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If we don't watch them, how then do we refute them and/or laugh at them?

Pretty sure that still doesn't give you carte blanche to use the intellectual property of others.

You're probably thinking of C#

My point is, the development environment does not make the coder. Notepad++ runs under windows btw. If you're going down the python route, I imagine it's the python executable that interperts the code you feed it. Not using python myself I'm surmising here - most of my experience is with PHP. With that you can execute php scripts on the command line with: php mycode.php Python is pretty similar afaik.

You'd be surprised. I tend to go with nano in Linux, and that's not much more feature-rich than notepad. You could have a look at notepad++, should at least give you syntax highlighting.

Python seems to be a popular place to start coding. In one of your previous threads a few months back I linked to the MIT Open Courseware Introduction to Programming series on youtube - that course used Python. C# or C++ would be the other obvious suggestions. The important thing is not so much choosing the 'right' language as just getting familiar with the basics - get comfortable with data types; strings, ints, floats etc. Learn how to create functions. Get your head around the object-oriented paradigm. These are things that you'll find are mostly common between languages. Once you have a good grounding in the basics it will be a lot easier for you to figure out which direction you want to go. I'd also agree with the notion of buying a book to work from. Not to say you can't get going with web-based tutorials, but in my own experience I've found it helpful having something offscreen to refer to.

AFAIK the major advantage is that all bought ships come with lifetime insurance, so you're not out of pocket when you get blown up. Considering there are reportedly people out there who've dropped upwards of $10K on virtual ships, one only hopes this is one game that lives up to the hype.

There's an image there? All I'm seeing is a string of random characters. gSZTrad_d0lAp4yJndFVVyW4fOS38cnWANTIBMDA

@ 1.50 When you're using the Weekly World News to support your claims, you're officially not trying. And yeah, the music is from Kevin MacLeod's huge catalogue, not specific to KSP, though it's what I think of every single time I hear it being used. Cool Hard Logic on youtube uses a snippet of it in his intro for example. @Deddly Thanks for the link, nice to be able to get all of the tracks in one convenient zipfile. (Now if Squad and Incompetech were to conspire to put out a physical CD of the complete soundtrack, I'm not saying I'd buy that, but I'd probably buy that.)

Yes King Canute Sony, the tide can be held back. We believe you.

2001, and to a lesser extent 2010 Contact The Right Stuff (Though I personally found the book to be far superior) The Andromeda Strain Event Horizon Capricorn One (Worth it IMHO insofar as it's referenced by many *ahem* alternative theories.) Iron Sky The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Make the time to watch this in a theatre with other fans. Watching it at home will not do it justice.) Apollo 13 Europa Report Silent Running There's undoubtedly more, but that's what a quick scan through my collection reveals.

o7 Thanks for your service to the community, and good luck out there!

If it was me I'd just call it something along the lines of 'Paranormal Pest Control', and go from there.

If you want my opinion, don't bother, create your own IP. Licensing the Ghostbusters universe might be possible, but considering Nintendo's reaction to Uranium and AM2R, I'd reckon you haven't a hope of licensing Pokemon.

I remember playing that on my ZX Spectrum. Could be interesting. Sounds quite similar to Pokemon Conquest or the Shin Megami Tensai: Devil Survivor series. If you could pull off something in that vein on the PC it could end up quite popular. Look at what happened with Stardew Valley.

Also known as the Unix Philosophy, and yes, it is a fantastic way of thinking about and structuring your code.

I find this hard to believe.

Not a mod, but I was under the the impression that the roleplay rules related to roleplaying on the forums - as in posting as a Kerbal character or corporation etc. - not that all mentions of things like D&D were verboten. And yet, when asked to explain what you have, you're not exactly forthcoming. It's like getting blood from a stone. You could take the opposite approach and think 'hey, I've gotten no responses, maybe I should provide more info.'

Have you considered using or adapting tabletop roleplaying or strategy systems like D&D/Warhammer etc? There have been many cases where people have prototyped computer games using existing systems with modified rulesets. You might also consider something like tabletop simulator if you're realistically intending to do this over the internet. Ultimately if you want to maximise the possibility of getting help testing out your concepts, you're going to want to make things as easy as possible for people. That means having something to sink their teeth into. At the moment you're talking about things in such a vague way it's nigh-on impossible to give any feedback. It also, rightly or wrongly, gives the impression that there isn't anything to actually test. My suggestion is to go write an actual pitch for this idea - something that conveys to people what the game is about, and how it works. All I've surmised at the moment is Pokemon, Ghostbusters, and NASA. I don't see how these concepts fit together, and I've absolutely no idea what genre of game you're aiming towards. You're asking people to give up their time to help you, you need to provide something that gives an incentive to people. For example, I like 1v1 fighting games, if you were to tell me that you want to make 'Ghostbusters x Pokemon' in the same vein as 'Marvel vs Capcom', ignoring the obvious copyright minefield, you'd have my attention. What is it about your concept that would inspire me, or other forum-goers to drop everything and help you make this idea a real thing?

I'm assuming this is what you're referring to? How do you propose testing this concept? Your post heavily implies that you don't have anything to test beyond an idea, so I'm slightly confused as to how you propose to test multiplayer functionality? Do you have a design document we can refer to, or perhaps a non-computer related card-game system you plan to use (I'm assuming this one since you reference Pokemon)?

One thing that anyone who has used more than one programming language quickly observes, is that there is generally very little that differentiates programming languages. Programming is more about understanding paradigms than understanding looping structures. Between the 5 or 6 languages I've dabbled in from the 8-bit era to the present day the major difference between them I've noticed is going from procedural to object-oriented code, which still isn't very different when it comes right down to it, it just requires thinking about your code a little differently. I pretty much wasted a year of my life on a course which purported to teach web-design back in the late 90's. I'd have been far better served going into computer science, but I chose to chase the new thing. I assumed we'd be learning javascript, database-driven webpages and the like. Nope, just straight HTML. The next year I looked at the stuff the next batch of students were putting up on the college webpage, and I kid you not, half of them were uploading their images in bitmap format. My point is, be very careful what you choose to spend your time studying, and where you choose to do it. If you want to get into games programming, you would be far better suited doing a formal programming course rather than a games design course. There are no specific 'gaming code languages', there are however languages that are frequently used in game engines like Unity. You may however come to a point in your career when you need to go beyond using a third party game engine, and write your own specialized engine. At that point you might well be thankful you invested the time doing a course that taught you more than to use A* for pathfinding. EDIT: Great wisdom from @Snark here: ( I'd quote him directly, but the editor keeps eating my edit :/ ) One of the things that I'm most proud of programming-wise consists of four lines of code. To get those four lines took over a week of RTFM, spending upwards of 18 hours a day scouring the internet for answers to questions I didn't even know how to phrase properly. There is some joy-of-creation to be had, but be prepared for a long pregnancy and a difficult labour in the process of birthing it.

My own preference has been for Fruityloops, although I used Cakewalk prior to that. However, amongst people I know, Cubase is very popular, and I'd recommend it on that basis alone. Whatever you decide to go with, I'd say making sure the program is VST compatible is a major requirement - you'll be locking yourself out of a huge range of options otherwise. Price-wise, unfortunately you really do tend get what you pay for. You can find free stuff, and some of it is decent, especially in terms of vst plugins, but I'd advise you to use something fairly mainstream as your main program if you're interested in perusing this as a serious venture - you'll find it much easier to find tutorials and get advice. You could look into whether there are student licences available too, which would drop the price.

Normally I'd list out a load of 80s-90's Industrial and EBM acts, but this time I'm going to go with something different. A while ago, for one reason or another, I went looking for the theme to Frontier: Elite 2, and I came across this cover version. "That's pretty alright," I thought. "Wonder what else he's done?" Turns out the band he's in are pretty decent:

I've been playing since the 2d fortress days. Don't play it as much these days, but often check in on the bay12games page to see the progress. It's a game I've unending respect for. I imagine Tarn has fielded many offers to have his creation bought up and produced by a larger company with more resources, but he keeps on plugging away at it with his brother. There are few games that I think everyone interested in gaming needs to try, but Dwarf Fortress is undoubtedly one of the highest entries on that list.

I think you are massively underestimating the role failure plays in future success. The key is perseverance, learning from mistakes, failing better the next time, and so on till you achieve something of consequence. If you actually envision yourself in a management role, this is doubly important - why on earth would I employ someone to manage a project who has no successes they can point at? How would that person be suited to carry through a project to completion when they have walked away from everything they tried themselves? How would that person have the skills to evaluate the work their subordinates were producing? I could go on, but I think you get the point. Creating something is art, and art requires perspiration. There isn't a shortcut. I know what I've said probably sounds harsh, but it's said with the best of intentions. You need to pick yourself up and get back at it, not look for an easy way out.