   New steps for me?
  Hello all as you can see im new. New to everything, to this site, programing and game making.I work with computers all day, i dont know programming but i have learned almost everything i know myself in my 25 years of life.I have this idea of creating a RTS game for years. I know that is impossible to me to develop a full RTS game byself so i decided to do it like an open source game. Where people all over the world can join to develop the game.The problem is i must start with something to show off. And here comes my first questions. The right engine. I dont want o have to learn C++ from scratch. I will take me years to have the first level this way. I want something fast but not limited but simplicity. That is say i have looked allot of softwares and some seem so easy but just are to simple to make something good. I talk about this 2D clic and release tools. There are just to simple.The only one i have come so far and best i think suits my need it Torque 3D.I have downloaded a demo yesterday and read some 80 pages and i could some or less create a terrain. I dont know how Torque is when you are really making a game. It its pure C++ then it will be a mess. I dont have a problem if from time to time i have to input a code, i can research, educate myself and write the code down and hopelely used several times then (this works?)Well, i see Torque has a RTS basic starter package. So both the engine and the starter will cost me 200$. Is this what i need?As for the models i plan to buy then or make then develop by someone else. I want to focus on the game functions.Can you guys recommend me? Is Torque to hard to start? Will it take me a year before i have the first map ready for beta? Or with the right tools i can get faster on track? It the 200$ worth? I dont have 8 hours a day to work on this, but i was planning 2 hours a day or so. I dont plan to master Torque but just have some ideas to be able to freely put the basics together and then when i need something more complicated that it can be asqued or be bought.As for the game, well it will be like Blitkrieg 2, as for graphics, and units more like Red Alert 2 mixed with High Treason. I plan to have 1 map working and from then posted it so other people catch up interested and help me with the game.   
  You asking this in the wrong place, this is the Game Design forum, not Programming or Beginner forum (nothing against newbies, but please, use the right forum).Assuming that someone will move this to the right forum, I will answer:Torque is a great too for newbies, altough I dislike it myself (I am much more into C++ programming), and if you want to do a open source project, it is less likely that people will join a project where the tools are paid, or if the tools are not popular with the majority of people that would be usefull on a large project (since they would prefer or good pro engines or C/C++/C#/Pascal/whatever...);  Thanks, I agree, the engine is paid, but people can download the demo and I think you can make things with it just like the license, you just dont have the source.The idea is that people that love games can develop the game as well not just programmers. Must open source tools are very complicated.Im not sure how complicated is really Torque, i did tried it some or less, but i should try it with the RTS starter and see how hard it is to get things going.;  I'll move this to For Beginners.   ;Quote:I know that is impossible to me to develop a full RTS game byself so i decided to do it like an open source game. Where people all over the world can join to develop the game.Maybe. I hope you don't get the wrong idea of open source. Just because you make a game open source doesn't mean people will pour in effort. If you can't drive the development with your vision and technical skills, it most likely will fail. Or someone else will take lead, simply because you can't.Don't delude yourself in the effort other people will put in. In your theory, countless people all over the place will be pouring in their energies to make it a great game. In reality, 80% of the work is done by a number of people that can be counted on one hand. You. And on larger projects, a couple of others. You need technical skills if you want contributers. Having an interesting project is nice, but if the lead dev is incompetent, then that's the end of it.I'm telling you this because if you don't accept reality now, you'll set yourself up for major disappointment. Work your way up in the game world, don't shoot for a AAA game as a first programming project.Quote:The right engine. I dont want o have to learn C++ from scratch. I will take me years to have the first level this way. I want something fast but not limited but simplicity. That is say i have looked allot of softwares and some seem so easy but just are to simple to make something good. I talk about this 2D clic and release tools. There are just to simple.You don't get it. If your design decisions are guided by "what I can scrap out as rapidly as possible, without looking like compost from the very beginning", you have outright doomed your project.Quote:The only one i have come so far and best i think suits my need it Torque 3D.And if you can't build the engine (it's source code that needs to be built via a C++ compiler), then where are you going to go.Quote:Thanks, I agree, the engine is paid, but people can download the demo and I think you can make things with it just like the license, you just dont have the source.You don't understand the open source world if you can't anticipate the reaction such a license can evoke.Quote:The idea is that people that love games can develop the game as well not just programmers. Must open source tools are very complicated.No, you do not understand programming. Programming is not a bit of drag and drop with super easy english like language. It takes effort and experience and knowledge to pull it off. Non-developers will not code the game.I'm warning you this much because you have, as you say, 0 programming experience, yet you have delusions of competence at making a serious RTS game. Work your way up in the programming world, like everyone else has to. Learn programming. Pick a language, and work through programming. Once you have a solid foundation for programming, then try to actually work on games.   ;  I did not said i would not learn programming. I just wanted to know how hard it would be. As for the RTS game i dont plan to have a hit in 1 month.It could take me a year for the demo and 5 years to finalize the game. I dont know if that sounds realistic, im not in a rush.I said open source because its just me. Nobody else. I think it will be more or less impossible to make absolutely everything myself.I could. Of course, but that I dont think i will make this happend if its just me.How hard could it be? Hard. But i have build things with my own hands before, including very big projects that takes hundreds of people and i actually made allot of money with them, mostly internet related projects. They are not game related. I did then in 7 years and some in just 2 now that im experienced in my field. I never took a book, i learned all for myself via the Internet. So that is my idea. To start now. And see how things go with game developing.If its actually so hard then i will just pay people to help me. But first i wanted something, i wanted to have some basics things, then i can lead others to make what i need.