Hey guys

I was wondering if it is possible to build decent small scaled games if you do not or have little aptitude for programming?

I am interested in programming but I feel like I have little aptitude for it. I am interested in making games because I find the concepts of games and how they work very interesting.

I was diagnosed with schizophrenia(psychosis) and on long term leave(unemployed) at the moment. So I have plenty of free time.

I am learning c++ so that I would be able to use the Unreal engine in the future. I would also love to be able to work on graphics programming(opengl, direct x).

It would also be nice to be able to build a small engine as a proof of concept project.

So is it possible for me to make games without much aptitude? It sucks that I am not as good a programmer as some of my friends are who are full time developers.

Is aptitude very important in this field of work? 

Regards

Khairul

I would say if you truly have little aptitude it might be difficult but perhaps not impossible.  I used to tutor a lot of students and I have known several that can't program at all no matter how hard they try. Then there are those with a modicum of aptitude, and those those to whom everything seems to come naturally.

One thing I learned is at least early on is you can't consider programming like art, where you can kind of paint your code into the computer.  Some people seem to have this misconception, and have issues with the sequential execution of code. There is a saying "you can't see the forest for the trees".  When you start out this saying doesn't apply. Look at the trees, every bush and every shrub in detail. It's good practice early on to run your code in your head. Draw boxes on a notepad if you need to that represent variables and go through each line and try to do what the computer does, changing values as you go. I used to do this all the time. Attention to detail is very important in programming given that your whole progam may crash because of one wrong line of code.

Also why do you think you have little aptitude? You might be right but It also may be you are learning the wrong way.

1 hour ago, Khairul90 said:

I am learning c++ so that I would be able to use the Unreal engine in the future. I would also love to be able to work on graphics programming(opengl, direct x). 

I wouldn't start out with C++, I would start with C.  A lot of folks will give you vastly different opinions on this. My reasoning is that C gives you a low level understanding of how computers work and everything you learn doing C is usefully when you get to C++. I find that sometimes people who start with higher level languages never really catch on about the basic way computers work, although certainly many do.  Starting with C++ and a high level game engine or OpenGL or DirectX, is like sink or swim especially if you're worried about your ability. Try to ease into it. Write console programs (text based) first and then perhaps use a higher level graphics library at some point when you've gained a certain level of mastery. Take things in steps.

@Gnollrunner thank you for your thoughtful input. I will take things in steps as you suggested and gradually work up to more complex tasks as I get a better grasp on things. What you said makes me believe I have some aptitude for it since I am able to do the exercises in the textbook. Just that I think I am a little slow to coming up with answers.

Join a team, use others strengths to augment your weaknesses, I think going it alone is as asinine as trying to solo that boss 5 levels higher than you, no matter how hard you try you might simply not have enough dps to deplete it's health pool before it kills you. With a team, you can do so much more, build experience, have people who are relying on you to make you more accountable. My first lesson in game dev was to not go it alone. I'm experienced and passionate for programming, but can I make high quality pixel art? Make complex 3d models? Make SFX and Music? no, but I'll share my skills with others who will share for me. In the end it's not about doing it alone it's about killing that boss.

ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE A BEGINNER.

For a first programming language, I wouldn't suggest either C or C++. The problem with them for learning is that bugs in code are less likely to end up as runtime errors than for higher level languages like C# and Java.

The most obvious example is out of bounds array accesses - when you first start programming it can take a while to get used to the fact that array indexing is zero based.