[ButchDean]

[TheBudgie]

Thanks guys, I think I will get a book as soon as possible, you've been a great help, thanks again

[evilyoshi]

TheBudgie, on 16 August 2011 - 06:32 AM, said:

Wow, this is far from unanimous, but I think I'm going to try and learn C++ as it seems to be the most widely used language. With regards to this can any of you link me to a good, easy to follow tutorial? I've found one myself but it's quite hard to follow, so if any of you could help that would be great, thanks

look at the one i posted. and c++ without fear is a great book, i hear.

Butchdean, on 16 August 2011 - 06:32 AM, said:

I disagree. It's like putting together a jigsaw and claiming you took the photograph.

i never use them because i hate them. but its still an option.

[DivideByZero]

I found this article which answers threads like these (that occur everyday) pretty well.
http://www.gamefroms...-developer.aspx

This post has been edited by DivideByZero: 17 August 2011 - 08:24 AM

[JackOfAllTrades]

Excellent read, DivideByZero!

[Douggler]

I recommend this site: http://www.sdltutorials.com/

It's with C++ using SDL for the UI (apparently SDL is the easiest to use and most widely used engine for graphics, sound, user input etc.)

You need to have had some experience in C++, but I've found that since following the tutorials my code has improved a lot.

[ButchDean]

DivideByZero, on 17 August 2011 - 02:18 PM, said:

I found this article which answers threads like these (that occur everyday) pretty well.
http://www.gamefroms...-developer.aspx

That is a very good read, but he says

Quote

This one is a bit depressing but completely true. There is nothing really magical about Game Programming. It’s programming, pure and simple.

Then he says

Quote

But if you finish a single game, you’ve done better than 95% of people that came before you. Don’t plan an MMO, it’s way beyond you, even with a team of a few hundred people.

Which makes it 'not like any other form of programming', because of the high failure rate for people to get their first game written.

[Serapth]

ButchDean, on 17 August 2011 - 12:06 PM, said:

DivideByZero, on 17 August 2011 - 02:18 PM, said:

I found this article which answers threads like these (that occur everyday) pretty well.
http://www.gamefroms...-developer.aspx

That is a very good read, but he says

Quote

This one is a bit depressing but completely true. There is nothing really magical about Game Programming. It’s programming, pure and simple.

Then he says

Quote

But if you finish a single game, you’ve done better than 95% of people that came before you. Don’t plan an MMO, it’s way beyond you, even with a team of a few hundred people.

Which makes it 'not like any other form of programming', because of the high failure rate for people to get their first game written.

Except of course when you consider that many (most?) people start programming with a game project!

[TheBudgie]

Ah, after reading that article, I'm wondering if I should perhaps swap over to Python? I had only just started learning C++, and still haven't bought anything to help me, would that be a good idea? And I'm sorry, I know there's probably a thousand other threads like this on this site alone, but I like a personal response, so I apologise if that annoys any of you, but I feel it's the best way to get advice and be acquainted with the site and the community

[Oler1s]

> I'm wondering if I should perhaps swap over to Python?

Yes.

[evilyoshi]

TheBudgie, on 17 August 2011 - 03:41 PM, said:

Ah, after reading that article, I'm wondering if I should perhaps swap over to Python?

i love that language. simple, and if you dont get something you can always ask. heres some free e-books to get you started.
http://www.straw-dog...oks-legal-free/

and i think it would be better to use python 2.7 since most books i have found are written for python 2.

[TheBudgie]

Thanks, those ebooks should get me off to a good start. I found a tutorial which seemed very good and soon realised that it actually showed you how to do very little, so I'm going to try a few of those out now!

[ButchDean]

Serapth, on 17 August 2011 - 11:33 PM, said:

ButchDean, on 17 August 2011 - 12:06 PM, said:

DivideByZero, on 17 August 2011 - 02:18 PM, said:

I found this article which answers threads like these (that occur everyday) pretty well.
http://www.gamefroms...-developer.aspx

That is a very good read, but he says

Quote

This one is a bit depressing but completely true. There is nothing really magical about Game Programming. It’s programming, pure and simple.

Then he says

Quote

But if you finish a single game, you’ve done better than 95% of people that came before you. Don’t plan an MMO, it’s way beyond you, even with a team of a few hundred people.

Which makes it 'not like any other form of programming', because of the high failure rate for people to get their first game written.

Except of course when you consider that many (most?) people start programming with a game project!

Really?

[SixOfEleven]

Actually, the number of beginner projects that fail is exceedingly high whether it is game programming or not. Beginners tend to bite off more than they can chew. They are usually chomping at the bit to get started with something real rather than working on simple examples to learn the concepts of programming. It has been my experience at least that this is the case.

Now, back to the OPs original question, if you are comfortable with Java, understand Java, and can write Java code well, don't go swapping languages. Stick with Java. You can write games with Java. Java is huge for mobile games for example.

[Serapth]

SixOfEleven, on 18 August 2011 - 03:20 PM, said:

Actually, the number of beginner projects that fail is exceedingly high whether it is game programming or not. Beginners tend to bite off more than they can chew. They are usually chomping at the bit to get started with something real rather than working on simple examples to learn the concepts of programming. It has been my experience at least that this is the case.

Now, back to the OPs original question, if you are comfortable with Java, understand Java, and can write Java code well, don't go swapping languages. Stick with Java. You can write games with Java. Java is huge for mobile games for example.

The biggest problem with Java is options... there are just too damned many of them. If you go the Java route, find someone you trust and ask them what to use, otherwise you can quickly get overwhelmed by the choices, many of which are really really really bad. Eventually a handful of technologies bubble their way to the top and become the defacto choice, but on the way you can be force to wade through a lot of crap.


Fortunately that seems to have happened for the most part. Swing seems to be the dominant UI, Eclipse is the dominate IDE ( although I would recommend NetBeans to a beginner ), while Slick is hands down the dominant 2D api. jMonkey seems to be the engine of choice.

My most recent experience using Java was for Android development and let me say, I got bit in the backside more than a few dozen times by the IDE ( Eclipse ) going stupid on me. Creating problems that would stymie a new developer ( and caused me more than a bit of concern until I just started eclipse.exe --clean everytime I encountered any oddity ).

This post has been edited by Serapth: 18 August 2011 - 03:42 PM