techno game dev forum

Please say WHERE you'd like this put in Techno Games

Is is HOW I wrote my very first game.
So it MIGHT appeal to a real beginner, scared to know WHERE and HOW to start!

I can remember being like that.


So maybe we should start a topic called
"How I wrote my first game"

Assuming you do do that, this is what I will say:-
(Put it straight in if you agree)

I wanted to write a game.
But soon found that all a computer could DO was write idiot things like "Hello World" on the screen.

So given a computer HOW do we get it to do something that helps ME!

Well for weeks I was disillusioned.
But one day, idly, I made it write Hello world so many time it filled the screen and I noticed it "jumped up one"
And it still did that whatever I told it to print
So I told it to print I a hundred times, each on a new line (PRINT "I")
This gave me a vertical line
Big deal!

So I moved the I a bit (Print " I", Print " I", and so on)
A wiggly line.
Not much use, eh

But TWO wiggly lines?
They are the edges of a RACE TRACK
which "Moves up" each time a new line is "added"

OK, so we need a car
My car was done like this
llll
llll
llll
and I started with it between the edges of my racetrack

I found I had WRITTEN a program!
Here th car is at the top of the screen and "moves down the track because the track edges move up!

To STEER the car I had to insert spaces before it to move it Right (or after it to move it left)

HOW you do this really DOES NOT MATTER.
In fact I ended up using the keyboard keys L and R.
You can use the "arrows" if you look up a bit of jargon what "codes" they use.

You can also make a far better car, and the colours you want.

Anyway the car "proceeds down the wiggly track"
(use RND to wiggle the track)
Soon it collides with the track edge.
Count how many times and you have both a score, a winner and a record score ever

By now I hope you are getting the idea and at least SOME of all that jargon code (in whatever language) is starting to make sense.

I suggest using QBAS, because it is "almost English" which means you can get help about it from a friend or parent. They can read your program and almose see what it is doing.

Unfortunately, Bill Gates, in one of his bodge "improvements" (this one called SP2) managed to STOP most people using QBAS. (I managed to defeat him.)
If he stops you then use QB64 - a free download that Google Search knows all about.
QB64 is very much faster than QBAS. Better.
"More powerful" - good luck with finding out what that actually means.

Having now written your first game, write to us here and tell us how it turned out and all your ideas for better games.
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