Which Blitz?

Wow... havent been here for a while, anyways...

Basically, for my third year project at uni I will be making a 2d platform game. Currently I only have limited experience with blitz (I have a license for blitz 2d) but at the same time no experience with blitzMAX

Ive mucked around briefly with the demo and it seems quite different. Would anyone consider the potential gains of learning MAX worthwhile seeing as what I plan to do will be relatively simple?

Ta

Chris-M,

I'm probably not the guy to answer this as I don't yet use BMax too much, Grey Alien is well suited having released 2 games since Christmas and a solid frame work for future professionally written games, which incidently you can purchase for $49. to get you going (might be seen as a bit of a cheat though as it does all the boring stuff for you!!!! lol - it lets you get on with writing your game).


IPete2.

Ta Pete, Ill give it a look!

Yeah I recommend Max as it is just plain easier and more fun to use than BPlus and B3D due to the OOP stuff :-) Also you can do all those nifty alph, scaling and rotation effects which are fun.

Depends on what you're going to be marked on, and your programming proficiency, I'd say. Is visual quality important, or do you just need to demonstrate competent programming techniques? What kind of uni course are you doing?

What uni you at?

Big/Boom:
Im at Kent Uni studying Multimedia Technology and Design. They are open to alot of ideas when it comes to the third year project and I got the idea of a game approved, so here I am :)

The marking process is admittedly pretty vague at the moment but the ultimate goal is to create a complete product. I've never coded a full game in Blitz but generally know how to represent ideas through coding. Graphics are just as important as code. As well as the music/sound etc that will go with it.

Yes.

BlitzMax might take a while to learn, but in the end it would greatly improve your project :) With the ability to have scaling, alpha, etc. and if you plan on purchasing the MaxGUI module, you can make a nice map editor with that :D

If you buy Blitz3D + SpriteCandy, you can also get brilliant 2D power, and being able to combine the 3D scene, imo B3D is easier to learn.

I agree completely with yoxola!!!

It depends whether Chris-M is allowed to use 3rd party stuff. It sounds like he has to create everything himself, including graphics and music. Maybe I'm wrong, though.

I don't think BlitzMAX will necessarily take very long to learn. I grasped 95% of it within about a week. Not to say I've actually done anything with it. Had coder's block for a long time :-/

If as you say you have no experiance with BMax, then I would sudjest that you use one of the Microsoft Visual languages, which one would depend on which has the greater support at your Uni.

Programming your final year project in a "Minority" language, whist noble, is in no way sencible, unless you already know the language.

If you think you can program it in the Blitz that you know, then do it. If you dont think you can, then approach your suppervisor/Mentor/Support staff and ask them what they program in. And base your decision on what They say

BUT, Bmax isnt that hard, so if you do have the time before a decision has to be final, then I would say you could try to learn BMax, I wouldnt put my opinion above those of your suppervisor tho