Programming a Mario-Kart-like game

MrAllan · 2009-09-29 19:38:59

Hi,

As a project for this year, I would like to try and program a game, much like Mario-Kart for n64. I have experience in Java and (some) C++ / C / Objective-C.
How would I start to develop such a game? Do I need a game engine (what exactly is that, anyway)? Should I model the map in a program such as Blender, and if so, how can I use it inside my code. I've heard of OpenGL being used for games before, so what about that? Where is the game logic contained in - the game engine, the code, something else? How can I combine them? What programming language should I choose?
Sorry for my big confusion, I hope someone can point me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance,
MrAllan

Last edited by MrAllan (2009-09-29 19:39:26)

deej · 2009-09-29 20:28:54

Jeez, you're in for a long winter ! Your best bet is to scroogle 'linux game programming' or some such thing,
and be prepared for a _lot_ of studying [ for anything more complex than tic-tac-toe ].

Interesting subject, but it takes time.

Deej

skottish · 2009-09-29 21:40:37

Blender and OpenGL are a good bet. As well, there's a few high quality game engines out there (maybe even Blender's by now?). You can get tons of suggestions/help at blenderartists.org.

HashBox · 2009-09-29 22:09:49

If you want to jump in and make a mario-kart like game, you might be better off starting with a game engine, in which case OGRE is pretty popular and cross platform. If you want to go the OpenGL route, which is cool if you want to make your own "game engines" in the future, you will want to start with Nehe's tutorials. Personally I prefer the OpenGL route, but it takes a lot of time to get something usable for your game logic depending on how complicated it needs to be. The hardest part for me is actually getting models loaded and displaying, but a game engine like OGRE will take care of this for you so you can focus on just writing the game logic.

Hope that helps anyway, good luck

EDIT: To try and answer a couple of your questions, a game engine is basically a library that takes care of rendering a scene, and often sound and physics, stuff like that, so of course you can write that stuff yourself if you wish. I think most large games are written in C++, but unless you need to go for ultra high performance rendering loops or something I'd say you are pretty much free to use whatever language you want, as long as you can get OGRE or OpenGL bindings for it

Last edited by HashBox (2009-09-29 22:12:53)

Lich · 2009-09-30 05:15:39

Take skottish's advice and do it in Blender...The engine is already there, all you need to worry about is modeling and programming the actual content, and as he said you can find loads of help. Trust me, you do not want to code your own game engine, especially for a game where you need collision detection.

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:T … ngine/BSoD

Last edited by Lich (2009-09-30 05:16:16)

Allan · 2009-09-30 05:38:58

And take a sneak peek at the supertuxkart code...

MrAllan · 2009-09-30 10:24:42

Thanks a lot everybody! I downloaded some of the blender demo-games, but I could not see any code used in the whole project. I have to develop the game for my CS class in school, so I wondered how much of the game would be actually programmed.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-09-29 19:38:59

Programming a Mario-Kart-like game

#2 2009-09-29 20:28:54

Re: Programming a Mario-Kart-like game

#3 2009-09-29 21:40:37

Re: Programming a Mario-Kart-like game

#4 2009-09-29 22:09:49

Re: Programming a Mario-Kart-like game

#5 2009-09-30 05:15:39

Re: Programming a Mario-Kart-like game

#6 2009-09-30 05:38:58

Re: Programming a Mario-Kart-like game

#7 2009-09-30 10:24:42

Re: Programming a Mario-Kart-like game

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