QBasic was my first programming language as well... It''s sad that nothing like it comes with computers anymore. I doubt I would of started programming if it didn''t come with DOS(I was 8ish).

QBasic was also my first real language, though I only stuck with it a year before moving onto C. I started C really young, when C++ became fairly mature, I began learning OOP. Somewhere in the middle i learned x86 assembler (remember denthor anyone?), inlined 3/4 of my functions. Did ALOT of demos, I eventualy did a complete 2d tile based map editor, displayer, w/ animation, simple tile based collision, sprites, i think I was like 13 and using an older WIP of allegro.

How many people started with GWBasic?... now, thats the good stuff
It was me and my 286. Those were the days when I thought I was a rebel by using a spacing of 1 between line numbers instead of 10. I learned the hard way!!!

1 PRINT "I AM A DUMBASS"
2 PRINT "NOW YOU SEE WHY"

start small.
small things let you focus and give terribly large rewards. also don''t let the scope of modern games blow you down; having a game with an animated 3d character is *extremely difficult* - impossible without prior experience to support yourself.

to get to know animation and modelling download the Maya Personal Learning Edition (free) and drop 15 dollars on a book of beginner''s tutorials in Maya. SO rewarding. show off to your friends

if you have not learned any programming take any class your school offers, if none is available take one at a community college. programming is not a thing you can just jump into. write silly little text based games for fun. show off to your friends

once you know a little c++ head over to nehe.gamedev.net and try some graphics tutorials. get them working and throw a few modifiers and flair in to personalize it. SO rewarding. show off to your friends

put it all together in SMALL fun games. no RPGS. no networked FPS. things you can see changes on after every hour of work

sharing your stuff is great inspiration and if you''re lucky someone might get excited to do likewise and you can egg each other on and help each other out

Motivational story: I did those things (didn''t get started till college though, WISH i''d been like you), made a little game on my own, landed an unpaid internship, got a job through that, now I''m working on DoomIII. yay!

quote:Original post by BrassMonkee7381
being at my age it is very hard to find information that is clear and that you don''t need to have graduated high school to understand. i know with all my heart this is want i want to do, but after looking at programming magazines and only understanding enough of the code to make me even more depressed it is hard to go on. seeing wonderful gazillion polygon models and then coming home to see my 300 polygon piece of crap is more than i can bear. YOU WOULD THINK THERE WOULD BE ONE GOOD TUTORIAL THAT WOULD EXPLAIN HOW TO ANIMATE A FRICKIN'' MS3D MODEL!! so, if you have any, please post an experience in programming where things turned out all right to give me the slightest sense of hope and will to keep going on.

Once upon a time, in an age many moons ago, there was the Atari and Commodore 64 computers. And lo, they came with basic, and lo, many dweeby teenagers hackethed away at the gosubs and gotos and created worlds within worlds, worlds only inside the machine. Perhaps the graphics weren''t that great, but there was nothing else, so they would do. Pehaps the sound wasn''t 24-bit hi-fi, but it was pleasent. What mattered more was that the games were new, the ideas were fresh, what the limited machines could not do was made up for with the imagination of the player.

Anyways kiddo, don''t give up, because most of the people who are programming started somewhere, and they did not start out as the master. There is just too much information involved in programming computers now for anyone to just be an uber god without years of discipline and hacking at the code. Keep at it, but keep your focus clear, prove yourself one step at a time and push yourself to do more and more but slowly. Nobody will probably think your spinny cubes and things are amazing but it''s one step toward creating a master piece. I know I was thrilled the first time I saw my spinny cubes, because I had hacked it in x86 assembler code :-) But the ante has been raised alot now, I kind of feel sorry for you youngins because the bar has been raised soo high. It requires alot more discipline and determination to make it now than it did in the golden age.

Peace

Happy story:
I had no idea how to make 3d models. One beautiful day, i all of a sudden started to try to make my models. And it WORKED!! Although i spent days staring at all the possible models i could get, found many misshaps, and many priorities. And it was basically well... call it a month, and i started making lowpoly models ranging from 700 to 2000. I try my best to make my models as lowpoly as possible, but still with quiality. I have a good advice from one of my early team leaders... i was an immature level designer using a crappy engine... 3d Game Studio (A5). No matter what u think, its crap, and never use it. Anyways, where was i? oh ya, the advice was: "Never do anything, that textures can do for you" Means, dont make a belt for the NPC, when u can texture a belt, which would cut u... enough lets say.

Sad Story:
I forgot it while i was typing the happy story...

Oi, it''s a nostalgia thread. Let''s see. I made silly little things moving on the screen of my C64 and my friend''s MSX when I was 10-11, with basic. Even one actually playable game on C64, a version of "hangman" with ASCII graphics. Now, mere 16 years and many adventures later I''m working as an artist at a really cool game company and (if I weren''t in crunch mode I would) code indie games and experiment with 3d engines in my spare time