I'm a beginner programmer and I plan on studying about software development as a career, so until now everything I've done has mostly been for fun and/or learning purposes. I always loved games and i would like to finish a project with a friend (who will help me with graphic design). My question is, should I begin by using an already developed engine like DarkGDK or should I go straight and mess with DirectX/OpenGL? Of course, the second option would necessarily make me learn much more, but is it worth beginning with those or should I use a third party engine first to get a grasp of what I'm doing?

afaik if you want to make a game within the next decade u should probably use a 3rd party or already made engine

not sure how complex of a game you are talking though

This post was edited by Eep on Dec 28 2012 01:28am

I'm in a similar boat and I have started with 3rd part engines.

My first was built on top of Microsofts, XNA. It was really straight forward and allowed me to get a game out very quickly. This was mainly for learning purposes, but you can make some pretty good games with XNA.

I'm not sure what platform you are targeting for, but I'm afraid that if you jump straight in to DirectX/OpenGL you will get overwhelmed and stop coding. At least, that's how I felt when I tried going that route.

i don't want to code anything complicated, just a simple 2d game

I may start with SFML or something like that... I guess that later i'll choose which one I like more

This post was edited by IamnotZ on Dec 28 2012 03:08pm

Aye, use a 3rd party library for graphics, but you'll still be making a game engine ( resource/sprite manager, state manager, etc etc. ) and design matters there. But yeah, if you're using C# try XNA or if you're using C++ try SFML or SDL.
If you really want, use a 3rd party game engine first and then go towards making your own.

This post was edited by CherubofDeath on Dec 29 2012 10:55am

already installed/learning SFML since yesterday, thanks : D. Yes, I'm writing in C++

HAHA im a student in college for game production... I wrote 2 game engines so far, its ALOT of code and it is not for "beginner programmers" to be writing engines... but here u go

write it in c++ using direct x or open gl... dont fuck with the others untill ur a beast.
3 projects
1. game (ur game... this is the output of ur level editor)
2. level editor (this is brutal... I hope you like windows.h and using open gl with it, ull use a tons of open gl in this project and will need to import (.max.obj.png,fbx,jpec,targa,bitmaps, ect..) on top of that make ur skyboxes/terrain(and editor for it), water, scripting languages (this can be in the engine project but is less compressed memory in this (ull see why later), and alot more.. and tons of tools to help make a game (quickly and easily)
3. Engine! (this is the bitch of your program... all functions to make a game will be in this project, gl with this btw... stupid amounts of physics,collisions,trig,linear alg, core object structure, polys everything, textures(multilaying) oh god im done typing all this... gl to you...

I love building game engines and games on my own engine... but its alot of time to learn it... I focus on graphics now all the rest i beat into myself

note: my first 2d engine (gl window and a simple dll(engine) that was similar to flash only no where near as friendly took 6 months. my first 3d took about a year to learn. 5+ hours a day



if that doesnt sound like a good thing to you... go download flash/unity 3d/ udk/ cube engine/ 3ds max/photoshop/ and start making games.

This post was edited by Cribpker on Jan 6 2013 07:50am