First spend a long long time to learn to code, then find out wether the new engines spawned by then are any good.

Decide the language you want to learn (C++,Java or C#, ignore the others, cant come up with reason for why but whatever), then type "[language name] tutorial" in google, set up some IDE and write some code. When you can write some simple things, buy a book or find a better tutorial and browse the webs to fix all the bad coding habits you have.



You might also want to read some of the hundreds of language picking/new to programming threads you can probably find easily by browsing this forum for a few pages.

Planning and thinking ahead, how things in your game will interact with each other is also good, or you might spend a lot of time fixing old things to work with the new ones.

Where to code?

Hi, Slayer

There are many possibilities on where to code because of differences in game types. Some things need to be done before you handle Unreal:

1) Begin today to learn a beginner friendly computer language which matches your long term goals.

2) Aquire the software tools that you need to make your programming into a program, such as Software Development Kit of a game (SDK) or Integrated Delopment Environment like Mono Develop or Visual Studio [Express or better](IDE). The Unreal community will recommend which ones for you to use.

3) Learn how to make simple programs before you touch Unreal Engine.

4) Make some simple 2D games after the above advice, possibly using your software program-making tools with Unreal.

5) A simple 3D game may be started in a few months after you do the above things .


Sorry, no short cuts unless you want to add a lot of time to your learning path. Shortcuts will get you lost in the jungle, so stay on the proven path of success until you gain the experience to become a trail blazer.

Surround yourself with community help because it will make things much smoother.

Work hard and have fun with it!

Clinton

This project seems doomed to fail. It is over ambitious. Your passion is great but I don't think you know how deep this hole is. Unreal 3, Uscript, and kismet are a lot to chew on. The best advice I can give for something like this would be: Don't write a single line of code until you have very concise milestones limit the scope of this game or this is going to suffer from "feature creep" If you think a task will take 3 months under ideal conditions plan for 9 because it is never "All we have to do is" and there is always something else that you will need an artist for. Someone is going to get sick of working, egos, not pulling their weight, needs to get laid, drunk, gotta take mom to church, girlfriend to clinic, yourself to clinic, holiday, midterms, finals. Next thing you know 3 months turns into graduation and you have a hard drive full of cool code.

It took 4 programmers, 3 artist, 1 sound engineer, PM and 1.5 years to make "A VIRUS NAME TOM" and that was supposed to take 6 months. 2 of us had previous game experience. Not trying to dissuade you, just want you to see the forest beyond the trees. Good luck and post screenshots often