Hi. Im new to game programming and everything and i was wondering what I would need to make a side scrolling skatebording game or other side scrolling type games. Where should I start? What would I need to know and what programs should i use? Thanx a lot.

What language do you use? If you don't know anything at all I suggest learning some C++ and buying a compiler, preferably Borland. Then, after you start coding it, come back and ask any specific questions you have.

A side-scrolling skateboarding game? You don't need any programming language for that at all.. It should be possible to do in something as simple as Klik&Play (old system for making your own games)..

I know it would suck, but it would be easy.. Honestly, programming games takes quite a lot of time.

Buy a compiler! Just use GCC. http://gcc.gnu.org. What kind of wierdo pays for something as essential as a compiler, especially when GCC is better than the Borland Compiler. For a simple 2d game you probably want to use SDL (Simple Directmedia Layer) from Loki (http://www.libsdl.org/). It is portable between X and Win32 as well. SDL handles graphics, input, and even sound. Nice one-stop package. Its quite nice too. Loki uses it for most of their games (you can render OpenGL stuff onto a SDL surface if you like).

Borland is an IDE, Inegrated Developement Environment. I find it was WELL worth the $30 I payed for it.

"(you can render OpenGL stuff onto a SDL surface if you like)"

If you're a complete noob maybe [like CodeRed --taubz], experienced programmers realize the benefits of writing the OGL or D3D code themselves.

[CodeRed, we're answering a question for a beginner - pretty badly too. Don't insult him by calling him a noob, whatever that's supposed to mean. --taubz]

Right, Thank you for keeping me on track taubz. and noob = newbie = somebody new to something

There are IDE's for GCC too. (e.g. Rhide) And since those IDE's are free, I wouldn't spend money on them.
However Borland is a lot easier to install, configure and learn to use than GCC.
Gets you up in running in (time depending on speed of CD-rom), While GCC is ready in about (time depending on knowledge of Dos-like enviroments and ability to search for info. It's a do-it-yourself-installation)

There are several free compilers available. One of the best is LCC (link at first page) It's only backdraw it has, is that it doesn't support all the C++ additions, It does support C completely.

To write once more:
--------------------
- Learn a language. -|
- Learn to program -| Two different things (knowing what a hammer is, doesn't make you a carpenter)
Means you'll have to learn about datastructures (ranging from a simple array to the more challenging Binary Tree) but also how to organise code to be readable, and understandable (for a human, always remember you write a program to be readable for a human). This is a stage that never ends. You learn new thing every day.
- Program.
Write as much as you can. (But start simple and work your way up, try to finish every program you start) This is the most important thing. You can read as much as you want, if you don't use it, you'll forget about it, and have wasted you time.

And to close:
Klik and play can't make scrolling games.
I bought it a century ago, because I hoped to be able to make some cool games without programming. Unforunatly it was to limiting for my plans and ended up as a dust collector.

RedX

See, he always is mean to anyway who gives even a hint of being less experiences than he is.

Codered, the Borland compiler is lousy to say the least. I used it for many years, until I tried things like GCC and VC++ and realised "Hey, THESE actually work!". Really, and if you are referring to Borland C++ Builder then I have one statement for you... "experienced programmers realize the benefits of writing their own window handling code for themselves".

Anyway, in all honesty, if you've ever used dos and a text editor then you aren't going to have a problem using gcc or the associated IDEs.

Codered, you really need to stop telling people about things that you know nothing to very little about.

I use Borland 5.02, not builder, and I find it a lot easier to be able to edit, compile, and execute in one package so you don't have to keep switching windows.

How nice for you.

"Real" Experienced programmers know the value of console unix! I wasn't raised on any of this fancy pansy Xwindows GUI, MacOS, Windows crap!

Stop arguing for the sake of arguing, gian.

- taubz

okay... sorry.... I suppose I am preaching to the converted when I say that Hollman is really not catching the drift is he...

Back to the original post, why can't he just use Flash or Shockwave or whatever it's called? It's probably pretty simple, which is probably what he needs.

Hmmm.... actually yes, Shockwave/Director would do nicely...

www.macromedia.com

CodeRed, with SDL you do write the OpenGL yourself. You just render it to the surface so it handles the messy (and non-portable) stuff like windows (Windows, Mac OS X, and X all do it differently).

There are many IDEs for GCC. KDE Studio (very nice product from theKompany), KDeveloper, EMACS (sort of), Glimmer, Ajunta, gIDE, etc. I don't like having my compiler integrated into the entire environment. Its like stereo components--if you get it all in one, when you want a new CD player you need to replace the whole thing. It would be much nicer if Microsoft sold the compiler and IDE separately. I still wouldn't buy it (especially since it _sucks_ compared to something like GCC 3.0.2). VisualC++ does have one advantage: it has a better optimizer. But, it has more than one disadvantage: it only runs on Windows and the x86 (GCC runs everywhere from the PDP-10 to a Cray, and runs on every OS from AIX to Microsoft Xenix), even recent versions have problems (for loop scoping anyone?), and it only support C and C++. Did I mention that GCC can compile C, C++, Objective-C, FORTRAN, Pascal, and Java (2.95 can also do Chill). Also, GCC costs a hell of a lot less than Visual C++ (which eliminates one cliff when learning to code--purchasing a compiler). The documentation is also very good (info gcc to see what I mean). All that it lacks is a good C++ STL reference, which can be had from sgi.com/tech/stl.

Point taken. I have used GCC in linux but I prefer Borland, I'll have to try KDE Studio.

Bloodshed's Dev-C++ is pretty good

I actually like MSVC++. I 'technically' didn't 'pay' for it, but it still works great.

CodeRed: KDE Studio uses GCC to compile I bet

And as for myself, I bought a 100% completly legal copy of MSVC 6.0++ PROFESSIONAL (and a free years subscription to MSDN Library) off of EBay from a big distributer for... $50.
Guess I got lucky but if FBI comes to my door and askes how I'm making my games... I can tell them I'm doing it 20% legally :)

"CodeRed: KDE Studio uses GCC to compile I bet"

Yes, I assumed as much... I meant try it as an IDE for GCC...

I dont think this guy is interested in programming. He's got a really simple idea which Klik and Play or Blitz2D will do fine for. Unless he wants to make something serious, a simple game creation kit like the afforementioned ones will do fine.

Who suggested Director? (/me smacks him)

Director costs about $1000 AMERICAN... what teen can afford that? (no... please do not answer >_<)...

I would suggest learning C, and using gcc... but then, my distro comes with it :p

gcc `sdl-config --cflags --libs` -o skateboard skateboard.c(I still get goosebumps by typing that.)