You know there was a time when I would have killed to have anyone simply join me on my computer game making quest, but now I realise that I was greatly mistaken about a few things.

First off, I have now been looking into computer gaming so much that I actually really really do know what to do to write a computer game. Seriously, if someone came up to me a year ago and asked me, how do I write a computer game, I would scratch my head and fabricate from then on, sure I had an idea, but not enough of one to put someone definately on the correct path. But now, now I know. Now I know so many ways to get people started on computer games developement that I amaze myself. I can talk to a person and after a few moments I can know if they want to develope from the web, for a console, for a PC, etc... I can tell then what sites to go to, what programs to start learning and all that. However, all of my knowledge amounts to one thing and that one thing has made me re-evaluate my searching.

Games development requires alot of reading and hard work...

I think that there are not really any "casual game developers". One thing, or rather, first things first. You can not really call yourself a games developer until you have really made a game. And I do not mean 15 lines of code in HTML of something, like a made a Tic-Tac-Toe game in Visual Basic, am I a "games developer", no. What I mean is to make a game that you can give to someone, that they will enjoy and want to play to some extent.

My big picture is to make a game of a race car driving around a track. It will in the end have moving graphics that are not crap, it will have controls that are easy and nice to use, and it will be a simply to learn, difficult to master property. Now, all my learning has taught me one thing, doing all that, is NOT easy. Another thing that I have learnt is to stop looking for people. When I have writen my first game, when people say, this game is cool, where did you get it? and I reply, Oh, I made it totally 100% myself, THEN, then pupils will come to me.

So, what is next on my agenda? Well, from a games point of view, there is of course the race car game that I have mentioned about, and also I am going to be working on a web based game made with PHP on Apache... Do I know how to do any of this right now? No... so what have I to do? Get to work, goodbye for now.

9th July 2006
The lord has spoken!

You know that piece in the bible where God actually speaks to Moses. Like they had a conversation, like you might have with a friend, or that other piece in the bible where God spoke to Abraham? Yeah, no? Well, thats cool and all, but I spoke to Dan Marshall!

Yes, Dan Marshall wrote me an email and he thanked me for mentioning him and his BRILLIANT game on this webiste! So, ok, we did not actually speak. However, he wrote to me! It was a joyous moment in my life I have to say... Click here to see the screen shot of his mail to me...

Otherwise, how IS my work going? Well, I am on chapter 3 now of the Game Programming All In One book, and while it is hard to follow some of the things in it, I am getting here. The book teachs you how to use a game library called Allegro (Direct X is also a game library for example). I had some teething problems getting my C/C++ compiler to see the Allegro library properly but I got it eventually.

So everything is on track, I have the idea for my game, I have learnt a little how to code in C++ and C... I am learning how to use Allegro, soon I should have my first sample of my game! Its soo cool! And you know what, it is all thanks to Dan Marshall...

27th May 2006
Have the second book by now.

It has been a good few days now since I actually updated this blog. But I am happy to say that it is because I have been busy. One day I was in work and instead of dossing around on the interweb or playing Age Of Empires (research!!!) I was actually learning myself some C++. It is brilliant, and I have to say, when you approach it seriously and want to learn it for real, it is not as hard as some would have you think.

Anyway, the second book that I ordered arrived a few days ago. This is THE book, my holy grail. This book tells you how to actually make a game, it talks you through a game that the author made himself, you learn sooo much. I looked at my precious 900 pages of pulp, it was lovely, that shining cover, chrisp white pages and all that tasty juicy information on how to create your own blockbuster (2D) game... but then the words of my guru Dan Marshall echoed in my mind "finish the first book before you start on the second book!". Ok Master Marshall, that is what I am doing...

So now I have done all of the basics in C++. I can do thing like count and add and multiply and send simple data to the little black console window like an old DOS command prompt. Not exactly earth shattering yet but I know that I am getting there. Gradually the content is getting thick and less easy to absorb.

And so, I look down the road, and I see myself playing my little car racing game that I did totally myself, and my friends will play it once, if even, and they will scoff at it, and be pretty amused for a moment and I will look at my creation and think "my God I am so proud of myself, all this was totally worth it!"

15th May 2006
Got first book, going well so far.

Ah the joy of getting post... like actual post that you can touch. My Complete Idiots Guide to C++ came in the post and I was like, excellent! It was so good to get this book knowing that it was going to help me write computer games. So I have started it and I have flown through the first 4 chapters, but they are really simple.

I have some experience with C++ before this so things like simply putting data up on the screen and taking in numbers and doing some maths is easy to do. C++ can get pretty hard pretty quick in my opinion. But that is why I have the book. To get me through all the concepts of the hard stuff.

I don't really have anything else to say. I got the books actually off Amazon.co.uk. I bought them second hand, like used. But the first one that i have mentioned above was in top notch condition. So I egarly await my next book to see if it is just as good a condition. Why pay big money for a book first hand when you can do it this way. Also I wanted to get them second hand if possible because you see so many people blowing money on books that they never use. I want to get minimal amount of books and get maximum return on them.

Here is a really early pic of what I think the map will look a bit like...

But I am in the office, and it is a minute after my home time, I'm outta here.

7th May 2006
Waiting for the books...

I am after looking at the on of the books that i have ordered on Amazon, the one about making games. Man it looks cool, i really can't wait to try out some of the things that i am after reading about.

However, I am not going to make the same mistake that so many people new to computer programming do, and we even saw Homer do it on the Simpsons, that is, to get a huge book that looks really impressive, then realise that that book it to big and complex. So then you move down a peg to a more basic and realistic level, and where you might find it a more accessible read. I am aware all to well of this and i am going to continue reading the book that i have, until the Complete Idiots Guide comes, then i will work on the Idiots Guide. Only, ONLY, when i am finished with that will I move onto "the next level", ie - the actual game programming book. Hence, it will take months and months...

Yesterday, well, last night we were at a friends gaming center where we had a LAN party for 5 hours straight. I was brilliant, the owner of the place Mark is sound and it makes all the difference when your playing LAN games. Although we (me, Barry, Mart) were by no means new to the whole gaming experience we still found that we needed help every now and again.

This is a very nice to see. I was playing Call Of Duty 2 for about 10 mins before i even realised the most basic principle of the game! But the other players were sound and patient. Just for the record, Marks place is in Athenry, it is called Wired Entertainment.

6th May 2006 - 3pm
Going Home!

So after a long day at the office I am finally going home. I was up today at 8am!!! It sucked. Then I had to talk to people that made me really angry and I wanted to kill them all, but I couldn't, of course...

But at least I have set up at last this blog page that you are looking at, i have no idea who, if anyone is going to read it... but i have to remind myself that i am doing it for me and not for other people (wipes a tear away from eye).

So, about the actual computer games part of this blog, I have ordered two books, as recomended by my new guru Dan Marshall. You can visit his blog here, and if you do you will notice how i tried to rip the layout of his site. Anyway, he recomended 2 books, Game Programming All in One Jonathan Harbour and The Complete Idiot's Guide to C++ by Paul Snaith.

My aim is to made a 2D top down race car game, that has in face always been my aim in making a game, so you should see me over months and months carve out of code, something that should resemble something like a race car game that looks like Micro Machines, only better...

I'm going home now....

6th May 2006
Donal's "How To Make a game" blog...

Hi there, you know, as well as filling in my blog about my process of making a computer game (that I am sure that you are all really interested in!) I will be using this as a blog for stuff general....

Don El Cid