what is possible and how easy is it?

[Josh7356]

Hello everyone. Well, here's my story. I have had ideas for computer games for quite a long time now ,but I'm very VERY cheap. I had spent some time trying to work with a different game creator ,but I needed to make all of the models in 3D ,and my 3D drawing skills or whatever you call them are not the greatest. My projects never reached completion. After doing a little searching I came across this little program. It looks perfect ,but looks can be decieving. I have a fairly long list of questions that I have yet to find the answers for. I can probably find these answers myself ,so don't try too hard to help me. I mostly made this to let you know that the community is growing. So, I have nothing left to say ,and I will present to you my list of questions.

1.)I don't expect a yes to this question ,and I will not be dissapointed at all if the answer is a no. The question is multiplayer. Are multiplayer games possible? Either online or just with a friend at the computer with you.

2.) Melee combat. Can I add melee combat to my games? I used to do this with game maker by creating a sword object and placing it right on the character's hand.

3.) Dialogue. Can I make it so that you can talk to npc's in the game? If so, can the character give multiple responses to the npcs which would make the npcs respond differently?

4.) Scripting. I've never been too good with computer languages. How hard is this one to learn?

5.) I tried to play a game made with this kit to see what it could really do ,and when I opended the game folder, everything was in pieces. Is that what happens everytime you export a game?

6.) Can npcs have a path to follow ,and only attack once you step into their field of view?

7.) Just generally, how easy is it to create games with this program ,and what isn't possible.

There's the list. I'd like to thank anyone who took the time to answer any of my questions in advance. Sorry for any spelling errors. I'm getting sort of tired now ,so it's hard to focus. Please excuse me if I have posted this in the wrong spot or if you have seen multiple threads like this before.

[eric22222]

1) Yes! There's a demo of a network game at the project's page, and same-computer multiplayer can be done with scripting (check out this topic).

2) Yep. I've seen it done in Samurai Blade.

3) Message boxes are easy. A sequence of them (conversation-style) is easy. Multiple responses... may be a little tricky. I can't think of an easy way off the top of my head, but you can make just about anything happen with some scripting. Speaking of which...

4) If you haven't had any programming experience, there'll be a bit of a learning curve. But the more you learn, the easier it becomes to learn more. I was able to pick up VBS in a few weeks, and that was while balancing a busy schedule.

5) Yes, as far as I know. The way SGDK works is really... um... transparent, maybe? You can see all the inner workings pretty easily.

6) Paths are pretty easy. Dark Elf has a good example of enemies attacking when you're close.

7) Really, it depends on how much you want to do. A very simple game would be made like: making a tileset, creating a map, defining what's solid, putting down paths, creating sprites, setting one sprite to be the player, and setting a starting map. Technically I guess you could skip the solidity stuff, but I wouldn't advise it  .

I think that answers everything. If you've got any more questions, let us know. Hopefully you'll (and we'll) be able to see some of your ideas come to fruition soon.

[durnurd]

If you want to see a nice example of what the kit can do, take a look at Rolly the Purple Ball or Ethereal Peace in the Game Projects listings.  Those are pretty good examples of what the kit is capable of without scripting.  If you want to get into scripting, the nice thing about SGDK is that it uses a pre-existing scripting language (VBScript) so it's fully supported by Microsoft, and has a background of a simple pre-existing language (Visual BASIC).  There is a documentation/tutorial to help you get started with scripting, as well as several sample scripts available on the site tha tyou can sink your teeth into to see how things work.

[Jam0864]

At one stage I was going to make a fighting game without scripting and I never finished it, but I know how you could get it to work. If you want help with that just ask.

[bluemonkmn]

5.) I tried to play a game made with this kit to see what it could really do ,and when I opended the game folder, everything was in pieces. Is that what happens everytime you export a game?

Additional note on this.  You may have noticed that SGDK2 (version 2.0) is in the works and an alpha (unstable) version has even been released.  If it concerns you that the projects is so "exploded" even when it gets installed on another system, you should be aware that this is one of the many, many things that changed in version 2.  In version 2, the project file itself is self contained (a single .SGDK2 file) and the generated project is also a single (.EXE) file.  One exception I can think of is fmodex.dll, which is stored separately from the project and the EXE file, and supports sound playback if you use FMOD for sounds.  But FMOD is just an optional custom component, and you can choose not to use it, and/or choose to use any number of other external components, which could also reside in separate files.  But at it's simplest level, your project can be just a single file.

On a development system, you will see a folder created when you compile your project (still talking SGDK2 only), which contains all the source code that gets compiled into the EXE.  This is handy for debugging purposes, but never needs to be delivered.  I think a lot of people find it handy and interesting to see how all the pieces come together in a game, but at least in SGDK2, you have the option of eliminating all that in your delivered final product.

So, I'm not recommending that you upgrade to SGDK2 yet or anything, but just thought you might be interested to know what's coming down the road in the hopefully-not-too-distant future.  And if you'd like to try out the alpha release of SGDK2, you might be able to help improve the quality of the final release (others have already helped me resolve some DirectX problems by informing me of errors that occurred when trying to run the sample game).  So if you're interested in SGDK2, you can take a look in the SGDK2 threads.

[Josh7356]

Thank you very much everyone I didn't expect all this help so fast. Well, this looks like what I've been looking for. I'm really impressed at all of its features. The only thing that bothers me is that if anyone wanted to play your game, they need to have the kit installed too. I believe that you said that the second version is already out and it fixes that problem. Do you think that it's stable enough for a new guy to use?

[Jam0864]

If you have NSIS, you can make EXE's in the original SGDK. I can't remember where to get it but someone will. This means anyone would be able to play your game even without SGDK. I'm not exactly sure how stable SGDK2 is yet although I used to have problems running the sample game so it's not completely stable. There is no help files in SGDK2 yet either, so it might take a while to figure it out especially if you never used SGDK.

[bluemonkmn]

NSIS can be downloaded from http://nsis.sf.net/.  GameDev's install packaging wizard (in the tools menu) is designed to work with version 2.0.  I see there have been a number of versions since then.  I'm not sure if it works with any of those.  If I were you, I'd try the latest NSIS first, and if that doesn't compile the script generated by the install packager, I'd un-install it and try 2.0.  Of course, you're a long ways from needing that if you haven't started a project yet.

I would not recommend SGDK2 for any serious projects.  It's probably too unstable/incomplete for an experienced user, let alone a new user.

[Josh7356]

Now that I have everything that I need, I suppose I should start putting my ideas to work. Thanks for all of your help. I'll probably be back here real soon with either questions or to let you know of my current projects.