Back in 2008 I was editing quite a bit on the allegro wiki, mostly trying to convert the Pixelate articles. Sadly, all my work was erased due to an out-of-date backup but this is not the reason why I'm posting here.

While I was editing, I thought it to be a good idea to try to wikify the Allegro Vivace tutorial written by George Foot and update it to use the latest version of Allegro (I think Allegro 5 was on the horizon but not quite usable/stable?). So, I contacted George and he thought it to be an excellent idea. His tutorial is not yet completed though, and probably never will be.

Somehow I got thinking about it today, so now I have created an article on the wiki. It's just an introduction right now, but I have started writing the next part.

The aim is to start with general game programming concepts, such as the game loop, and then delve deeper into how you actually do this using Allegro 5. Down the road, other important things should be discussed such as an explanation of double buffering, how to animate stuff, and other concepts beginner's often have trouble with when starting out trying to make games.

The tutorial assumes basic knowledge of C/C++ and that the reader has a working installation of Allegro. I think the articles already up on the wiki explain the latter well enough.

I'm not aiming to have a complete game by the end of the tutorials, but rather the focus should be on really trying to explain in an understandable way the above mentioned game programming concepts.

I imagine the list below are things the tutorial in the end should cover:

• the basic game structure

• the game loop

• double buffering

• the allegro event system and user input

• drawing bitmaps and primitives

• making the game run at a constant speed on all computers

• playing sounds & music

I imagine general programming advice could be squeezed in where appropriate, such as:

• multifile projects

• the importance of checking return values

• a discussion on globals (we need a nuanced picture here bambam )

So... the aim is high. Basically, the end-all, be-all tutorial for Allegro 5 beginners. But with the cooperation of this community we shall succeed! Who's with me?

...read's 'Allegro Vivace'...

sniff meeeeemmmooorriiieeess, like the corners, of my miiiind.....

They do, but nothing is good enough for the n00b.

Good luck.

In all seriousness, as long as you are only trying to help the people who have the potential to actually create a game, then a comprehensive tutorial should be able to do just that. I'm pretty sure one is already started on the wiki.

Yes I know that. But it's still an excellent starting point as a lot of stuff is still valid. The concept of double buffering is still useful to explain to people who are for example flipping the display multiple times per frame, something that was brought up in a thread not so long ago.

This is a key point actually. Many tutorials show you to do X, but doesn't really explain X. Teach a man to fish and all that.

Exactly. The only other tutorials I found on the wiki is very Allegro 5 centric, showing in great detail how to do certain stuff, but without explaining the big picture which is what I was thinking of.

Not really necessary to bring up, but everyone is welcome to edit the tutorial of course. But I guess I'll have to do the grunt work. Please correct any mistakes I make at least

No it is more like showing someone how to program without having them actually program. Covering double buffering for a library that does it for them is a waste of time and energy because they won't be doing it themselves with A5 to actually understand and see what is going on.

Nope, it was a tutorial wrote by George Foot that never got finished because he became too busy with life.

Yes, but it doesn't need its own tutorial. That is something that could be covered in a paragraph or two and put at the beginning or end of the intro graphics or animation tutorial.

I suppose he could do like Vivace and just cram it all into one huge tutorial, but he will still have to address them separately in the huge tutorial.

Is this before or after he does the tutorial of how to shoot yourself in the foot?

It doesn't have to be huge really. There are a few important concepts that will help a beginner immensely if only it is explained well enough for them. Cue Matthew saying that this is a mission impossible.

This is a tutorial aimed at beginners. Efficiency and optimization is out of scope and not a fit subject for the target audience.

I have begun dissecting the example framework that will be used throughout the tutorial. I have already covered the importance of checking return values! Progress!

Aside from allegro details, the most important part of this chapter will be explaining the game loop: separation of logic and drawing, keeping a constant speed of logic updates, stuff like that.

If you build it, they will come. Like with my tutorials, I wrote a bunch of simple tutorials, then people eventually came and tweaked and improved them. Give it time

Wouldn't python be easier to learn?

If you don't know anything, probably wouldn't be much difference at that point. If they know C/C++/C#/Java/Perl then it would be easier, though at that point it would remove the beginner part. Problem is, does A5 and Python work together? If not then again it makes the tutorial pointless with A5 and python .

Well some of the best things come from BS.