Newbie Game Develpoers Unite!

I'm a C++ newbie, and am fairly schooled in Java. I would like to make games... both for fun, and if possible, as a career. I'm proposing this: Any newbie c++'ers interested in comitting serious hours to learning this language, and who have a love for playing games, coding, and hard work, unite into a newbie GameDev team. I learned Java extremely fast because I had a friend learning it with me, to bounce ideas off of, check my code to see things I didn't, and basically "think outside *my* box" (please excuse how overused and trite that adage is.). I dunno... if anyone else thinks this would be productive, let me know. If not just let this thread die :)

-Tele

Staring a group like this off the fly never works out/will never work out. Unless you have extreme organization already prepared the group won't work out. This isn't to say a group of this sort can't be accomplished, but it will require some dedication. I advise you to organize the plans for the group first off. Once you have most of the plan thought out you should present the plan to a few select people. That's an important key. Make sure that you know the people who are going to join, and that not too many people are going to join your group.

Believe it or not but those are the neccesary actions you are going to have to take for your group to even have a chance of being productive. Trust me on this one (I was sort of apart of group like this and it turned into a disaster...ask if you want further details).:)

I have too. The group I was in only lasted 2 weeks, and I was surrounded by a bunch of newbie programmers that didn't need to be making games yet. Basically all that happened on the message board was people asking me how to do stuff, and how to write storyline and character bio stuff.

Some problems that must be thought out beforehand:

1) What coding style to choose? All people have different coding styles, and all styles most be coherrent for projects to be succesful.

2) The level of experience? A person who has created one game is far more experienced than somebody who hasn't created any games at all. Then you may have some people who have created a lot of games and are rather experienced. The different levels of experience leads me into the next problem.

3) What to create? With the conflicting levels of experience each person is going to have different desires for the game to create. Not to mention that each person, regardless of experience, is going to want to create a different game. Again a problem leads me into another problem.

4) So why not split the group up and create different games for each group? Well, each group starts to feel 'too individualistic' and the two (or however many) groups seperate. This is pretty much what happened in the group I was in. First it started off a simple thing. Then we decided to split up into two groups. After that some of the people in each group split up and so on. Basically whatever you do, do not split up into seperate groups for seperate games.

5) So who is going to do what for the game? A lot people may want to do one certain piece of the game. Plus who is going to be in charge? Why is that person going to be in charge? What makes that peson more special than the rest of us? The leader doesn't ever seem to do any of the work...why don't we just break off and start a new groupd without him/her? Also, who's to say that the person is going to live up to the expectations and perform the work?

Here are some keys to follow to actually create a succesful group accorind to each problem:

1) Don't be too strict with this, but try to set some guidelines beforehand on how to code. Such as set the number of desired spaces in a tab, decide which compiler to use, etc...

2) Instead of openly asking people to join you in your group, go around and ask people (people that you are familiar with) individually. This will lead to a better set of people being in your game, however, it may also be much harder to get people to join your group.

3) Before asking any people to join your group come up with the game you are going to create. Decide how you are going to create the game, and why you feel this game is a good game to create.

4) Refer to #2 and #3 for how to prevent something like this from happening. Although, the possibility will always stay there.

5) Refer to #2 and #3 for an origanized effort on the game. Again, though, the possiblity of somebody ditching the group will always stay there.

Those aren't even all of the problems that could occur, but are just some that came to my mind. And the solutions aren't very well detailed, either.

Basically, in my opinion, if you aren't serious about starting a group for 'serious' games, then I wouldn't start a group. If you are looking to start a group to make games like Pong, etc... then don't do it. It's not worth it. If you are wanting to make far more advanced games, then starting a group might be an idea to explore. All in all, though, I would try to stay away from starting a group over the internet. Unless you personally (such as you are friends with them in 'real life') know somebody I wouldn't have them join you in a group.

how excatly do you define newbie?

Quote:

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Originally posted by Wolfheart
how excatly do you define newbie?

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newbie - (noo-bee) noun = a person who does not know the definition of newbie (ie: if you have to ask then you must be one)

:D just kidding.

I guess we're all newbies to some aspect of programming. I've got tons of experience with DirectX, but I've never worked with OpenGL at all, so I'm an OpenGL newbie. :)

As far as what Tech is talking about, while it's still hard to nail down with a specific definition, I think there are some basic traits that apply. ie:

-if you've never completed a game project (regardless of how big or small)

The easiest thing to do is start a game project. The hardest is to finish one.

Concept of Zero was my Student Run Software company but because of all the attempts people had to put together usergroups I decided to open membership and we're doing a development community thing. We have done a lot more planning (not perfect yet) than a lot of these other groups.

http://www.conceptofzero.com
(visit our members page for info on signing up, but if you're real new what we try to do is teach you and answer questions on our boards for you, and maybe once you're ready to start a project you can do it with us)

Hi, just like to say I'd be very interested in taking part in such a group. Whether I would be suitable, well I'm not sure. I study computer technology at the moment, studying programming, C upto now, and soon C++ and Java. I've never programmed a game, but fell most enthusiatic about the idea, and gaming in general. I've been messing with games since black and white pong machines were all the rage, thru. VIC 20, C64, Amiga, PC and the consoles.
I feel I have a good knowledge of what makes a game a 'good game'. I have an appreciation of gameplay, and still find the whole area most exciting. It is my ambition to create a game before I leave college. Doing this alone is difficult, lecturers and fellow students I've not found to focus on this side of programming.
Anyway, as I have said, very keen and enthusiastic, love to sign up,
Regards,
Dirty.

[email protected]

i am intrested tooo
you can contact me

ICQ# 105235461
[email protected]

Is there support to continue with this?

Head to www.downswing.net/coz/ for our boards, you can sign up there.