The Dink Network

All my life I've wanted to be a video game developer. At two years old I designed my first game, if by game you count a crude drawing that let you talk to Barney somehow someway... So when I turned 9, I decided to learn how to program. Of course, I failed in every way possible. You see, I just couldn't figure it out because I had about 5 dollars my mom gives me for spending every month and that just wasn't enough for a C or C++ tutorial book. I gave up on the subject, keeping all my ideas to myself and looking for free games to play on the net. It was then that I truly stepped into the light. The pearly, yet sloppily painted white, gate opened carved with TDN. A faraway silky voice that almost sounded like as if red fountain pen were writing the most excellent message of all guided me into the heavenly d-mods of life and I embraced the glory that is Dink Smallwood. Yes, the devilish angel. The Little Nicky of freeware. At times it made me want to smash my computer to bits. Yet at other times I felt a pure aura of pleasure. A zone where my craziest, cookiest plots could finally be converted into the most amazing games of all! Unspeakable power at my very fingertips.. Then, I found out it was REALLY REALLY hard! And now here I am, about to cross the TDN city limits, the only place I was (almost) ever half accepted (probably not) will be gone as soon as I step over the border. My hand falls to the delete button, wavers, then stays, I am torn in two. I don't know what to do. Create a d-mod after years of inexperienced toil or just leave and only see your unfinished shadow. Does anyone else feel the Programming Blues?

Ummm, what can I say... Finish what you started? That would be the biggest hypocrite statement ever coming from me. I've started about 50 different projects in my life and only finished one (a level for Duke Nukem and I'm getting close to finishing an RPG for Warcraft III). My only wish is to be able to finish Legend's Tale. I have to or SimonK will come to Belgium and kill me, steal the d-mod and finish it himself. Next to that, there are some other d-mods in the pipeline, but I only work on those occasionally, even though I believe they would be a success.

So, yeah, somehow Ive got the programming blues as well. But if there's one thing I've learned through the years its that you should never give up on learning stuff even if it seems to difficult at first. I didn't get started writing d-mods the very first day I played Dink. It took me 3 years and many many many tries to get the hang of it (I was only 13 at the time), but now I feel DinkC has helped me understand different programming languages and I'm happy with that.

The only "real" programming language I know is Visual Basic, which is not really real, cause it is interpreted... technical mumbo-jumbo talk anyway. I tried to learn C++ once, but never got further than to the text based "Guess if the next number is higher or lower than the current" game I made, cause I didn't know what to do next from there... so I gave up. If Visual Basic is interpreted, then DinkC is extremely interpreted. Which makes it more of a scripting language than a real programming language, cause you can only do what the game lets you do.

Anyway, over to the real subject... I seem to have a chronical programming blues. I can start up to 5 projects a week, work for them for 5 hours or so, and then give up, cause I get bored of the idea. I must've started over 50 program projects, and as far as I can remember, I've only completed 3. The DinkC program on this site, Easy DinkC, a program I call "WebShot" which takes a screenshot of your screen, and sends it over http to a user who requested it.. and finally, something I called KaZaA Connect, which let you download stuff from KaZaA users without letting them know, and without being connected to KaZaA. *sigh* - I dunno why... but I'm never able to complete what I start.. oh, and just to mention, I've started minimum 10 dmods, and all I've ever been able to release was a shootty demo of a crappy idea.

Take your time and start with a small dmod. Mabey write it in chapters, and the first chapter uses only simple commands.
Then here is a good free c++ tut.
http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial.html
And these guys offer a free compiler,
http://www.geocities.com/uniqueness_template/
But Dinkc is the best start.
<edit>
Did I forget to mention be patient? Your intrest in programing makes it inevitable that you will learn it. But notice all big programs are written by larger groups of people. It takes time. Thats why I say try starting with smaller chapter dmods.
It was my biggest mistake to start with a large one because even after working on it for a couple years I still don't have the statisfacion of seeing it complete and enjoyed by others. But I always seem to come back to it....

Thank you!!

I would say that you should create a small, fairly combat orientated d-mod for your first one. It may not have all the plot twists and suclike you want, but it'll hopefully give you a boost for making harder scripts.
I HATE scripting, and that's why none of my d-mods get released, but if you are persistant you will make something good eventually.

Thanks for the advice but,

"It may not have all the plot twists and suclike you want..."

He he he.. Suck like I want..