Game Idea

[Xaos]

So a few of my friends and I came up with a game idea. Basically, it will be a humor-type with any inanimate object being able to come to life, with some kind of funny thing as the main antagonist. It will be a shooter. Any kind of object can come to life (it will be scripted but seem random), even your weapons and flashlights are included. We want cartoon-ish type graphics, similiar to Surgeon Simulator. Basically the reason of the thread is that I want to ask, what is the best way to make this? Would it be to buy/get an engine and do it through that since its our first 3D project? Or would it be better to create the 3d things in a 3d program and code it ourselves since its a bunch of random stuff coming to life? Just some help and guidance to get us started would be great It should be noted I don't know C# or C++, I've never worked in 3D except for AutoCAD, and they have no kind of coding experience or 3d modeling

[a_bertrand]

If you want to make your game a 3D game, I would say the best option if Unity 3D. There is a free version which should allows you to do a full game.

For the 3D art, you will quite certainly need to do it yourself (or somebody for you). Yet to create the art, you can either pick the best free option out there (blender) or invest the money into some 3D tool (expensive in any case). I warn you however, that creating 3D art is something hard, and may requires years of experience before reaching any usable level. So better that you find somebody doing it for yourself.

[Xaos]

If you want to make your game a 3D game, I would say the best option if Unity 3D. There is a free version which should allows you to do a full game.

For the 3D art, you will quite certainly need to do it yourself (or somebody for you). Yet to create the art, you can either pick the best free option out there (blender) or invest the money into some 3D tool (expensive in any case). I warn you however, that creating 3D art is something hard, and may requires years of experience before reaching any usable level. So better that you find somebody doing it for yourself.

Alright. Ill play around with Unity tonight. Maybe try some 3D stuff, but I'm no artist, haha

[Xaos]

So, we decided to instead do a 2D Side scroller. I think I could just code it myself. Would it be better to use like PHP or Python or Java? Maybe even Canvas? And does anyone know any tutorials to kind of get me started on the right to do it?

[a_bertrand]

PHP will not be usable to make the realtime rendering needed for a game like that. Python? Really?

If your game should run on Windows only, then C# would be the language of choice, if you want to be cross plateform I would maybe use C++ with SDL or Java. If you want to play via the browser, then Canvas and JS.

[hallsofvallhalla]

http://www.netgore.com/

http://citrusengine.com/

http://www.garagegames.com/products/torque-2d

Definitely check out Net Gore

[Jackolantern]

Bertrand, Python is great for 2D games.

Really, you have an incredible number of options for 2D games. But if you have little coding experience, I would suggest Construct 2. It is a good balance between drag-and-drop editors and coding-like creation. It can even teach you programming logic. It also supports exporting to a wide number of platforms, such as HTML5, Android, iOS, Windows 8 Store, etc.

[a_bertrand]

Jack: I know python since... over 13 years... and I can tell you, I don't like it much. Sorry. I don't like much the syntax, the way things work, and I would not consider it as the best option. But you are free to choose the best option for you

[Jackolantern]

Jack: I know python since... over 13 years... and I can tell you, I don't like it much. Sorry. I don't like much the syntax, the way things work, and I would not consider it as the best option. But you are free to choose the best option for you

To me there feels like 2 major syntax styles out there: C-style and whitespace style (a case could be made that BASIC style is its own thing as well). C-style is made up of C/C++, C#, Java, JS, and more. Whitespace style is made up of Ruby, Python and others. It can be hard to change from one to the other (I am learning that now as I am taking a Python class), but if you focus on one style and feel comfortable with it, either is quite competent. The software made with both flavors show that they are both powerful options. It can just feel uncomfortable for someone with an extensive background in one or the other to change.

[a_bertrand]

I never said Python is not powerful, I just said I don't like it much. Nor I do like JavaScript as language for example. Question of taste mainly. Yet honestly having a scripting language for a standalone game is maybe not the best choice out there. Question of lack of compilation, lack of pre-checks, lack of some of the increased difficulty for wanabe hackers to modify / check your code. Also, beside C++ which would be the first choice for standalone games (still, even if I'm hardly a fan of C++), maybe C# could be a substitute, yet still a second class choice (beside if you use Unity 3D).