1. There is a complete relational database built in to the game. Why not, it was easier than doing it by hand. There is also a great set of 3rd party db controls too although most of them are on the debug-only screens.
2. The entire look and feel is provided by a 3rd party skinning engine (www.ksdev.com) with artwork sourced by Matrix. This was a huge improvement over the other Matrix games where the entire UI has to be painted by a 2D art guy and requires a lot of angst to get any changes done. In my case, the art guy did one generic button and then he was done all the buttons anywhere in the game. Nobody is slow down waiting for someone else to finish a screen with the button moved 4 pixels to the right.
3. There are probably 3 or 4 other libraries that contributed visual elements like panels, labels, animations, etc. I pick and choose from the best of breed.
4. All the DirectX DirectPlay LAN code is 3rd party. Same for the DirectX DirectSound support. All the PBEM internet plumbing is also 3rd party.
5. I was just told to add in alpha-blended animations for the nuclear blast effect. That is way out of my depth as a graphics guy but with a little looking around - you guessed it - and I was playing them in FPG by the end of the same day.
6. The game used to read and write Excel OB files for convenience. Same deal using OLE automation.
AI? zilch - I had to write all my own but that is OK since I expected to. There are some interesting Delphi AI components out there but they were too hard to get going with. www.riversoftag.com for one.
Sadly none of these will work with VB but VB has a world of components of its own. If you are creative you may be able to go a long way.
Yes, Matrix wanted to standardize on Microsoft Visual C++ but in reality they take what the programmers are already best at and can bring a lot of skill to. I could never finish a game now if it was in C++ but that is just me. I don't think any are any done in VB but there is one now in C# and maybe the VB equivilent would be viable too.
There are quite a number of books now on getting started in games that you ought to look up on Amazon. Making a game is a great deal of work though and not as fun as it sounds. Me, I have the bug to do it just for my own satisfaction and progress as a programmer. If you want to earn a living from it, you are likely to be out of luck. For every 10 games that get planned, 1 gets started. For every 10 that get started, 1 gets finished. For every 10 that get finished maybe 1 earns enough to be worth the bother. Pretty long odds!
If you are reasonably proficient in VB you could be over the hump with Delphi in about a week and be fairly up to speed in 4 to 6 weeks. Visual C is a much more marketable skill to have but the conversion takes a lot longer I think then Delphi does.
Ta, Rob.
ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd
Thanks Robert.
I always thought games (all games) were written in C.
I program in Visual Basic 6 and, to be honest, I couldn't understand where to begin when writing a game...not even sure it can be done in VB!
As for the 3rd party components (I know about not wanting to re-invent the wheel), can you give me an example of one?
