Creating Your Own Game - C# Game Programming: For Serious Game Creation - page 388

lesson (even if that lesson is of the ''Well, I won't do that again'' variety, it's still
useful!). You will get a lot more done on a project you want to work on than a
project you feel obligated to work on just because you've invested a lot of time
in it.
If you are looking for feedback or help, there are lots of game programming
communities on the Internet that will be happy to try out your game and
offer suggestions and advice (such as The Independent Game Source http://
forums.tigsource.com/index.php . For other communities please see
the accompanying CD). Online communities also host regular game program-
ming competitions and usually have services if you wish to find another
programmer or artist to team up with.
Display Methods
Games, for the most part, fall neatly into two categories: 2D games like Super
Mario, Tetris, and Pok´mon and 3D games like Quake, Fallout 3, and Grand Theft
Auto. 2D games tend to be easier to program.
2D Games
2D games have been covered quite extensively in this topic so you should already
have a good head start if your game idea is 2D based. 2D games often suggest
pixel art style graphics, but this doesn't have to be the case; there is still a lot of
room for innovation in presenting a 2D game. The graphics could appear like
cut-out pieces of paper, crayon drawings, vector graphics (using OpenGL's
GL_LINE drawing mode), abstract, or silhouette graphics. (Silhouette graphics
have the great advantage that they are much easier to draw.) The math involved
with 2D games tends to be simpler than a 3D game, but it really depends on the
specific game. Most programmers experiment with 2D games before learning
about 3D game programming, and a lot of game development knowledge is in-
dependent of whether the game is developed in 3D or 2D.
3D Games
One of most important skills for a game programmer is the ability to
independently research and learn about new programming and development
techniques. Sometimes a game idea demands a new unfamiliar technology (for
instance you may wish to have a rope in your game in which case you need to
research a way for this to be simulated); other times you may learn a new