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[relsoft]

An interesting (and fairly recent) choice would be to use FreeBasic. It's a bit like Blitzbasic except (a) it's totally Free, (b) it's Windows/Linux cross platform, with a Mac port on the way, (c) it's designed to be compatible with Qbasic, so it's really easy to use and there's a lot of documentation out there, and finally (d) it supports all the standard C addons, like SDL, OpenGL, Allegro, and all that.

It's only been around for about two years, but there are at least two good examples of Freebasic games out there - Lynn's Legacy and The Griffon Legend.


[edit: Oh my! I'm sorry, that's like totally not what you were asking, was it?]

I second this. This is what I use.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

I second/third/etc. Game Maker. It's a happy medium between genre-specific game engines like RPGMaker and Mugen and pure-programming.

[gnat]

I think one of the most UNDERRATED and UNDERAPPRECIATED and UNDERUSED opensource game engines out there is the Blender Game Engine.

I've used a lot of "game engines" in the past, BGE is by far one of the best opensource ones (even beats out some commercial engines). I don't know any full commercial games released with it, but there are tons of demos out there.

At its least, BGE is a suberb engine for prototyping ideas. I made a 3d bowling game prototype in 20 minutes! (screenshot attached)

Here is some of the features that pop out at me:

* Very easy to use. It's like Game Maker, but in 3D!
* Built in physics engine
* Cross platform ability (Windows, Linux, Mac)
* Fully scriptable with Python (Scripting NOT required to make games, as there is a built in interface for logic, similar to Game Maker. Although scripts can be utilized to add features not available to the base engine)
* Built on top of Blender. (Use blender as the world/scene/object editor, etc)

Fairly complete feature list here.


Of course, knowing Blender first would provide a huge advantage to somebody wanting to learn this engine. But it is certainly not required.

If you want to get started with BGE, I highly suggest checking out Mal CanDo's Tutorial (Mal was one of the original developers of Blender, on GE content.). It will walk you through the interface, how things operate, and go through the creation of a basic game. Lots of extra links to additional material after graduating at the bottom of the page.

[Alec]

Blender rocks.

[eka]

this is a very interesting article
http://www.gamedev.net/reference/design/features/makegames/

and IMHO the most important thing is that you have something you want to do, a goal, like I'd like to do a tetris clone just to learn... if you only want to learn how to program will not suffice
in that article the author give you some points on how to start making games.

[___]

I'm a long time user of Multimedia Fusion and the other Clickteam products... I've come a long way with them.  The only problem it has is it relies on its own software rendering for the graphics engine, so a hefty 2d game can start to really lag on even the most expensive computers.  I think Hardware Acceleration is actually in the works for it though, so that should all change soon.

Games I can think of off the top of my head... Within a Deep Forest, Knytt, and Lyle in Cube Sector were all put together with MMF.

[HyperNewbie]

Lots of people would probably disagree, but I'd say if you wanna make games, first you have to know what you are getting yourself into. Hours of furustration and problems which feel great when you solve them.

I'd head straight for C++ if you have some basic computer + gaming knowledge. It may take a while to even write something like a text-based hangman, but its the open road.

Or if you're more of a lazy type and cant be bothered coding, go gamemaker or something.

What you make ur game in is ur tool, much like painting a picture in mspaint. Mspaint is GameMaker, easy to pickup, but you're limited. You can't make a killer picture easily with mspaint, you'll need photoshop or something (c++).

Also, I'd like to add that saying its too hard is bull***t. I hate it when people say its "too hard". Keep trying until you get it. I remember once I was making a small 3d tank wars game and was my 2nd EVER opengl program. So i had a lot of trouble, one of the being that i wanted trees in the game. I wanted to use clip maps on trees so some parts are transparent and others aren't. So i followed the clipping tutorial, then found out that the trees in the distance lit up like a christmas tree, as in just white blocks. It spent me hours and hours to find out the solution.

[Robotacon]

c++ isn't for newbies.
I'd start with XNA game studio using c#.

First Gamemaker
Then XNA Game Studio
Then SDL perhaps, that's where I'm heading myself at the moment.

[HyperNewbie]

I'd say instead:
C++ is not for newbies who don't wanna try, and instead try to make their "own" game in 10 mins.

[Madgarden]

I'd say instead:
C++ is not for newbies who don't wanna try, and instead try to make their "own" game in 10 mins.

Many newbies can get discouraged if they don't see results in 10 minutes, and then give up on making games altogether. There's nothing wrong with the fast-track way of making a game through an engine or game maker. They'll move on to more powerful environments if they outgrow their game maker tools.

Look at all of the great Game Maker games out there. I'm constantly amazed at how quickly these guys pull off polished games. The "true path" to making games needn't require the ritual pain and suffering of C++, heh.

[Chris Whitman]

As someone who has been working with C++ since the age of eleven, and feels about as comfortable with it as I do with English, I will tell you that anyone who eschews simpler tools which will get the job done is crippling themselves.

Personally, it would take me longer to churn out a product with a 'game maker' utility than it would to code it straight up, but my skill set is more geared towards that, so it's understandable. Everyone has their own skills, training and preferences. The important thing is achieving your end goal, which is presumably making a finished game which you enjoy. Whether you do this using C++, Game maker programs, or by praying to the great sky spirit to grant you the boon of an awesome sidescroller, in the end it makes very little difference.

If you would like to learn C++, or any programming language (I hear very good things about Python, and there are a lot of graphics libraries/extensions/whatever for it as well), keep in mind that real programming requires real engineering, even for small products. If you sit down to hack out a program and you don't even know if you're using a top down or a bottom up design, you are going to be lost, get stuck and end up with a useless, buggy finished product. And the worst part? You probably won't really know what you did wrong.

If you don't think you can manage that, or you just don't want to deal with it, and there are other development platforms that would suffice for your goals, go ahead and use them. You will save yourself a lot of time and frustration. If someone bugs you for using a tool someone else made, ask them if they built their computer from spare transistors and wrote their C++ compiler in their own machine code.

[Buff Cardstock]

I asked a few programmer friends about Pygame, and they all reacted with horror and disgust.

That's only because it probably seems much less hardcore than something your average programmer too obsessed with his street cred would admit to advising.  The truth of the matter is that Pygame, while being on the slow side (blitting isn't something one generally wants a scripting language to do, but here we are), is a good start to programming in general, being based on Python and all.

[Derek]

I'm actually thinking of (once I have a little more time) doing a Python / Pygame tutorial on the forums.  Just something to teach basic programming concepts and go through the steps of making a very basic game.

First I have to learn Python / Pygame, though.

[Golds]

I'm with Cake, I have a strongish software engineering background, but I would totally recommend using whatever tool you want to build your game and get it done, be it GM/MMF/Flash/Blitz/what have you.  You may face stigma from 'serious developers', but in the end, the user doesn't care what the game is made with.

Learning C/C++ is a large time investment if you're starting from a blank slate.  And if you want to write a game, you'll probably want to learn OpenGL or DirectX as well, which is yet another time sink.  It is possible to do this if you're dedicated, however. 

The guy who runs DanLabGames was trained in school as an artist, but started writing games on the side in Game Maker-like environments.  He taught himself C, then OpenGL, and all the necessary 3D math, and then recently GLSL, etc, over the course of years.  And now his games, which he creates single-handedly, look like this, and win Apple Design Awards.

P.S.  Knytt, and all of Niflas' other games are done in Multimedia Fusion.

[renkin]

Yeah, all I can add is: if you start learning programming with nothing else in mind than an ultimate goal of making cool games, you most likely won't be able to keep up the interest. Get into programming if you want to learn programming, if you're interested in the process. If you just wanna make games, you're probably better off with Game Maker of MMF. They are both very potent tools.

EDIT: If you do want to get into programming (and ultimately game programming, but consider that a later step) and are a complete newbie, get a good book on C and get busy! Why C and not C++? Because it's a small and manageable language which still contains all the basic programming concepts. When you know it well, you could easily move to C++ and object orientation (which is really useful), but you could also make your games in C.

So, get a good C book (the one I have is in Swedish, so I can't recommend that unfortunately), get to know control flow, pointers, memory management and different data structures. Start making little programs, then a simple game or two. When you feel ready, look into Allegro for a complete game programming library (2D) or OpenGL for 2D/3D graphics. But remember, like the process or you'll get nowhere!

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

Seconded. In fact I don't even think people should begin with tools as complex as GM or MMF -- begin modding, then move to engines. You can learn almost everything you need to know about game development through creating mods.

[Zetetic Elench]

I've been using GameMaker for a long while now, and I know the language by heart; but it's got a few inherent limitations on what I want to do - for example, very very large maps without slowdown, and so on.

So I picked up a book on C# game programming, and suddenly realised that GameMaker has taught me an awfully large amount of the basics. Completely different language, of course - but it's all there. It's weird, but very cool.

I'm thinking about getting started with XNA, but someone on these forums mentioned that it limits your userbase because you have to have the .Net 2.0 framework and so on all installed, and it doesn't compile an .exe? I haven't played around with it much so far, but I'd love to know more.

[JohnB]

Working at JayIsGames for almost 2 years has put me firmly on the "critic" side of the fence. After reviewing hundreds of games and judging several competitions, I finally decided it was time to experience what it's like on the developers' side of the fence. So, I started learning Flash. Maybe not the best way to get into game making, but it does what I need.

Problem is, the books I've found are horrible, and internet tutorials are even worse. Anyone know a good guide to help me along? So far I've been picking at the program and piecing together knowledge from around the web. I'm deathly afraid I'm missing vital information. 

[Derek]

Problem is, the books I've found are horrible, and internet tutorials are even worse. Anyone know a good guide to help me along? So far I've been picking at the program and piecing together knowledge from around the web. I'm deathly afraid I'm missing vital information. 

Tile-based flash games: http://www.tonypa.pri.ee/tbw/index.html

Well, it is an internet tutorial, but I think it's a pretty good one!  Unfortunately, you need to know some basic Actionscript first.  But you can probably pick enough up from elsewhere to get through these.  The writing is clear and concise, and the projects move at a brisk, but friendly, pace.

Best of all, he includes source files for all the projects!  Check it out!

[Flink]

If you have been programming anything before you try getting into games programming i think you will have a big advantage of it. One of the moast inportant things is to "think like a coder" which you can learn by coding any language. But like others in this thread have said, it's not just the passion for games that you need, thou it's very inportant. Other skills that i think is inportant is to like problem solving and the motivation to work in a PBL way.

When you decided that your up for the task to become a games programmer there is a coupple of ways to go, depending on your coding background. I'm gonna describe one way to go, it's was this way i did, note: i had some coding experience before with html / php & some basic C#. Also this is one mans opinion, this is the way i see it so it's nothin wrong to do other ways this is just tips.

1.
Start out with some basic C++ coding to learn the basic and start to feel comfortable with the basics. I'm not a big fan of books about basic c++ i think many of the books(not all) are so reliable so i would rather go for som sites on the internet like: C Plus Plus.com Tutorials, More Basic Tutorials. Already here you can train making small games without advanced graphics like "Pong" or "3 in a row". Some tips of things that is inportant to learn is to have full control of pointers it will help you alot in the future & understand Object Oriented Programming .

2.
When you feel comfortable with the basics it's time to move on to a little funnier step, which is the 2D coding. Here you will have the choice to start with som nice 2D API's that will help you alot. I would recomend Simple & Fast Multimedia Library which is a fairly new 2D API which is based on the OOP standard. The other choice i would recomend is Simple DirectMedia Layer which is a bit of a classic, not so OO but it's more documented & used than SFML. I would try both of them and then you can decide which you like to go for.

The best way to learn is to experiment alot and do mistakes, yes you heard me DO MISTAKES! It's the ultimate way to learn things, when you fail(oh yea you WILL fail) and have to rewrite your code it's then you really understand why you failed in the first time and what you need to do to fix it. I really dont belive in "Monkey see, monkey do" i'm more "learn by doing" and as i said before, test and experiment with everything!

On the SDL page there is links to some good 2D tutorials for SDL, also on the SFML page there is tutorials how you get starting the rest is up to you. Now it's really good to use the PBL way to work, cuz a big part of being a programmer is to find info and learn from it. Learn to read API manuals and example code is worth gold! 

I think i cut it here, i hope it will be to some help for somebody and if someone is intrested how to move on when you are a 2D master programmer i can give you some tips, but the 3D area is a bit larger and more advanced. But if you use your PBL skills i think you can make it!
Cheers!