Hi, I'm Shane and game development and programming is something I want to start to do, I am young and A total newbie, so maybe you more experienced game programmers and developers could tell me EXACTLY how you started or what to do to get started on the right foot. Oh yeah when I say I am a beginner I mean like I really haven't done much at all, this is why I am turning to the community and trying to get as much info to get my first game up and running so please give me an over view of anything I need to know and do too start MY VERY FIRST GAME! thanks!!!

Start by reading the FAQ

Start by reading the FAQ

Thanks for the suggestion, I actually already did, it doesn't really give me that much info to get started with. It just tells me a language to start out with :/

[quote name='Shane.missler' timestamp='1316694477' post='4864636']
[quote name='Jeffreyp' timestamp='1316690244' post='4864610']
Start by reading the FAQ

Thanks for the suggestion, I actually already did, it doesn't really give me that much info to get started with. It just tells me a language to start out with :/
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Its not really relevant how most of us started because that was quite along time ago, I for example started with QBasic using the instruction manual that came with my families first computer. (Today you won't find an introductory guide to programming in the user manual for a computer when you buy it and QBasic is so horribly outdated that its really not a worthwhile starting point anymore), With this i made mostly simple text based applications and a few really simple "graphics demos" (If you'd consider a program drawing stuff like circles in random positions a "graphics demo"), I didn't really pick up on game programming until i was 12 or so when i started learning VGA programming using Pascal and x86 asm (This was before internet access was widespread so i relied quite heavily on denthors VGA tutorials (available at http://www.textfiles...g/astrainer.txt these days, i got them on the good old sneakernet though), Armed with this amazing knowledge of how to change resolution and to draw stuff reasonably fast i managed to make a rather nice snake clone + some nice graphics demos. (Today i wouldn't touch Pascal or Basic with a 10ft pole if i had a choice and my x86 asm usage is pretty much limited to the occasional look at what my compiler produces)

These days the access to information is alot better and there are some extremely powerful free tools out there that you can use to help you.

If you want to learn how to program, then pick a language(It doesn't really matter which one, you'll learn tons of languages eventually anyway, C# and Python are good choices because they are popular(which makes it easy to get help from others) and reasonably user friendly (Both languages are also used professionally in various fields and are by no means "just for beginners")) and start making simple text based applications, learn the basics of that first language before you start worrying too much about games.

When you have a decent grasp of how your language of choice works you can start looking at how to handle a game loop, render graphics to the screen, managing input and sound, etc.


You could also start in the other end by picking a beginner friendly Engine such as Unity or UDK and go from there instead. (It will give you better results faster but might not be as fun if you're more into the technical side of things).



If you go with a programming language rather than a complete engine what you have to learn to make for example a simple pong game is:
0) How to program. (Very important)
1) How to write a game loop
2) How to write a reasonably stable simulation.
3) How to get input from the user and have it affect the simulation.
4) How to draw basic shapes to the screen (To present the current state of the simulation to the player)
5) (Optionally) How to play sound effects.
6) (Optionally) How to draw text
6) (Optionally) How to handle game states.
7) (Optionally) File input/output (Highscores etc)
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Thanks so much this one helps a lot!!! Any more knowledge on learning a language would be appreciated!!!