Welcome to the forums.
This article is dedicated to all those newcomers, who have set their minds on creating a browser-based games.
Here's what you need to know:
1. Time and WorkBefore you even think about your game, you have to ask yourself if you have enough time and are willing to put a lot of work into this game. Sure, you can make a game in 2 weeks, but it will be sloppy, unbalanced and won't last very long. Creating a successfull game is a slow process with lots of testing, bugfixes, balancing, feature-requests and so on.
If you're willing to put time and effort into this, you may continue with this article, if not, please don't waste our time.
2. Requirements, KnowledgeYou'll need to have a basic or advanced understanding in the following fields:
- HTML -
http://w3schools.com/html/default.asp- JavaScript -
http://w3schools.com/js/default.asp- PHP -
http://www.php.net ,
http://www.php.net/manual/en/tutorial.php- MySQL -
http://www.tizag.com/mysqlTutorial/index.php3. RequirementsTo actually work on a game you will need a text-editor. Here you are completely free as long as the editor can save plain-text files (you can add the .php extension later on).
Furthermore you will need:
- a host that supports PHP and MySQL
- a local webserver that runs PHP and MySQL
The first one is needed to actually publish your game, the second one will be your working enviroment. You do not want to upload any code to your webhost without debugging it first on your local machine. Trust me on this one.
4. The Learning ProcessI took the following out of a post made by a user called "leZourite"
Anyway you can't start to drive a car when you don't know how to walk, this is called the "basics"...
Before making a game, learn to build a website, with notepad, not some auto template things that have no creativity and give you a soup of code in a few clicks !
Once you know how to build a website, learn the basics of php : how to output html from php, functions, loops, variables, includes the list is long but when you master the basics you will have enough knowledges to get things work. Might help to learn "programming" as well, if you can do something in php with programming you will likely be able to do it in lots of other languages with little time.
Learn the basics of relational database, before getting your dirty hands on mysql, learn the hows and whys of a database, if you don't there is no point at starting right away with mysql your application design will most likely be flawed...
Then give yourself in mysql, learn how it interacts with php, how to extract content from the database, how to insert, update, delete things from the database...
Then learn how to do security ! The more your website is secured the less it will break from human errors or from hackers trying to bring your website down !
That's all the necessary step, to even think about starting a game !
5. What now?Unfortunately, no one can be told what game development is. You will have to see for yourself.
With this said, I'm sending you out to get your hands on any sourcecode of games you can find. Look at those games, figure out how they work, start by copying them, then improve them, discard them and start your own game from scratch.
Here's some very basic stuff for you to look at:
Very very basic:
KillmonsterThis one is only to look at and realise how simple a game can be. I started out with this one and I have to say, it thaught me a lot.
Mod to the Killmonster scriptThis one shows how an already existing can be improved and extendend
Dragon Knight is an advanced example of how a game can look like and it is a good example of procedural coding.
I hope this helps to cover your most basic questions.
- Sinzygy
