FIRST Video Game: Hammering out details

[mtrawls]

Originally Posted by Astronouth7303

We could, but we'd still need a physics engine. And when we switched to 3D, it'd be a MASSIVE overhaul.

I believe his point was that a 2D game is still challenging ... but quite feasible to the dedicated group of programmers/artists/etc. A 3D game like you envision, however, is a MASSIVE undertaking, overhaul or not. I don't think you realize just how much work and how many professional programmers and man hours are required for something like this. I don't even know, fully. But I did try a mentorship project at my school to develop a 3D simulation, and ultimately I just couldn't complete the thing working 7+ hours a week (with school thrown in on the side, remember), for a semester. Granted, there were various problems and I was working on other things too ... but my point is that this is huge. I've said it and others have said it and others have said others have said it ... but it's worth one last repeating by me. As someone who's made the mistake before, Start out simple.

And before you start thinking about dlls and classes ... come up with a gameline, a storyboard. Write down everything you expect the game to be, keeping in mind to start out simple and add complexity later, if needed. (And it doesn't hurt to remind you now that premature optimization is the root of all evil). Then, once you've nailed the game description, start working on overviews of the code structure. Have you ever worked on Pre/Post conditions, or writing programs from detailed instructions? Before you write the code, come up with those (it's infinitely easier and less agravating to spot crucial errors in structure/heirarchy this way, not to mention less costly to fix than after you've coded it all).