I'm relativly new to EE and just as green when it comes to C++. I have installed EE and VS 2010 and have also downloaded the source for Bloody Massacre. I am now at a loss as to where I should start. I have read most of the tutorials and have looked at the files of Bloody Massacre.

I think I know what I'm doing as far as coding goes but I don't know where to start. I have played with the tutorials and added things such as water and custom models to Bloody Massacre but that has done little more than appease my creative side.

What I want to know is where a project in Esenthel should start and after that where should I go? I have created a player object in Bloody Massacre and want him to be able to run around, not shoot and only pick up specific objects when a button is pressed. In both Unity and GM8 this was relativly easy but in EE I am at a loss.

Next I want to remove the flying around button becouse the game I am making does not include a flying character. Is their a quick way to remove this?

As I have said multiple times already: Where should I start? and, more importantly: How should I start?

Maybe you should go through all tutorials again, after that you can try making simple game from scratch, maybe Bloody Massacre codes seems too big for you at the moment.

Excuse me for asking but start where in what? EE or C++, game design etc etc.

C++ I recommend trying different tutorials for pure c++ and at the same time work on things in EE to apply the new knowledge. Arrays, pointers, class/structs.

There is so many general topics in programming that blends in with game programming when using a already made Engine.

Try combining the AI from bloody massacre, with the pathfinding demo and inventory.
Then try to combine parts of the text|/XML reading for chat/dialogue.

But directly defining where to start with EE is very hard, because first of all, you need a goal, what do YOU want to create, its not really about what you can and can't do with EE.
Projects in EE starts like any others, initialize, update call and draw call, and you go from there and try to achieve what you want or feel like you really need.

You say the game you are making doesnt include a flying character, well to be fair does your game idea base itself purely upon already made source and tweak it?

And as Esenthel said, you should go through most if not all if you really think every tutorial is needed, play around with them, comment out sections to find out what does what, try editing them to make up other functions using them as base until your comfortable to write your own functions.

Apart from learning how to code in C++, you should also know what you want to make.

If it's just to learn, you can just add random things to see how they work. However, if you plan something more serious (and don't plan anything big within the next year), you need to know what you'll do in advance.

Reading these might be a good start as well:
http://www.devmaster.net/articles/perfect/
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/33...ument_.php

That was all very helpful. I have gone through most of the tutorials at cplusplus.com (i think that's the right address) and have messed with the scripts for a bit. I believe that the best thing for me would be just to mess with settings until I figured out what I wanted them to do. I will try implementing some tutorials into Bloody Massacre and combining them as well seperate from bloody massacre.

As far as a compiler goes I can't say I'm fond of Visual Studio (especially 2010) and I would like to change that (perhaps Eclipse c++?).

As far as the game goes here is what I plan on making:
A game based on Parkour or Free Running that is similar to mirrors edge but a lot simpler. I was originally going to just take Bloody Massacre, take out the enemies, stick in a few ladders and walls and let you run around. I was planning on adding things such as wall running, ladder climbing and a few other basic moves such as opening doors.
I don't want the project to be to big as I only have about 10 weeks to get a working copy ready. I have already found the models I plan to use on TurboSquid and have played around with them a bit.
I was hoping to keep the game as simple as possible, adding only what I needed, until I got it working well. Then I was going to continue adding features until I had to turn the project in (sometime in late December or January).

Is their any easy way to change what keys do what? I know in Unity that you can simply go into a menu and change the values and get totally different results. Is this possible in Esenthel or will I have to edit the code myself?

Second: How hard would it be to convert the Visual Studio projects to Eclipse C++ tutorials? I have used eclipse in Java programming and am familiar with the interface thus I think it would be easier for me to use.

Finally both Unity and Game Maker possess a list of all commands with examples and syntax. Does Esenthel contain such a feature?

Again thanks for the help. Tottel those articles where helpful. I'll have to keep that in mind.

Kb.b if key is held down
Kb.bp if key is pressed etc

if(Kb.b(KB_K))
{
// run code here till you release the key
}

if(Kb.bp(KB_K))
{
// run code once on key press.
}

regarding Visual studio, I wouldn't know personally I love VS

It's just 2010 I think. I finally got the tutorials to work by deleting all reference to x64 and it seemed to work but it would build all the files to a different directory and would just fail at running the program. I'm downloading VS2008 and if that works than I should be set. Otherwise I'm going to have to play around with the other IDE's.

In the above code KB_K is just representing a keyboard key correct. Not "K"? If I want "E" to be action and Shift to be run what are the key codes for them? Is their a list?

Thanks.

I don't know how much this will help you, or if it will just really confuse you, but a quick look through this file helped me understand it better when I started. There may be somewhere else that talks about it that may be easier to understand, but I'm not sure.

EsenthelEngineSDK/Installation/EsenthelEngine/Misc/Input.h



The "K" in KB_K is the keyboard button, so as Zervox said, for example, with what you want to do.

if(Kb.bp(KB_E))
{
// action code here
}

if(Kb.b(KB_LSHIFT))
{
// whatever method you are using to make the character run here
}

Alright thanks that was helpful. I installed VS2008 and after making it stop asking me to update I got it to work and it is now working pretty well so I think I'll be staying with VS for the time. Thanks for the help all.