Hi Dark, Well, the time it takes to actually create a game depends on a number of factors. The development tools, programming language, plus the amount of available free time a developer has on hand in the first place.
For example, I am currently writing all of my game code in C++. That takes considerably more time than say Visual Basic because there is a lot more involved in getting a basic game up and running. C++ is a lot more low-level, bare bones, meaning you have to go the extra mile to get things done. Using something like DirectSound is a perfect example of this. If you use C++ and Microsoft's DirectSound API there are no native functions available to open and load wavs, mp3s, or wma files into a sound buffer. Its up to you, the game developer, to write that code using something like Microsoft's WinMM.dll to load that sound data, and then pass that off to an available sound buffer. With a language like Visual Basic 6 you can just add DX8VB.dll to your VB project, and you don't have to worry about writing your own code to open and load sound files. Microsoft has done all the grunt work for you, and have wrapped DirectX with a piece of middleware, DX8VB.dll, that simplifies the process of initializing DirectX, handling sound data, and you can focus on more important things like writing your game. This is why I suspect most game developers like Jeremy and Jim Kitchen use VB. Its just easier and speeds up time, because it is designed for rapid design and deployment where C++ was not. That's why Philip Bennefall and I both have written game engines/toolkits. Since all the really low-level stuff like audio, input, speech, whatever is something we are going to use in every single game it makes sense to build some sort of middleware that gives a quick and easy interface to DirectX, Sapi, and so on. I'm not sure of BGT's over all design, but I can say G3D is essentually several static libraries I wrote to wrap DirectX and the Windows API. For instance, input.lib wraps DirectInput, speech.lib wraps MS Sapi, window.lib wraps the WWin32 API, and I purchased streemway.lib from Philip to wrap DirectSound. All of these libraries gives me that easy access you get out of the box with Visual Basic or one of the .Net languages because all that work is done for you. So obviously this takes us more time in getting started than someone starting out with a different language, because we have to write all that initial code, helper classes, and functions. Bottom line, if I want to be a little speed demon like Jeremy I could do that too provided I chose to use something else other than C++. Give me C# .Net or VB .Net, the open source Slim DX API for DirectX, and MS Sapi and I could spend a weekend and crank out a basic game with very little time or difficulty just because the entire purpose of Microsoft's .Net Framework is not to have to do all the low-level grunt work. The .Net Framework already wraps the Win32 API as well as lots of other things and is just sitting there waiting to be used by a developer. Diddo for something Like Java which is also another great rapid development language and platform because the Java Runtime API is fairly complete when it comes to everything you need for a basic game. Which brings us to the third problem, time. Not everyone has the time to spend an entire weekend cranking out code. There are often other priorities like work, family, or just some time off to relax that factors into a schedule. If you have some time off on Friday night do you order a pizza, grab a bottle of Coke, and sit down to watch WWE Smackdown for a couple of hours or do you boot up your laptop and spend that time writing the next audio game? The developer certainly needs time to live his or her life just like everyone else so that must get factored into any schedule for development as well as other things like work and family. Oddly its this most basic of human needs, some simple rnr, that totally gets ignored by the winers and complainers who don't get their game on time. Cheers! --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
