Hello. I am a n00b and I always wanted to make computer games. I'm a computer science student. I've learned structured programming, c, and I'm halfway through learning object oriented programming, c++. I've also taken SQL but I don't think that's helpful unless you use it multiplayer somehow. So far my programming has been limited to the console. I'm also taking the first level of calculus. I intend to go all the way to linear algebra.
It is a personal goal in of mine to make computer games. I want to set down an idea or a story on paper and organize my friends into a semblance of a development team and make the games we have always wanted to play. To that effect I feel I need to understand everything about computer game development. I have come wanting to learn how to integrate various libraries such as a graphics engine, a network library, a physics library, and an AI library into the rest of the game code. I want to learn what I specifically need to plan for when I have an idea for a game. How is the user supposed to interact with the program? Is the game going to be deeply immersive or lightly coded and fast paced?
I come offering UFO:AI my potential. I want to learn and I believe UFO:AI could use my help. I have both a windows and linux machine. I bought every X-com game until Interceptor killed the franchise for me. I have coded using both Visual Studio 2008 and gcc. I would love to do some work for the graphics engine but without higher-level math skills that might be out of the question. The other thing I would personally enjoy is diagramming out the AI, coding it, and then play testing it. However, for the time being I will just be happy doing whatever tasks need to be done and gently integrating myself into the project. So where do I go from here? The bug lists?
