Thread: A little question

Originally posted by Robin Hood
Well I just started, and I'm trying to make a Tetris game since I heard it was the best game to start with.

That depends on your definition of "just started". Are you completely new to C++, new to graphics programming (any library), etc.?

If you are new to C++ then I definitely wouldn't recommend starting with Tetris. I'd go with a simple Console TicTacToe game.

If you aren't new to C++ but you are new to *insert your favorite graphics API here* then I would recommend making at least one or two small demos that help you get the feel the library you're using.

If neither of those is the case then sure, Tetris is fine, though most people usually go with a Pong style game for their first graphics game since the the gameplay portion of the code *can be* less complicated.

According to gamedev a library is:
****
A collection of routines that are stored in a .lib file to be used at the linking time and are included in the executable file that is made.
****

That basically translates into a set of predefined functions that "do the dirty work for you" when it comes to some of the lower level stuff, ie: graphics and sound. The first API (library) that I learned was GDI, which is the windows graphics library.

To give you an example using a basic GDI function:

*to blit a bitmap to the screen with GDI you use something like this:

Code:

//Don't read to deep into the param's etc. this is just to give you
///an idea of how little code is involved.
BitBlt(hdc,x,y,width,height,hdc2,xBmp,yBmp,SRCCOPY);

Now if you were to write the code that BitBlt does for you, you would have MANY more lines of code than just one. And I'm sure a good bit of it is in assembly.

Long-story-short, libraries make it easier for you to do cool stuff.

SDL is a graphics library that seems to be growing in support, etc. lately. I haven't looked into it yet but I understand it's relatively easy and fairly powerful. You may want to do a search for some info on it once you're ready to enter into graphics programming.

if you would like some tic-tac-toe console game source to look at you can download my tic-tac-toe game.

here is the link...

http://www.cprogramming.com/cboard/s...threadid=14320

btw, good luck.