On 10-12-11 06:42 PM, Bob Pendleton wrote:
Yes, C++ is now the standard language for writing game engines in the commercial game industry. If you want to be a technical programmer and learn everything from the bottom up the C++ is the way to go. If you study C++ you will learn C along the way.
Hey Bob,I'm not sure if I agree entirely with that. C++ certainly is the standard language for certain market segments (console games, non-casual PC games), but there is also the huge casual game market, which is predominantly Flash with ActionScript. (Whether or not the business model behind those games is good or not is another question that Jonathan Blow has some comments on[1]).
If you take a longer look at the whole Flash API, you'll notice that they have implemented all the necessities for games in an event-based fashion. You have automatic memory management, javascript-like syntax, sockets, a 2D render scene, animations and still images and vector graphics, image effects, sound, input, and -- of course -- an event model. Adobe is also working on a 3D API for Flash as well.[2]
Of course, you need look above the proprietary nature of Flash, if you go down that route. You have to pay for the development tools and you'll be held at Adobe's whim, yet I think that the benefits you'll derive from the API and the development model will vastly outweigh the negatives.
[1] http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6224/catching_up_with_jonathan_blow.php?print=1
[2] I'm neither a spokesperson for Adobe, nor a fanboy of Adobe products. I recently was thrown at a project that involved the technologies that I mentioned and I'm just giving an opinion.
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