Learn How to Program C++ Games with Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Express Edition

Let's face it: the heart and soul of any great video game is the code. Without great code you might have slick 3D models, a great soundtrack, and an interesting story, but you don't have a game. So if you don't know anything at all about programming, how do you get started?

Every programmer on the planet started by learning the basics. Learning how to program is a bit like learning math, only a lot more fun! You start out by learning simple concepts, practice them until you know them by heart, and then move on to more advanced concepts. I can't emphasize enough just how important it is to practice what you learn! Each lesson in this tutorial will provide you with a simple program to type in and experiment with. It is important that you actually take the time to enter and compile the code yourself. If you want to become an ace programmer, you have to treat it like a professional sport and spend as much time as possible practicing what you learn. If you want to become a game programmer, you have to know this stuff in your sleep!

In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a simple C++ application that prints text to the console using Microsoft's free Visual C++ 2010 Express Edition IDE (integrated development environment). If you've never programmed before, don't worry: I'll walk you through each step and explain every detail. (I always hated tutorials that left out important steps, assuming that you knew that the author was talking about, so if you can't figure something out, leave me a comment and I'll try to fix it, asap!)

Ready? Let's get started!

Download and Install Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Express Edition

There are plenty of C++ compilers out there, but there aren't any as good as Microsoft's Visual C++ 2010 Express Edition for programming games. MSVC++ (which is what I'll call it from now on) is a powerful, sophisticated, and complex application; but, best of all, it's free! Although you could literally spend months studying all of MSVC++'s features, I'm just going to show you the features you need to know to successfully compile and run the programs used in this tutorial.

You can download MSVC++ from Microsoft here:

Download

Start Microsoft Visual ++ 2010 Express Edition

Once you've got MSVC++ installed, open it. You can probably find it in the Start menu under All Programs -> Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express -> Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Express. If you installed it somewhere else, you may have to go looking for it. I recommend you create a shortcut for it on your desktop, you'll be using it a lot! Once you've got it started, you'll be greeted by the start screen, which looks like this:

The Start Page has a web browser built right into it that allows you to view various help files at the Microsoft Developers Network (internet access required). I recommend you spend some time reviewing the documentation here alongside my tutorial. In my experience, you will learn more if you study more than one guide. People (myself included) tend to forget details or explain things in unusual ways that can be cleared up with a second reference. Although I'm going to try and make this the best introduction I can, it doesn't hurt to shop around!

Create a New Project

The first thing we need to do is create a new project. If you look at the top of the window, you will see a menu bar with options like File, Edit, View, etc. To create a new project, select File -> New -> Project from the menu. (Alternately, you may just select 'New Project' from the start page, but where's the fun in that?!) You can also open recent projects using the 'Open Project' link or the list of projects under 'Recent Projects'. Microsoft makes it pretty easy to get to work!

Our first project is going to be a Win32 Console application, so select that option from the New Project dialog. Give your project a name where it says 'Name' at the bottom of the dialog window.

Click 'Ok' and you will be greeted with the Win32 Application wizard. Click 'Next' to fill out the application settings.

On the Application Settings screen, the 'Application type' should be set to 'Console application'. Under 'Additional options', click 'Empty project'. Select 'Finish' to complete the wizard.

The wizard will close, and you will see your empty project in MSVC++. The next thing you need to do is add a source file to your project.

Add a New Source Code File

Right-click the Source Files folder under your project name in the Solution Explorer and select Add -> New Item.

In the Add New Item dialog, select 'C++ File (.cpp)' and give your source file a name. Click 'Add' to add it to the project.

Type in the Source Code

In the empty file that appears, type in the following code exactly as it appears. Pay very careful attention to the punctuation and spelling. If you make a mistake, your program will fail to compile!

// Victory is Mine!
// A simple program that prints a message to the console.

#include <iostream>

int main()
{
	std::cout << "Victory is mine!" << std::endl;
	return 0;
}

Your final input should look something like this:

When you're done, save the file by clicking on the Save icon.

What you've just done is create the C++ source code for your program. Although there are a lot of weird symbols in your source code, computers don't understand source code at all. In order to turn your source code into something the computer can understand, you need to compile it.

Compile Your Source Code

To compile your program, press the green arrow icon on the toolbar where it says 'Debug'. Debugging and compiling are closely related procedures, so MSVC++ performs both of them at the same time.

MSVC++ will display a pop-up informing you that your project is out of date and ask you if you want to build it. Say 'Yes'.

When the compiler is done compiling your code, it will inform you of any errors or warnings in the Output window at the bottom of the screen. You will probably get warnings about PDBs (program database files) like I did which you can see in the screenshot below. These particular warnings are harmless, but I'll show you how to correct them after we see our program in action.

Create a Batch File and Run the Program

If you were paying careful attention to MSVC++ while it was debugging, you might have noticed the console window flash onto the screen and just as quickly disappear. That is the output of our program, but because Windows automatically closes console applications as soon as they are finished, we didn't have time to enjoy it.

To get around this problem, we're going to create a batch file. A batch file is essentially just a text file that we use to give the Windows operating system simple instructions. In this case, we're going to tell Windows to run our application, and leave the console window open until we hit enter. To create the batch file, navigate to the folder where your program files are kept. In my case, that's Users\Dave\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\VictoryIsMine\Debug\. Right-click in Windows Explorer to pull up the context menu and select New -> Text Document.

Rename the file to something memorable and give it a .bat extension. I called mine VictoryIsMine.bat.

If you get a warning about the perils of changing file name extensions that looks like this:

just click 'Yes'. Windows knows how to handle batch files. Now, right-click your new file and select Edit.

This should open Notepad. (If you selected a different program to open the file, make sure it is a plain text editor, not a word processor. Word processors embed hidden formatting instructions in files which will prevent Windows from understanding the batch file.) Type the following into your batch file:

VictoryIsMine.exe
pause

It should look like this:

Save your changes and close the file.

Now, when you double-click on the batch file, Windows runs your application and keeps the console open long enough for you to enjoy the fruits of your work. Ah, sweet victory!

Other Ways to See Your Program Output

If you've read other C++ tutorials, you may be aware that there are a number of other ways to see the output of your program that do not require you to create a batch file. I showed you the batch file method first because it is more convenient than navigating to your directory through the console, and less 'kludgey' than using a system() or cin.get() command. It is also a useful technique to know. Now that I've spilled the beans on these methods, though, you're probably interested in hearing about them.

Navigating To Your Program's Directory Using DOS Commands

Probably the most inconvenient method, but a very useful method to know, is to navigate to the directory containing your program's executable via the console. To do this, you need to know two things: where your program's executable (.exe) is located, and a couple of simple DOS commands. The executable for the VictoryIsMine program is located on my system here: Users\Dave\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\VictoryIsMine\Debug\. (Your path may be different if you've chosen to create your projects in a different folder.)

In order to navigate to this directory, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Start menu (the little Windows icon in the bottom left corner of your desktop) and select All Programs -> Accessories -> Command Prompt. The command prompt/console should open.
2. At the command prompt in the console (C:\Users\Your Name>, only with your own name, obviously), type the dir DOS command. dir stands for directory and shows you the contents of the current directory.
3. In this directory, you should see a directory (folder) called 'Documents'. To change to this directory, type cd Documents at the command prompt. cd stands for "change directory".
4. This will open the directory, and the command prompt will show the new, expanded location as C:\Users\Your Name\Documents. If you type dir again, you will see a list of the contents of your Documents folder.
5. Find the folder called Visual Studio 2010 and type cd Visual Studio 2010 at the command prompt.
6. Type dir again and you will see a folder called Projects. Type cd Projects to open this folder.
7. The VictoryIsMine project should be in this folder. Open this folder with cd VictoryIsMine.
8. Inside, you will find the Debug folder. cd Debug to find the VictoryIsMine.exe. This is the executable.
9. To run the executable, just type the name of the program: VictoryIsMine at the command prompt. Voila!

As you can see, the output immediately follows the last command. In this case, the console doesn't close because you are inside the directory. This is what you would have seen if you'd gone through the whole process on an old computer using the command line interface to compile and link your code. Congratulations, you've just learned how to rock DOS, old school. :) (Please don't think you won't need to know this stuff. A lot of useful tools still rely on the command line. In fact, some of the tools you design or use at work may still use this kind of interface. Knowing how to get around in a console window will save you a lot of time later on.)

Using the System() Command

One way to get the same effect from within the program itself is to have the program tell the operating system to pause for you. You do this by using the system() command to talk to the operating system and passing the "pause" command to the command line interpreter. This is essentially the same thing as writing a batch file, but without the file. Make the following change to your program, save it, and recompile by pressing the green arrow beside 'Debug'. You will notice that this time the output remains on the screen without you having to create a batch file or navigate to the proper directory.

// Victory is Mine!
// A simple program that prints a message to the console.

#include <iostream>

int main()
{
	std::cout << "Victory is mine!" << std::endl;
	system( "pause" );
	return 0;
}

Using the cin.get() Command

The other way to do this is to use the get() method belonging to the cin object from the standard library. The get() method essentially waits for the user to enter something at the keyboard, 'pausing' the program until you hit Enter. Because there are no other lines of code after this command, the program ends as soon as you press a key. To use this method, make the following changes to your program, save and recompile. The result is almost identical to the previous method, but without the friendly prompt.

// Victory is Mine!
// A simple program that prints a message to the console.

#include <iostream>

int main()
{
	std::cout << "Victory is mine!" << std::endl;
	std::cin.get();
	return 0;
}

So what technique should you use? Well, for simple little programs like this, it really doesn't matter. These are all useful techniques to know. Later, when you're programs become large and sophisticated, a better solution will present itself.

Activating the Microsoft Symbol Servers

Now, we're going to go back and correct the warnings we received earlier about the missing symbols. Although these particular warnings will not affect our program or prevent if from compiling, it is always a good idea to resolve all of your warnings. To do this, go to Debug -> Options and Settings.

Expand the Debugging heading and select Symbols. In the box on the right, check Microsoft Symbol Servers and where it says 'Automatically load symbols for:' select All modules and click 'Ok'.

If you recompile your program, you'll notice that the warnings about missing symbols have been replaced with 'Symbols loaded (source information stripped)'. This message is for information only and completely harmless, so you can ignore it.

In the next lesson we'll dissect a simple program and show you how each part of it works.

Questions

These questions are for the keeners who read all the note boxes. If you skipped them, you can skip these questions. To see the answers to these questions, triple-click or drag your mouse over the blank area below the text.

1. Why should you choose C++ to program games?
   • C++ is the language of choice for professional game developers because it is fast and efficient and it supports object-oriented programming, which is essential for good game design.
2. What is the difference between an interpreter and a compiler?
   • An interpreter translates source code while the program is running. A compiler translates source code once, before running the application.
3. What is the console?
   • The console is a DOS-based, command-line interface to an operating system. The Windows console is also called the command prompt.
4. What are three types of errors you might encounter writing a program?
   • Syntax errors during compilation. Linker errors during the link phase. Run-time errors while running your application.
5. What is the difference between a plain text editor and a word processor?
   • A plain text editor only allows you to enter characters from the keyboard without any fancy formatting. A word processor allows you to format your text to change the size, color, etc.
6. What are two ways to see the output of your program?
   • There are four discussed in this lesson: creating a batch file, navigating to your directory using DOS commands, using the system() function, and using the cin.get() method.

Exercises

1. Try each of the four methods of viewing your program output. (Using a batch file, navigating to your directory using DOS commands, using the system() function, using the cin.get() method.)

• Next: The Parts of a C++ Program
• Top: Game Development and Design Portal

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Last updated October 31, 2011

© 2009-2011 Dave Finch

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Recommended for Beginners

Dawson does a great job explaining the basics and funifies it a bit with game-related exercises. You won't learn how to make real games, but it's a good intro to C++.