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Help creating game?
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Naisa24
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Question Help creating game? - 03-12-2008, 09:47 AM

How do I create a game that will work correctly? I cant get the program to do what I want the subject to do! I am new! and have to do this for my class! Please Help me!
If you have any ideas or tips I would be more than happy to hear them! any help is good right now!

Last edited by Naisa24; 03-12-2008 at 09:55 AM.
   
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DickBaldwin
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Default 03-12-2008, 10:14 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Naisa24 View Post
How do I create a game that will work correctly? I cant get the program to do what I want the subject to do! I am new! and have to do this for my class! Please Help me!
If you have any ideas or tips I would be more than happy to hear them! any help is good right now!
Go go Google and search for the following keywords:

baldwin alice game site:www.alice.org

If you don't find some ideas there, go to Google and search for the following keywords:

baldwin alice game site:www.dickbaldwin.com

You may find something useful there.

Finally, if that doesn't do it for you, go to Google and search for the following keywords to get a much broader search:

alice game site:www.alice.org

Dick Baldwin
Free Alice tutorials: http://www.dickbaldwin.com/tocalice.htm
Free programming tutorials: http://www.dickbaldwin.com/toc.htm
   
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Help creating game?
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hgs
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Default Help creating game? - 03-12-2008, 03:48 PM

Also, your question is way too broad. You haven't told us which thing won't work, what you tried, what your beliefs about it are that told this thing you tried was a good idea, etc. In general on the internet, people don't like doing other peoples course work for them. But people like answerng really good questions. Your question could be about the essentials of programming, general strategies and philosophy about how to approach problem solving as a programmer. But if it is for a class that seems unlikely. But the question as put doesn't tell us. Help people to help you, because they are busy, too.

Hope this helps.
   
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My question!
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Naisa24
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Arrow My question! - 03-13-2008, 08:48 AM

Im sorry if im too broad! and i am not trying to get people to do my work for me! I am simply asking in general for help or ideas that i could use to figure and test out so i can do something unique! I don't want anyone stealing something I do!
   
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Help creating game?
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hgs
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Default Help creating game? - 03-13-2008, 09:29 AM

I wasn't trying to accuse you, only to point out how to ask questions effectively. You seem to be at the start of all this, so I'm trying to help.

From what you have said so far you have two problems:

1 How to get the program to behave correctly

2 How to create a new, unique game.

Both these are large topics. There's a lot that could be said and probably has been. So I'd suggest a number of things.

In reverse order:
2: is going to be difficult. To be completely original is hard. I'd suggest you start with a game you enjoy, find interesting enough to program, but simple enough to make some progress. Then change some aspects of it (setting, characters, goals) to make it more original, and to cut through to the essential simplicity of the game. If this is for a class, originality is unlikely to be the main goal, and programming is. But you can still be creative. There's years of games history to draw from. Pacman, Space Invaders, asteroids, ... As to what makes a good game, there's a lot written about that, but you have to keep the player interested.

1: is a big question, and has been the most annoying thing in the software industry for years. To distill my experience into a few short sentences, I'd say that to be sure the program works, you need to be sure what it should do. Then you need to break the problem down into surprisingly small chunks. As a programmer, you won't believe the stupid mistakes your brain can make for you. (Yes, I am speaking for myself!) So keep the components small and simple, and therefore easy to test. You must be sure what each one is to do, so you can test it. Then build bigger things out of collections of smaller things. In Alice the things will be methods most of the time. You can always make several world methods to test individual things, and change which one is run when you press play. That way you can test different ideas on their own. Also, even the best documentation cannot tell you everything you'd want to know, so a lot of programming is about experimentation. Try things to see if they work how you expect.

Proceed in small steps, because when they work they are encouraging, and when they don't they are small enough to fix.

Now, did I answer the question you were really asking, or did you mean something else?
   
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My question
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Naisa24
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Default My question - 03-13-2008, 09:39 AM

Yes you have answered my question in a way I can understand! Im sorry if I sounded like a pain, I didn't mean to! Thanks for the help and I will try to sound nicer in the future!
   
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Your question
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hgs
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Default Your question - 03-13-2008, 10:10 AM

That's OK, you didn't sound like a pain, just someone in need of more experience, which is what you were trying to get by asking the question.

Hopefully my answer shows you why the question you put was quite broad.

There are lots of books on programming in general that you could explore, and the library where you are may have plenty, to start with. They won't need to be about Alice specifically to be useful. There aren't many books about Alice, compared to programming in C or Java. If a book seems too difficult, don't be put off, try another one instead. There are plenty of programming topics that I still find difficult after years of programming. Thinking in the very small steps you need for programming is very different from how people work normally, and it can be very frustrating at times, and it takes a while to get used to it. But it is good practice for solving other problems.

Hopefully I haven't scared you away from asking good questions in the future!
   
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Naisa24
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Smile 03-13-2008, 11:30 AM

No! you haven't scared me away from anything! I will check out the school library for some books! Thanks again for your help! I checked out Baldwins but it is no help to me!
   
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DrJim
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Default 03-13-2008, 07:36 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by hgs View Post

... you need to break the problem down into surprisingly small chunks. As a programmer, you won't believe the stupid mistakes your brain can make for you.

Proceed in small steps, because when they work they are encouraging, and when they don't they are small enough to fix.
Don't think I've ever heard the real secret of successful programming put quite so well. (As far as unbelievable stupid mistakes, hgs can be speaking for me also.)
   
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Naisa24
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Smile 03-14-2008, 08:46 AM

LOL!! It could speak for us all!
   
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