For a while now I have wanted to get into making video games, but I have never known were to start.
At the minute I only want to make some 2D games, mabe something in the style Legend of Zelda is, that kind of view point at the very least.
The problem is I dont know were to start, so I came here to ask a few questions to try and get myself started;
1. What language is best to learn? (I dont want the easiest neseserally, I want the "best" for making video games)
2. What tutorials should I use for said language?
Thanks in advance for any help, it's apretiated :)
I guess what is considered best in the current video game industry is C++, but it is a very tough language to understand.
[QUOTE=eXiv2;31177976]I guess what is considered best in the current video game industry is C++, but it is a very tough language to understand.[/QUOTE]
Do you recomend I use a simpler language to begin with then? If so, what?
There is no "best". It will come down to what the best is for what you want to do. Good languages for 2D Legend of Zelda style stuff are C++ with SFML, C++ with SDL, and C# with XNA. XNA is simple and pretty easy to get into, with a lot of books and tutorials on the internet. SDL isn't as powerful as SFML but has a great community. SFML is great but still in the works and the community is small.
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I hear people asking if they should learn a "simpler" language all the time, and sometimes people recommend learning a simpler language first. I strongly disagree with this. If you waste a long time learning a "simpler" language that you will never use, that is time wasted; at least for what you want to be accomplishing. Choose the language that you feel will work for you, and I guarantee there is a book or tutorial out there that will ease you into programming.
[QUOTE=Frustration96;31177993]Do you recomend I use a simpler language to begin with then? If so, what?[/QUOTE]
You could start out with Python. But I have NULL experience with that. You should ask some of the other guys around for that.
I'm gonna attempt to learn C++ straight away, since I think that owuld be most useful.
Is [url]http://www.cprogramming.com/begin.html[/url] a good tutorial for me?
Yeah, if you feel that tutorial is good enough go for it. You will hop around different websites later anyways. Good luck, and for questions you can hit up the What Do You Need Help With thread.
The problems with languages like C++ and C is that you need an understanding of how computers work in order to understand the language, how it works and how to use it.
The reason those are problems is because of the context. You want to learn to program, not learn how computers fundamentally work.
[QUOTE=Jookia;31187731]The problems with languages like C++ and C is that you need an understanding of how computers work in order to understand the language, how it works and how to use it.
The reason those are problems is because of the context. You want to learn to program, not learn how computers fundamentally work.[/QUOTE]
Can you back this up with examples please?
I learnt with C++, and I found it a brilliant language to learn with. I had a good book that taught everything really well, and I wasn't ever confused about something because I didn't understand "how computers fundamentally work". It's only when you get to memory management that you need to understand how memory works, but other than that it's really the same as any other language.
[QUOTE=Frustration96;31178599]I'm gonna attempt to learn C++ straight away, since I think that owuld be most useful.
Is [url]http://www.cprogramming.com/begin.html[/url] a good tutorial for me?[/QUOTE]
On that website:
[quote]There are an awful lot of programming languages available right now -- everything from the extremely high level (such as Visual Basic)[/quote]
:v:
[QUOTE=lord0war;31194843]On that website:
:V:[/QUOTE]
And whats wrong with that? Visual basic IS a very high level language.
[QUOTE=Chris220;31192509]Can you back this up with examples please?
I learnt with C++, and I found it a brilliant language to learn with. I had a good book that taught everything really well, and I wasn't ever confused about something because I didn't understand "how computers fundamentally work". It's only when you get to memory management that you need to understand how memory works, but other than that it's really the same as any other language.[/QUOTE]
Knowing what the stack and the heap are, knowing pointers (which is a simple concept but hard for people to grasp) and data sizes on different machines are just to name a few.
For a beginner it's difficult.
[quote]
At the minute I only want to make some 2D games, mabe something in the style Legend of Zelda is, that kind of view point at the very least.[/quote]
You could try Lua with [url=http://love2d.org]LÖVE2D[/url]
[QUOTE=Jookia;31196374]Knowing what the stack and the heap are, knowing pointers (which is a simple concept but hard for people to grasp) and data sizes on different machines are just to name a few.
For a beginner it's difficult.[/QUOTE]
You don't NEED to know how the stack works when you're learning, and you only need to know about the heap when you actually get onto pointers (which are not at all what you'd start off with learning). Data sizes across different machines are again not something you NEED to know when you're learning, because chances are you're not going to be writing your first few programs to be cross platform and so on.
The kind of stuff people talking about making C++ difficult to learn can be grouped together and you can get a grasp around it (at least) in around one day. Then after you've actually learned the language aspect you can go back and inspect the pieces that make the language different and why they are important to know. It really doesn't make your programming experience that much different. I started with C++ when I was very young and I remember even being able to at least grasp that stuff back then.
C++ isnt difficult. Pointers, the stack, the heap. You can pretty much learn all the "difficult" bits in about a day
C++ is the language I started with and I'm really glad I did.
All the other C-like languages (PHP, C#, Java etc) are a walk in the park for me now.
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