Game programming - total newbie

Bengaboy

Bengaboy

Bengaboy

Soldato
Joined
1 Sep 2007
Posts
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Hi guys!

Ive always wanted to venture in the world of game programming - never done it before so would need something very small to start with, are there any good guides or free programs out there?

Also, never done programming before - is gaming really a good place to start?

Is it extremely difficult?

Cheers!
 
a good place to look is gamedev.net you'll most likely end up programming in c# or c++ best to go look at a book shop find a book there or something
 
I would get some programming knowledge under your belt before you go and specialise in game development.

C# is a good place to start as it is fairly easy to pick up once you get your head around some basic concepts. O'Reilly do a pretty good C# book. It will be around £20 to £30. However, if you are serious about learning it is definitely worth it. You can also find some tutorials on the web, to see if it is really what you want before you shell out any money.
 
If you want to program games seriously then it's more than likely you'll be using c++. Many people recommend starting with other languages such as Java, or PHP, because there are some aspects of c and c++ which are more tricky to understand. That said, I'd recommend you have a go at c++, it'll teach you good techniques and to look for things you can just ignore in the other languages, and should make you a stronger programmer, plus, if you can code c++, you can code just about any other oo language.
 
No, C# is different.

Loosely speaking Java is based on C++, and C# on Java [If you know C# or Java you pretty much know the other - they are very similar].

You can teach yourself any programming language yourself. The trick is to find a good place for tutorials and you have to practice.
 
Bengaboy said:
Also,C++ is called c sharp isnt it?
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No; they're very different. C# is the newer (and more easily learned) of the two languages.

As a couple have said already, I'd advise against diving straight into game programming before you've even learned the basics of programming.
 
I think games programming is a very good way to learn to program. You are doing something interesting from the start and it hits pretty much every important area of programming.

But... you're not going to be doing doing 3d FPSs from the word go! Start by writing text adventures or simple 2d games. You'll be doing well if you can produce anything that's actually fun for a while - don't worry about it.

I recommend starting with BlitzBasic.
 
Bengaboy said:
...

Do ya think it will be possible for me to learn this on me own teaching meself?

...
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yes, but it might not be easy. depends how clever you are, how much time you've got to play with it etc. you will definitely learn faster with access to help, ie these and other forums.

i would not recommend books. they tend to be expensive, and most aren't very helpfull to beginners. the ones that are good for beginners, soon become useless as you progress.
far cheaper to learn from web resources and buy decent reference books once you've got the basics down.

gamedev is a great place for starters.

i'd also disagree with prior posting, i think games programming is as good a place to start as any. might even be better than many other start points as it has potential to keep you sticking with it longer. there is a steep learning curve to climb, and to some extent, you just have to grind through it. once you're there though, you can pretty much program anything.
 
MrWhippy said:
yes, but it might not be easy. depends how clever you are, how much time you've got to play with it etc. you will definitely learn faster with access to help, ie these and other forums.

i would not recommend books. they tend to be expensive, and most aren't very helpfull to beginners. the ones that are good for beginners, soon become useless as you progress.
far cheaper to learn from web resources and buy decent reference books once you've got the basics down.

gamedev is a great place for starters.

i'd also disagree with prior posting, i think games programming is as good a place to start as any. might even be better than many other start points as it has potential to keep you sticking with it longer. there is a steep learning curve to climb, and to some extent, you just have to grind through it. once you're there though, you can pretty much program anything.
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I think the reason I think people shouldn't just want to start programming with games is that in order to learn to program, you need to be actively interested in it in its own right, not just as a means to an end (i.e. creating a game). When people set off with the intention of creating a game, they often end up just giving up out of frustration when they realise that it's not quite as easy as they expected it to be.

I'd also disagree with your point about books; in order to learn a powerful programming language like C++ you need something comprehensive in the material it covers. Usually this involves books, especially in the case of newer languages like C#.
 
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Inquisitor said:
I think the reason I think people shouldn't just want to start programming with games is that in order to learn to program, you need to be actively interested in it in its own right, not just as a means to an end
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i disagree, i know plenty of researchers, mathematicians and physicists who couldn't care a hoot about programming in its own right. they absolutely see it as a means to an end (crunching numbers to analyze data) and they all learned to program solely with the end in mind. to some people, the end is more interesting than the means. much as that pains those of us who love the art...

Inquisitor said:
When people set off with the intention of creating a game, they often end up just giving up out of frustration when they realise that it's not quite as easy as they expected it to be.
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fair comment, but then i wasn't saying it would be easy. anyone who is likely to give up on learning to program, because it isn't easy, will give up whether they are writing games or following a learn to program in 21 days type course.

anyone with commitment will do it anyhow.

i'm just saying maybe for those borderline people who aren't early quiters, maybe the lure of building something to play with (rather than some god awful c++ simulation of towers of hanoi, or recursive 8 queens solver) might be enough to spur them on.

Inquisitor said:
I'd also disagree with your point about books; in order to learn a powerful programming language like C++ you need something comprehensive in the material it covers. Usually this involves books, especially in the case of newer languages like C#.
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in my experience there's 2 types of programming books. beginners guides, and tech references. very, very few books cover both categories well. books in both categories tend to be expensive.

beginners guides can be brilliant at getting a novice up to a basic level of competence.
but: -
a) there are 10 rubbish beginners guides for every gem at least.
b) a novice wont know the good from the bad, and will often buy based on page count, i've seen it happen.
c) beginners guides are just not useful as references once a certain level of competence has been reached.
d) there are countless web sites with tutorials and explanations that match and/or exceed the quality of good beginners guides. this info is free.

i'm a big believer in a few well chosen reference books, but they are not usually a good first start point for the absolute novice. give a noob a copy of K&R or stroustrup, and i bet s/he quits the language way before they would have gotten bored under there own steam.


anyway, it's horses for courses really, you've got to write programs to do something, and the OP seems to have an interest in games. and as long as he starts with something not too large and not too complex (like pong / tetris/ hangman / naughts and crosses etc) and progresses piecemeal, he's got as good a chance as any of us.

or he could just go to uni, and have it drilled into him. that also works for some of us :)
 
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MrWhippy said:
i disagree, i know plenty of researchers, mathematicians and physicists who couldn't care a hoot about programming in its own right. they absolutely see it as a means to an end (crunching numbers to analyze data) and they all learned to program solely with the end in mind. to some people, the end is more interesting than the means. much as that pains those of us who love the art...
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That's an entirely different environment, though. Professionals and academics usually have a completely different mindset to the (perhaps semi-) interested amateur.

MrWhippy said:
i'm just saying maybe for those borderline people who aren't early quiters, maybe the lure of building something to play with (rather than some god awful c++ simulation of towers of hanoi, or recursive 8 queens solver) might be enough to spur them on.
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I certainly agree that whatever you write has to be both interesting and challenging, but it should be viewed as an opportunity to learn the language first and foremost. For example, when I was learning C#, I wrote several mathematically oriented programs both to learn the language and to see how they worked: I learned a lot from all of them and they were very interesting to write :)

MrWhippy said:
in my experience there's 2 types of programming books. beginners guides, and tech references. very, very few books cover both categories well. books in both categories tend to be expensive.

beginners guides can be brilliant at getting a novice up to a basic level of competence.
but: -
a) there are 10 rubbish beginners guides for every gem at least.
b) a novice wont know the good from the bad, and will often buy based on page count, i've seen it happen.
c) beginners guides are just not useful as references once a certain level of competence has been reached.
d) there are countless web sites with tutorials and explanations that match and/or exceed the quality of good beginners guides. this info is free.
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I agree with you there: if you're going to buy a beginners' guide you need to buy a good one. They are also expensive, but you can often find them on the internet if you look around.

You're also right that for mature languages like C and C++ there are many online guides available for beginners to learn from, but this isn't always the case with younger languages (like C#). Of course if you can find a good one on the internet, then by all means use it :)
 
from using torrents i have acumulated over 500 books on programming a lot of which are the core books on computer science degrees.

Ebooks are no where near as good as owning the actual book so i would view them and then buy the better ones that suit you
 
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