Best tutorial examples?

I'm looking to spend a lot more time improving my programming tutorial. I'm interested in adding examples or tutorials of projects that most beginners are interested in seeing/trying.

A breakout type of game is next on my list.
I'm improving my 2D platformer example as we speak (mostly because it currently sucks).

So, what kinds of games do you think most newbies are interested in getting their hands dirty with? Comments actually from newbies is most welcome.

I think the classic space invaders/galaxians is good, as well as a pacman type of clone. The pacman one would be a good one for covering some basic ai/routes on the baddies.

I'm quite interested in your 2d platformer though, tbh.

Just tried the Tetris tutorial (improved). It compiled fine with Blitz3d, but I get the following error when playing the game.

Array index out of bounds

I get this when I complete a line.

Am I doing something wrong here? Sorry, I'm a noob.

It's okay, it was this line in the code that was breaking it.

BlockToErase = BlockToErase - 0.5 ;using .5 just to make it clear slower

I changed it to:

BlockToErase = BlockToErase - 1

which seems to have fixed it.

Might be worth editing the tutorial page?

I presume it must have worked on your version of Blitz, so maybe something has changed with the way things are handled, recently?

Nice tutorial though! I found it very useful. Thanks.

The ones you are suggesting + invaders and pacman sound good already :-)

Hmm, asteroids/thrust? Basic vectors, inertia, floating point coords, collisions etc?

I think a tutorial showing a basic tilemap would be good. Maybe a small Zelda clone type thing (original NES Zelda).

A lot of beginners want to be able to do things like Half-Life 2, etc.

WoW killers... you know, the norm.

Yeah. Do an MMORPG. Make sure you show how to do the networking so 3000 people can play at once. LOL

Seriously, the tilemap... But scrolling, not just static.

I have your site on my favorites WolRon and I frequently visit it to check up on somethings when I'm stuck in a pickle. If it fails to answer my question, I resort to these forums. It's been a couple of months since my last question could reach here =)

Yeah, pretty much do programming tutorials based on the beginners guide on gamedev.net
http://www.gamedev.net/reference/design/features/makegames/

I've long planned but yet to teach a crash course in beginning games programming that is 2 weeks each for several complete game projects in this order:
Breakout
Tetris
Space Invaders
Pac-man
some platformer

How about a pacman with a screen big enough you need a tilemap to draw and/or scroll around it?

Pong over the internet

Thanks for the replies guys. That's enough to keep me busy for a while...

P.S. I just retried my (improved) Tetris example and it worked fine on my PC
I'm using RunTime V1.87

Hi WolRon, thanks for a good thread.

Yeah, the problem I had with the improved Tetris is probably down to the Runtime version I guess?

I'm using Runtime V1.98.

I agree with Grey Alien about Asteroids/Thrust. I've always wanted to do a decent thrust rip-off (ahem, I mean clone :) ). The tricky bit is gonna be when the ship collects the pickup attached to a rod that swings. I wouldn't know how to tackle the ship gravity after that! hehe

Nice tuts, WolRon :)

Well, the 2D Platformer example is revamped and up on the site. I've almost completed the improved version of it as well...

Check them out here if you like:
http://home.cmit.net/rwolbeck/programmingtutorial/code/2d%20platformer.htm
http://home.cmit.net/rwolbeck/programmingtutorial/code/2d%20platformer%20improved.htm

Most n00bs like me dive in headfirst instead of taking a structured approach.

Ideally the tutorial should point out that a structured approach is needed for things such as;
* A plan of attack, coz even your actionplan is part of the process.
* Basic framework things like highscores, keybord input.
* Some kinda written down half a piece of A4 paper describing your game.
* Then the real meat of game programming logic (which Jake is suggesting);
--> maths for calculating positions relative to your own.
--> other common game logic for games such snakes, tetris etc.
Those woul be kinda usefull and gets a n00b started much easier.

Kindly noted.
Roger
WillCo

[Edit]OMG, I just realized that the game with the title, Roger Wilco, is short for the military commands that I stated above:
Roger (OK)
WillCo (will comply)

Never realized that before...

I just HAD to improve my 360° Shooter example (i.e. Time Pilot, 1942, etc.) because not only did the media for it totally suck, but so did the code.

Here's the improved version:
http://home.cmit.net/rwolbeck/programmingtutorial/code/360shooter/360%20shooter.htm

The tutorial part isn't completely written yet, but the code/media is all present and usable.

I'm trying out a new format for the displayed code. Instead of the boring green on black, I'm trying copying Blitz's style. Tell me what you think, if you like the new look or just prefer it the way most of my other pages look. I'm interested to know since the Blitz look is more time consuming.

I prefer the blue background and the Blitz look. Are you using style sheets/css, that's much quicker. It's a good idea to tidy up old code that is still useful.

Looking good, I have had your site on my bookmark tool bar for quite some time. Would be good to have a small section on really useful little things, such as a true/false variable toggle:

;Set Switch
Local Switch% = True

;Toggles Boolean Switch
Switch = Not Switch

For ages I was using a multi line if statement for toggling, so a section of little speed ups and tips would be cool.

Noted.

Anyone besides markcw have an opinion on the look of the code?

@markcw
I am using style sheets, but I don't know all of the ins and outs of using them. I can show you (or someone else) how I'm doing it if someone is able to critique me.

Well I don't know much about css so it would have to be someone else. What makes the blitz look more time consuming if you're using css.

Because the only way I know how to color the individual words is to manually do it. I use CSS to set the background color, default font color (white), and font. But like I said, I have to then manually color each one.

Maybe I should write a blitz program to look for keywords and color it all for me...

I'm not sure if you're still taking suggestions for tutorials, but maybe you can just put this in the back of your mind for when you need it:

Today, everybody wants to make 3d games, plain and simple.*

At the same time, people also want to play 3d games**, so for us with BlitzPlus, a tutorial on how to make old school vector games that create the illusion of 3d would be very useful.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
*Personally, I'm not too concerned with making psuedo-3d games... one look at my website will expose that I'm not too concerned with graphics at all. But I have heard many accounts of people that do, even with a 2d app like BlitzPlus.

**Granted, a ton of people still like 2d. I'm just making a generalization.

Do you mean like Tempest?

I think the math involved there could be a bit much for a noob...

In fact, I could have sworn I saw a Tempest remake not too long ago and there was a ton of math involved.

I don't know. Maybe if you suggested a better vector example, it might be worth it.

On another note, I think I'll try Tron (lightbike) someday, or maybe even Snake.

Yeah ok you have to color each one. Well it's just not worth the trouble in my opinion, so you should go back to the 2-color system as it's simpler. I never liked the green on black color scheme you have though, I think white on blue would look much better.

Actually, I discovered a much easier way to do it last night. I'm copying it directly from the Blitz IDE.

Only thing though is that all of these color changes are going to triple/quadruple my html file sizes.

Tempest would be good, but I was thinking more along the lines of this.
(Its an old QBASIC game.)

Apparently it has land effect qualities, so the ground shifts when you shoot it.

Games like this have always fascinated me but I can't even begin to think of where to start.

Well if you can do that then I think it's not too much trouble and will look much better.

I wouldn't worry about the increase in file size, it's not that much and almost everyone is on broadband now anyway.