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Note for OpenGL

The easiest way to use OpenGL is through OpenGL Utility Toolkit (GLUT), which is "a window system independent toolkit for writing OpenGL programs."

Before using OpenGL on Windows, you will need to do what this page explains:
http://www.cs.csustan.edu/%7ersc/SDSU/GLUTinstall.html

Basically, it tells what files you need to put where to let Microsoft Visual C++ detect and use OpenGL libraries. For those who don't want to go there to read it, here is what it says:

With thanks to Kamil Saykali of the EdCenter:

This part will show how to install the glut libraries and dll's (to download it go to http://reality.sgi.com/opengl/glut3/glut3.html ) (Note: this link seemed to be broken at the time I checked. Get the files from here instead: http://www.opengl.org/resources/libraries/glut/glutdlls36.zip)

1. After you have downloaded the glut.zip file (you should get the latest ver 3.7) unzip it into a folder

2. Inside the folder you should have:

glut.dll

glut32.dll

glut.h

glut.lib

glut32.lib

3. Copy both glut.dll and glut32.dll into your windows directory (windows or winnt, depends on if you are using Windows95/98 or Windows NT)

4. Copy your glut.h to:

:\\include\GL\glut.h

*** put the drive where you installed VC++ instead of the ***

*** put the directory where you installed VC++ instead of the

5. Copy your glut.lib and glut32.lib to:

:\\lib\glut.lib

:\\lib\glut32.lib

*** put the drive where you installed VC++ instead of the ***

*** put the directory where you installed VC++ instead of the

6. That should be it for installed the glut libraries. The rest of this letter shows you how to setup VC++ so that you can use the glut libraries.

It also state some other steps but I found them unnecessary and work without performing them.
What you will get after all this are the pre-compiled libraries of OpenGL (GLUT v3.6).

For other operating systems, see the GLUT home page.

The game engine

 A game's engine is the core of the game's code. It provides the programmer with all of the features that he can use in developing the game. These include memory management, file input/output, rendering techniques, among other things.

There are a lot of engines available, some free, some commercial. Some of them simplify development by adding abstraction from code, for example Adventure Game Studio and Game Maker. Some give full power but are more complex to learn, like Open Dynamics Engine and the very popular Unreal Engine.

A custom engine can be designed too with sufficient knowledge of a programming language. Most commonly used are C++ and Python, with Java being the sole language for browser based games.

Components of a game

Since the game is to be played by a person other than the developer, we must make sure that what the player gets is good - no matter how we made it. Henceforth, I found these to be the main things a person looks for in a game to rate it:

• Graphics: of course, the first thing one notices is the objects, environment, etc. of a game
  
• Sounds: a silent game may not be the best one
  
• Control: if the character, vehicle, etc. doesn't go where you want it to or do what you want it to, thats bad
  
• Idea / Objective: this tells what the player has to do, must be something interesting
  
• Gameplay: this decides whether the player will continue playing the game after seeing all the points above or not