@storyyeller: Well, I have some proficiency with several programming languages. Mainly Java and AS 3 (with Flixel). I did do some C++ a few years back so I'm a bit rusty there. I never found Java to be "annoying to code in" though, fairly simple and intuitive. Why do you say it's so annoying? Python on the other hand... *shudders* I found that to be the most frustrating programming language to learn and use out of the bunch. Flexible yes, ease of use for me - dead no.

Mostly Im just biased against java because I remember how it used to take five minutes to start the runtime environment up on one of my old, old computers, I think it had a celeron or a k6-2 processor.

To reiterate, my new is that Cadence's dark secret is a corrupted magic mirror that makes evil clones of the Mane Six and threatens to turn the celebrations upside down.

Isn't XNA considered the more desirable engine for making games now?

Once you learn any language other than Java, you'll know.

The big issue is that Java's syntax is intentionally limited, so it takes a lot more code to represent things than in other languages. Java is designed to be written by ID Es, not humans.

Python is pretty much the opposite. It's designed to be as easy to use as possible. If you just want to code something fast, nothing beats it.

Isn't XNA considered the more desirable engine for making games now?

Only if you want to make Xbox games.

edited 4th Apr '12 1:35:12 PM by storyyeller

There is an interesting coincidence concerning my plans for Saturday and the episode that's going to come out that day. Because my grandma is having a birthday party on Easter Sunday (her actual birthday is later in the month but the party is on Easter), I'm making a cake for the party on Saturday. Hopefully nothing will go wrong like in the cake mystery episode! I just thought it was a funny coincidence that I have plans to make a cake on the day the cake mystery story airs.

About the issue of pony names and their cutie marks, they're not necessarily a literal interpretation of their cutie marks, but it might have something to do with their appearance or some aspect of their cutie mark. Pinkie Pie doesn't have a pie for a cutie mark, but the "Pinkie" part describes her appearance and the "Pie" part fits her job at Sugarcube Corner, even if her specific special talent is throwing parties. Rarity's name isn't a gemstone, but it would describe gemstones (since the most precious ones are rare). And Cheerilee's name has probably more to do with the smiley face on the flowers in her cutie mark rather than the flowers themselves.

I know several other programming languages other than Java storyeller. Though, I didn't find it hard to write by myself, without help from an IDE. Trying to code in Python for me took several times longer than all the other languages. It took at least two hours to get class function instantiation working properly, not to mention vague error codes and whatnot.

edited 4th Apr '12 1:38:11 PM by Delvarian

Python on the other hand... *shudders* I found that to be the most frustrating programming language to learn and use out of the bunch. Flexible yes, ease of use for me - dead no.

What part did you find hard?

How about this. You give me a Java program (console only, since I'm not familiar with the GUI stuff), and I'll rewrite it in Python and we can see which one is shorter?

edited 4th Apr '12 1:39:34 PM by storyyeller

Python wins out on that part but, I always find Java's syntax to easier to read. Besides shorter programs don't necessarily mean less-CPU loads. I positively dislike the syntax of Python.

edited 4th Apr '12 1:42:06 PM by Delvarian

Reposting this for the day crowd!

I finally finished the commission I've been working on for the past few days! I think it came out fairly well - I'm still not entirely certain if the commissioner likes it, but I'm reasonably sure at least. I'm probably just being a tad insecure about the whole thing.

I honestly believe that a lot of ponies work hard to try live up to their name, which results in a similar special talent in many cases.

But yeah, name changes do occur.

Evening everyone. what're we discussing, fangames or just freeware games in general?

Now if there was only a good enough tutorial for making a simple Py Game game (maybe a shooter) in Python.

Fangames, ideas of them, and making them.

edited 4th Apr '12 1:42:59 PM by Delvarian

ಠ_ಠ

Python wins out on that part but, I always find Java's syntax to easier to read. Besides shorter programs don't necessarily mean less-CPU loads. I positively dislike the syntax of Python.

Shorter programs mean that it's faster write and faster to modify, assuming you don't have an IDE autogenerating your code. And if you want maximal performance, C++ is better than Java anyway, though it's true that Java with standard JVM is fast enough for the vast majority of tasks.

True, in terms of performance, C++ (and C) blows Java out of the water. I would like to use C or C++ for making a game engine for a Mega Man game but... I would need several tutorials on setting up the libraries necessary (Open GL, etc.), creating the windows, and using the libraries to create and show graphics on-screen in those windows. If you could, could you direct me to some tutorials that deal with this matter?

edited 4th Apr '12 1:48:40 PM by Delvarian

Well there's the Lazy Foo SDL tutorials. That's what I've used. The nice part is that since Py Game is based on SDL, it will be basically the same thing if you later switch to Py Game.

Of course SDL doesn't have the best API. I've heard that SFML and Allegro are better, but I haven't really tried them.

If you want widgets, there's QT, but I've never been able to get it to work.

edited 4th Apr '12 1:53:20 PM by storyyeller

@Sereg: Which ponies do we know of in canon who changed their names? About the closest I can think of is the implications in Cutie Mark Chronicles that Pinkamena Diane Pie is the pink party pony's real name and that Pinkie Pie is her nickname or a new name she chose for herself, but I don't ever remember a character canonically changing his/her name.

edited 4th Apr '12 1:54:20 PM by Rainbow

Some fanon is that Trixie changed her name from Lulamoon.

Luna changed her name to Nightmare Moon.

I don't remember any canon name changes either.

How to give a non-brony convulsions: Show them Smile Song.

Derpy's 200 Smiles!?

No wait, Badwolf, come back!

Enough of this pony talk. This is a video games/RPG forum.

@Syd Then surely no one will mind if I bring this up!

This is a video games/RPG forum

But we were talking about Pony Videogames and RP Gs!