How did they make Sonic?

[ibly31]

Yeah, a signed multiplication program is like... 150 lines. I made my first actual game, and it had a title screen, and a non-working menu, and it was 350 lines.

[wtetzner]

Sure, the syntax and semantics of learning an assembly language is not dificult, but doing anything even remotely useful or nontrivial is horrendous in comparison to a higher level language.

Yeah, it's not something you would use to write large applications (or even small ones). But it can be good for optimizing certain parts of programs. And once you become fairly proficient in C/C++, it's not a bad idea to learn assembly. You get a good idea of what the compiler is transforming your code into, and it also helps to understand what happens when you make a function call, how arguments are pushed onto the stack, etc.

The more you understand about the language and the compiler, the better you'll be able to use them.

-Walter

[BlueMonkey5]

See, what I don't get, is whether or not you use assembly, C++ or whatever, that's not going to change the look of the game?? The look of the game comes down to the graphic artist, with the backgrounds, character sprites and animation... right?

[eatcomics]

See, what I don't get, is whether or not you use assembly, C++ or whatever, that's not going to change the look of the game?? The look of the game comes down to the graphic artist, with the backgrounds, character sprites and animation... right?

Yeah but what if the animations are running at 3 fps... Or your language doesn't support a function you need, or your gameplay flat out sucks????

[CC Ricers]

See, what I don't get, is whether or not you use assembly, C++ or whatever, that's not going to change the look of the game?? The look of the game comes down to the graphic artist, with the backgrounds, character sprites and animation... right?

Yeah but what if the animations are running at 3 fps... Or your language doesn't support a function you need, or your gameplay flat out sucks????

And when it comes down to it, no matter what language you use, the compiler is going to convert it all into machine code (the 1s and 0s). BlueMonkey5, you're correct to an extent, that the looks of a game are mostly not dependent on what language you use. But with most modern games, advanced rendering techniques require some technical know-how. But moreso, your programming skills have an impact on the performance of the programs you make. For instance, bitmap images (like all files) are represented by numbers, and as a programmer it is your job to tell the computer what to do with those numbers.

[BlueMonkey5]

gotcha... I see what youre gettin at. Man, I don't know how you guys program. Way too much for me

[eatcomics]

gotcha... I see what youre gettin at. Man, I don't know how you guys program. Way too much for me

You get used to it, it seems like a lot to take in at first but eventually you start taking it as it comes....

[ultimatedragoon69]

My philosophy of programming is don't stress out about it and take it in bunches. Don't try to learn everything at once, take your time and let things just sink in. Eventually programming becomes a cake walk and the hard part is the design of your projects. Of course this is my own way of thinking about programming. This could be different for other people.

[derbon]

they probably wrote the engine to do that,so if sonic a ramp he jumps into his ball-shaped-thing(ive never played sonic before) in a quarter circle fasion

game logic is confusing

[Netwatcher]

if sonic a ramp he jumps into his ball-shaped-thing(ive never played sonic before) in a quarter circle fasion

game logic is confusing

this is just a simple animation, from images, it didn't really change it's shape.
No circular transformation ever occured...

[Moosader]

if sonic a ramp he jumps into his ball-shaped-thing(ive never played sonic before) in a quarter circle fasion

game logic is confusing

this is just a simple animation, from images, it didn't really change it's shape.
No circular transformation ever occured...

Roflcopter.

Wow, that all sounds really confusing, but thank you all for the input. It is very informative, helpful and good to know.

They're sort of intimidating you here, talking ONLY about Assembly. It's really low-level, so it takes a good deal of knowledge on how computers actually work to use it. Higher-level languages are more widely used these days for making games, like C++. Even that, though, takes practice to get used to. It's not impossible, but you need to learn your basics before you move on from there.

If you want a bit of a taste of code without all the little intricacies that comes with it, you could try GameMaker. It offers a graphical user interface for getting everything set up and creating levels, and then you write scripts with Game Maker's Language, which is similar to C in syntax.
(So like, a lot of it would be graphical, but you'd have to write things like

Code: Select all

if ( player.HasItem( FISH ) == true )
{
   npc.Say( "Blahblahblah" );
   player.GiveItem( TUNA_SALAD );
}

I've never used Game Maker language before, but I'm just trying to give a general example. @_@;

[Pickzell]

Code: Select all

Code: Select all
    if ( player.HasItem( FISH ) == true )
    {
       npc.Say( "Blahblahblah" );
       player.GiveItem( TUNA_SALAD );
    }

I've never used Game Maker language before, but I'm just trying to give a general example. @_@;

I could tell, haha. Game maker's Object Orientation is insanely lacking compared to C/++'s.
It would probably look like this.

if( obj_player.HasItemFish == true )
{
obj_npc.Say = "Blahblahblahblah";
obj_player.GiveItemFish = true;
obj_player.HasItemFish = false;
}

Game Maker also has things called scripts, which in GML(Game Maker Language) is the equivalent of a C\++ function.
It would like something like this

Code: Select all

If( argument0 <> argument1 ){ argument0 = argument1 }

Which could then be called by typing.
NameOfScript( Define Argument0, Define Argument1 );

So, if the script was named MakeEqualScript

Code: Select all

var mmm;// define variables (cannot have an assignment operator).
var hmmm;
mmm = 142;// Assign numbers to variables
hmmm = 24421;
MakeEqualScript( mmm, hmmm );//Call your script

It could also be done

Code: Select all

MakeEqualScript( 142, 24421 );//Call your script

[Pickzell]

Sorry about the double post.

I can't see myself coding in ASM, but if you want to learn C/++ I would strongly recommend learning GML (Game Maker) and Fusion 2 (MMF2).

That's just how I did it.

[hurstshifter]

Sorry about the double post.

I can't see myself coding in ASM, but if you want to learn C/++ I would strongly recommend learning GML (Game Maker) and Fusion 2 (MMF2).

That's just how I did it.

Hmmm... If I wanted to learn C/++, I would learn C/++, not GML. If you want to start with basic game development GML would be a good idea.

[Pickzell]

Sorry about the double post.

I can't see myself coding in ASM, but if you want to learn C/++ I would strongly recommend learning GML (Game Maker) and Fusion 2 (MMF2).

That's just how I did it.

Hmmm... If I wanted to learn C/++, I would learn C/++, not GML. If you want to start with basic game development GML would be a good idea.

Well, in MY opinion, in order to be a programmer, you have to be motivated. In order to be motivated you'll have to make a game, which you will be doing in 10 minutes in GML, and 3 weeks in C/++. If you just stay there blitting pictures in SDL, you will slowly lose motivation, and probably stop trying to be a programmer.