Hello,

I am interested in starting a game development company at some point in the future. Several of my friends and I are quite capable of doing the creative design work and the writing. I, however, have one problem. I have no idea where to begin on the technical aspects of development. I am not sure what language to learn for programming..What kinds of computers to buy. What software to become familiar with.

If any of you have any suggestions please respond here OR email me at Duetz232@yahoo.com.

Thank you for your time.

SDuetzmann

For most development, a generic PC will serve for hardware purposes. As far as software for the actual development, you'll probably want to familiarize yourself with compilers, interpreters, and so forth (or at least have a reasonable understanding of *what* they are).

There is no single "best language" for learning programming, but the quick start guide by taubz, "Getting started with programming", aught to help you choose one. Bear in mind that the python language has a library called pygame which may well help you out when you're ready to attack your first attempt at a graphical game, if you decide to go with python. As games are your primary goal, though, you'll probably want to move on to the C programming language eventually, but I suspect that very few people here would reccomend that you start off with C as it is quite a confronting language, and forces you to do a lot of work yourself that other programming languages would do for you.

I agree with buzgub. Except, I would be wary of python. Not cause it is bad or anything (I have never written a program in python), but it is generally disrespected as a langauge on some channels. An excellent way to start a flame war at some places is just to mention that you program in Python, at this point, you would normally just grab some popcorn and watch.

I am just warning you thats all. I hear, by the people who use it, that it is an excellent langauge, and better than perl in some respects.

Thanks....any suggestions on where I can find this Python program? Any sites in particular that I should check out?

http://www.python.org/ is the python interpreters' web page. http://www.python.org/doc/ is the Python documentation page; they link to a few tutorials. That should be enough for you to get started. When you need help, you might be able to get assistance here, or #python on openprojects.net or EFnet should provide you with a wealth of expertise.

I don't care what you all say, it's design paper, writing it's always design you create a project you don't just work on the fly. You'll never be a company for more than a week without this... Stick to what you design (even if difficult)

JG16: Sorry, but I believe Sduetzmann said he already had all those bits sorted; he was asking for suggestions on how he could get started with the programming side of things. I never said that he should avoid the design work; I just did what I could to answer his question. If you've noticed a place where I said something not in line with this goal, feel free to point such places out to me.

I also don't see how DakeDesuEx's post might have led you to think that he was against sane development methodology, but if there is a phrase there that you interpreted it as such, I'm sure he won't mind if you point out where. I'm just wondering what it was that you were actually replying to; I can't find anything in this thread that you appear to be following up.

Dake: I hope you don't mind my comments about your post. If it offends you, my apologies. However, I suspect many people on tpu.org would consider it a blessing if you were to give greater consideration to your posts before you hit the send button.

Thanks for all the responces...Its good to finally be able to get a decent answer to my questions...
Is there anywhere I would be able to find the definitions of the terms that I was told to find...I havent had any luck so far...any websites..books...anything...?

www.python.org has a section for beginning programmers. You'll see it linked at the top left of their front page.

Has anyone ever heard of Rapid-Q its a clone of GUI Basic , its free and is only 1000kb download ( documentaion a further 500) , I would suggest it to any begginer , for the price , its very good. www.basicguru.com , and there should be a link on your left.