Hi guys,

A bit of goal/background fluff:

I'm a long time hobbyist programmer/computer scientist (I have a BS in comp sci, but I do more math/science stuff for work now) and have a very large background with languages especially C++ and Java. I have an idea for a game that I'd like to work on by myself, just as an "I wanna do some programming in my spare time even if I never finish"-type of activity. It's been a while since I've done C++ though, all my programming experience in the last ~3-4 years has been MATLAB (barely even "programming"). So a big goal for this project would be to learn and become familiar with current standards and libraries (maybe this boost thing I've read about? I know STL but I think boost was becoming popular after I stopped mostly).

I can probably simplify my question with the following specific queries:

1. I'm also considering C#, but I'm leaning towards C++ since there's a much stronger chance I'll use it in the future with a heavy math/science emphasis. Good line of thinking, or is C# more popular than I give it credit for?

2. Standard practices - smart pointers? I never used these, should I? Standard libraries - STL? Boost?

3. Game programming packages - the only ones I even know about are DX, OGL, and SDL (wrapping for OGL I think? can pretty much consider it as a 3rd though regardless?). DX always gave me nightmares ~8 years ago when I dicked around with it and OGL seems too complex - this game will def be 2d. SDL seems like a good call. Any better suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

You should probably familiarize yourself with the changes to C++ that have occurred since you last used it. C++0x/C++11 incorporates a lot of 'modern' language features that make development faster/safer.

Also, since Microsoft is doing their best to kill Windows' desktop marketshare, I'd probably stay away from investing any time into C#. It's a perfectly nice language, but it doesn't do anything Java can't do more portably.

For desktop games C++ is still the standard. Since it is 2D game have you considered mobile platform? Or a dynamic language like python (lots of libraries and rapid development time).

If you want to learn the bleeding edge technology/approaches you must use C++ and get used to DirectX.

Thanks for the great responses guys!

Sweet. Sounds great regarding Java > C# (I personally agree). And I'll definitely read up on changes in 0x/11 whether I go this route or not.

Ooooo Python is a very attractive option that I hadn't considered... Not interested in mobile platform at all since this is basically a 100% personal re-education project. If by some wild stretch of probability the game comes out awesome, maybe I'll spread the fun, but I don't have much interest otherwise.

Basically there's 2 major goals of this project (while simply satisfying my desire to "program" in some of my free time): 1) learn/re-familiarize myself with technology that will likely be relevant in my future career, or just good to know in general really and 2) satisfy my creative desires (I've always thought I could write awesome stories and incorporate pretty unique concepts in games, just to toot my own horn a bit ). But neither of these really involve getting into the cutting edge of the actual GAME part of the game programming. FWIW what I have in mind is basically a type of 2d turn-based strategy / tactical rpg. So the fact that this should be pretty low on computational requirements, past desires to learn the language, and the 2 points you yourself mentioned are making Python stand out to me quite a bit right now. And I think Python could be very useful and relevant in a different set of ways (the obvious scripting / rapid development benefits, I'm never gonna be developing really intense commercial software).

So call this my tentative decision, but if there's relevant suggestions/discussion about this project still I'm all ears!

Thanks again for the quality posts.

I have Python 2.7 on my computer, is it wise to grab the latest 3 instead or stick with 2?

Python 3 brings a lot of changes. For a new project I'd def go with 3. You can install them side by side and should not cause issues with any existing tools you run.

Seems like Python/scripting language is exactly what you need. Also you can embed C functions into python for performance critical parts. And most modern games use a scripting engine like Python or Lua to do the main logic and game flow. C++ is for the performance critical graphics/floating point calculations.

Here is my view, Windows apps including Metro C# is the unquestionable choice. Outside of that not so much but could be convinced otherwise.

I'd assign a higher priority to Java than C++ and I primarily develop code in C++. Again could be convinced otherwise.

On Python I have some experience but not an expert. I think that it is fair to say though that there are some supporters of 2.7 over 3.0 and there are supporters if 3.0 over 2.7.

Very good guys thanks! Python 3 it is.

Also, thinking about it, the stuff that I'd need to catch up on with C++ (the more heavily OO features) would probably be less important (if used at all) in my math/science field. Right now in my head I'm thinking the most likely place where C++ "could" be used in my future is with working with something like OpenCV.

fwiw Python has an SDL-based game library (pygame)

The Python 3 vs. Python 2 debate is basically: Python 3 is better, unless you need to use code that only exists in Python 2, which is currently a lot of code.

Yeah I think pygame is your best bet, might also want to check out pygame reloaded.

pygame isn't fully ported to Python 3 yet AFAIK (but most stuff you need is, I'd go with Python 3)

Edit:
There's also pyglet.

Depends on the type of games you're looking to make obviously. If you want to stick with C++, you might look in to the new Torque 2D engine project, it seems like a pretty feature rich and well structured engine library, or the 3D version if you know DirectX/OGL. Ogre is another 3D engine library, I think Torchlight was made with it, and looks to do a good job abstracting and simplifying the nitty gritty of the 3D API (also supports DX/OGL).

I'm curious about the UDK and Unity engines. I haven't kept pace with the changes to any of these lately. Unity especially appears to have made huge improvements and seems to be getting a lot of love even from big developers lately. Can anyone comment on the flexibility and useability of either?