Well I really want to become a game programmer. I have read many c++ books and understand most of the standard components of the language. Now I want to improve on my skills that I have learned and people say practice makes perfect. My problem is, I only have drive to make games and maybe cool 3D graphics demos so I can't really practice regular coding of applications because I have no drive. No here is my dilemma for you who would say, "Then Make games". I don't know how.

I have tried making 2D games with SFML and succeeded but I am much more interested in 3D. I don't know how to make them because I do not know where or how to learn the OpenGL API. Of course I want to learn the most recent stuff so that would mean learning GL 3.3 and 4. So I started trying to learn and found this site: OpenGLBook.com. It is great but to make games I have to have a world and moving objects, this isn't quite there yet.

I have seen people who know GL 3.3 and 4 and can make games, but how did they learn? Here is where I am at a lack of knowledge which causes me to have no drive to practice. Please give me some guidance in what I should do to fix these problems.

Thanks ahead,
Brent

Unfortunately, programming is not always about jumping in and programming games. All of the 'fun and exciting' parts of game programming would be lucky to total 1% of your effort that you need to put in.

I have been learning C++ for about six years now (as a hobby) and I am just getting to the point where I could probably start to 'attempt' programming a half-decent game.

Luckily, I have the 'Drive' and enjoy the many challenges involved, with even what seems to be trivial at the time. You'll find that most of the challenge (if you stick at it) will be ironing out bugs, chasing pointers, casting nightmares, etc...

But frankly, (whilst not trying to deter you), if you have 'no drive' and don't want to program simple utilities, to improve your 'lack of knowledge' - then you are pretty much screwed.

Unfortunately, programming is not always about jumping in and programming games. All of the 'fun and exciting' parts of game programming would be lucky to total 1% of your effort that you need to put in.

I have been learning C++ for about six years now (as a hobby) and I am just getting to the point where I could probably start to 'attempt' programming a half-decent game.

Luckily, I have the 'Drive' and enjoy the many challenges involved, with even what seems to be trivial at the time. You'll find that most of the challenge (if you stick at it) will be ironing out bugs, chasing pointers, casting nightmares, etc...

But frankly, (whilst not trying to deter you), if you have 'no drive' and don't want to program simple utilities, to improve your 'lack of knowledge' - then you are pretty much screwed.

Well I have drive to solve problems but I like to solve problems within games because I like to see a final product as a game.

Download a modding kit, like the Source SDK. With that, you've got everything you need to make Half-Life 2 deathmatch. You don't need to know OpenGL, etc, because everything's already done for you.

Start out with small changes, e.g. make the shotgun fire the projectiles from the rocket launchers, etc... as you make this mini-mods, you'll learn a lot and gain confidence as you're actually "making games" despite not knowing much. As you keep going, you'll eventually be able to make bigger and bigger mods. Then once you've got enough experience, going back to basics and trying to learn OpenGL will seem a lot easier.

Ok well I am on linux so what source should I get? Or should I start modding Modern Warfare 2 again on the ps3 with their fastfile script?

Have you ever considered that instead of actually making games, you'd rather be a 3D modeler or something of the kind?

Yes I have but I like to solve problems and make a whole game as a final product. Its not that i don't like programming and solving problems, its that I usually don't like the final product because its so useless, but a game is not useless to me no matter how dumb it may be. I guess that is where my lack of drive is, I don't like the final product of practice problems.

If you don't have any drive, what do you want us to do to do about it?

Also, learning how to program with a graphics API, and learning how to program games aren't the same thing. Yes, learning how to put graphics on the screen is required, but it's only one part of the whole thing.

I suggest you try out XNA or even better, Unity3D. You can focus more on the functionality of your game instead of worrying about low level details. Unity3D is an actual engine. You just need to import your assets, and then build scenes and script the functionality of everything. It's a very quick process. And it's well suited to a one man team/workflow.

I like learning the lower level stuff though, I just don't know where to learn. Also its not that I don't have enough drive to program, I don't have drive to make practice problems because I don't like the final output. I like to make whatever I think is cool (which is definitely games). So I don't have to specifically make games to have drive to practice. I could make a tokenizer, encryption/decryption program, and whatever else is pretty cool. I guess I kinda made it sound like I hate to program but I love making games in my first thread huh. Well that is definitely not the case.