Having spent a year on a "learn C++" game, I have to say that it's probably not a bad idea to do a game as your first project. There's plenty to learn, and games tend to incorporate lots of different facets of programming.

That said, I have to strongly suggest that you don't do a roguelike as your first game. The idea sounds intriguing, and it's certainly something to work towards, but I would suggest that you let the idea percolate while you work on other, much smaller things. Again - Gravity Garden took me a full year to finish. That's a pretty considerable amount of time for a 25-level puzzle game, and most of that time was spent trying to get my engine working how I wanted. By the end of that year, I was working around workarounds in my engine, trying to sidestep bugs I had created, and to this day, there are still bugs in the engine that I have yet to track down. For a little puzzle game designed simply to learn C++, that's not a huge deal, but if you're planning on making something as huge as a roguelike, take my word for it: you will end up remaking your engine several times, and you will hate every second of it. Another fine example of a "learning C++" project would be the very game that this forum centres on. There's a reason that it's taken nearly a decade of work to get it to its current state, and there's a reason that the engine is full of difficult-to-track bugs. It's not that you shouldn't do something interesting, but I can't stress this enough: don't go after your best idea first. Start with something that you can throw away at any time without being terribly upset.

Block o' text about first projects aside, ASCII graphics might not be a bad idea, since they're a lot easier to work with. I would suggest doing a quick puzzle game of some kind. Something like this would be a good project: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=18540.0
Whatever you decide to do (even if it is your roguelike idea), I can probably give you some pointers (no pun intended) on C++. I don't claim to be an expert of any kind - in fact, at this point, I'm far from it - but I may be able to help you muddle through some of the stuff I struggled with at first.

Assuming that you do go with the roguelike, here's some more food for thought:
http://koti.mbnet.fi/~paulkp/articles/rlcrash.htm

TLB has pretty much nailed the gist of your challenge. If I were you, I would consider his words carefully.


As for me, I'll go a bit more to the technical aspects.

Have you got any previous programming experience? C++ is not the easiest language, as you'll probably need to deal with a lot of lower-level stuff such as memory allocation and garbage dumping.
If you're really going to go with C, then which framework will you use? XNA? Unity? Build your own? The answer to these questions will most likely define the entirety of your project.

In the case this is your first time programming, I might suggest starting with a more, let's say, "distilled" language such as GML or CC's very own Lua scripting, as they'll allow you to more easily grasp the basics of expressions and objects.

A final word: there can never be too many post-apocalyptic games. Best of luck to you, and godspeed! I'm also willing to give further advice, should you need any help.

I'd love to help. This sounds like the game of my dreams. (Sort of)

Is this going to use the @ symbols strictly, like dwarf fortress? Or will it be similar, but with custom sprites.

Orrrr, will it be fully pixilated.

Keep in mind that porting a turn-based game from ASCII to a spritesheet isn't terribly difficult, and in fact, it's probably good practice. Since ASCII is all grid-based, you can easily replace those coordinates with blitting coordinates.
As for your game, that's certainly fair - if you're just planning on making a quick game with a title screen and a movable character, that's probably good practice. I wouldn't suggest going any further than that, though, because roguelike engines get massively complicated and changing things later will be a real hassle.
To be honest, your platformer idea is probably more doable than your roguelike idea. I know it sounds backward, but roguelikes are really huge undertakings. Not that I'd suggest that you launch straight into either of those projects.
Still, whatever floats your boat, go for it. As long as you won't be terribly upset if something doesn't work out, there's no reason not to give it a shot.
Also, I'd agree with Areku - if you don't have a lot of prior programming experience, I wouldn't particularly suggest working with C++. There's nothing really wrong with it, it just gets very complicated. Part of its flexibility is because it's a fairly low-level language. Things like pointers, references and memory allocation will take a lot of work to wrap your head around, and it doesn't help when you're also trying to figure out more basic programming concepts. If you'd really like to learn C++, I'd strongly suggest that you pick up a book. C++ Without Fear, despite sounding a bit dopey (its tagline is "A Beginner's Guide That Makes You Feel Smart") is great for a beginner's book, because it gives you the basics before jumping straight into the more complicated ideas.

Well you said it would be highly moddable, correct? Well then would it be possible for a texture pack?

As someone with a few years of coding experience mostly in games and a background in algorithmic problem solving, I wouldn't say C++ is the language to start with. I've had a lot of fun with AS3 -> Flash. I know it sounds like a wank but the truth is that there are some great frameworks out there for flash that don't take a while to get your head around, don't cost any money, and compile out of the box. Flixel is my framework of choice, and I'm thinking about using SDL to port it to C++ to ease all my qualms with the damned language.

Downside of actionscript is that is eschews C-like syntax, so you're likely going to have to relearn a lot of language constructs when migrating (as that's what you're aiming for), but tbh it's not that bad. I'd say give it a go.

Lua would be fine for learning how to describe algorithms with code, but it's a scripting language by nature, not for whole projects if you like performance.

I'm not good with coding anymore, but I'm excellent at creative parts. For example I could write the Storyline/Quests for the game (if it's going to have one) or maybe design the maps or NPCs.

I'm not big on low-level programming (mostly high-level engineering stuff like Matlab and Mathematica these days), but I'm pretty familiar with game design. If you ever manage to get past making the working prototype, I'd love to playtest and give suggestions.

get flex and extract it to somewhere. C:\bin\ is the best on windows tbh, saves hassle.
get the flixel sources from github, here
Set up a directory tree like this, creating files and dirs where needed

(you'll have to create suitable code for MenuState, Playstate, gamename and Preloader, but I'll show you somewhere you co do learning soon)
make a build script (which will vary with type depending on your setup which is why it's not in the image which runs) to do this:

It'll probably be a .bat, I think you're on windows. If you're not, drop the .exe from mxmlc.
add "-debug" if you want debug information for the debug flash player, which you should be using to deal with idiot crashes, but don't keep it there for release as it slows everything down a lot, especially loops.

Before going any further, you'll need compilable code, so go to flashgamedojo (google is your friend) and start reading tutorials, perhaps just the EZPlatformer one as it'll give you sane defaults.

Welcome to development without an IDE. Use notepad++ to edit your .as files, and compile them with the build script (which saves you having a command line open).

I've got to run but that's how you do it.

You'll likely not migrate to Lua, you might learn it for scripting stuff but I doubt after using flash you'd want to go from compiled to interpreted and no OO.

OOP will make creating games a hundred times easier, simply due to the structure of nearly all games being perfectly suited to OO techniques. It's better to experience the difference between OOP and non-OOP when programming games first hand, since it can be a little tricky to articulate...
Anyways, most people would agree when I say that OOP is easier - No, I didn't say better - for games.

I think learning to code without an IDE is a good idea anyway, it makes migrating from language to language easier.

Wonkyth summed up the importance of OOP in game creation - it's just easier to be able to check against types and easily define methods for your game objects. var A:Enemy = new Enemy(x,y,hp); is easier than putting the result of newEnemy(x,y,hp) into some memory location and remembering what to do with it later on. You can implement an OOP system in Lua using metatables (just like you can in C if you're clever) but it's nicer when the systems are part of the language.

Be sure to post with any problems or questions, it's nice to see people learning.

Another little warning - as far as I've heard, it can be a bit difficult to get file loading working with Flash, so modding may not be as easy to work out as you'd like. I have yet to try external file loading in Flash myself, though, so I could be wrong about that.

Once i tried to make a game,i failed...Once i tried to make a mod,i failed...Once i tried to remember what did i want to write in a cool thread,i failed...
If you are like me,you will give up in no time
If you make a game on your own,trust me,i will send you a brand new car! Once i said that i will send him a car,i failed...

If that applies to anyone, I'll email you my address and expect the car within 5 weeks depending on your country. I believe in you.

Ontopic TLB it depends what you're trying to do, there's different ways of approaching file I/O. I'd steer away from "mod support" for the moment and focus on "hardcoded mechanics and getting a hang of implementing features from a high-level idea to compilable code"

[quote="Nonsequitorian"]


...a run n' gun canabalt with destructible terrain and intelligent AI, along with a physics engine good enough for a bullet to shoot down a rocket...

That was a joke that I concocted because some of you guys were actually posting pretty cool looking games.

[quote]

wooot?So there is no game where you run and gun and your ass explode?Or is there? I hate not being English/American sometimes...