I managed to make a few media files appear in Ioquake, but I had to stop when I tried coding. I was mostly searching .c files for something simple to change and I made the bots chat when they entered the arena.
From previous experience if I've tried making a full mod all at once I fail. One thing that might help is to reduce the needs and focus on one small map. If I had a decent looking and bot friendly map it would help me get a step up.
When I was fortunate to learn in college, I was shown the correct information for my level which meant I finished the work. This time around I don't have a teacher.
When I questioned AI about why SDL2 was easier to code for, it said Quake 3 was already written. It's good code that works very well, but only if you're familiar with the design. My SDL games started with a blank file. Bigger games (Q3) need a different way of thinking.
My experience with Q3 (about 2 weeks)
Re: My experience with Q3 (about 2 weeks)
I know I'm going to run into trouble and ask too many questions for my liking if I keep using Quake 3. The fun part of game creation for me was downloading something and using the help that came with it, on my own. I could use SDL2 and Godot much more easily with the examples they had and I nearly finished these games off. Again my experience wasn't as good I'd like and I never completed them 100% (full game, menus, UX, quit).
It's a shame because Ioquake and all the tools seemed promising.
It's a shame because Ioquake and all the tools seemed promising.
Re: My experience with Q3 (about 2 weeks)
If you want to create your own game, Quake 3 is a pretty poor place to start for various reasons. First of all, the game is over 25 years old. You won't find much active help because most of the community has moved on. Compare that to engines like Unity, Godot or RPGMaker, which are all still fully supported, maintained and updated so there's still an active community and much more documentation.
Also, while the Quake 3 engine was used to build other games, it's not really as facilitating towards such a project as current day engines are. So if you want to play around with Quake 3's source code for the sake of exploring the source code and finding out how certain things were done, then go ahead and try and build some (simple) mods. But if you're looking for a platform to use as a way to express your creativity, throw Quake 3 in the bin and look for something else.
If you're just looking into modding Quake 3 then that's a thing that you can of course do. But be aware that few people still play the game and your mod won't be played much. Considering Quake 3 is primarily a multiplayer experience, it will be hard to actually getting to enjoy playing your mod yourself. Unless you can satisfy yourself with bots. Even my own mod, EntityPlus, which is a single player conversion of Quake 3 never really took off.
Anyway, do what you want to do but I would advise you to first consider what your actual goal is.
Also, while the Quake 3 engine was used to build other games, it's not really as facilitating towards such a project as current day engines are. So if you want to play around with Quake 3's source code for the sake of exploring the source code and finding out how certain things were done, then go ahead and try and build some (simple) mods. But if you're looking for a platform to use as a way to express your creativity, throw Quake 3 in the bin and look for something else.
If you're just looking into modding Quake 3 then that's a thing that you can of course do. But be aware that few people still play the game and your mod won't be played much. Considering Quake 3 is primarily a multiplayer experience, it will be hard to actually getting to enjoy playing your mod yourself. Unless you can satisfy yourself with bots. Even my own mod, EntityPlus, which is a single player conversion of Quake 3 never really took off.
Anyway, do what you want to do but I would advise you to first consider what your actual goal is.