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What skills and programs are needed to make a 2d online game?

What are all the skills and programs a team would need to make a 2d online game. Online being every one connects to the same server and can see/interact with other players. Programming language C++

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1. First of all, you need a lot (and I mean a lot) of sheer programming skill. If you're planning on just reading up on C++ and then diving in, you might want to take a few steps back and focus on just getting some programming experience first. Once you are comfortable with basic programming, you need to start working with visual user interfaces. The most common way to work with graphics is OpenGL (Open Graphics Library). OpenGL is an open-source (free) library of code used for generating all kinds of computer graphics. This is as much of an endeavor (if not more) as learning C++, so don't expect to rush through this. This might get you up to the creation of the game itself, without the online features. I can't really help you there. It's definitely not an easy undertaking. Also, there is a program available called GameMaker from YoYo Games (www.yoyogames.com - there is a full-feature trial version available). It is used to make pretty much any 2-D video game you can think of with about a millionth of the effort of programming it from scratch. I'd imagine it might be pretty helpful.
2. Well, first you need to be able to program. If you already know C++, great. If not, you just need a relatively decent language. C++ is fine, as is Python, Java, or C#. You'll need to master all the major programming constructs: o control structures (loops, if, switch) o data structures (variable types, arrays, more complex data) o encapsulation (functions, scope, objects) Once you know how to program in general, start learning game development. This is one of the more challenging kinds of programming. Generally you'll use some sort of library. For 2D, you can use SDL (good for beginners), OpenGL (less good for beginners) DirectX (even less good for beginners) or some other library (allegro is popular with C++ programmers. It's very similar to SDL) With your gaming engine, you'll need to learn: o How to build a basic game - animation loop. o How to create sprite objects o Collision detection o Scorekeeping o Artificial Intelligence o Level design o Game input techniques (mouse, keyboard, joystick) To make this a multiplayer game, you'll need some networking. Use a library like twisted (for Python) or build your own. You'll need to learn how to: o Build a custom server socket o Build client sockets for the game clients o Synchronize data transfer o Manage lag As you can see, this is a somewhat involved undertaking. You can certainly do it, but typically this type of game requires several months or years of effort from a team of multiple full-time expert programmers. For now, just get a copy of allegro or SDL and follow tutorials for making games - or switch to Python and use pygame - a form of SDL - It's a bit easier to get started with.