C#/XNA or Python/Pygame for Game Development (2D Side-Scrolling like Terraria)?

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42 comments, last by birko19 11 years, 10 months ago
It's been almost 2 weeks, so idk you've changed your mind about Python, or already advanced far, but this website might be of some help:
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~eberlein/cs303e/cs303e.html

This is an old non-majors Introduction To Programming website at UT Austin. It was taught in Python, I actually took this class and enjoyed it, which was one reason I decided to switch to Computer Science. smile.png

The website has some really good lecture notes (Under Schedule) for anyone who's never programmed before, and thus shouldn't be too complicated. You can also try some of the labs that were actual assignments given out (Under Assignments), which might challenge you a little bit. There's also some basic logic puzzles under Schedule.

It might be kind of redundant to say now, but I think Python's a great first language to start with. It's much easier to focus on the concepts because Python has such a simple, short syntax. Comparatively, as you probably saw looking at C#, there's a lot more overhead involved even to write something as simple as "Hello World". IDLE, which is usually bundled with Python, is also really great to try out snippets of code and really get to understand them by messing around. Try it out!

The last assignment on that webpage is a little intro to basic graphics programming in Python, which might be good to check out and get your feet wet before you look at something more complex like Pygame.
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I think your main focus for now should be learning how to program and solve problems before you can try to tackle game development. Looking at your first post, it seems like you never really commited to learning how to program fully.

If I may suggest, C is an excellent language to start with because it's a straight forward structured language. Other languages like C++ or Java are object oriented and in my opinion this is a bit more of an advanced topic. You should focus more on variables, arrays, condition statements, loops, functions, etc. Don't move forward until you're comfortable with these programming concepts.

I think your main focus for now should be learning how to program and solve problems before you can try to tackle game development. Looking at your first post, it seems like you never really commited to learning how to program fully.

If I may suggest, C is an excellent language to start with because it's a straight forward structured language. Other languages like C++ or Java are object oriented and in my opinion this is a bit more of an advanced topic. You should focus more on variables, arrays, condition statements, loops, functions, etc. Don't move forward until you're comfortable with these programming concepts.


Do not start with C.

If anything, start with C++ and ignore the OO bits. C today is a domain specific language, and frankly the C bits of C++, are often the parts you want to stay the hell away from! Also, the C side of C/c++ refers to a language from 1983... things have changed since 1983.

[quote name='birko19' timestamp='1340312707' post='4951497']
I think your main focus for now should be learning how to program and solve problems before you can try to tackle game development. Looking at your first post, it seems like you never really commited to learning how to program fully.

If I may suggest, C is an excellent language to start with because it's a straight forward structured language. Other languages like C++ or Java are object oriented and in my opinion this is a bit more of an advanced topic. You should focus more on variables, arrays, condition statements, loops, functions, etc. Don't move forward until you're comfortable with these programming concepts.


Do not start with C.

If anything, start with C++ and ignore the OO bits. C today is a domain specific language, and frankly the C bits of C++, are often the parts you want to stay the hell away from! Also, the C side of C/c++ refers to a language from 1983... things have changed since 1983.
[/quote]

If you do C++ and ignore the OO bits, you're almost doing C anyways. Mind you, the focus should be on learning the main programming concepts, not a language war.

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