have these games on monitors in their waiting room. It's a bit of a change from the old dog-eared magazines. Their best pupils get to create games, and their applicants get to play them!

Wow!!
How old is your son?

One of the easier games to create in this kind of environment is "air-hockey". You've seen the game in arcades. I've created my own in a couple of hours. This would suit the beginners.

Perfect, that's exactly the sort of idea I was looking for.

How about-- variations on tic-tac-toe?
Where a project might be--

create a variation of tic-tac-toe for pre-schoolers (little monsters instead of X's and O's)

create a variation of tic-tac-toe that was as frightening / violent as possible (because it's going to be used for a medical research project involving blood pressure)

I mean, just have the kids think this through, not actually program it.

Caroluna · Post by **Caroluna** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 9:57 am

chrisoff wrote:Maths and Programming (proper programming not just pulling blocks together in a WYSWIG editor). That's what he needs to learn.

Dad is a mathematician / programmer. I'll get him onboard as guest lecturer.

Or possibly graphic design/project management.

These are middle schoolers (12, 13, 14)...any ideas on how to get their toes wet in this?

But certainly a basic grounding in high level maths and solid programming in a modern language would set him up nicely for later study if games development is what he wants to do.

My initial reaction is "this isn't something I want to encourage" -- I have a different picture for his future. Shame on me!
If this is what he's interested in now, I should take it seriously, even if he winds up changing course later.

The only other thing I'd say is that the kids are probably way ahead of you on the basic vocabulary part of your plan. If you don't play games and your son wants to make games, chances are he already knows about everything in your list there.

You might be right.

But it might be a good exercise to say
"Write a concise definition and give an example of the following..."
single player game, role playing game, MMORPG, server, ....

formalize what they already know.

Flyingcursor · Post by **Flyingcursor** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 10:07 am

For what you're talking about a prefab game making package will do the trick in a lot less time.

WYSIWYG editors are fun and my favorite is "GameMaker". It's versatile and can be used for real simple platform shooters up to strategy games.

I used to use lower level software to make up games but now I don't have the love of programming I used to. I'd rather devote my time to the game mechanics, artwork, setting and that sort of thing.

I agree wholeheartedly that a solid knowledge in math and programming is invaluable especially if he were to make it a career but it's not necessary right now.

Plus, nowdays there are a lot of aspects to the game design besides programming. There's the artists, composers, QA, story writers etc etc. And even within the realm of programming there are different types. Graphics programming, AI programming, pathfinding and so on.

Pathfinding algorithms are what stalled my last attempt at a "conquer the world" game.

BTW, I didn't know about Multimedia Fusion. I'll have to check it out.

I.D.10-t · Post by **I.D.10-t** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 10:30 am

Crissoff, would looking at the source code of GPL games like the ones listed on linux game tome be usefull? I know simple games like NetHack encourage contributions and are often programed in things like C.

It seems like board games like Pachisi and connect four would be a good start for game ideas. Heck a random number generator to simulate dice seems like it wouldn't be that easy.

Flyingcursor · Post by **Flyingcursor** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 11:04 am

I.D.10-t wrote:Crissoff, would looking at the source code of GPL games like the ones listed on linux game tome be usefull? I know simple games like NetHack encourage contributions and are often programed in things like C.

It seems like board games like Pachisi and connect four would be a good start for game ideas. Heck a random number generator to simulate dice seems like it wouldn't be that easy.

Sure, if you already understand programming and C. C isn't a beginner language.

I have a fond memory of random number generators. Once, in college we had to generate some numbers that, when run through some formula or other, were shown to be relatively random. I spent the whole weekend programming a random number generator. Finally, on Monday when I went back to class one of my co-students said she'd finished hers Friday night. I was amazed. I asked how she did it. She said she just rolled some dice! I apparently had interjected more into the project then was required.

djm · Post by **djm** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 11:29 am

If the kids are already more conversant with games than you are, why not set them the task: Explain it so that even Mom understands.

djm

Caroluna · Post by **Caroluna** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 11:34 am

djm wrote:If the kids are already more conversant with games than you are, why not set them the task: Explain it so that even Mom understands.

Innocent Bystander · Post by **Innocent Bystander** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 12:49 pm

I have written "Tic-tac-toe", or, since it's called exey-osey where I come from, the game is called XCOC.

I wouldn't recommend it for children. Seriously. If you are expecting the program to play against you, you have to program it for every possible move in any possible game.

The easiest way of doing this is to have a database of moves. You can't easily do that in the simple high-level applications like MMF.
I ended up having a two frame game - one if you played X and led against the computer, and one if the computer played X and led against you. Even so, the list of conditions on each frame was unpleasantly long.

(Actually, MMF can access a database, but really, you don't want to get into that.)

If you don't believe me, try writing one yourself.

A MUCH easier game to program is rock/paper/scissors.

An equally easy game is "Spoof". Spoof is good. I still have this in my games folder.

Caroluna · Post by **Caroluna** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 3:50 pm

Innocent Bystander wrote:I have written "Tic-tac-toe", or, since it's called exey-osey where I come from, the game is called XCOC.

I wouldn't recommend it for children. Seriously.

No, no! I didn't mean that

You're right, that's waaaay too difficult.
I just meant that the kids could think up variations of XCOC that would appeal to different groups of people.

Theoretically you'd use a program like the one you wrote, then add graphics and sound-- but we wouldn't even do that much.

Just decide on the concept of the game, how it would look and sound.

Ex. pre-teen boys would like the frog one especially if the frogs waved, blinked their eyes and made rude noises.

teen boys might like the last one, especially if the bodhrans were noisy and the eyeballs exploded.

The easiest way of doing this is to have a database of moves. You can't easily do that in the simple high-level applications like MMF.
I ended up having a two frame game - one if you played X and led against the computer, and one if the computer played X and led against you. Even so, the list of conditions on each frame was unpleasantly long.

(Actually, MMF can access a database, but really, you don't want to get into that.)

If you don't believe me, try writing one yourself.

Oh I believe you!!

Might be a possibility when he's 16 or 17, but that's way too hard now.

A MUCH easier game to program is rock/paper/scissors.

Cool-- good idea!

An equally easy game is "Spoof". Spoof is good. I still have this in my games folder.

I don't know Spoof, what's it like?