Languages needed to make a game?

[Dawa13]

What are various languages needed to make a game?
by languages i mean programming.

[Fingel]

Dont hope to be able to make games right away. Learning how to program is a long and painfull process. right now I'm learning C++ You look around, see what you think is best for you

[Dawa13]

im on that C++ started it and looks fairly simple, i am looking to save for the books...

[DrFrankenstein]

It depends on what kind of game you want to make. I've had relative success writing small games in perl/tk. Python and java also have some capability when it comes to making games but if you want to make a great game such as unreal or quake then your probably going to want to learn C++. A few other, "easier" languages such as BASIC have support for things like vector graphics etc. But it's probably going to be years before you can actually make anything that's worth playing heh.

[Dawa13]

well i wanted to make a good looking mmorpg, not an everquest knock-off but i have a great idea and want to execute it witha group of friends.

[DrFrankenstein]

You might also want to consider Delphi or rpgmaker2000. search for the latter on google.

[carrja99]

Originally posted by Dawa13
im on that C++ started it and looks fairly simple, i am looking to save for the books...

C++ is a great language, but please let me know if you are able to dive right in and begin making games. Sure, I've made some simple text based games and a pac man clone, but programming is not an overnight process.

Check out cboard.cprogramming.com

It's one place I frequent that has been an invaluable resource.

[Dawa13]

rpg200 does not look like help, i am not looking for a way to make everquest on crack.

[Icarus]

Sounds overly *****ious and too much of a jump. Your aiming your sights too high when you don't know how it works. Start small, make something like NetHack to start (which is still advanced as simple as the game is)...here's a few links though that will help you get started

http://gametutorials.com/
http://www.icculus.org/lgfaq/gamelist.php (open source projects are useful for learning how it works)
Loki's Linux Game Programming (http://isengard.overcode.net/~overcode/writing/plg/)

[Silent Bob]

Myself and a few friends made a 3D 'game' (turned out the gameplay was a bit pathetic... :)) for a college assignment.

We used C++ as our language, OpenGL for the graphics, The Open Dynamics Engine (http://opende.sourceforge.net/) for part of our physics and GLUT to take the hassle out of working with windowing systems.

What we learned is that making games is HARD and takes a lot of time!! :) It was a great learning experience and we are keeping at it (albeit each one of us has a different 'pet' project).

[wapcaplet]

Don't expect to be able to dive right in and make a mmorpg right away, especially if you don't know anything about programming. I've been studying C++ and other languages in university for six years and would maybe feel confident about making a text adventure, if I had a few weeks... Games are very complex!

As for what languages are needed, well, it depends on what kind of game you're thinking of making. C is kind of the standard, and is a good general-purpose language, but you really could program a game in just about any language you want. You should learn how to program in a few different languages, and get really good at one or two of them before you even start to think about making a huge roleplaying game.

[Icarus]

Anyone that thinks it's easy to make a game...take a look at the Duke Nukem Forever project. 6 years, 4 engine changes and almost a whole crew recycled..."When it's done" :)

The hardest part is the game engine itself. That's why a lot of compaines license a game engine like Quake, Unreal, LithTech or even Age of Empires. Once that part is done then you have scripting, graphics, level design, models, sounds, music, textures, ect...
Most game companies these days have no less then 16 people on staff, and this is for an 18 month goal (which is almost always late due to mis-management).

Game Developers Magazine is a good source to see just what DOES go into making a game.

[Palin]

I would also suggest reading up on software engineering. There are some good books out there on this subject. I've done a software project without it and it was a mess. I would agree that C/C++ is probably the best choice for game programming.

[mrBen]

Look at some of the gaming libraries, and then use the language that supports them. I guess the most popular at the moment is SDL, which I think is C/C++ based.

But there is also pygame, and things like that. For instance there is a tool for developing Myst-style games in Python (can't remember the name) if you like that sort of thing.