Dear Gamedev.net forum readers Hello. I am new to this site, so I would like to introduce myself. My name is Jermaine Anthony Clarke III, my nickname is Gaming Knight. I am looking forward to meeting and chatting with each and every person here possible. but before I do that, I would like to tell a moderately long story. The reason why I am here, is because I am a 17 year old boy growing into a man, turning 18 in 3 months, and so far, I have nothing to really be thankful about, as for what I have accomplished. I have attended school, and learned things that I didn''t want to learn. I have knowledge that makes no sense to me thanks to these schools, and I am looking to make a positive change. About a few months ago, I was sitting with my friends, playing videogames, and rantng about how some games to me are not worth my time playing. And while I was playing these games, I often asked myself the question "What if I made a videogame?" but I took no serious account into it, because I didn''t think I was the type of person to create such a thing. One night, I went to sleep, and I had a dream about a little girl that seeked to grow into a woman, and live the life she wanted to live. By the time I woke up the next day, I realized that the dream that I had was a sign for me to make this girl into the molding of my desire. My desire was to make her into a videogame because the information that I had on the girl was on the length of a epic saga. Days, weeks, even a month or so passed by, as I dreamed about the girl more often, and as I did I got even more information, and more desire to make her into a videogame. To make sure that I did not lose such valuable information to me, I wrote down everything that I dreamed about in concerns of the girl. My friends have MTV Music Generator for the PSX. For no reason at all, I began to make music on it that had a videogame like musical feel to it. Intro music, suspense music, RPG like music, Action music, Credits music, game over music, I just about made all types of videogame music. And everytime I saw the girl, the music fitted perfectly with her. I then had ideas to make write ups of adventures for her, and they too were the adventures that could be found in videogames. I then made a poor excuse of a drawing of her and I sat down with the pictue and stared at it for about a day. I then drew her again, and when I showed the second picture to my friends, they said that she looked as if she was drawn by a professional. But I never drew anything in my life. The aura and Charisma of the girl made me draw even more pictues, make more stories, create more music, and work even harder. My family has seen my progress, and has decided to support me the best way they know how, by getting me a computer. I should be getting it on my birthday. My friends decided to give me game development software for my arriving computer, and so far I have studied the instruction manuals of the software and came to a more understanding of how it works. The only problem is that with all of the resouces that I have now and will soon have, I don''t know much about programming. I have read many examples, and even experimented with a few blueprint writings. But I never actually composed a program of a game before. One of my friends pulled me to the side and told me of this place, because he said that the dream that I had was a calling, and if anyone can help me get to th goals that I am seeking, Gamedev can. I have sat here for weeks, watching the everyday postings and writings of this site, and I feel that this place is just about too good to be true. However, I was scared that if I posted here, people might consider my dream as a joke, and that would crush me. However, I remember what my ninth grade science teacher said to me once. "He who expresses himself in a crowd and laughed at, is a fool for 5 minutes. He who does not express himself at all is a fool forverer". And so, brings me up to speed on myself, posting this message. As a new person here. I don''t have any guidance around this place, nor do I have anyone to talk refrence about here. I only ask for the good people of Gamedev to just give me a little push in the right direction. If I must buy a game developing book, learn how to compile a program, e-mail every person that people tell me to e-mail, I''ll do it. I am very serious with my dream, and I am determined to make my dream, into a reality. There will be a day where people will walk down the normal everyday streets of their neighborhoods, and see my name, and when they see my name, they will say to themselves "Hey, that''s GamingKnight, the fameous game developer". When that day comes, then, and only then, will I take a day to rest, and look back at what I have accomplished. I thank you for reading, and look forward to smiling and talking with everyone here. May we all make our dreams into a reality. This boy you see here dreams about making games. With his passion and dedication for the love of games, he will one day grow into a man who will talk about the games he has made. Gaming Knight. "That''''s what I am."

Hi Gaming Knight,

I have a similar dream of one day making a game, but I know that there is alot involved. I am lerning to program in C and will learn to program in C++, the two most widely used languages in game development. You should buy a book on programming in C and C++, or if that to hard there are beginning programming books up the wazoo(nevermind). Then gamedev has alot of book reviews on game programming books that will get you started. Also, check out the New? Start Here section at the top of the site. Glad I can be of any help!

Thats one long azz story!! (although i didnt have the time to read it)

-- Good luck Knight

AfTeRmAtH

Are you good at math? Algebra makes a huge part of game programming. Books are a really good resource to learn from, so get your savings in order and head over to amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com, because not many bookstores have huge selections of game books. Learn c and c++(or, if it''s too hard, try java or basic first. I had to). From that point, you should be writing working(but useless) programs, and it should be simple to figure win32 programming and game programming. Whatever you do, don''t get discouraged, it''ll fall in place sometime. Also, you''re probably heading to college, right? Set aside some but not a huge chunk of time to do game stuff, like Saturday spend an hour or two on it and spend 10-30 minutes a day on it. Remember, it''s not a class. You can change it any time you want. Don''t let it encompass you and affect your grades. Second remember: have fun! In your spare time you can play fun games that might give you ideas for your game. Plan ahead for your game even if you''re not ready to start programming it. Better to have 100 ideas and get rid of 50 than to have 60 and get rid of 10. On a last note, start small. Don''t make your game right away-do a number of small projects first.

It''s nice to see people are still passionate about games and not about game profits.

It''s nice to see people are still passionate about games and not about game profits.

That is the best way to introduce yourself I have ever seen!!

Good luck with your dreams, I am turning 18 myself in july! cheers!

Edited by - hpox on May 21, 2001 5:30:37 PM

Hey Knight, great way to intro yourself, I am also 17 turning 18 in 3 months and I start college then to. I am starting c and learning c++ now to. You should learn c and the file i/o functions and write a text based game to start with. Send me a storyline and some ideas to: psychonaught_69@hotmail.com I''d really like to help with your game, maybe you can design and I can program? I am working on a text game engine as we speak this could be great. Once we do text we can move up to 2d and keep adding new features every adventure, and evetually get to cutting edge 3d some day

Hope to hear from ya
Cheers, Armed.

Scary, I am turing 18 in about 3 months too...

Here are some books that could come in handy. Get them from a local library, if possible:
C for Dummies Volume 1
C for Dummies Volume 2
C++ for Dummies
Windows Game Programming for Dummies

(Don''t worry, I don''t think you''re a dummie, its just that they are all relatively good books)

hey gaming knight.... wow thats the best intro of anyone ive ever seen... but your probably gonna be upset with waht i have to tell you... Youve got a long,long,long way to go. Its also a very hard way to go. You should probably keep your game in the back of your mind, but fisrt start programming little things. Get the little things bigger, and then bigger, then time for your game. I will probably never be a great game programmer.. because i jump at my goals. I started almost like you... me and soem friends wanted to make a game... we drew up pictures.. we made soem intro movies with some 3d software... we made music..but we had no idea how to make the game. After a while our great epic game seemed like a failure and we just dropped it. My advice to you is to learn from my (and many others) mistakes. take things slowly. Im not this great programmer but ill tell you how to get to atleast the point im at...

first off.. buy your self a nice graphing calculator.. this step is not mandatory.. but i started programming on a TI-83 and it was pretty easy and inexpensive. You cant really make much.. but after your done programming with that (take a month or two to learn most of the basic stuff), you have a nice calculator (hehe).

after this... your gonna have to speed things up a little. either learn C++ straight or if you were a little "ify" on that calculator thing... learn VisualBasic. After about 2-3 months of hardcore Visual Basic.. you should learn C++. Make sure you get the Visual C++ compiler (best supported if your running windows). Now C++ will seem like an extreme downgrade from Visual BAsic.. but believe me.. thats where the good stuff is. I suggest you get a good book that teaches you most of the basic features of c/c++. Make sure it goes over classes and structures and pointers and pretty much all the basic stuff that most beginner books will have(advanced books may assume you know this stuff). take about 2 months learning C++ (thats all the time youll need for the basic stuff)

Then get a book that teaches you some directX. I suggest "Windows Game Programming for Dummies" by Andre Lemothe... its inexpensive and very good. It teaches you windows programming and DirectX programming. That shoudl take you aobut a month or two to understand.

Then go straight to a direct3D book. Direct3D should not be too hard once you understand windows and the directX interface.

After direct3d, you may want to learn openGL so you will have a choice on which you prefer. both have their ups and downs.

Thats about the point im at.. but keep progressing.. and books are the best way (aside from maybe taking classes) to learn the stuff quick. If it werent for books.. id probably still be on a calculator right now!!!! Email me if you have any programming questions(im still a newbie so i can probably understand your problems)... xneo1101x@hotmail.com


oh yeah and the best advice i can give you... "it gets alot worse before it gets better"


I am soooo bad at this.