3 replies to this topic

[raines883]

Hello all, first post but have been a long time watcher. Thought I would start being more proactive in the gameDev world. I wanted start start off by saying I'm a college student getting a B.S. in Computer Science, haven't decided which route I'm going to take but either way wanted to give game development a try. So what I'm looking for is a sort of list that grows progressively harder for intro game developers as myself. I heard most people should start with console applications, sorta like how we learn in school, either way I want something I can upload to my website to share. I was planning on learning actionscript since I know c++ pretty well but people say it's mostly limited to 2d and Flash. Eventually I don't want to be limited to just that as I would like to venture into the 3d world. So if anyone has some ideas on a list that gets harder as I learn more I will take anything you got ;-)

Thanks in advance

[KnolanCross]

If you know CPP really well, most other languages won't be really hard to learn, so that shouldn't be a problem.
If you already know how to code, I would tell you to go learn some basic engine and try coding some easy examples
Tic-tac-toe is an easy one.
Snake is a good one (you will need to code the movemnt plus map the snake and the limits, this should be a nice challenge).
Pong should be easy too (plus will give you some knowledge on very basic physics, that you will need).
A memory cards game (here add some mouse/sound/images) would be an easy one to learn as well.

After that you should move to some 3D, a simple exploring example is probably enough to give you a good idea of how scenario, collision, lights and so on works).

As for engines, that will depend a lot on you objectives, since I am a hobbiest, I mostly stick with the open source free sdks:
- Pygame (python, 2d)
- Panda3D (python/cpp 3d)
- orx (portable, 2d C)

I heard those are cool too:
- cocos2d (javascript - I believe - mostly IOS)
- play-n (portable, java)

If you are planning to go indy, I believe the vast majority of people use Unity3d.

Well, my 2c, hope it help you.

Edited by KnolanCross, 16 November 2012 - 03:59 PM.

[Shippou]

You want to develop online games?
I am having a bit of a hard time understanding what you are wanting to do with game development - but if you want a progressively hard "to-do" list for development of online type games ...

1: Create a simple text adventure game.
2: Add in combat system of some kind.
3: Create a multi user system.
4: Translate your game to PHP, and upload it to a free PHP hosting site so that others can play your Alpha version
5:Tweek the dynamics of the game, making it more complex.
6: Add simple graphics, and a 2D map.
7: Continue to tweek the game mechanics.
8: Translate the game to HTML5.
9: Continue to improve the game mechanics.
10: Develop a client - server package in your language of choice.
11: Translate your game to the language of your choice ( Beta version )
12: Continue to tweek the mechanics of the game.
13: Once everything is as polished as possible, drop the beta and release the game to the general public

[Goran Milovanovic]

A memory cards game (here add some mouse/sound/images) would be an easy one to learn as well.

I actually have a video tutorial series where I build that exact game, from beginning to end: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDFB7FFF90EE6F0C1

@Shippou

I don't think it's a good idea to try and learn everything on a single game: assuming that you ever reach the "end", you only have one project to show for your entire history.

I would recommend learning new techniques/concepts by developing new games.