What will be a better source to learn how to make an rpg maker from?

If you have downloaded the Source code for the OHRRPGCE, you may have read the numerous dire warnings that the code is messy, and that the OHR sources are a poor place to learn about programming. What follows is some recommendations on what you can do if you want to learn more about programming (especially game programming and RPG programming).

(Note: This article was written when the OHRRPGCE was written in QuickBasic, but it has now been ported to FreeBasic and cleaned up substantially, although it's still not an example of great code!)

Advice from James

QuickBasic was a good language to learn from back in 1990, but it has some severe limitations that make it a very bad choice for modern programming.

Personally, I have fallen in love with the Python programming language. It is clean, easy, and powerful. The python tutorial will introduce you to the language.

Once you know how to write python programs, you will want to move on to the next step of writing python games. The PyGame library provides graphics, sound, input, and basically everything you need to make games. The pygame documentation page has several tutorials that you can go over to learn how to use the library.

Finally, have patience. You will not be able to write a full-feature RPG maker in the first afternoon. Learn the language step-by-step, learn graphics step-by step, make a few very simple games, then make a few less-simple games, and then make a few moderately complex games before you jump into making big complex games. You will learn a lot on the way.

Advice from Mike

Start small. If you're new to programming, you have a long way to go before you can create anything useful. Start off by making a screen saver or something. They're good for learning graphics, maybe sound (if you want to be really irritating).

My favourite language is FreeBasic, which is (essentially) QBasic, without the limitations. It's also cross-platform (Windows and Linux), which is a bonus. It can interface with a number of external libraries, and... yeah.

But, getting back to the topic, once you can program, then you can start making a game. Yes, game, not game maker. You must be intimate with the concepts behind what makes a game work before you can make a program that makes games. You should become familiar with the following terms:

• tile
• blit
• caffeine
• buffer
• map

CHALLENGE: See if you can pick out the most important term from that list.

Answer: Correct, caffeine. (Note: I'm not kidding. Seriously.)

See Also

• Alternatives