Thread: Where to begin...?

  1. #1
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    Where to begin...?

    Hey everyone. I have been interested in game development for a VERY long time, since like 5. I want to be a game developer but I dont have the slightest clue as to where I should begin to long road to mastering game development.

    Can anyone help point me in the right direction? What do I do first? Where do I go? College?

  2. #2
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    www.cprogramming.com will teach you about C++
    www.gamedev.net is a nice site

    IMO I'd start at your nearest bookstore...look through the programming section and learn a language.

    C/C++ are common for gaming
    Python has snuck in there too
    Java (depending upon where you want to go)

    People will say don't start with C++ because it's difficult, but that is where I started and I think that would be your best bet

    Hope that helps.

  3. #3
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    This does help, thank you. ^^

  4. #4
    Its hard... But im here swgh's Avatar
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    Can I just add somthing to the convasation, I have been learning C++ for a year now and I am pretty good at it, although not great.. I would suggest first you get a good and user freindly compiler IDE, go with DevC++ as it is free, and very simple to use...

    Second, when you know a little of C++, you could start off with a simple Text Adventure Game... That is where I started and it taught me the barebones of how a game is designed and even a very simple text adventure game would require a great deal of thought and logic.

    One of the hardest things to learn is getting the program to behave correctly, which would mean running and compiling and editing it loads of times untill it runs and operates to what you require.

    Doing a text adventure will learn you the following aspects, and they are ALL used in every published game out there:

    Varibles -- Characters -- strings -- functions (important) classes (very important) vectors and algorithms.

    There are more, but using these and with a little work and patience, you can make a quite enjoyable text game. The one I am working on at the moment using DevC++ has over 3000 lines of code to date, but start small and aim high, in programing the only limit is yourself, and if you get stuck or it will not run (ie: error you dont understand) post on the boards! Evreyone here will help you out as best they can. One more thing:: Learn C++ as a must, and as he said ealier, Java is another option, although C++ is used more these days, I hope this helps

  5. #5
    The Right Honourable psychopath's Avatar
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    Just to add somthing else; You don't even need to start with programming. Before I got into programming, I was modding games. Then, I got into making 2D games with gamemaker (www.gamemaker.nl is the URL I believe). This has its own scripting language, which feels alot like C. IMO, If I hadn't of used that, learning C++ would have been 2x as hard. Then, you can eventually dive into learning an API such as OpenGL or Direct3D.

    -psychopath
    M.Eng Computer Engineering Candidate
    B.Sc Computer Science

    Robotics and graphics enthusiast.

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