Ok, as topic states, im wanting to start some game development in C#. I've played around with the language alittle, made a program to connect to a MySQL database. Nothing much, I know, but I did it all in a few days, so I picked up the language syntax pretty quick. Does anybody know the best way to begin developing in this specific language?

Same as any language. Read, toy around with it, ask questions... repeat. And just like any language, getting a good basis in general programming before trying to jump ahead to [generally more advanced] game specific topics will help greatly.

Ok, thank you for the response, but it brings up another question. With the whole basis of learn the basics before you start into more advanced things, what exactly could I focus on? There are so many topics, what do I know to focus on learning before I go onto actually starting a small game. Or, would there be a good small game to start, for learning the basics.

Games are pretty big, complex things. Not to disuade you, but almost every topic comes into play for even a small game. Generally, you should learn the language's syntax itself [and collections] first, and then pick and choose topics in .NET as needed/interested.

After that there should probably be some learning on actual design and non-syntactic stuff before basic games, but I don't know anyone with the patience to learn that much without thinking they're "ready". God knows I don't.

*shrug* The more experience you get fiddling around with things, the more you get to know what you're missing [and need to learn].

Well, I have had plenty of experience with various other languages, namely being HTML, PHP/MySQL, Lua, Java, C, C++, and now working with C#. The one I know best is PHP/MySQL and HTML, the rest I can do small (really small) things in.

Its not that I dont have the mindset and mentality to code, its that I dont have the purpose I am working on. For PHP/MySQL, I had a friend who always gave me a specific goal. "Make this, so that it does this", and I worked on doing that, learning along the way. With these other languages, I cannot seem to find something to be able to "Make this, so that it does this", cause its already been done.

Quote:Original post by PyroBlizzard
Well, I have had plenty of experience with various other languages, namely being HTML, PHP/MySQL, Lua, Java, C, C++, and now working with C#. The one I know best is PHP/MySQL and HTML, the rest I can do small (really small) things in.

Its not that I dont have the mindset and mentality to code, its that I dont have the purpose I am working on. For PHP/MySQL, I had a friend who always gave me a specific goal. "Make this, so that it does this", and I worked on doing that, learning along the way. With these other languages, I cannot seem to find something to be able to "Make this, so that it does this", cause its already been done.

Yes it's already been done. What you did in PHP/MySQL probably has already been done too. Find something you would like to do. something interesting. Why not something you would find useful. Anything you could do in PHP/MySQL you can do in ASP.NET with C# for example. Or just replace the website with a Winforms.

Everything *has* been done. If you're looking to do something unique you're probably out of luck. :)

However, consider developing your games so that they're compatible with Mono. Mono is the ECMA implementation of .NET used on Linux, Windows, etc. By targeting this platform you can "reinvent the wheel" but still provide a useful product - the number of games for Linux and other platforms that Mono runs on is relatively small when compared to Windows. (To those who want to argue that statement: don't. Especially if you want to count quality games. ;p)

Personally, I'd explore Tic-Tac-Toe. The AI implementation could be a lot of fun, or perhaps you could implement multiplayer. There's a lot of gritty details you really don't think about because your brain processes them for you. After Tic-Tac-Toe playing with any of the games you used to play using pen and paper can provide an interesting experience - connect the dots, hangman, etc.

C# is an excellent language in regards to the fact that it doesn't have the clean up and difficulty related to C++. A lot of things are just easier - as they should be for a late generation language. That lack of difficulty allows you to concentrate on the game theory rather than the language specifics.