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Making Something in C; A Simple Question
Tweet Topic Started: Aug 13 2008, 09:28 PM (157 Views)
Post #1 Aug 13 2008, 09:28 PM Usk'ighte
Is it possible to make a 2d game *sidescrolling+top down+turn based strategy" in C?

I still haven't figured out much about the language though, so please don't give me a complex answer including 56 different commands I don't know of.
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Post #2 Aug 14 2008, 07:43 AM DaFranker
There's no way to do it without said 56 commands you don't know of. It'll take thousands of different coding processes, probably including well over a hundred different statements and compiler funcs, and that's not even close to the start of what you'll have to do just to make up the "engine" of a turn-based strategy game.

Seriously, if you're going for games, fuck C. Pick C# or C++. Better yet, start straight in D, it'll save you the trouble of converting to that later once it's gained some ground.

About sidescrolling + top-down + TBS... well, top-down + rts has already been made before, but I don't know the specifics of how you want to implement it. It's basically just a matter of implementing a control scheme module (rather than implementing the controls natively in the main code as you would for a top-down-only), and having ways to turn it on/off and interface with a particular "unit" -- i.e. make it work just like the way anything modular should work.

One definitive downside of C here is that it's not very good with OO coding, which means you'll have a much harder time making a truly interactive game.

Back to the issue of those three gametypes... I have no idea what you really mean, how you'd begin to implement that even in concept, though the coding part should be rather fine, and I can't begin to understand why you'd even want to mix side-scrolling with top-down and turn-based strategy. You have one real-time from the side, one real-time from the top, one event-time from whatever angle. Bleh. The only possible thing I can think of would be that you want to make an RPG the likes of the Final Fantasy series. In such a case, they're not actually mixed per-se -- there is a top-down component of the game, which is in fact totally separated -- you could practically call it another program -- and the combat component. There's even another component for the world map, most of the time.

But, to answer the primary and original question: Yes, it is possible to make whatever you want in C, just like in any other language. It's just not necessarily commodious, light, easy on resources, easy to code, easy to find a way to make the code efficient, or even achievable in less than ten years. Some languages have limitations that others don't. It might be easy in this case to do in C, but C is a derelict language. I don't even know why you'd want to learn that language first or why any class would want to teach you that. C#, C++ and D are all more powerful, more versatile, and in the cases of C++ and D, much more efficient.
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Post #3 Aug 14 2008, 04:05 PM Usk'ighte
Thanks, although I am starting to learn C, so I might go use C as a springboard to learn other programming languages before I try this. I am especially scared of starting a game after seeing the 300 lines of code to simply display an image with C.

I don't mean to mix all the elements together at once, just a concept I have where the game adapts how it plays according to your preferences. Basically, it will be the same story, but it could end up as an RTS, FPS, RPG, etc. Maybe even Harvest Moonish. I doubt the feasibility of making something like this, but I have been adding more and more ideas to its growing pool of design.

The first idea I had that started this was a virtual reality pod where a user would be immersed as fully as possible within it as far as you can without translating brain signals directly into a machine and outputting signals to affect the mental state of a person.

Then, I worked backwards due to the impossibility of it. So I decided on a 3d one, and realized how stupidly hard it would be. So finally I decided to create a prototype 2d one to push the idea to its limits and see if it would ever be popular enough to break a niche group.
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Post #4 Aug 14 2008, 04:17 PM DaFranker
Well, let me warn you that C is a bad "springboard". Many people see C++ and are "oh noes, it's way too complex for a first language... I'll go learn C first", and that's a bad thing to do. Why? Because although the languages are similar, they still have thousands of small, cranky, bug-inducing, impossible-to-find-unless-you-really-really-know-what-you're-doing differences.

This means that someone who starts out by learning C, then "upgrades" to C++ will definitely have a hard time, since there will be countless changes and things to keep track of, lots of coding habits to change, and lots of coding practices to relearn. C++ also requires an entirely different approach most of the time, as it allows for much better OOP, which is often required nowadays 'lest you're to get shunned by employers and other coders alike.

The real difficulty is that in those two being so similar, the brain will attempt to simply adapt and convert what it already knows of C, while in fact C and C++ have enough difference to warrant re-learning as a wholly different and new language.

However, if you really do want to learn C, go ahead. But it won't serve you for anything other than... coding in C, and getting a basic fundamental grasp of how coding really works, which you'd get with any other programming language, including BASIC or even VBA (which is right there in Microsoft Office as a 'compiled scripting language').

And yes, working backwards from the initial crazy idea is always a good thing, as long as you can keep the fun factor in the simplified end idea.
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Post #5 Aug 14 2008, 07:12 PM Flak
And only Franker would know what the hell you're talking about...
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Post #6 Aug 14 2008, 07:46 PM Usk'ighte
Flak
Aug 14 2008, 07:12 PM
And only Franker would know what the hell you're talking about...

XD

Of course, who else would?

Edit: Would you recommend using BlitzPlus as a programming language for a game that could branch off into many different types of games? If so, would it be worth sinking $60 into?
http://www.blitzbasic.com/Products/blitzplus.php

Edit2(omfg): Ok, and as a final reason I posted this thread on an RP Forum, is because this is the perfect place to get a story to work with and have actual living characters throughout.(Assuming there are no people who randomly drop out of an RP and disappear forever)
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Post #7 Aug 14 2008, 08:08 PM DaFranker
Whoa. Flak doesn't know what C is? Please immediately remove all charges of 'lying' against me, or this gets released to the press!

Erhm, but seriously though, I'm somewhat surprised.

And, Usk... I'm pretty sure you should download the Demo and make sure it's what you want first. The language does sound like a nice thing, what with automatic inclusion of Dx and Ddraw and stuff, and the whole language being a simplicity merge of Basic+C, and it being totally made for 2d games (or for 3d games with the 100$ Expansion Pack :P). However, try it out, start learning a bit of the languages, and you should have a better idea of whether or not you want to buy it.
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Post #8 Aug 14 2008, 08:12 PM Flak
I know what C# is. I just don't use it, and, therefore, know little about the inner-workings of C# itself.

So, you're still a liar.
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Post #9 Aug 15 2008, 03:58 PM Usk'ighte
Flak vs. Franker seems to be showing up everywhere >.>
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Post #10 Aug 15 2008, 04:03 PM DaFranker
That's because Flak is jealous, so he attempts to undermine me in order to prove to himself that he can reach my level of greatness ;)

Of course, half of the last sentence meant absolutely nothing and was pure fabrication. Now to know which half...
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Post #11 Aug 15 2008, 05:20 PM Flak
Well, now that such is settled...

[Closes topic.]
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