Took an intro to programming class in C++ senior year in high school(*). I DLed a compiler and made little console apps for a hobby. I eventually made a tic tac toe game.
Then I took a real C/C++ course in college and then started working with SDL. I ported my Tic Tac Toe to SDL, the made a online poker game (which sucked). The I made a tetris clone. I started playing with OpenGL on my 4MB integrated intel GPU. When I found out my GPU wouldn't even let me retrieve texture pixels I was stuck. So I made the tutorials in my sig.
Now I'm playing with OpenGL again (on a computer that doesn't suck balls). I plan on making a online, multithreaded connect four game after I done playing with nehe's tutorials.
*Which thoroughly debunks the notion that C++ is a bad beginner language.
how you got started
I started in QBASIC when I was 9, and I didn't really make much of anything meaningful (lots of projects that I lost the motivation to work on - I was sort of like the classic MMORPG newbie, except with just about every project I attempted) until I started C++, when I was 11 or 12-ish. Still, I still haven't been able to complete much of anything, though I have learned a lot.
Now I'm 16, and I'm writing my own scratch-built operating system, and it can already run it's first program. [grin] I think I may be getting somewhere...
Now I'm 16, and I'm writing my own scratch-built operating system, and it can already run it's first program. [grin] I think I may be getting somewhere...
I started with html when I was 12 (4 years ago), then I tried c++. I couldnt pick it up so I moved back to html and started with php and mysql. After afew months of php I was able to break into c++ fairly easily. Now Im toying with APIs like GDI, opengl, sdl, directx, and allegro to make simple arcade clones. So far Ive completed pong and tetris. Im thinking about doing pac-man next but im too lazy to start at the moment. Also Im looking into learning c#.
My dad dabbled a bit with basic when I was a kid. He wrote a nibbles-clone and I was impressed. So impressed that all I wanted after that was to create my own games. So that's how I got sucked into it all.
I started to learn basic and wrote a few programs (not only games). The amiga era came along and I got my mittens on AMOS basic. I spent days and nights infront of the Amiga writing games in AMOS. I was in love... Then the day came when the Amiga died out here, and I was sad. Not only where I forced to give up my beloved machine, but also give up AMOS. Heavy with grief, I moved on and got a PC. Now I discovered Visual Basic and I started to fall in love again. I was hooked on VB for quite sometime, and then the internet came along and we got our first modem and connection at home. I was amazed with it and started working on my own webpages and played MUDs. Well, a few years went by and I learned alot programming VB and HTML. About 3 years ago, I started to learn C++. And now I live and breathe C++. It's much easier to learn a new language if you already know a few other languages.
Well, my little story...
I started to learn basic and wrote a few programs (not only games). The amiga era came along and I got my mittens on AMOS basic. I spent days and nights infront of the Amiga writing games in AMOS. I was in love... Then the day came when the Amiga died out here, and I was sad. Not only where I forced to give up my beloved machine, but also give up AMOS. Heavy with grief, I moved on and got a PC. Now I discovered Visual Basic and I started to fall in love again. I was hooked on VB for quite sometime, and then the internet came along and we got our first modem and connection at home. I was amazed with it and started working on my own webpages and played MUDs. Well, a few years went by and I learned alot programming VB and HTML. About 3 years ago, I started to learn C++. And now I live and breathe C++. It's much easier to learn a new language if you already know a few other languages.
Well, my little story...
Started with my brain. My dad had a ZX Spectrum for a while, and one day brought home two programming books. That week the ZX Spectrum died.
For fun I read the books. I was probably arround 11 at the time. I read them twice each, and learned the language, data structures, program logic, why and how things work.
At the time we where very poor, and to save some money I was in charge of, after school, going to a nearby farm and picking up 2 liters of milk. It was an 1-hour roundtrip by foot, and I had a lot of fun writing code in my head, and designing and structuring it. I was amazing... I can't do it as easily nowadays, it's geting harder for me to see code in my head as a landscape. I might have been gifted as a child, or perhaps like Einstein, I just trained hard the right parts of my brain.
Moving on, a few years later we got an IBM PS/1, a 286 machine. I played Prince of Persia and coded under GWBasic and later on on QBasic. I had fun geting input from the mouse, drawing stuff, and recording it to a file.
Later, we got a 486 machine, and I played Doom 2, and coded under Pascal. It enabled me to start learning things like multi-tasking, protected mode programming, the linearity of the graphics buffer pool, how to do graphical effects like scrollers, basic 3D using quick perspective-corrected texture mapping, etc...
I just shudder thiking I actually coded half an OS with built-in protected mode (allowed the programs to access upper memory) and multi-threading. God, the amount of hours debuging that thing...
I started working and bought myself a pretty cool Pentium 2 at 450Mhz. Here I moved off into C++ using Ivor Horton's big red book, and Win32 programming using LaMothe's book, with a bit of OpenGL mixed in there.
I also started dabling deeper into AI, and self-designing neural-structures, mimicking living nervous tissues. I also met one of the world's top fuzzy logic scientists and got involved in some pretty cool projects.
Nowadays I have a dual core AMD 4800+, I work in my spare time on my 3D engine, develop my (pretty much) unique aproach to AI, and push forward my project for a company that will specialize in Corporate Efficiency using browser-based tools.
Looking back I see that I couldnt have taken a step without taking all the previous ones that had gotten me there... pace yourself and be pacient, the rest comes naturaly.
For fun I read the books. I was probably arround 11 at the time. I read them twice each, and learned the language, data structures, program logic, why and how things work.
At the time we where very poor, and to save some money I was in charge of, after school, going to a nearby farm and picking up 2 liters of milk. It was an 1-hour roundtrip by foot, and I had a lot of fun writing code in my head, and designing and structuring it. I was amazing... I can't do it as easily nowadays, it's geting harder for me to see code in my head as a landscape. I might have been gifted as a child, or perhaps like Einstein, I just trained hard the right parts of my brain.
Moving on, a few years later we got an IBM PS/1, a 286 machine. I played Prince of Persia and coded under GWBasic and later on on QBasic. I had fun geting input from the mouse, drawing stuff, and recording it to a file.
Later, we got a 486 machine, and I played Doom 2, and coded under Pascal. It enabled me to start learning things like multi-tasking, protected mode programming, the linearity of the graphics buffer pool, how to do graphical effects like scrollers, basic 3D using quick perspective-corrected texture mapping, etc...
I just shudder thiking I actually coded half an OS with built-in protected mode (allowed the programs to access upper memory) and multi-threading. God, the amount of hours debuging that thing...
I started working and bought myself a pretty cool Pentium 2 at 450Mhz. Here I moved off into C++ using Ivor Horton's big red book, and Win32 programming using LaMothe's book, with a bit of OpenGL mixed in there.
I also started dabling deeper into AI, and self-designing neural-structures, mimicking living nervous tissues. I also met one of the world's top fuzzy logic scientists and got involved in some pretty cool projects.
Nowadays I have a dual core AMD 4800+, I work in my spare time on my 3D engine, develop my (pretty much) unique aproach to AI, and push forward my project for a company that will specialize in Corporate Efficiency using browser-based tools.
Looking back I see that I couldnt have taken a step without taking all the previous ones that had gotten me there... pace yourself and be pacient, the rest comes naturaly.
Quote:Original post by destronQuote:Original post by paulecoyote
http://msdn.microsoft.com/coding4fun/ is a good place to start. Structured projects with good articles about why you are coding what you are coding.
coding4fun looks great, but where do i start?
Probably http://msdn.microsoft.com/coding4fun/gamedevelopment/default.aspx
Someone said about Visual Studio costing money - well there's a cut down freebie one (if you download and register them before the end of 2006) available at http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/
Quote:Original post by Oberon_Command
I started in QBASIC when I was 9, and I didn't really make much of anything meaningful (lots of projects that I lost the motivation to work on - I was sort of like the classic MMORPG newbie, except with just about every project I attempted) until I started C++, when I was 11 or 12-ish. Still, I still haven't been able to complete much of anything, though I have learned a lot.
Now I'm 16, and I'm writing my own scratch-built operating system, and it can already run it's first program. [grin] I think I may be getting somewhere...
Wow... keep it up!
My story is interesting because I can't deside what language to learn.
Before I even got started, I read an article about Delphi and since Delphi is veeeery popular in Russia, I started working with it. I didn't learn the language at all, but got a great feeling of what an IDE and RAD is.
I started with GameMaker, a very cool program. It even had a built-in language using which I learned the basic stuff like variables, control structures, velocity etc. There's even my first game somewhere on the Net but it's near to impossible to find it. I've spent almost a year "learning" it. Of course, now I can't say it's THE best way to start but it was definitely interesting and fun.
After that, I got interested in PHP. Wrote some basic scripts, had to learn HTML as well. Can say that PHP was my first language and that was the first time I got serious about programming.
Then I decided to take on a "real" language. I couldn't decide which one to learn. C++ seemed too difficult for me (even though I never even tried), so I "did" Delphi, then Basic - never really made anything. After that, I found out about .NET and C#. Bought a C# book and it seemed really good to me. So I learned quite a lot of C#.
Then I decided to learn THE language - C++. It was, it is, and it will be the prime language, I though. I even made a cool C++ program with my friend. Then I "dumped" programming altogether.
A few months ago, interest in programming came back to me. I started learning Python.
Then my usual problems began: what to learn? C#? It's cool and all, but there's near to none material on gamedev, and will it ever become as important as C++?
Python? But it's more of a supporting language. C++? Well, it's THE language, but am I ready?
So at the moment I don't know what to learn.
Before I even got started, I read an article about Delphi and since Delphi is veeeery popular in Russia, I started working with it. I didn't learn the language at all, but got a great feeling of what an IDE and RAD is.
I started with GameMaker, a very cool program. It even had a built-in language using which I learned the basic stuff like variables, control structures, velocity etc. There's even my first game somewhere on the Net but it's near to impossible to find it. I've spent almost a year "learning" it. Of course, now I can't say it's THE best way to start but it was definitely interesting and fun.
After that, I got interested in PHP. Wrote some basic scripts, had to learn HTML as well. Can say that PHP was my first language and that was the first time I got serious about programming.
Then I decided to take on a "real" language. I couldn't decide which one to learn. C++ seemed too difficult for me (even though I never even tried), so I "did" Delphi, then Basic - never really made anything. After that, I found out about .NET and C#. Bought a C# book and it seemed really good to me. So I learned quite a lot of C#.
Then I decided to learn THE language - C++. It was, it is, and it will be the prime language, I though. I even made a cool C++ program with my friend. Then I "dumped" programming altogether.
A few months ago, interest in programming came back to me. I started learning Python.
Then my usual problems began: what to learn? C#? It's cool and all, but there's near to none material on gamedev, and will it ever become as important as C++?
Python? But it's more of a supporting language. C++? Well, it's THE language, but am I ready?
So at the moment I don't know what to learn.
When I was 8 years old a friend of my parents got himself a Spectravideo SVI 728. I was so facinated by it and decided that I must have a computer. 2 years later I bought a C64 and started learnig BASIC from the manual that came with it. Wrote a bunch of text-based adventures and some simple sprite based games. I tried to learn 6510 assembly but relly never got it.
Three years later I got an Amiga 500 and started learning MC68000 assembly. Got into demo coding and thought C and Pascal were for lamers (I was young, ignorant and imature:)
At age 17 I more or less stopped coding for a few years. Got into it again when I started my engineering studies at the university, this time on x86. Learned C and C++ and realized it wasn't lame at all and did some more demo coding.
Dropped out of university to work as a web developer. Learned VB, COM, ASP HTML, XML etc. Worked for 6 years and fell in love with the .NET framework and C# during this period. Didn't do much coding in my spare time but read a lot of game coding related stuff in books and on the web.
Suddenly realized that my love for graphics coding was too strong to get stuck in the web world. So I got back to university to catch up on all the theory I didn't have. And that's where I am now. Still learning every day.
With almost 20 years of programming experience I'm amazed by people who think there's nothing more to learn becourse they have been coding in C++ for two years;)
Edit:
To give the OP some advice: Start simple. Languages like Python, Java, C# are all great choices. C++ is too but expect a bit longer learning curve. Nowdays it's much easier to get into programming with all info on the web and there are many great books as well. Aslo don't expect to get spectacular results immediately. This stuff takes time.
[Edited by - Dark_Nebula on April 8, 2006 8:33:13 AM]
Three years later I got an Amiga 500 and started learning MC68000 assembly. Got into demo coding and thought C and Pascal were for lamers (I was young, ignorant and imature:)
At age 17 I more or less stopped coding for a few years. Got into it again when I started my engineering studies at the university, this time on x86. Learned C and C++ and realized it wasn't lame at all and did some more demo coding.
Dropped out of university to work as a web developer. Learned VB, COM, ASP HTML, XML etc. Worked for 6 years and fell in love with the .NET framework and C# during this period. Didn't do much coding in my spare time but read a lot of game coding related stuff in books and on the web.
Suddenly realized that my love for graphics coding was too strong to get stuck in the web world. So I got back to university to catch up on all the theory I didn't have. And that's where I am now. Still learning every day.
With almost 20 years of programming experience I'm amazed by people who think there's nothing more to learn becourse they have been coding in C++ for two years;)
Edit:
To give the OP some advice: Start simple. Languages like Python, Java, C# are all great choices. C++ is too but expect a bit longer learning curve. Nowdays it's much easier to get into programming with all info on the web and there are many great books as well. Aslo don't expect to get spectacular results immediately. This stuff takes time.
[Edited by - Dark_Nebula on April 8, 2006 8:33:13 AM]
Quote:Original post by Mushu
I wanted to write an uber MMORPG which doubled as a virus scanner so I started with HTML. After doing all I could with it, I moved onto HTML++ with Variables and modified the existing source for a hockey MMORPG to make it a virus scanning MMORPG with javascript tic-tac-toe extensions.
Haven't you heard of 1337BASIC? And you never bothered with the QBasic Network Administration plugin for HockeyBasic. You've missed out, noob. [grin]
Seriously, I started out properly by dabbling in C/C++ 6 years ago, got nowhere and gave up. I got DarkBASIC, same story again.
I was then forced into VB6 at school. I actually liked it, it got me fast, reliable results, but I'd never use it to write a "proper" game - it's only suitable for business apps and possibly little desktop games, IMHO.
I picked up C++ again, and I'm getting there. It's a good language, I like it. I've done a little DX and OpenGL, but it was biting off more than I could chew, so I left it. Win32 and MFC don't float my boat either, I'm sticking with SDL until I can make something truly meaningful.
Unfortunately, the worst was yet to come. I've just started a CS degree and, horrors of horrors, Java is being forced upon us. I would not learn it out of choice, it's a disgusting language. Seriously, the End of Time would come before I've finished outlining my reasons why I don't like it, so I won't bother. I'll just say it's got a horrible way of doing things, it's bloated and slow, and I've even heard stories of Sun engineers themselves slating it as a truly horrible language, and they wish they hadn't bothered making it.
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