A request for advice

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12 comments, last by Ovicior 8 years, 8 months ago

1st Question: Do i use Flash and Javascript for my first creation or go straight for Unity and C# ?
This questions stems from my teacher saying Slash is basicly dead.

Yes, use what you know and focus on learning the new skills required for game development. Ignore your teacher here: you're not going to be writing a widely-distributed AAA game for your first few attempts.

On the other hand, he says he also knows HTML5. While HTML5 isn't fully supported yet, increasingly the industry is trying to support it. While Flash isn't fully dead yet, increasingly the industry is trying to move away from it. And Javascript is here to stay for the foreseeable future.

I fully agree with the "use what you know", but if you already know a little of both, and are wondering what to invest more time in, you might as well invest more in what seems to be coming up rather than in what seems to be dying down. You're right that regardless of what he chooses, it won't be wasted effort, because the language-agnostic skills he'll learn is more valuable than the language-specific knowledge he'd learn.

But I ain't a web developer (just a C++ desktop programmer), so take that with a grain of salt. smile.png

I will try to develop a small game with Unity using the abundance of step by step guides online. If i feel that I'm way over my head i can always scale down or try something else.

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1st Question: Do i use Flash and Javascript for my first creation or go straight for Unity and C# ?
This questions stems from my teacher saying Slash is basicly dead.

Yes, use what you know and focus on learning the new skills required for game development. Ignore your teacher here: you're not going to be writing a widely-distributed AAA game for your first few attempts.

2nd Question: What platform do i aim for ? do i go for the mobile devices such as android or do i go for my initial choice which is pc (and eventually make a game enjoyable enough to upload to kongregate/newgrounds/armorgames to get feedback).

GO for the PC. You have one (9 points), you're most familiar with it so you can focus on learning the new skills required for game development (another 9 points) and most of your friends and family you're going to show off to have one (3 points).

3d Question: Do you have any advice you could give to a greenhorn who has never actually made a game? are my expectations unrealistic? should i focus on the programming languages first instead of trying to do both?

Focus on the game programming first, and don;t set your expectations too high for your first few games. I'm not saying don't set you expectations high, I'm saying make your first goal a small simple game (say, Breakout, Pong, Tetris), then move on

You're going to know it's time to move on to something like C# and Unity when you can no longer do what you want using the tools you know to do the bugger stuff. By then, you'll already have a fundamental understanding of things like the game loop, asset management, and so forth.

First of all ty for the anwsers and suggestions.

My expectations i believe are realistic when it comes to my first few creations however i do think it might be more benificial for me to focus on something that is more up and coming. I can always see if i can import any animations i make in flash into unity.

There are probably multiple ways to do that.

I will definitly go for PC the points you made make absolute sense :)

If i notice that i'm way over my head with Unity despite all the guides then i will scale back and lower my expectations further until i am able to create Something that works no matter how ugly.

Sorry about the vagueness, 2 excuses for that:

1.because i am asking 3 seperate questions which all add up to asking advice.

2.A vague titel might get someone intrested enough to view and respond.

Don't worry about it. Your theory about a vague title getting somebody interested is probably not accurate, but there's nothing really wrong with the thread title or content and the user who chastised you had no business doing so (I've removed the post).

Thanks :)

Trying to get back to your questions, the answer to all of them is basically the same:

Use what you've got, and do anything.

1) Yes, flash has been trending downward for several years. But that doesn't mean it is dead. It isn't dead, and even on present course it likely won't be dead for at least ten years. There is an enormous amount of old stuff on the Internet, and dropping flash means upsetting a lot of people.

HTML5 + JavaScript has been trending up for years. It is still a frustratingly difficult path, and in spite of companies claiming to do all they can to maintain compatibility this software needs to be continuously rewritten. We've got a long list of bugs flagged "Chrome 45" even though it is in beta, and an enormous list of bugs flagged as "Edge". Every browser does its own thing, and there are so many standards that they've each chosen different sets to be compatable with, plus their own custom options besides.

Using existing engines like Unity and Unreal means you're hitting a separate platform that is moderately stable and somewhat under your control, and both of these are going to be around for many years as well.

You don't even need to go with modern tools. You can find old legal copies of systems like Delphi from the late 90s, blow the dust off the box, and use that if you really want to. Use what you've got.

For a beginner, the choice of which one to use is less important that the choice to actually get started. Pick whatever language you want, whatever tool you want, and try building stuff. You are not in a position to build a blockbuster AAA game, but you are in a position to do something fun and creative. The popular game 2048 was a clone made over the weekend done as a learning experiment for the platform. There are many quirky little fun projects that are fun because they aren't trying to be everything.

2) For which platform to use, pick the platform you have. If you've got Android devices don't chose Apple. If you've got an iPhone and iPod don't chose Android. If you spend most of your time on a windows PC don't go for mobile or for Linux or Mac. If you spend your days on linux machines don't bother with Windows. Target yourself first. Use what you've got.

Use what you've got, don't worry about there being a wrong platform. The right platform is whatever you've got.

3) For scoping projects, a good recommendation is to try to do one thing every month. If you don't accomplish it after the month is over, don't fret. Don't keep working on it since that tends to lead to paralysis, just dump it and pick a new project of the month. Repeat with a new "project of the month" every month, and you'll quickly discover what you can do in a month and what is too big. Your first few projects will be too big, and that's okay. Next month, start with a smaller project; you know more than you did before, and the project is more achievable.

By doing a project per month many will be bad, but by the time school is over and you're ready to enter the work force for real, you'll have a great collection of small projects and demos you can show to prospective employers.

So repeating as I started, at this point don't worry about doing things wrong. Tinker, practice, use what you've got, and spend your time just doing anything. You are starting out and exploring, as long as you are moving somewhere there is no wrong direction.

You could try giving your threads titles relevant to the topic. "A request for advice". "A recipe for baked goods". It's all vague. Fix it.

Sorry about the vagueness, 2 excuses for that:

1.because i am asking 3 seperate questions which all add up to asking advice.

2.A vague titel might get someone intrested enough to view and respond.

Again sorry for annoying you :/ i'll make sure to be more accurate next for next topics.

I wasn't annoyed, but it's fine. I'm not exactly a good programmer myself either.

What will you make?

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