I guess biggest tip I can give having been in your position long ago is to just stick with a single language for a while and actually spend time coding significant games/apps with it.
Don't be a switcher i.e. decide to learn a new language every month or whatever because you don't like it or think there is something better out there. There is no perfect language if you haven't already heard.

Basically the industry standard for games is C++, but a lot of people are also using C#. For scripting, python and lua are the main two.

I wouldn't recommend worrying about advanced topics such as integrating scripting until you've spent some time writing games.

The most important general advice I can give is to start small, finish your projects, and slowly increase scale. Don't bite off more than you can chew, and if/when you do, allow yourself to realize it and pull back the scale of your projects.

Start by drawing a quad on the screen. Hook in input to move it around. Make a pong clone. Make a breakout clone. Make a Tetris clone. Make a simple Adventure style game. Make a really simple side scroller, etc etc.

Set aside a small amount of time on a regular basis to invest in your projects. Divide your project in to milestones and the current milestone in to a list of basic tasks. Keep the tasks small and the milestones short.

Try to work steadily on one task at a time and focus on the small victories. Give yourself a moment to revel in the glory of that texture loader you just wrote, it was a worthy accomplishment after all, then move on to the next task.

Don't worry about doing things perfect on the first try. Make it work first, then worry about making it work correctly. If you're doing something you haven't done before don't be afraid to rewrite it later on, you're going to have to rewrite most things anyways.

The biggest and most common problem I see people run in to is to try to do too much at once and lose motivation. Games are complicated! But take it slow and before you know it you can do amazing things.


...also, source control. Learn it, live it, love it.

Um, well there's this really obscure site that you've probably never heard of called GameDev.
But seriously, probably a book or a real person will be better than the internet to teach you coding

Quote:Original post by mrguyman
any tips that would help a sort-of beginner? Thanks!

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