2 replies to this topic

[FirefoxRocks]

I would like to design a turn-based game like http://x-kings.com/.
I think I can do it with HTML, PHP and MySQL, but how do I get started? How should I plan out the game before I start any coding?

Any tips would be appreciated.

[Quatrux]

Well, I think you should firstly design how everything should work in the game, something like an UML.

You could write how everything should work from a programming perspective, the game idea and game play. What data will be used, how the game will be played. Then design the database. Having that, you can easily start programming step by step creating new features everyday.

Programming extempore.. You may end by programming all year and never finish it, it's better to plan first and do the programming later

[8ennett]

Well I started on designing my index.php which contains the login, registration, lost password and email validation pages and by doing so helped me sculpt the look and feel of how my site was going to turn out and also creates those vital sql tables essential to the general running of the game. Everytime someone loads a page when logged in it always pulls the entire contents of the user list table and puts it in a session variable so writing additional pages doesn't require constant pulling of data from the database. Also it checks the server is online (daily maintenance etc.) and logs them out if not, checks if their account is banned and log out if so (if they are banned while they are online). Basically all the details you need for the header and security checks.

There isn't really an in-depth tutorial of how to do all this online because most of the larger games are actually an engine bought from a company and the company isn't going to write the tutorial because obviously they want to keep making money.

It was because people were using pre-built game engines that caused me to start writing my own game, show the people what a REAL programmer can achieve lol