Where To Begin? Making a text based RPG and have no idea where to start

[Eclipse13k6 0]

I have read Convictlife's guide, and still don't know where to start. I made my own thread because some of the other threads are a little older so I had no idea if I would get help or not.I will ask my questions one post at a time, and only ask a new question. I am doing it this way since making a game is very intimidating.First off I need a host to start putting codes onto. I signed up here because this site is a host if I am not mistaken. How do I get started to put up some codes?

[yordan 10]

As soon as you will be hosted, your website will act as a ftp server, and you will be able to upload your files using an ftp client. If you are not familiar with ftp clients, your hosting account also has a file manager (in your hosting cpanel) which is able to upload to your hosted website any file from your PC.

[Eclipse13k6 0]

That sounds great, thanks! :mellow:Also, can I test all my coding on my computer as if it were a browser based text game before uploading the files? That would seem most appropriate to... experiment and play around with.

[Quatrux 4]

If you're using Windows and as I understand PHP language? MySQL for your game as you need a host? When install a WAMP server like Wampserver and you can create your work locally and when it will work on your computer, you can upload it to your hosting account and show it to the rest of the world, some things may differ, because of Windows OS and Linux OS on the Server, because of file permissions and so on though.

[Eclipse13k6 0]

I am on Windows Vista. :mellow:Wampserver? Is it a free and legal program I can download and use? And is that all I will need to rite up my game and upload it to the host?EDIT: I found wampserver and downloaded it. Now it won't open. The computer acts as if it opens the file, but nothing happens.

Edited March 5, 2009 by Eclipse13k6 (see edit history)

[yordan 10]

I found wampserver and downloaded it. Now it won't open. The computer acts as if it opens the file, but nothing happens.

Rather, use the portable version. It's a pre-configured package, no installation needed, you simply choose where you want to put it on your hard disk or on a flashdisk.

XAMPP is an integrated server package of Apache, mySQL, PHP and Perl (the AMPP in XAMPP) that all run from a removable drive. Everything is pre-configured and ready to go just by unzipping or installing it.

Take it from here : http://portableapps.com/apps/development/xampp You download the auto-expand file, double-click on it, it asks you where you want to put it (I use d:\xampplite), and you read the readme_en.txt textfile which tells you to simply run the two .bat files to configure and start the server.
Then you have a fully working webserver with
. apache
. mysql
. php
I use it to test my phpbb3 forums before making them public.
The same way you can test all your programs, provided that you need nothing else than apache, php and a mysql database.
Of course you must remember that the home of your webserver is in the htdocs subfolder.
And also you should not forget to create the mysql database and the mysql users. Use phpmyadmin for that.
Please tell us if you need more info

[Eclipse13k6 0]

I got it up and running.Now I am working on collecting some codes to get a basic version of the game running on my computer. ow do I get these codes put into the sytem, and then how do I do a test run to see if they worked?

[yordan 10]

ow do I get these codes put into the sytem, and then how do I do a test run to see if they worked?

The simplest way is to copy your whole game folder, in the htdocs directory.Your index.html or index.php should be in the htdocs subfolder of your xampp install.

[Eclipse13k6 0]

Okay, sweet. How can I start up a game folder? I was advised not to go to McCodes, and so far all my search results have brought me there.

[yordan 10]

Okay, sweet. How can I start up a game folder? I was advised not to go to McCodes, and so far all my search results have brought me there.

Do you mean that you don't have a ready-for-use game environment and that you don't want to write down your own php programs ?

[Eclipse13k6 0]

I do not have a ready-for-use environment, and I do want to write up my own programming, but I would like some basic codes to familiarize myself with the programming itself before just jumping headfirst into it.

[Eclipse13k6 0]

Well, it's been a few months but I found a free version of a game and downloaded it. I would now like to upload it to a program and test it out, so I re-read through this thread and came across a small problem.Both wampserver and Xampp are not running properly. Wampserver won't open, so I kept reading and saw to use xampp. When I try using that I click on the "admin" icons only to be brought to a "page load error" screen.Are these two programs outdated now?

[yordan 10]

I got it up and running.Now I am working on collecting some codes to get a basic version of the game running on my computer. ow do I get these codes put into the sytem, and then how do I do a test run to see if they worked?

Both wampserver and Xampp are not running properly. Wampserver won't open, so I kept reading and saw to use xampp. When I try using that I click on the "admin" icons only to be brought to a "page load error" screen.

Seems that it worked and now it does not work ?Probably in the meanwhile you installed something new, that is now using the port 80. Remove this new software, which will free the 80 port. xampp has tool testing if the 80 port is in use.

[Eclipse13k6 0]

Well, I tried re-installing and it did say that two prts were in use (port 80 for apache, and prt something or another for mysql).How do I clear up these ports? I don't seem to see anything that xampp has to offer to clear them up on its own. In fact, xammp seems completly different then the first time I used it a few months back.

[yordan 10]

it did say that two prts were in use (port 80 for apache, and prt something or another for mysql).How do I clear up these ports? I

xampp alone cannot clear the port usage. You have to guess which software uses this port, and uninstall this software. "prt something" means that you have probably installed something like a remote printer software, which uses the same port as mysql.
Probably the "netstat -b" command will help you, on my system this "netstat -b" command shows that all the busy ports are currently used by firefox.