I hope this helps!

No special plans at the moment, a platformer just sounds like a good place to start. My main theory at the moment is that people seem less critical of a concept when its a high fantasy sort of scenario. Noone questions why a banana with a samurai sword can jump 10 ft but when a plumber does it all of a sudden people start to wonder.

I guess something bizarre that gives me alot of artistic licence is the aim, whilst still keeping it basic. Will post when I've had time to come up with something, would be interested to see what the veterans think.

Anyways, do you have any programming experience?

1. Load and initialize all your stuff
2. main loop, repeat until gameover
   • read player input
   • do game logic (do collisions, move characters depending on input, etc.)
   • draw everything (the way you want it :)
3. Clean up and quit

So, any special plans for the platformer?

I've been a game nerd ever since I was 5 and planted in front of a NES with the original Mario Bros. I was designing Mario levels (on paper) by age 8 and have been toying with ideas for games ever since.

Lately I've been unemployed and looking for things to devote my time to. I'm thinking now might be a good time to get started on making some basic games (at first) until I've built up enough knowledge to make something half decent. Eventually I'd like to make my own epic style of RPG (and maybe one day MMORPG).

My biggest drawback - I know next to nothing about programming, bar what I can remember from computer studies in high school. Which is unfortunately also, next to nothing (we did a little bit in QBASIC but I was far more interested in girls and fireworks at the time).

I'm looking at putting together a basic platformer to get my head around game design. From what I can see on this website (great info by the way, thanks) PlayBasic would be a good place to start. I'm not all that worried about WHAT is going to be jumping from platform to platform at the moment, more how. Can anyone recommend some good reading to get me started?

Cheers.

welcome to the site. You should pick up a programming language and get cracking :) Just ask lots of questions and you'll be fine.

I'd like to learn how to create mods for things like civillization, turn old board games and things into working games on the computer, and eventually create a good sports game (im thinking touch footy because I love it) thats actually fun to play for more then half an hour. But really I just want to learn how to design in whatever form so that I can make whatever pops into my mind :)

This site looks awesome, everyone seems so friendly and helpful, Hopefully i can spend a bit of time here :)

I have searched for tutorials on this everywhere, but they are either not detailed enough or are for creating a field of view in top-down shooters…can someone post a tutorial on this or point me to an existing tutorial on this?

I'm using Game Maker 7 btw

sorry, i keep forgetting about this. Is it ok if i write you a post here? When i am on my "email computer" i never remember to write this mail :)

MIDBOSS: Mr. Eyeball
A giant eyeball that has many tentacle thingies that must be shot. The eye itself is invelnerable until the tentacles are shot, then you can get hits on him. He shoot one homing blast from his eye, and one homing shots ffrom each of his four tentacles.

FINAL BOSS: Zombie Generator
A simple machine that spawns zombies that run straight down. Also fires homing bullets. A moving sphere moves left and right and must be shot. Three machines do the spawning and two turrets shoot.

First of all, there is no way to 'miss' in zelda, there is no real developement going on. There are no status attacks, and you can't control any other characters in the game. And to add insult to injury, there is no 'Ultimate attack' to learn.

Now all of that is debatable as to whether it is a requirement in an RPG to begin with. I say that because, like all things, Games are developing beyond what we knew back when the term RPG was created (this is back in 1991 if I remember correctly). Now, i will take each point on its own and discuss them as I know them to be.

There is no 'miss'. This is also true for Fable (Xbox/Xbox360), yet Fable *IS* an RPG, albeit an Action RPG. However, in terms of the CLASSIC RPG, then there is ALWAYS a calculation as to wether you miss or hit.

Character developement. Well, sorry, there is no arguement to really put here. There is no 'developement' in the character known as Link. There is only acquisition of new weapons and tools, and that is TOTALLY against RPG rules. In that respect Zelda is no different to getting a new hat in Mario 64, getting a new weapon in Halo, or getting the final smash in Smash brothers. This doesn't make Zelda a bad series, but it doesn't make it an RPG either.

Status attacks. Every RPG I have ever played, even the home-brew, had status attacks. These were used to give more of a realistic tone to the game. Though they were not very damaging, they were annoying as hell to deal with if you were not prepared. Zelda, as series (yes I have played most, if not all titles of the series), does not have this element.

Controlling other characters. There are quite a few RPG's that do not follow this golden rule, but they have a balance to it. To start with, RPG's where you only conrtol 1 character, are always RPG's that let's you design the character yourself. In every Zelda game (the seagull in Windwaker does not count), you only control Link (or whatever his name would be in that version) and you cannot change how he looks (changing his shirt in Ocarina of time, does not constitute changing the character).

The ultimate attack. There is no 'Ultima', no Level 30 required skill, no acquire more items before unlocking… or anything else in that range. There are 'attacks' that you can unlock in various game titles under the Zelda title, but none of them become powerful enough to call Ultimate.

In conclusion, especially after the introduction of Ocerina of Time, the Zelda series has become less and less like the RPG people claim it to be, and more and more like a FPS/Action/Adventure game. (FPS, as in using the bow and shooting it in First Person View, don't argue with me!) Does any of this make Zelda titles any less fun or adictive? Not a chance! I am every bit as addicted to Twighlight Princess as I am to Ocerina of Time, or even to a Link to the Past. But this doesn't make the title an RPG. Sorry guys

First of all, there is no way to 'miss' in zelda, there is no real developement going on. There are no status attacks, and you can't control any other characters in the game. And to add insult to injury, there is no 'Ultimate attack' to learn.

Now all of that is debatable as to whether it is a requirement in an RPG to begin with. I say that because, like all things, Games are developing beyond what we knew back when the term RPG was created (this is back in 1991 if I remember correctly). Now, i will take each point on its own and discuss them as I know them to be.

There is no 'miss'. This is also true for Fable (Xbox/Xbox360), yet Fable *IS* an RPG, albeit an Action RPG. However, in terms of the CLASSIC RPG, then there is ALWAYS a calculation as to wether you miss or hit.

Character developement. Well, sorry, there is no arguement to really put here. There is no 'developement' in the character known as Link. There is only acquisition of new weapons and tools, and that is TOTALLY against RPG rules. In that respect Zelda is no different to getting a new hat in Mario 64, getting a new weapon in Halo, or getting the final smash in Smash brothers. This doesn't make Zelda a bad series, but it doesn't make it an RPG either.

Status attacks. Every RPG I have ever played, even the home-brew, had status attacks. These were used to give more of a realistic tone to the game. Though they were not very damaging, they were annoying as hell to deal with if you were not prepared. Zelda, as series (yes I have played most, if not all titles of the series), does not have this element.

Controlling other characters. There are quite a few RPG's that do not follow this golden rule, but they have a balance to it. To start with, RPG's where you only conrtol 1 character, are always RPG's that let's you design the character yourself. In every Zelda game (the seagull in Windwaker does not count), you only control Link (or whatever his name would be in that version) and you cannot change how he looks (changing his shirt in Ocarina of time, does not constitute changing the character).

The ultimate attack. There is no 'Ultima', no Level 30 required skill, no acquire more items before unlocking… or anything else in that range. There are 'attacks' that you can unlock in various game titles under the Zelda title, but none of them become powerful enough to call Ultimate.

In conclusion, especially after the introduction of Ocerina of Time, the Zelda series has become less and less like the RPG people claim it to be, and more and more like a FPS/Action/Adventure game. (FPS, as in using the bow and shooting it in First Person View, don't argue with me!) Does any of this make Zelda titles any less fun or adictive? Not a chance! I am every bit as addicted to Twighlight Princess as I am to Ocerina of Time, or even to a Link to the Past. But this doesn't make the title an RPG. Sorry guys

First of all, there is no way to 'miss' in zelda, there is no real developement going on. There are no status attacks, and you can't control any other characters in the game. And to add insult to injury, there is no 'Ultimate attack' to learn.

Now all of that is debatable as to whether it is a requirement in an RPG to begin with. I say that because, like all things, Games are developing beyond what we knew back when the term RPG was created (this is back in 1991 if I remember correctly). Now, i will take each point on its own and discuss them as I know them to be.

There is no 'miss'. This is also true for Fable (Xbox/Xbox360), yet Fable *IS* an RPG, albeit an Action RPG. However, in terms of the CLASSIC RPG, then there is ALWAYS a calculation as to wether you miss or hit.

Character developement. Well, sorry, there is no arguement to really put here. There is no 'developement' in the character known as Link. There is only acquisition of new weapons and tools, and that is TOTALLY against RPG rules. In that respect Zelda is no different to getting a new hat in Mario 64, getting a new weapon in Halo, or getting the final smash in Smash brothers. This doesn't make Zelda a bad series, but it doesn't make it an RPG either.

Status attacks. Every RPG I have ever played, even the home-brew, had status attacks. These were used to give more of a realistic tone to the game. Though they were not very damaging, they were annoying as hell to deal with if you were not prepared. Zelda, as series (yes I have played most, if not all titles of the series), does not have this element.

Controlling other characters. There are quite a few RPG's that do not follow this golden rule, but they have a balance to it. To start with, RPG's where you only conrtol 1 character, are always RPG's that let's you design the character yourself. In every Zelda game (the seagull in Windwaker does not count), you only control Link (or whatever his name would be in that version) and you cannot change how he looks (changing his shirt in Ocarina of time, does not constitute changing the character).

The ultimate attack. There is no 'Ultima', no Level 30 required skill, no acquire more items before unlocking… or anything else in that range. There are 'attacks' that you can unlock in various game titles under the Zelda title, but none of them become powerful enough to call Ultimate.

In conclusion, especially after the introduction of Ocerina of Time, the Zelda series has become less and less like the RPG people claim it to be, and more and more like a FPS/Action/Adventure game. (FPS, as in using the bow and shooting it in First Person View, don't argue with me!) Does any of this make Zelda titles any less fun or adictive? Not a chance! I am every bit as addicted to Twighlight Princess as I am to Ocerina of Time, or even to a Link to the Past. But this doesn't make the title an RPG. Sorry guys.