Making+Videogames

=Making Videogames=

So you want to be a game programmer?
This months PopSci magazine as well as other articles discuss video game programming. The blip from PopSci: The Hard Science of Making Videogames Behind every realistic explosion, racecar and Jedi are programmers solving some of the toughest problems in physics, psychology and math.

http://www.wired.com/gaming/gamingreviews/news/2007/09/game_reviews_0914 Wired.com ____ Cory C.

In order to create even the smallest part of a video game, such as NPC dialog, one must know a fair deal about programming. I speak this from the little experience I have, from helping a friend run a game-server. My job was to create drop tables for mobs (what monsters drop when you kill them), and I thought it was going to be extremely simple...Wow, was I wrong. First, you need to know the syntax of the programming language you're using. Then, you need to know what commands are available to you through the language. After that, you need to be thoughtful as you code, figuring out ways to do different things with the language. This is only the very, very tip of the iceberg, many real video game programmers must know multiple languages and be able to use them when needed.

Found a website for a college in Missouri centered on video game creation http://flashpointacademy.com/programs/game.html?gclid=CJHllNKZ044CFQ_1gAodKD545Q

Gamers expect many things from their games. Most of which depends on their favorite genre, be it a Real Time Strategy game (Starcraft series), a First Person Shooter (Halo), a Role Playing Game (the Final Fantasy Series), or even a Massively Multilayer Online Role Playing Game (Dark Age of Camelot, old school!).

Myself being an MMORPG-er, I find there are many features I *must* have in the game that I choose to play; however, I will only list a few:

Unique Character Creation - I want to be able to tell my character apart from others, alot of games out right now don't offer much in the way of unique creation...

Balanced Player Versus Player and Player Versus Environment (pvp and pve) - When I'm fighting other players, I want to be able to stand a chance, instead of having some rogue class come up and backstab me for an instant-kill.

In-Depth Character Development - Along the same lines as character creation, as I build my character up, I want to be able to select a range of skills, weapons, armors, and play-strategies combinging the three. Playing a character that four thousand other people play is no fun, I'd rather play a normal RPG if I wanted to do that

Beautiful Graphics and Music - When I log into a game, I want to be stunned by the graphical detail. When I log into a game, I want the music to fit the scene and make me feel like I'm actually in it.

Performance - Oftentimes, graphics are only acheivable through sacrificing system performance (unless you're able to spend quite a bit of money buffing up your system). When there's three hundred people in one area, all visible on my screen, I don't want to feel like I'm watching a slide show. Some games, such as Last Chaos or Shadowbane, allow the players to enable a feature which automatically reduces graphics in order to boost performance.

These are only a few small things that I find necessary for any MMORPG to truly succeed.