Brand new - help me get into the world

[xELITEx]

Ok, here's the deal, i'm 14, brand new to this stuff, but it looks like a lot of fun. i'm not in this for serious cash or to create the biggest game ever, i just want to make a small little game (remember, i'm only 14). where do i start!? i have a macbook...i dunno if that will slow me down (format wise), but where do i even start in this huge world?
 

i know html pretty well, but i dont know php. will someone just help get me started? thanks a ton!!

[Sinzygy]

Hiya and welcome to this vast world of your imagination B)

First off, before even thinking about using PHP on your mac, you really should enable it. Or else you won't go very far.
Here's a really helpful link that I used to set up my iBook the first time I wanted to fool around with PHP.
Just scroll down to the entry from May 13th 2005 (woha, almost 2 years ago) and read on up. It will guide you step by step to install/enable PHP the local Apache Webserver and the MySQL database as well as phpmyadmin (all of which are needed to create games)
The Link: http://www.billstevenson.org/news/2005/05/index.html

After that you should check out PHP.net and read or at least flip through their documentation. What you should spend time on are the following links:
A small Tutorial: http://www.php.net/manual/en/tutorial.php (the whole tutorial)
The Basic Syntax: http://www.php.net/manual/en/langref.php

Yeah, do that as a start. After that, see if you can find some scripts for free that are already working games.
http://sourceforge.net is a really good start, although some of the projects are too complicated to understand when beginning PHP.
I therefore recommend you visit http://www.chipmunk-scripts.com/page.php?ID=16 and download their game. It helped me a lot for sure.

Also, browse this forum for posts made by codestryker. He knows what he's talking about and if you consider his advice you will have a lot less problems in the beginning (and later on as well) as when you'd have to teach yourself everything.

[?∂??]
Oh yeah, as for a the text-editor to use when writing code: I'm currently using BBEdit and am really happy with it. I don't need any tools or PHP-specific work-enviroment.
But it really doesn't matter that much I guess.

Hope that helps
- Sinzygy

[beam]

It's easy to test your games if you run a server on your computer, that way you don't have to FTP every time you change a file.

I'm not sure what servers will run on a Mac, but I'm sure a few free ones are around.

[Zeggy]

XAMPP is available or Mac

http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-macosx.html

I use xampp on my home computer, it's fast and easy to use

[Sinzygy]

I never succeeded on installing xampp on my mac. I use the local apache server which is just as good (I think)

[Shapulin]

search this books "PHP Game Programming"

here

  http://www.google.cl/search?hl=es&q=%22PHP.Game.Programming%22%2B%22download2&meta=

[Sinzygy]

actually, in my oppinion this book is neither up to date nor any good at teaching the really important fundamentals

[Zeggy]

The reviews of the book agree with Sinzygy
Apparently it's not good for learning to create PHP games but it's okay as a general PHP tutorial.

[Broda]

I agree. It's not very good.

I wish someone would publish a book that focuses on the fundamentals of PHP Game development not on PHP.... I've got the php docs and plenty of sites/books on PHP, I need a book that speaks from experience about the pitfalls and things to think about when designing/implementing a PHP game.

That's why I like this forum - it's full of personal experiences that I can learn from and try to avoid the same mistakes as I develop my game.

[Sinzygy]

eventho this takes the topic even more offtopic:

Yeah, that's why appreciated the last and now this forum. Having someone sharing his/her experience is in my eyes usually a lot more valuable than just reading a book.
I just wish we had more "veterans" like codestryke.
Smart men learn from their mistakes, wise men learn from the mistakes of others  B)

[Broda]

Smart men learn from their mistakes, wise men learn from the mistakes of others  B)

That's a great quote. I always liked this one:

"Practice Makes Permanent"

My band director used that one a lot. Instead of the normal "Practice Makes Perfect" line which is more often than not not true.

[xELITEx]

thanks everyone for your help! i'll try and get into it..i'm just trying to finish school right now but this summer i'll definately try and make a simple program or somethin.

[xELITEx]

Hiya and welcome to this vast world of your imagination B)

First off, before even thinking about using PHP on your mac, you really should enable it. Or else you won't go very far.
Here's a really helpful link that I used to set up my iBook the first time I wanted to fool around with PHP.
Just scroll down to the entry from May 13th 2005 (woha, almost 2 years ago) and read on up. It will guide you step by step to install/enable PHP the local Apache Webserver and the MySQL database as well as phpmyadmin (all of which are needed to create games)
The Link: http://www.billstevenson.org/news/2005/05/index.html

After that you should check out PHP.net and read or at least flip through their documentation. What you should spend time on are the following links:
A small Tutorial: http://www.php.net/manual/en/tutorial.php (the whole tutorial)
The Basic Syntax: http://www.php.net/manual/en/langref.php

Yeah, do that as a start. After that, see if you can find some scripts for free that are already working games.
http://sourceforge.net is a really good start, although some of the projects are too complicated to understand when beginning PHP.
I therefore recommend you visit http://www.chipmunk-scripts.com/page.php?ID=16 and download their game. It helped me a lot for sure.

Also, browse this forum for posts made by codestryker. He knows what he's talking about and if you consider his advice you will have a lot less problems in the beginning (and later on as well) as when you'd have to teach yourself everything.

[?∂??]
Oh yeah, as for a the text-editor to use when writing code: I'm currently using BBEdit and am really happy with it. I don't need any tools or PHP-specific work-enviroment.
But it really doesn't matter that much I guess.

Hope that helps
- Sinzygy

sorry for the double post, but the first link isn't working. any suggestions?

[Sinzygy]

damn, this is a real bummer. Apparently he removed the site between the time I posted it and now.

If you can't find any useful information on installing PHP / MySQL, you might want to email bill@billstevenson.com and request his entry for May 2005.

[xELITEx]

i dont really know what to search for. just "php and mysql on a mac"?

[Sinzygy]

it really depends on what you need.


Have you already installed PHP? If not: look at the following two links.
http://www.entropy.ch/software/macosx/php/
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/mac-os-x-installation.html

this should get you on your way to start using PHP and MySQL on your mac.

[xELITEx]

alright i'm downloading the php right now. on the msql site i'm confused ... it's giving me all these commands and yadayada and i honestly dont know what to do...sorry bout me being so 'noobish'

[Zeggy]

If you download XAMPP for mac, it installs Apache, PHP and MySQL all in one for you

[xELITEx]

ok xampp is hard for me to figure out. i downloaded it, and i followed the instructions on the website in the terminal but nothing worked. the command didn't work so it isn't installed in applications/xampp.

any advice?

[Zeggy]

Hmm, sorry, I don't use mac so I dunno what might be wrong.
Sinzygy also said he never succeeded in installing xampp either, so...
Maybe you could get some help on the xampp website.

[Sinzygy]

Sorry, but I can't help you with xampp.

The best thing to do would be to try to get help from the website.

Or if you want, a somewhat timeconsuming but easy way, you could just get a wespace provider that offers PHP and MySQL support and then just test via internet. It will take time to upload every changed file, but if you can't get it working right now and you want to start working on something, this would be an alternative.

[xELITEx]

ok thanks....i'll start asking around at the xammpp website.

could someone check this game out: standardwarfare.com

i'm playing it right now (rank 4) and i am very interested in making a game almost exactly like it. it is a small game but has some cool features. could someone check it out and tell me if it would be easy or hard to do.

[Sinzygy]

tried to get to the site 5 times today from different internet-access points but I can't reach it. It always times out.

[?∂??]
I've seen you post on another forum tho and asking for the kings of chaos source code. Is it the same game-type?

If so: there are a lot of easy parts, and some intermediate parts. Maybe one or two hard parts, but mostly due to the mechanics of the game.

Easy parts: Registering, Link Set up, recruiting units, buying stuff, upgrading stuff
intermediate: clans, etc.
hard: battle engine

or at least that's what my guess would be.

[xELITEx]

i think in my game the battle engine is easy, although i would try and make it better.

but yes, i need to learn registering, logging in, recruiting, buy/sell items, different races/classes, give each race/class bonuses, upgrades, mail system, battlefield, ranks.

and clans would be nice.

so you you pretty much had it dead on.

[Sinzygy]

so, got PHP and MySQL working yet?