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Skanton

I'm really interested in designing/programming games, yet i hardly know anything about the field.

Can anyone please tell me which languages and perhaps graphic programs were used to develop any of the following games:

• World of Warcraft
• Guild Wars
• R.O.S.E
• FlyFF
• Maplestory
• Cabal
• Everquest II
  
• Fable

Any info is fine, thank you.

HopeDagger

• World of Warcraft -> C++ / DirectX
• Guild Wars -> C++ / DirectX
• R.O.S.E
• FlyFF
• Maplestory
• Cabal
• Everquest II -> C++ / DirectX

I haven't played the others, but there's a good chance that they are all the same answer. C++ is the industry standard programming language (for commercial games), and DirectX is pretty much the standard for game development on Windows (again, primarily commercially).

So, just because all of the "big boys" use C++/DirectX don't feel obligated to yourself. Commercial games and hobby games are two very different realms. There's tons of languages/libraries that can do virtually anything a hobbyist developer can pump out. Check out the "Big List" sticky (in Game Development) for some good engines/libs around.

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Skanton

Thank you, i have a few more quickies... What is DirectX exactly? And what seperates a single player game (Fable) and an online game (WoW), code-wise and such (not going into specifics)

HopeDagger

These are by no means 'quickies'. There's plenty of depth to go into for each of these.

This page gives both an overview of DirectX and a nice history lesson. You can find the SDK (Source Development Kit) here.

An online game (in general) needs a server to communicate with, which keeps track of all of the players currently in the game. Network packets -- which can be sent over several protocols (remember 'TCP' and 'UDP'!) -- are sent from players running the game to a computer (usually maintained by the game owners) called the 'server' which keeps an ongoing simulation of the game from everyone's perspective based on information that players are constantly sending it over the internet. The server continuously sends information back to all of the players about anything relevant that has happened in the game (a goblin was killed, player wrote message "blah", kobold attacked you, etc).

That's an extremely vague and not-so-broad overview, so likely a LOT of research will need to be done on your behalf if you plan on developing an online game. Online games are probably one of the most difficult types of projects to undertake, and yet they are likely the most often attempted. Take a look at how many projects in the Classifieds forum survive the first few weeks.

Hope that answers your questions.

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Skanton

Yep, that helps, thank you.

ncyphe

Judging from your question, I would say that your a noob in the game dev field, but have some knowledge at codeing. That's an excellent start.

I would suggest starting small, create quik simple games so that you get used to key development processes. Then you hould slowly advance up to larger games, and maybe even search out some free 3d engines and eventually make an online game. If your wanting to make an mmo, set you heart on an online multiplayer game. With out a group of people to help out, you wouldn't be able to afford the servers or bandwidth to run an mmo. (Not to mention the amount of time to constantly be attracting people to the game with new content to pay for such servers or bandwidth)

You might want to lurk around gamedev.net for some tips and strategies on going about designing and developing a game.

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