[Techtalk] Linux game programming

[Miriam English]

Carla Schroder wrote:

> I want to learn to write a few games my own self. Cool fun games that have no 
> guns, cars, drugs, or hos, and that don't need super-duper 3D video. What do 
> you think would be some good tools and languages to create some fun games in? 
> I think Frozen-Bubble is done in Perl, and Tetris sure didn't need the DOOM 
> engine in its original release.

Hi Carla,

I'm working on some stuff using python + pygame + pyOpenGL + pyODE.

- Python is extremely easy to learn and to program in.
http://www.python.org

- Pygame is basically a simple way of accessing the SDL libraries 
(images, fonts, sound, mouse, keyboard, CDROM, joystick, and timers) 
from python, making visual games easy to create.
http://www.pygame.org

- PyOpenGL is an interface between python and OpenGL and python that 
lets you add 3D capability.
http://pyopengl.sourceforge.net
OpenGL documentation is at:
http://opengl.org
http://www.rush3d.com/reference/opengl-redbook-1.1/
http://www.rush3d.com/reference/opengl-bluebook-1.0/

- PyODE is a physics simulator library that uses ODE (Open Dynamics 
Library) from python, and lets you make things fall under gravity and 
bounce off each other, move vehicles by turning their wheels, have 
jointed creatures. Nice stuff.
http://pyode.sourceforge.net
ODE is at
http://ode.org

Another thing I've become fascinated with lately, is RenPy, which is a 
python+pygame based program for creating interactive, visual stories 
(they are generally called games, but I consider them interactive 
fiction) known as Ren'ai ("Ren'ai" is Japanese for romance). One of the 
things that I love about this is the high proportion of women involved 
in their creation and consumption. But perhaps that shouldn't be so 
surprising as the stories focus upon relationships and personality 
rather than killing and conquest. Ren'ai is apparently very big in 
Japan, but almost unknown in the west.
RenPy is at:
http://renpy.org/wiki/renpy/Home_Page
About 60 ren'ai games/stories:
http://www.renai.us/special/all/
RenPy has an enormous community:
http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/

You don't need to know python (or any computer language) to use renpy. 
My 10 year old niece is currently making a ren'ai story using renpy. It 
isn't as sophisticated as something that some of the renpy gurus can 
make, but the fact that she can do it at all is wonderful.

The best thing is that all the above are completely free. They are open 
source, and cost nothing to download, use, or redistribute.

Best wishes,

	- Miriam
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A life! Cool! Where can I download one of those from?
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Website: http://miriam-english.org
Blog: http://miriam-e.livejournal.com