10 distinct ways to start a game programming (for beginners)

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4 comments, last by jpetrie 10 years, 8 months ago

I consider myself as a moderately experienced, newer shipped a full game but got five years of coding on my back and so..

I read a questions how to start a game programming, what language/ framework to use and I began to think how to mention/enumerate possible ways I do know about. So let me begin this what do I know and maybe someone wil expand that

(sorry for weak english)

1) there is a low level way, you could start by using such things like a opengl + c or directx + c++ or even assembly on some empty machine but be aware that it can take you at least 5 or maybe 10 years to do something this way

2) there is a big engine way (something like ue3 or unity) I newer was doing such thing so I can say much about this - I suppose howewer that learning such engine can take long time to (but I do not know if this is even the main problem with that )

3) there is for example javascript and browser game way - I was starting interesting myself with that when i saw some game sources under that (it was reasonably clear and short, so I was begining to sympathize with such way - maybe it is easier and quite good way of beginning the game programming (dont know)

4) there are clicks /gamemakers - newer saw one (totally nothing to say, but it seem to be not a programming way)

5) there are a couple of (reasonably) small frameworks devoted to game programming like allegro/sdl/sfml - I was looking at their documentations , Seem to be quite ok for me - you could use many languages here, Though I do know that for the begginers it can be hard - you must learn tu proper use the api and so and it is not so terribly easy (maybe javascript browser way is easier than that, and more suitable for the beginners)

6) there are also more esoteric frameworks suitable for programming games, for example a couple of basics (I saw some freebasic or what it was called, demos and it was running quite fckng good) There are also many less known languages where you can try write games too - it seem to me

quite interesting option for the open-minded begginer to learn some language that will stay unknown for most more advanced programmers - it could be like exotic adventure maybe

7,8,9,10 there may be other ways, If you can expand this, please contribute smile.png thanx

(fir)

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I like to start my game protoypes as text. Since I am not an artist, I find generating sprites and models very boring and time consuming. As such the whole gfx-engine stuff doesn't saave me any grief.

So what I do is prototype my games as text:

Once I figure out the game is fun, I spend time adding graphics:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eyalgames.enemiesofthecrown

But basically I have a very playable game to prototype before I ever get started with the graphics portion.

The biggest plusses:

  • If I want a new sprite, I just add a new letter.
  • I develop on mobiles, but I can easily debug on my PC.

This can also somewhat work for an FPS style game, if you start out top view, and add camera angles later.

My Oculus Rift Game: RaiderV

My Android VR games: Time-Rider& Dozer Driver

My browser game: Vitrage - A game of stained glass

My android games : Enemies of the Crown & Killer Bees

I like to start my game protoypes as text. Since I am not an artist, I find generating sprites and models very boring and time consuming. As such the whole gfx-engine stuff doesn't saave me any grief.

Similar methodology as what I use. I wrote a really basic graphics interface 4 years ago that just uses regular basic win-form API calls for drawing circles & squares and such with labels in the middle.

Later I sheer that off and put a different graphics mechanism in place. My server stuff actually tends to persist with the dummy graphics thing in place, or alternatively instantiates a version of the graphics interface that just contains a bunch of empty functions. Even for non-game stuff, I often use this interface for quick & dirty visualization for cases where console output just ends up being hard to look at.

I consider myself as a moderately experienced, newer shipped a full game but got five years of coding on my back and so..

I read a questions how to start a game programming, what language/ framework to use and I began to think how to mention/enumerate possible ways I do know about. So let me begin this what do I know and maybe someone wil expand that

(sorry for weak english)

1) there is a low level way, you could start by using such things like a opengl + c or directx + c++ or even assembly on some empty machine but be aware that it can take you at least 5 or maybe 10 years to do something this way


Contrary to popular belief, OpenGL and D3D are not low level. Assembly is, but GL and D3D are mature mid-level APIs that abstract away the low-level details of the underlying hardware. Given the API docs, you can get a basic pipeline in place in a couple of days. And no, using basic GL or D3D isn't going to expand your development time out to 5 or 10 years. If your dev schedule is that extended, it's likely due to over-design and feature-creep of the game itself or a crippling lack of experience or motivation on the team.

2) there is a big engine way (something like ue3 or unity) I newer was doing such thing so I can say much about this - I suppose howewer that learning such engine can take long time to (but I do not know if this is even the main problem with that )

3) there is for example javascript and browser game way - I was starting interesting myself with that when i saw some game sources under that (it was reasonably clear and short, so I was begining to sympathize with such way - maybe it is easier and quite good way of beginning the game programming (dont know)

4) there are clicks /gamemakers - newer saw one (totally nothing to say, but it seem to be not a programming way)

5) there are a couple of (reasonably) small frameworks devoted to game programming like allegro/sdl/sfml - I was looking at their documentations , Seem to be quite ok for me - you could use many languages here, Though I do know that for the begginers it can be hard - you must learn tu proper use the api and so and it is not so terribly easy (maybe javascript browser way is easier than that, and more suitable for the beginners)

6) there are also more esoteric frameworks suitable for programming games, for example a couple of basics (I saw some freebasic or what it was called, demos and it was running quite fckng good) There are also many less known languages where you can try write games too - it seem to me
quite interesting option for the open-minded begginer to learn some language that will stay unknown for most more advanced programmers - it could be like exotic adventure maybe

7,8,9,10 there may be other ways, If you can expand this, please contribute smile.png thanx

(fir)


There sure are a whole lot of "I never did this" in your list. You never used an engine like Unity. You only looked at the docs for Allegro/SFML/SDL. You never used something like GameMaker. So, really, what is the point of this list?

It seems to me that instead of trying to teach other beginners, you ought to spend a few more years to tighten up your own personal skills and get a whole lot more experience so that you can talk about these things from a position of authority. There are a lot of sources out there to help beginners get started, and the last thing that we really need is yet another poorly-thought-out and poorly-written one. At some point, you'll become experience enough to understand that rough-overview enumerations like this are just a waste of time and effort if you don't really know what you are talking about and can't give an honest, experience-based assessment of the pros and cons of each.

I'd have to agree with FLeBlanc. There's so little detail for each item in your list and so many items you haven't even actually tried that your list is unlikely to be helpful to beginners.

A quick search will turn up many forum topics where similar questions have been asked and answered in quite some detail by experienced developers.

Many experienced developers have shared beginner guides (such as this programming-centric introduction) that go into lots of detail on various options.

We're updating this old article which briefly details many options. There are other similar articles in our collection.

Given all this, yet another non-exhaustive non-detailed list of potential options simply isn't greatly useful.

I'd suggest choosing an option for yourself -- perhaps your third option of browser-based games with JavaScript if it interests you -- and concentrate on learning that option in-depth and actually creating some games. You'll then have plenty of actual experience you can share with other beginners if you want to do so.

- Jason Astle-Adams

This is not information useful to beginners, and this forum is for beginners to ask questions in, not to host unreviewed (and in this case, rather poor) tutorials, guides, or articles proffering advice.

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