Where to start..

[Wryoko]

Hello, this would be my first post on this forums.. and I'd like to make it a resourceful one  

Well to begin with, I need a few simple questions to be answered..

Just say I got the Idea to make A 2D MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game - Most of you probaly and should know what this is   )
But I mean nothing big.. or even commercial just a simple game where me and a few friends can interact online venturing and battling through dungeons, et cetera.
Where would I want to begin?

Well I figure it that I'd need to look into learning the basics of a Programing language first, But which one? and which would be the Fastest and Easiest to learn (In your opinnion, I know we all work/learn at a different pace =P) And afterwards, wouldn't I need some sort of 'Compiler'(Not too sure what this is, All I know is that you encrypt Source code into.. A usable format?)
If so could someone direct me to maybe a FREE compiler program and explain to me how and what it REALLY is?

Anyway sorry for agitating anyone who hates to read new-B help questions ...  

[voidmain]

You can download the source code to Quake II and the game server engine, then build off the Quake engine. I don't know if that is the kind of game you are talking about. It would be heavy stuff for a beginner though. You would likely want to use the language that the engine is written in if you use it. I assume it would be C or C++.

You can find several free compilers at http://www.gnu.org/ most notably "gcc". If you are running Linux you already have it. There are also Windows versions of "gcc" (among many other OSs).

[ October 05, 2002: Message edited by: void main ]

[Wryoko]

Well I would want a Simple 2D engine.. Like using a Tileset.. and a few sprites.

I don't think I could make it in the QuakeII engine without Slitting my wrists      

Edit- Wow thanks for the compilers.. Before I check them out, is there any tutorials/instruction on how to use them?

oops sorry just noticed your signature .. heh
Oh and thanks for the warm welcome  

[ October 05, 2002: Message edited by: Wryoko ]

[ October 05, 2002: Message edited by: Wryoko ]

[voidmain]

There are many smaller games for KDE and Gnome, all of the source code is available. Again, if you are using Linux.  Oh BTW, welcome aboard! Glad to have you!

[TheQuirk]

Well, seeing that you just want to make a simple game, I'd recommend python (http://www.python.org - free) and http://www.pygame.org/ (set of Python
modules designed for writing games.). Python.org provides some very good tutorials on their site.

http://python.org/doc/Newbies.html - Python begginer's guide.

Now the fact that you're going to be wanting to make a game that you can play over the almighty interweb also requires you to know socket programming. That can be learned, again, for free right over at
http://py-howto.sourceforge.net/sockets/sockets.html (alot of resources can be found on the python website - explore it!).


If you ever want to write something bigger, I'd take a look into C/++ programming with the SDL library (http://www.libsdl.org) for graphics, and
http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~beej/guide/net/html/intro.html for socket programming.

Oh, and I almost forgot: google's your friend  

[ October 05, 2002: Message edited by: TheQuirk ]