Hello everyone, I recently joined gamedev.net, my name is Rokas, I'm 16years old. I am willing to study C++ or any other programming science thats required to do game programming.

To start off my adventure I wanted to ask a few questions:

1) I watch Bucky (youtube it: thenewboston) on youtube and his c++ tutorials, they are simple, how good you would rate his tutorials? Are they worth watching? I think yes, but maybe you can offer better learning materials to start off?

2) Where to find tutorials on how to build my own game engine? (Since obviously if i want to become a good programmer - I would much better prefer to do it myself!) Where I can find more information about functions that are required to make games (most popular ones, etc) Ofc, I know If statement is the most important in making games, but i mean what else i need? Is there any simple websites, that could provide me superb useful info?

3) How long the process of learning should take, before I can build my very first 2D indie rpg-type game? I mean, sure I'm not a genious, but post how long you took, to become "good" and "confident" to create games from scratch (engine, etc.)

Thanks and sorry for Imperfect English. My main language isn't English :)

All of your questions are realtive to the ammount of time and effort you want to put into learning.

My advice, start small and work your way towards a goal (and make sure to completely finish that goal before you start another project).

Using C++ and whatever library you choose to develop with its going to take you several months of hard work learning and programming to make a 2d rpg type game (Unless you kept it really really simple).

Start out with some text based stuff, maybe a simple combat testing application where you use math to determine damage taken, or a mock fight simulation.

Once you get that all figured out start looking how you need to strucure your programs in C++, I think fundamentally if I had spent more time learning about proper structure and flow starting out I would have been much better off now.

Books, read lots of books, probably one of the most helpful things for me.

Some things you need to determine:

- What kind of graphics library are you going to use

- If not a home brew engine what game engine will I use

[quote name='yewbie' timestamp='1357663151' post='5019073']
- What kind of graphics library are you going to use
- If not a home brew engine what game engine will I use
[/quote]

I'm a firm believer in 2d graphics. or 2,5d.
I would like to learn to create my own engine.

Also I will put my whole life to programming! That's what I'm planning to do. Computer is my addiction. Not just games - whole Computer, all processes, etc. But I wanna become a gamedev, because people need games to refresh their soul. It's art, it's refreshing, that feeling of accomplishment, when you start from scratch and build a successful game! I'm planning to buy C++ books, my mom already ordered them from amazon.com. And yes, I do testing in C++, i'm trying to build text RPG atm :) Since I know it's not that hard, mainly just integers, reals, strings etc.

You asked about the tutorials on thenewboston by Bucky. I found them very valuable. Use them as a suppliment to your learning if you want. Also use other tutorials that you find. I find tutorials great because each 'instructor' may teach you something another didn't or something you just did not figure out from the books.

... to become "good" and "confident" to create games from scratch (engine, etc.)

Game development and engine devleopment are completely separate disciplines, at least in this day and age.

If you're interested in making games then I would suggest you try out some of the different off-the-shelf frameworks and engines out there (Unity/2D toolkit, XNA, Torque2D, etc.). These take care of a lot of "boiler-plate" stuff for you, and allow you to focus on actual "game programming" (i.e. focusing on "what" happens, instead of "how" it happens)

It can be a good learning excercise to try to do everything by yourself, and this will definitely give you a solid foundation, but ultimately if you're doing anything bigger than pong/snake/etc. then there are huge benefits to using an OTS engine or framework.

I would suggest XNA + C# would be a good combination, as you'd still be working with a C-like language.

I already did something like that, but I want to jump into actual programming instead of using pre-created programs. I used to create mods for Warcraft III but I stopped, also learning how to build games from 0 not from 10% is more valuable, since you will know all the structure and it is more valuable in general!

I suppose it depends what you consider "value". If you want to get a job in the industry some day then you will likely be working with an existing engine, unless you get a job on a tools or engine team, in which case you wouldn't be working directly on "games" per se. (I'm generalizing, mind you)

If you want to do things at lower level then I would suggest learning Direct3D and/or OpenGL, as well as an audio library like DirectSound or FMod. Maybe a Physics library like Bullet, too, depending on what you're trying to do.

For simple 2D games it's not too hard to wire something together using a combination of low-level libraries, though it can get pretty complicated once you get into 3D stuff (read: I hope you like math )