I´ve had an idea for a game for years… My game-idea is to make a graphical mud-like game, where you control the character by typing, or actually not controlling the character, but telling it what you want him to do, and then he can choose to do your bidding or he can tell you what a jerk you are. Or he can simply “not understand you”. The character should do stuff on his own when you don´t tell him anything, but mostly boring stuff. There needs to be a quite a few npc´s that he can interact with and different stuff that he can pick up and stuff he can use the things he picks up with. No visible inventory. (you need to remember them, and he can lie to you if he choose to) Simple graphics, an overview view of the scene similar to typical strategy-games, which means there´s mostly simple animations, no need for real 3D.
My estimate is: 50 npc´s with lousy AI and the character wich should have a relatively complex AI. A not too complex city with 60 - 70 buildings where you can go into 15 of them to get another scene. About 20+ different things you can pick up and 30+ things you can interact with. i.e. “use axe with tree” etc.
The problem is; I´m a complete noob at programming, the only experience I´ve had is from fiddling with qbasic with an IBM XT in the late 80´s, my math-skills are that of a primaryschool kid and I get dizzy when the code says (x=math.pi/2*y+z/7584). Another problem is; I haven´t got much time to learn programming, I work 14+ hours a day, well it´s actually at work I try to learn a little, hence Codea, carrying my iPad mini with me everywhere.
The only thing I´ve managed so far, is to write down the plot, make a few tunes (I´m a musician) and … well, I´ve looked at examples and tried to learn from scratch, but my try at pong has been, mostly a mounstrous fail, so far. I made the ellipse stop when it reached the left wall, but I had problems making the collide-thingy work properly with the bat.
So the question is:
Is it even conceivable for me to make a game like this? And how long would you estimate it could take an experienced programmer?
Hem…
I think you have already a feeling of the answer, right?
I dont want to dicourage you, but… from what you describe as your skills and the goal you want to reach…
Let’s put it that way: i am not an experienced programmer, i think to write such a game myself would be one or two years, before i am satifyed. And i would probably quit after 3 months.
@Jmv38 has it right. AI is extremely difficult. And he has written a couple of nice projects with AI, so he should know, despite his modesty.
And if you want to see what is like to build a world where you walk around and pick up stuff, look for the current thread on RPGGenerator. Not easy.
With no time and basic skills, you will just get frustrated.
However, there is an alternative. I have always wanted to do AI myself for many years, but kept finding it too hard. So when I picked up Codea, I was patient and I just tried to learn the basics and see what I found interesting. Months later, I have built all sorts of fun graphics stuff, without having to be very clever. I still can’t do AI stuff, but I have lots of other toys to play with, by going into graphics instead.
So what I suggest is to be patient, work through some of the many tutorials, and just explore the many things Codea can do. I’m sure you’ll find something fun that is much easier than mud.
I think that is going to be way way too complex for a newbie to do.
I’m new myself, only had Codea 2 days and although I have several ideas for games I’d love to work on, I know I simply don’t have the skills to do it right now and the ideas would be wasted.
I’m giving myself a month to learn the ‘basic bones’ of Lua (by reading guides and messing with ultra simple ideas.) before I even attempt anything like that and even that simply might not be long enough.
I would say try to use Codea when you have spare time and use the guides by Ignatz to try and learn it before trying something so complex.
Thanks for the replies!
Yeah I gave myself the answear to my question, but I also got a few clues to some underlying questions. Like; what´s the most difficult part. And AI might be difficult, but also … it might not be thát difficult. I´ve seen a few extremely functional eggbots in my old irc-days. Giving a simple response to a few words is all it does, and randomizing it makes it sound more alive. It´s not like I want the character to be able to respond logically to everything I tell him to do. I actually wánt it to be faulty. So … it´s mostly just a question of workload and finding a simple way to make an illusion, right?
(I loved how the IRC-bot at my old channel, which was pretty simple, often made new guys frustrated while trying to seduce her. )
I´m going through the really nice tutorials, so I´m getting a little better every day. But I realize that I probably should find someone to team up with. There´s a lot of stuff that can help out though, like I´ve found open source-stuff for lipsync and other cool things that would look good for a few up-close scenes. I intend to only animate those though, not actually lipsync them realtime.
Well … if Jmv38 makes a guess of 2 years, I´ll aim for 4 years, with a little help. ;D I´m a patient guy.
And thanks for those tutorials, as well as all those inspirational codes lying around this forum. The AI competition… I copied the brain of the blue team and tweaked it a bit. Now I can seriously sit for hours just looking at those balls go! Very cool! ;D
That´s too bad really, it´s a great idea!
I don´t have the knowledge to do any sensible additions to the AI, but in a couple of years perhaps. Also, I would need to get into AI if I´m going to succeed with this game of mine. I´ll post a new brain for the competition as soon as I get the hang of it!
AI is complex, very complex so you wanting to make a complex AI is pretty well, impossible… As basic as it gets at this level I wouldn’t call it artificial intelligence but more steps it takes. Talking and making your robot reply isn’t really classed as AI because there is no intelligence involved, your idea sounds good but it also would be very hard to make, and very hard to draw (for graphics), if you put your mind to it its possible…
I don´t want advanced graphics, more like a strategy-game overhead-thingy … I´ve started to make a layout for my little town. As long as nothing moves, it seems easy enough. I probably have to rewrite everything from scratch eventually, but the experience might prove valuable anyway.
It’s always some sort of learning! I look back at even projects I’ve started in the past week and think of things I should have done to make the foundation more dextrous and little things like that make the next project better.
@Pirke Start small and build from there. To learn AI, start by looking at little things, like the code to the old Eliza and Adventure and Zork. All three have parsers to look at and act on user input. This is the bare bones stuff to do to make an “honest” bot, i.e., one that always does your bidding. I think from there, once you understand what is going on, you will get ideas on how to expand to do what you really want to do.
Baby steps indeed!
I want my bot to not always do what I want. He will misunderstand and act upon it. Heh… I like my own idea, but I figure this project will take quite a few years with my speed. Too much to do :7
Also, I would need to get into AI if I´m going to succeed with this game of mine. I´ll post a new brain for the competition as soon as I get the hang of it! 
