Help Me! (Pick IDE)

[Mekikya]

Hi all,

I'm a little new at this, and what not...I want to learn to program...I'm a pixel artist and not bad either but I want to make my art come alive in a game...I know a tiny bit about C++ and I've done the smallest bit of porgramming that you can actually do and still call it programming...I need someone whose expirenced to tell me some stuff...like where can I get a compiler? What kind should I get? What other things do I need to make a game? Like I said I know next to nothing and am willing to learn anything anyone has to offer me...You can post it here or email me at lilmekikya@yahoo.com

Kikya

[Steven]

As for the compiler, gcc (the GNU Compiler Collection) is free, and is installed with Apple's Developer Tools. It's definitely good, especially on a tight budget. For a game, you likely will want a game library of some kind, something to do most of the dirty work for you. I like Allegro (do a Google search), but I'm sure opinions vary wildly. SDL seems to be popular, but I've never used it.

[Mekikya]

Wow, thanks, I appreciate your imput...I'll check those out...If you have anymore suggestions, I'd love to hear them...oh and Happy New Years!

[codemattic]

http://www.spriteworld.org
http://alleg.sourceforge.net/
http://www.libsdl.org/index.php
http://www.sugarcubesoftware.com/csk/

and there are a bunch of java sprite libraries if you want to go that route. I found this article:
http://developers.sun.com/techtopics/mobility/midp/articles/game/

hth,
Codemattic

[Josh]

If you are new to programming, I would suggest you start with METAL Basic or TNT Basic.

[Mazilurik]

I agree with Jabber; neither Metal nor TNT has a very great learning curve, so even if you don't have much programming experience you should be able to start making games with one of them without too much effort. Eventually, you'll probably run into limitations, but by that point you should have enough programming experience that picking up a more advanced language shouldn't be too difficult.

[aarku]

http://www.pygame.org

Works wonderfully, and lots of tutorials and sample code are available. There are directions for downloading and installing pygame and its dependencies on the site.

-Jon

[wadesworld]

If you're that new to programming, I'd suggest forgetting all about things like gaming libraries for a while.

You've got a lot to learn on just using the language. Get some books on learning whatever language you choose and do the small simple programs which output to the console first. Later you can learn how to manage windows, use game libraries, etc.

Wade

[PowerMacX]

If you're that new to programming, I'd suggest forgetting all about things like gaming libraries for a while.

You've got a lot to learn on just using the language. Get some books on learning whatever language you choose and do the small simple programs which output to the console first. Later you can learn how to manage windows, use game libraries, etc.

Wade

I agree in that you first should learn how to output to the console, is VERY helpful during debugging, but I think that using a basic game library will be very usefull too. It will free you from having to learn window handling and other tedious stuff and concentrate on your game. When you have some practise, then you can look into handling window events (and any other things the game library provides) yourself.
I think you will get frustrated if you have to do everything from scratch when you are just starting.

[Justin Brimm]

All of this reminds me, is the FAQ back up? If not, someone should get it up soon, so we can start pointing people to it... or if not, we can create, and all add to a temporary FAQ in the forum.