A guide for people...

[dangerdoc]

Hello everyone! I made this guide for people that know nothing about making video games, and I hope it gives them a start on it. Do you think that everything in this is correct? Tell me what you think!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yoE8r0GBATBmWoXk5SQEBzy0tpsYuvUmTO_rKp9S76A/edit

[Rednax]

There are two issues with it (in my opinion):
1. There are several mistakes in it.
Examples:
- C is not an OO language.
- openGL and LWJGL are not engines, but libraries that allow you to draw to screen. Engines are more complex pieces of code that hide a lot of computation and/or storage from the programmer to allow easier programming towards a more limited set of goals. Take a physics engine for example. It hides al the math and allows the programmer to just specify the objects and some relations and parameters. This makes simulating physic easier, but the engine is useless for anything else than that. openGL and LWJGL try to give you as much control over the computations as possible. The border between a library and engine can be grey at times, but openGL and LWJGL are defnitely libraries.

2. What would be the reason to read this document?
It could be me, but anything described in the document is either obvious or found in any tutorial that even remotely deal with the subjects.
Instead of making the first few lines look like a f*cking flyer found at gamescon, try to describe for what audiance the document is meant. Currently the first lines give the impression the document belongs in a magazine, read by anyone with a remote interest in games. Is this really your target audiance? The rest of the document seems to focus on people that already made the decision to make a game.
If you force yourself to describe target audiance in the first few lines, the reader knows if the document is usefull to him/her and you know better what to tell/leave out.

Note: No offense, but I did not comment because I would like to see an improved version, but getting feedback may cause your writing of documents to improve, a usefull skill.
You are allowed to find my criticism rude, but at least I try to be constructive.
I hope I did not destroy too much entousiasm and you do/make/program something awsome in the future.

[broumbroum]

I think this guide/introduction to making video games is a good idea. In that way, it should be better planned, as players would like to find answer to their questions, as developers wish to find a short overview of the task of making a game, as anybody would like to UNDERSTAND what is behind the scene...
What if I want to try to develop a video game but have never read any book about Applet, openGL, or AI programming ? I think your guide must be describing -shortly- what is YOUR (the author's) idea of making a game. If you are working with Java, then ok, go on with Java, but let other environments still, don't you ?
A good way to plan such a guide is to report all of the steps you do from the beginning to the end of that process.
what you see is what you get, uh ?

[dangerdoc]

@Rednax: these are all good points. I'm also rather hard to offend.  I will probably work some more on this, and make it apparent what audience it is aimed towards. I am aiming for people that are interested in computers and wonder "how do I make a video game?" (especially teenagers my age), and I am trying to give them a starting point. I should probably make the first part for people that know nothing about pcs. Perhaps this document will expand, and get more informative. Rednax, each time I add to this doc, could you look it over so I am not misleading anyone? I am by no means an expert, but I want to give other people a starting point. Thanks for your input. No I am not offended, and thanks for helping me become a better writer!

@broumbroum: I think that you are right. I should probably make two guides; one for noobs, and one for developers seeking more knowledge. I will think about my idea of making a game, and how to put it into text. I also think you are right in focusing on java. I am making a voxel game, so maybe I should make a tutorial for that. I haven't seen many in-depth tuts for minecraft type games.

On my to-do list:

• Make it for just Java
• Separate it into "beginners" and "in-depth"
• Consider making a guide for voxel games

Do you think a voxel game guide would be good? Thanks for the feedback!