I see lots of finished devlogs in the announcements forum. Do moderators move them there or something? Just curious.

I think it is instructive to look at where the conflict is in the game. In the original SimCity, for example, there are growth problems like pollution and crime which show up as your population grows. (There are also disasters -- earthquakes, fires, godzilla, etc. -- but these never seemed to hurt much unless you were already screwed.) Once you figured out how to build profitable neighborhoods there was no more conflict and the game got less interesting. Another way of looking at this is that there are dominant strategies that will work every time.

In the board game Dominion, you're also building a dynamic engine but the conflict is much stronger/more compelling. It comes from A) racing your friends...you have to get points faster than your opponents and B) direct attacks from your opponents forcing you to change your strategy.

I think you are right in your assessment of TinyTower: a lot of the conflict there feels like it was added not to increase fun but to increase their profit. I don't find that very compelling personally.

I think injecting more strategy into the genre would be good.

Steve Swink's book Game Feel might be of interest, he has good analysis of why the movement feels good in Super Mario Brothers, Street Fighter, etc. I don't recall the book spending on a lot of time on flashy/blingy feedback though.

And I forgot that need another thing:functions that write single byte,double byte and a string, in a file.

edit: I'm not entirely sure this is the "proper" way to do it. It has been a while since I've worked in C. I'm especially suspect of the way I printed out 2 bytes. But hopefully it will get you moving at least

Code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdint.h>

int main(void) {
  FILE *file = fopen("out.txt", "a+");

  int8_t oneByte = 0x41;
  fprintf(file, "One Byte: %c\n", oneByte);

  int16_t twoBytes = 0x4142;
  fprintf(file, "Two bytes, high-order byte first: %c%c\n",
      twoBytes & 0x00FF, twoBytes >> 8);

  char *string = "Blah blah blah";
  fprintf(file, "String: %s", string);

  fclose(file);
  return 0;
}

Using cygwin's gcc 3.4.4 on windows (from the command-line), this is the result:

Code:

$ gcc -o bytes bytes.c
$ ./bytes.exe
$ cat out.txt
One Byte: A
Two bytes, high-order byte first: BA
String: Blah blah blah
$

I really need the freedom to make controversial changes.

I think taking money at this stage will impede that because I have a fairly strong sense of honor, and will respect sponsors even though I shouldn't.

When it's finished.

Maybe we need an anonymous patron system, so you don't know who is supporting you and can't be held accountable to them

Internet made me feel like dry potato

This makes me laugh.


On topic, don't worry about game ideas, Peter Molydeux has you covered: http://molydeux.tumblr.com/

it just feels like if i learn C++ i will have to then change to java in the future

Heh, if you're a serious programmer you'll end up learning a dozen different languages eventually. Each one will be easier to learn because there will be similarities with languages you already know.

Java is a great one to have in your toolbox, but who knows? You might learn C++ at some point too.

im thinking that a greater understanding of general software development first will greatly improve my coding skills rather thank just jumping into game dev, so ive been knocking up pointless accounting type software and silly other little projects with no purpose but im learning fast.

Knowing general software development is useful, though I think you could learn it all working on games. Replace "accounting type software" with "virtual corporation game" or "stock trading game" and you're doing basically the same thing but as a game. I guess the important thing is to work on projects that motivate you.

I think this is an awesome idea. I was excited by this project until this:

I guess id be-
Director- some pixel art, to promote it and spread it around :D 
i just like getting people together- i want to become a movie director and i always take the leading role in anything i can- so i guess id just direct and on a side note- i guess these would be in mostly flash?

Now I'm skeptical.

Microgrames: awesome idea.
2 people working on it: sounds perfect.
One of those 2 people "just directs": ummm...does that mean the other person does all the work?

On a team of two people, both people better be creating kick-ass stuff. 2-person teams are too small to have a director, right? Honestly they are too small to have a leader. Ideally it is a collaboration of equals instead.

I really like your idea and I want to give you the benefit of the doubt...you said "some pixel art." Does that mean you can provide the art for these games? Do you have a portfolio showing your style? What about game design? How many games have you designed? (I'm a strong programmer, but not great at game design, so if I was going to work with you, it would be great if you were good at designing mechanics).

I know C and Fortran,but I don't how do use functions similar of what I used from GMXML(a GM extension that has helpful XML functions).

If you know C, then libxml might help you.

Ah, I had forgotten about clip masks to avoid redrawing the whole screen. That's a good idea.

Eclipse is probably the most powerful tool, but it also has a rough learning curve--there's a lot of configuration that can be inscrutable if you're not used to it.

IntelliJ is also worth looking into, it has amazing refactoring tools. I learned it by pair programming with someone who knew how to use it well. They would yell at me every time I did something manually for which I should have used a keyboard shortcut, then make me undo and use the keyboard shortcut. This is an awesome way to learn but requires someone who knows the tool and is willing to teach you.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Java isn't particularly suited to game dev. It's perfectly doable, of course (I mean...Minecraft), but you have fewer options available to you than with, say, C# or Python. It sounds like you intend to use it for general-purpose programming (and don't forget Android) so you should be fine there, just thought I'd mention it.

And Tribal Trouble Yea, not a lot of games in Java, though there's no particular reason why you couldn't make games in Java...just that you wouldn't be following a well-traveled path. Good language to know if you want to write software, though.

Maybe a camping jam would work well for making board games. I'm not sure how long those take to make but it seems like a weekend-long board game jam in the woods could work.

I like where this thread has gone, by the way.

Have you considered looking for a job outside the game industry. You said you were a programmer. That probably gives you options in other industries (something a game design degree wouldn't do). It probably wouldn't help your game career directly, though the knowledge you gain will probably help tangentially (Realm of the Mad God depends on a scalable server infrastructure, for example...the kind of thing you learn working at a giant internet company)

Just an idea...

Java is a verbose language, requiring way too much typing to do it by hand, so pick an IDE and learn the hell out of it. Learn all the keyboard shortcuts, autocompletions, refactorings, etc. You might have to force yourself to learn these, it will feel like you are wasting time but it will pay off in the end. Java is a lot more fun to write when you have the IDE doing most of it for you

I think this has promise. After playing it I think it needs two things: it needs to be deeper (so there's some strategy involved) and more forgiving of mistakes (so I can think about what's going wrong and have a chance to correct it). Here are a bunch of random ideas along those two lines:

• Double or triple the size of the map (more intersections)
• Add arterial roads (more interesting intersections...should I wait until a slug )
• Add rush-hour traffic patterns (lots of cars trying to go the same direction)
• Remove the possibility for crashes. When I click an intersection, first let it clear out and _then_ switch directions.
• Relax the lose conditions based on unhappy people. I was never able to get to full-on gridlock before the game ended (I assume it ended because people were unhappy?) Let it get really screwed before ending the game.
• Remove the "lose" conditions entirely. Just tell me how many cars/minute I'm getting through, or the average travel time, or how much drivers hate me.
• Full-blown sim mode: player specifies timing or sensor logic for lights instead of controlling them directly.

This'll be my first time in San Fran, where does everyone go to eat? 

There's a Whole Foods a couple blocks from Moscone if you want salad bar type foods. 4th and Harrison:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=whole+foods&hl=en&sll=37.782655,-122.399712&sspn=0.009853,0.021136&hq=whole+foods&t=m&z=16&iwloc=A

There Will Be Jogging
https://twitter.com/#!/ADAMATOMIC/status/174953535518150657

Each day, 8am, 4th & Market

Also, board games in the morning. I forget whether or not you need a GDC badge to get into the 2nd floor lobby of Moscone West.

https://twitter.com/#!/IanSchreiber/status/175672260236025856

7am each day (though in his words, "depends on how well I sleep")

It's going from 3:00 - 11:30. Here's the FB page:

http://www.facebook.com/events/304785892919628/

Wait, these are announced on facebook now instead of tigsource? Or have they always been on facebook and I'm out of the loop? 

Thanks for clearing that up

Is venus patrol a flight sim done by Pishtaco?
  http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=17327.0

Or an upcoming blog project by Brandon Boyer?
  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/774616737/venus-patrol-charting-a-new-course-for-videogame-c

The video on kickstarter uses a clip from the game (0:47) which makes me more curious about the relationship between the two.