Age old but "I really want to make a bb game" :D

[Garbit]

Ok so i am actually not the average joe in terms of programming knowledge but i still would really appreciate any tips you guys are willing to give.

Im currently studying a BCs. Internet Computing at Lincoln university and i have some knowledge of programming (c#, vb, php, pascal). Ive also made a couple websites and understand CSS and ofcourse html and i just wanted you guys to perhaps give me some pointers.

I have a couple questions in regards to a php browser based game;

1. Do i have to take an object orientated approach to creating a php game?
2. Im learning c# which is OO and will be learning ASP in the upcoming future and was also wondering if it is suggestable to create a game using ASP?
3. Im not entirely sure about relational mySQL but is it possible in regards to joins etc If so is it required in order to create a php game?
I have created mySQL db's but ive never actually implimented a relational db (only really used flatfile structure for things such as blog scripts)

I hope to hear from you guys soon

Andy
The very eager programmer

[JGadrow]

Do you need to take an OO approach? No. However, I recommend it as it will make maintenance and modular enhancements a much easier process for you.

Is it suggestible to create a game using ASP? That's largely up to you. As long as you know the language the choice is up to you. However, if you plan for the game to be maintained by others after it goes big, you should stick to a language that would give you the largest pool of available employees (so, don't go creating your own scripting language! ). You may also want to do some comparisons of the various languages you know to see which one might be best for your purposes. Does this language execute faster than the others? Does it support OOP? Can I use namespaces? etc.

Relational MySQL is possible if you create the tables with the InnoDB engine. No other MySQL table engine yet offers foreign key constraints. It is not required to create a game, however, as you will have an absolute TON of database operations, it does help to guard against corrupted data.

Hope that helps!

[Garbit]

So even for a strategy tick based game i would need classes? or is this more for the RPG where the game is ALL about how the player interracts with others?

[raestlyn]

So even for a strategy tick based game i would need classes? or is this more for the RPG where the game is ALL about how the player interracts with others?

You don't need classes, but it certainly makes things easier.

[JohnMunsch]

So even for a strategy tick based game i would need classes? or is this more for the RPG where the game is ALL about how the player interracts with others?

As raestlyn said, you don't need them, but it's better. You don't technically need PHP, Java, or Ruby. You could develop your applications using assembly language just like we used to do in the old days. However, after a while we decided that programmer productivity was even more important than raw speed of execution. We liked the ability to make fewer mistakes by working in a language that was closer to the problem space we imagined, we liked having libraries that did lots of stuff for us, and we liked the portability of not working at that low level.

Java, C++, Ruby, etc. often offer no more than great syntactic sugar and great libraries, but don't dismiss libraries and easier coding so quickly.