[spidertour02]

It's only tangentially related, but have you checked out Microsoft's XNA Game Studio? It's free to use if you're making PC games, and $100 bucks nets you the license to put it on Xbox Live. Most importantly for you, the entire thing rests on top of Visual Studio and is written in VBasic.

There's also a very large community around it that you can use for troubleshooting, assets, etc.

The only large downside of the XNA Game Studio is portability.... All it runs on are Windows and Xbox 360...

... and Zune.

But yes, it's not very portable. However, if this guy can code in VB, this is a sure bet, at least for now.

[Conan Kudo]

It's only tangentially related, but have you checked out Microsoft's XNA Game Studio? It's free to use if you're making PC games, and $100 bucks nets you the license to put it on Xbox Live. Most importantly for you, the entire thing rests on top of Visual Studio and is written in VBasic.

There's also a very large community around it that you can use for troubleshooting, assets, etc.

The only large downside of the XNA Game Studio is portability.... All it runs on are Windows and Xbox 360...

... and Zune.

But yes, it's not very portable. However, if this guy can code in VB, this is a sure bet, at least for now.

VB6 is way different from VB.net, don't mislead him like that. VB.NET is much closer to C# in style and syntax because the two are supposed to be easily convertible between each other...

If he is a VB6 user, he'll want to work with a VB6 style environment, like KBasic or REAL Studio.

[Skeledroid]

VB6 is way different from VB.net, don't mislead him like that.

This.

I'm a very experience programmer, just mostly in VB6. I've been programming since about 1998 or 1999. I'm just looking for an easy setup for a platformer.

[Conan Kudo]

VB6 is way different from VB.net, don't mislead him like that.

This.

I'm a very experience programmer, just mostly in VB6. I've been programming since about 1998 or 1999. I'm just looking for an easy setup for a platformer.

Depends on what level of "easy" do you want? Do you want to write code to set up your platformer engine? Or do you want to do it all by drag and drop stuffs?

Most drag-n-drop stuffs are not portable, so you lose the ability to have your game work on platforms other than the one the software was written for. For code, you have flexibility and sometimes portability, but at the cost of time and work. It takes more time and work to set up, but generally the game can be made more responsive through code tuning if needed. Whereas a drag-n-drop stuff thingy doesn't offer that, usually...

[Skeledroid]

Depends on what level of "easy" do you want? Do you want to write code to set up your platformer engine? Or do you want to do it all by drag and drop stuffs?

Most drag-n-drop stuffs are not portable, so you lose the ability to have your game work on platforms other than the one the software was written for.

Not worried about portability, drag and drop would be awesome.

[Conan Kudo]

Depends on what level of "easy" do you want? Do you want to write code to set up your platformer engine? Or do you want to do it all by drag and drop stuffs?

Most drag-n-drop stuffs are not portable, so you lose the ability to have your game work on platforms other than the one the software was written for.

Not worried about portability, drag and drop would be awesome.

Construct would be a good choice then...

[Overbound]

Game Maker and MMF have Sonic engines already built by Damizean. No one has ever done that in construct though they are working on it. But why would you want to start from a disadvantage. Anyway I always have trouble getting construct games to run. I'd stick with MMF or GM if I were you everyone in SFGHQ knows those programs and can give you quite a lot of support if you ask the right people. Trust me I'm by no means an expert at Game Maker, or game physics or any of that and look what I've done. I'm not trying to brag but Sonic time twisted is a pretty good recreation of a genesis game and I had to program a lot of things. Its only through prebuilt engines and support that I've got it done and I've very proud of what I've accomplished. If that kinda sounds like you and what you want to do than used MMF or Gamemaker but not construct unless you are up to the task of making a 360 engine on your own.

Again I'd be more than happy to help you use the Sonic Dash engine. It uses a state machine for just about everything its quite efficient and I've been able to built quite a lot off Dash. I'd be happy to share my experience with you and explain the dash engine.

This post has been edited by Overbound: 17 March 2010 - 08:48 PM

[Skeledroid]

Game Maker and MMF have Sonic engines already built by Damizean. No one has ever done that in construct though they are working on it. But why would you want to start from a disadvantage. Anyway I always have trouble getting construct games to run. I'd stick with MMF or GM if I were you everyone in SFGHQ knows those programs and can give you quite a lot of support if you ask the right people. Trust me I'm by no means an expert at Game Maker, or game physics or any of that and look what I've done. I'm not trying to brag but Sonic time twisted is a pretty good recreation of a genesis game and I had to program a lot of things. Its only through prebuilt engines and support that I've got it done and I've very proud of what I've accomplished. If that kinda sounds like you and what you want to do than used MMF or Gamemaker but not construct unless you are up to the task of making a 360 engine on your own.

Again I'd be more than happy to help you use the Sonic Dash engine. It uses a state machine for just about everything its quite efficient and I've been able to built quite a lot off Dash. I'd be happy to share my experience with you and explain the dash engine.

Quick question, does the Dash link you gave me run way slower than normal Sonic, or is it just my computer?

[Overbound]

You have to use GSI with it. GSI is an object management system that basically deletes objects off screen so as to save on memory. One of the drawbacks of GameMaker is it does require a midrage computer for big games like Sonic. What are the specs on your PC? Oh and GSI is on the page with the Dash engine, I can help you with that too if needed.

[Skeledroid]

You have to use GSI with it. GSI is an object management system that basically deletes objects off screen so as to save on memory. One of the drawbacks of GameMaker is it does require a midrage computer for big games like Sonic. What are the specs on your PC? Oh and GSI is on the page with the Dash engine, I can help you with that too if needed.

Got AIM? My screen name is *omitted*.

This post has been edited by Skeledroid: 28 January 2011 - 03:01 PM