Best game development resources?

[Aethix]

Well, thanks for the great replies. I think I've got enough info for most of the stuff I'm going to use, except for the music program.

What I'm really looking for is a program that works for Windows that allows me to write my own sheet music (MIDI-style, I guess) and export it as an mp3 or other standard music format. (will mp3s work fine or are would a higher quality music format work better for games?)

If no one knows of any open-source software like that, I suppose I'll just shell out for the Finale Songwriter.

 

[Znirk]

What I'm really looking for is a program that works for Windows that allows me to write my own sheet music (MIDI-style, I guess) and export it as an mp3 or other standard music format. (will mp3s work fine or are would a higher quality music format work better for games?)

If no one knows of any open-source software like that, I suppose I'll just shell out for the Finale Songwriter.

I'm still not really getting how you want to work ...

If you have your heart set on using a notation (sheet music) view as your interface, I'm drawing a blank. The only open source option I can think of is rosegarden4, but that doesn't run on Windows. Everything else I know of is really focused on actually printing musical notation, and produces no sound worth speaking of.

If the notation view is optional, a couple of wildly different suggestions:

MMA. Performs your chosen sequence of chords in the styles you specify. Batch processor with text file input / midi output, so you'll also need something to perform the resulting midi.

Buzz. Virtual synth / tracker / sequencer combination with a somewhat rabid but not unhelpful fanbase.

For more overkillish solutions, you may want to look into synthesis language like nyquist, supercollider, puredata, csound ... but then, more likely you don't. (If you do, maybe try csound in combination with blue)

 

[BookTracker]

if these "Ardour and LMMS" are not enough then i dont think anyone here gets what is it that your looking for, as for win... come to linux, you be thanking yourself for that switch later on.

of course, on the windows world there are a bunch of proprietary and very expensive alternatives to that also... yeah, well good with whatever you decide!

cheers.

note: there is another editor that was not mention here that I recall also... ill try searching for it later on.... :huh:

 

[lulzfish]

You also asked about music formatting, here's my take on audio encodings:

MP3: Yes it will work, and 320 to 512 kbps MP3s are not noticeably different from the original source sound.
Vorbis: Sounds just a little bit better than MP3 in the same amount of disk space, and has less potential licensing / playback issues. I would recommend Vorbis as the codec for most sounds.
FLAC: Lossless compression. The quality is 100% of whatever you put into the encoder, but the size is only reduced by a factor of 2 to maybe 3. FLAC is only really good for storing sounds that you might edit later, since you don't add compression artifacts every time you modify and save it. For the final version of a game, I would just re-encode the FLAC into a high-quality Vorbis.

So, yeah, Vorbis will be fine, or MP3 if you really insist. They're basically the same, but nobody can yell at you for using Vorbis.

 

[Aethix]

I'll switch to Linux when I get my Pandora. Right now it's just too much trouble.

Vorbis, .ogg, sounds good. If I do end up with the Finale Songwriter, which is looking more and more likely, I think I can export the files as AIFFs and then convert to vorbis. Thanks for the help.

 

[samuraicrow]

I'll switch to Linux when I get my Pandora. Right now it's just too much trouble.

Vorbis, .ogg, sounds good. If I do end up with the Finale Songwriter, which is looking more and more likely, I think I can export the files as AIFFs and then convert to vorbis. Thanks for the help.

If you don't mind using a Tracker-style editor, Milkytracker from http://milkytracker.net/ has a Windows version and a GP2X version (even though the website seems to be down at the moment) so it will work on Windows and the Pandora in all likelihood. It's a freebie so you don't lose anything if you don't like it.

 

[Aethix]

Yeah, I forgot about that one. It was mentioned previously, but I couldn't get to the website either. I'll make sure I at least look at it before making a final decision.

 

[Alex.]

I've been playing around with Psycle lately, it's very similar to Buzz mentioned above.

Incidentally, does anyone have a good source of freeware VST2 instruments? I tried searching around a couple of times but didn't get anywhere.

 

[Aethix]

Psycle. I think it looks good, and I'll give it a try this summer when I start developing.

 

[darkborn]

I think I've got enough info for most of the stuff I'm going to use, except for the music program. What I'm really looking for is a program that works for Windows (...)

IMHO, you should try with multiplatform tool.
Linux MultiMedia Studio (LMMC) is probably what you need, with some Audacity armed with proper set of plugins, and maybe some MilkyTracker for quick sequencing. All of them multiplatform.
LMMC runs well at Windows too, and you'll probably like that LMMC can "Import of MIDI and FLP (Fruityloops® Project) files". It is because you said

(...) that allows me to write my own sheet music (MIDI-style, I guess)

As I remember, any VST/VSTI compatible editor/sequencer/etc is capable of MIDI keyboard. LMMS for sure. And you have free virtual MIDI keyboards VST plugins which will allow you to load-in your midi music directly.
For other purposes you can try Windows only tools like DarkWave Studio, Psycle, Buzz (look at utils!), HammerHead Rhythm Station and many other (like 25 here), all of them free of charge.
At Linux, keep at Ardour (Somebody said GIMP@sound?), LMMC & Rosegarden.

 

[KungPhoo]

And not to forget about GLBasic. A BASIC compiler for a lot of platforms, with fast graphics suspport and compiler backends for the GP2X-Wiz, e.g.

 

[PokeParadox]

Nice thread, discovered a couple of programs I didn't know about.

Another vote for Code::Blocks, it's really great for debugging if you have a multi-monitor setup, you can undock some of the status panels and move them onto your other screen so you can see a full screen of code, but still all the debug info.
It is still a little buggy and does tend to crash on occasion, but it's a really great IDE and I use it all the time.

Gedit is also great if you are in linux. Make sure your switch on syntax highlighting and line numbers though!

I've never got around to doing much with it but BEAST appeared to be quite a capable music making software... may be worth a look (I was looking for something similar to Acid Pro).

 

[darkborn]

How about Euphoria at Pandora (new topic at forum) ?
█ "Easy-to-learn" but still "extremely fast"; "Euphoria To C Translator" for even more speed;
almost 2000 different sources to use; multi-platform, free and open source.
█ OpenGL is supported at least as OpenGL Graphics for Euphoria 3-D animated graphics library, or through Horde3D engine for Euphoria (Horde3d homepage).
There are also freeglut (Free OpenGL Utility Toolkit) or GLFW (OpenGL Framework) by WingZone.
(Check it all at TheArchive@RE.)
█ There are many wrappers & libraries for SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer) cross-platform multimedia library system. e.g.:
SDL Mixer Library supports MP3, OGG, WAV, AIFF, RIFF, VOC, MID, and MOD.
Musubi is a games/multimedia library that makes it easier to use SDL and the various SDL extensions. Included commented demo and example game programs.
(SDL Mainpage; SDL and Mark Akita searches at TheArchive)
█ Sound is also supported through wrappers for FMOD and BASS libraries.
FMOD is Sound System cross-platform library wrapper: It supports MP3, MP2, OGG, WMA, WAV, AIFF, MID, MOD, S3M and XM.
BASS multi-platform sound library (by un4seen) supports straight/streaming MP3, MP2, MP1, OGG; uncompressed WAV, AIFF; MOD-tracker formats MOD, S3M, XM, IT, MTM, UMX; MO3 music (MP3/OGG compressed MODs).
(Some stuff also at wingzone)
█ There is also a wrapper for GD library (ANSI C open source code library for the dynamic creation of images).
(wrapper@WingZone, GD library and LibGD)
etcetera...
█ Squid Blaster is kind of demonstration of Euphoria possibilities (Windows installer).

 

[axenzoku]

Here's a pretty nice platform-independant game engine it uses flash and doesn't require any kind of weird runtime package or plugins or anything... plays as a .swf file and can be embedded into a webpage or just thrown into a quick window frame for full screen or something like that... But a webpage would be best (for ad revenue)

 

[darkborn]

Well... this is great! And demo (Bunker) is awesome, too.
Too bad it is proprietary software. Anyway, it is great.

 

[axenzoku]

Proprietary, eh? Ok then... Here's another one! I think this one might actually be better:
PushButton Engine

Open source, modular, etc... doesn't seem to be done yet but I think basic functionality is working so far... I think the engine itself will remain open but there's going to be professionally developed "components" that they're going to be selling to recoup costs.

By the way, that last one doesn't really matter if it's proprietary, as you don't need to install any of it or include any of it on your system, it's only used in development and in the code behind the game when you play it.

 

[darkborn]

Proprietary, eh? Ok then...

Don't take me wrong. Pandora needs open and proprietary software/soft developers both. However, at a start point, the accent should be at a open source software. It is much more easier to adapt or develop software (or whole dev-environment) to specific platform, if it is open. But I'm not Pandora advocate, at least not official one.
I just want to warn about some dangerous circumstances. Unfortunately, we don't know yet how much of Flash content will be supported at Pandora, nor we know how Flash standard will change.
Also, there were many "troyan horse" atempts in recent history. And Pandora is possible pain in the *ss for many in multimillion business. If e.g. Adobe Corporation decide to force upon its very own commercial standards at Pandora hardware, they could instantly "turn off" whole project - just because they can. And it will not be the first time it happened.
They failed with PostScript (against GhostScript), now they try with ActionScript. Just to remember: right after they took over Macromedia (and Flash), they "killed" FreeHand (as a competitor to Illustrator) and then struggled it's own(!) support to SVG. So that they try to "kill" great open source Inkscape, which is direct competitor to Illustrator, but also to - Flash!
This becomes OT, I'll make a new topic about it.

Here's another one! I think this one might actually be better:
PushButton Engine
Open source, modular, etc... doesn't seem to be done yet but I think basic functionality is working so far...

Sounds great! This is definitely candidate for a leader at it's own category. Thank you for sharing us those "diggs". Web is just too wide & fast to find everything! Btw, very nice blog!

I think the engine itself will remain open but there's going to be professionally developed "components" that they're going to be selling to recoup costs.

IMHO, this is a great "hybrid" example how it should work: give to "homebrew" community power to be included and even spread your idea (for free), but sell professional add-on so that you can get back "measurable satisfaction", and so that commercial/lazy/whatever developers get what they need.

By the way, that last one doesn't really matter if it's proprietary, as you don't need to install any of it or include any of it on your system, it's only used in development and in the code behind the game when you play it.

Well... this deserves topic for its own (as I said before); however, I'll say: THUMBS UP FOR PushButton Engine!

 

[axenzoku]

Hey, could someone using Gnash test out Alternativa engine, or PushButton to see if games made with them will work on Pandora? I think Adobe Flash Player isn't going to be on Pandora, but I think Gnash will (or something similar) I might end up installing Gnash myself to test it.. But I wanna start getting into a game project with some game engine similar to these (so the game will play on Pandora as well as PC)

If e.g. Adobe Corporation decide to force upon its very own commercial standards at Pandora hardware, they could instantly "turn off" whole project - just because they can. And it will not be the first time it happened.

I don't think they have any control over Pandora, as long as it's not using their player software (could be wrong)

 

[darkborn]

In the meantime, you can try haXe It is not (yet) sophisticated as push, but... you never know what future brings. Here is why, projects (look at games), wiki.