How do I make a video game?

[Michael]

I've got programming/computer science experience, don't panic!

I've always avoided game development because (prior to even starting college) I was told it was very difficult without lots of programming experience. I'm a senior CS undergraduate now, and I've got a class with a semester long group project (4 members). The project description for the course is: "make a video game". This doesn't have to be from scratch (in fact, we're encouraged see what frameworks/tools/SDKs are out there). All the team members are handy with C++ and Java. From our quick 5 minute meeting between classes, they don't want to make a mobile game, and no one really has any experience in game development.

What are some good tools/frameworks I should look into, specifically for people new to game development (but with solid programming experience)? Are there any good resources for game development more generally (kinda like Smashing Magazine, except for game development)?

I've been checking around, and it seems there's lots out there, but I could use some help narrowing the field down to some of the better options, and weeding out the bad.

I guess this is kinda to avoid the type of experience I had learning HTML, CSS, and JavaScript of using the top result (w3schools) and assuming it's golden (it's not.)

CelestialBadger

If you know Java you don't need anything more to make a simple game. It has all the stuff you need built in.

The Anonymous

If you aren't too fussed about being cross-platform, then XNA is probably the best place to start. It's a framework for C#, which is fairly similar to Java - and since your team knows Java, it shouldn't be too hard to pick up. If you get an App Hub membership, you can then also deploy to Xbox 360, which is pretty cool, though that might be going beyond the scope of your assignment.

Nova_C

I've developed a few 2D games (Nothing big, just scrollers and the like) in both Java and C#.

If you're set on using Java, look up the LWJGL (http://lwjgl.org/).

However, without ever having used XNA before, I had a functioning scroller written from scratch in a single 14 hour marathon of coding with a repeating, scrolling background, two weapon types and explosions with debris that acted realistically (Or sort of realistically. :P).

Anyway, I heartily recommend picking up Visual C# Express and XNA 4.0 and digging in.

Delzhand

If you're a student, you can even get a free 1 year subscription to App Hub through MSDNAA.

[Michael]

Cool, XNA and LWJGL both look like good options. I had heard of XNA before, but I had no idea how easy it was to get started, so it's good to know we can get something function in just a day or two.

More suggestions/good resources are appreciated! We've got our next team meeting Tuesday where we're gonna try to nail down what type of game we're making and which frameworks will work best for our team/game.

Entriech

You may also want to take a look at the Unity engine. Following along with an easy tutorial, I went from no experience with that engine to a little top down scrolling shmup in about 4 hours. They've also got very favorable terms for licensing. Essentially free until you sell a certain amount of copies or somesuch. I had a good experience with it, back when I dabbled with it.

Shoe-Eater

I'll second Unity, I've started with no coding experience and I feel like im starting to get the hang of things just following tutorials.

Rye

Unity is great for learning and it's free for the most part.
Unreal Development Kit (UDK) is incredibly hard to get into, but it's very powerful and useful if you plan to transition to studio work.
Flash is extremely legit, and you can download Flash Develop for free.
I personally loved using Torque Game Builder.