Me and a friend are thinking about creating games. Neither of us have much experience in programming and we`re not starting big. What we want to start out with is something 2D but that has a bit of rpg/space exploration content, involving landing on planets and questing. Nothing very complicated but something to build up to.

We`re finding it very hard to settle on any kind of language - not knowing limitations but so far we have narrowed it down to three possibilties:

Java
Basic (possibily using DarkBASIC)
C++

We don`t mind purchasing something if it does what we need it to and it`s supported but we don`t want to be buying something gimmicky and unintuitive.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

RPG Maker?

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Seems to be limited to jRPG style, which i don`t want. Besides which, i`m not quite that basic, although thank you for the suggestion.

It's not limited. It depends on the graphics you use.

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Its very hard to say I know of a lot of people who use FlashPunk and they seem to love it I could never get the IDE to work right to even try it out.

http://flashpunk.net/learn/

that is a great place to start making games according to some people. I personally started learning BASIC a long time ago, grasped the concepts of programming and now I am reading a C++ developers library that is great for all kinds of learning, be warned C++ has a bad reputation for being 'too hard' to learn, its a mid level language and believe me there is just more time consumed learning it not necessarily harder to learn or not geared towards beginners. You should really look into python I recommend it to everyone, but you should also note:

http://content.gpwiki.org/index.php/How ... et_Started

that first paragraph, your going to go nowhere if you listen to everyone's suggestions. Python isn't that great for someone who started in basic and wants to just jump ahead to C++ because of basic's constraints. There are a lot of good reasons to use any language but you really need to find what is best for you, like computer hardware for playing a game, I can't tell you what to buy I can only show you guides outweighing the pros and cons and use my biased opinion from there.


http://content.gpwiki.org/index.php/Python

also don't listen to the name of the programming language thinking it will be better than another because its "this or that" or make any preconceived notions about it until you jump in, its very tough to choose I strongly recommend using some kind of source control or your going to see your projects fall apart, I honestly think there isn't anything wrong with picking up a C++ book taking a bit of time and then using sfml/sdl especially if you want to make it the way you want and fast, its not fast to learn but its fast to make things with.

http://www.pygame.org/news.html

again its all up to you I understand how frustrating it is to want to get something off the ground. Try that website maybe it will help you decide how much control you want over your programs. Mid level languages are great (So I hear) for controlling very specific things and not being limited. Other people argue C++ is horrible to start learning with and (I really disagree) I think you don't need to be a software engineer to write a video game like very many confused people say.

C++ is pretty tedious when you're starting out. The language will be getting in your way a lot of the time, which takes time away from actually developing the game.

Using a language like Python will be useful for the future. Python is an excellent scripting language that you will be able to apply to many non-game programming tasks. There are also game development libraries out there for Python which will allow you to get your basic image data drawn on the screen.

The C# / XNA combo is really nice. Visual Studio is the best IDE out there imo and it works beautifully with C#. There's a lot of material for you to draw from on the Internet that will help you get started and keep going. There's also a considerable pool of experience on GPWiki in this area so you're likely to get help here. I would recommend this path. Get a copy of C# Express and download the XNA libraries and get started working through the tutorials on the Microsoft website.

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I agree with IGTHORN, C#/ XNA I would say is a safe place to start. Good combination of power, ease of use, and abundant online resources. Oh, and the express edition is free(last i checked, anyway).

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