Hey guys.

I just wanted to get down on the insides of them. Not really build one myself (Exams are coming) but I just wanted to know if there's like a site out there explaining them.

I've heard talk of engines. Are they basicly telling the game what to do? Or do they just throw out random numbers and another program attempts to interpret it and makes something out of it?

If it matters what the game is created with, OpenGL-related info would be the best thing. I'm not interested to ever use DirectX, and I don't know about any others...

Eventually I want to start making games. I have my plans to make one, a very interesting one, but I don't know anything about making games, so that's being put away. I want to make something simple first, like Tetris. And then move up the ladder, until I feel ready to launch the project I have in mind.

Also, is RPGToolkit available for linux?
They have the source code, would I be able to compile it and run it?

Cheers,
Joro.

check wikipedia.org to read about game engines: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_engine

'games' arent magical things on a computer. its a software program just like your web browser, however the task of the 'game' is a little different than displaying websites.

what programming languages do you know? first thing to do i think is would to build up solid skills in the language you want to make your game in.

None to be honest. I'm still learning. Are all the programming languages entirely flexible, or are they each specialised for something?

I realise they're just like browsers, but I'm no software expert.

Thanks for the link, though.

Short answer: Not all languages are the same.

Long answer:
All general purpose programming languages are Turing complete, which means any problem that can be solved mathematically can be solved by the computer. Malboge, is more-or-less Turing complete, but impossible to program in. Java has bondage-and-discipline syntax rules to help prevent common mistakes, but some problems are much harder than need be. C and C++ don't have such rules and can manipulate the machine more directly, but to some extent tied to the machine's capabilities and various machine incompatibilities. Perl has very loose syntax, it will accept lots of strictly incorrect syntax and Do What I Mean (DWIM). It can backfire on you, though.

So, on the flexibilty scale, Malboge < Java < C < C++ < Perl.

Thanks tuxdev.

That means I've got some reading to do ;P