I have to agree - if you take it easy, game programming isn''t too hard and it''s a lot of fun. Personally, I started out programming properly four years ago in Visual Basic, and after some fiddling around I wrote an asteroids clone. Lookng back on it now it looks lame, but at the time it felt incredible to have these little vector graphic rocks and ships flying around my screen.

Over the years I''ve learnt more and more, and now I''m writing a full 3d game engine. I''m sure I could have learnt quicker if I wasn''t so damn lazy and didn''t have so many lectures, but learning something as complex as programming always takes time.

I started about 10 months ago, I am just about to finish my first game. when I started I knew nothing about c, c++ or windows. i still have a lot to learn, but i love it. I am also doing this solo and out of books. sometimes its hard, but when you get close to finishing your first game its worth it.

Heh.. while I agree with most of what is being said here, I think it''s a bit of an exaggeration to say "game programming is very easy" and that only the learning is hard.

The point is, it *is* challenging and hard at times, but that doesn''t mean you can''t or shouldn''t try to do it.

If you think it''s "very easy" all the time, then you aren''t pushing yourself as hard as you could.

Actually, it all depends on ye'' experience before u take on game programming. If u''ve Intermmediate C/C++ language experience plus Intermmediate Win32 API/MFC and COM programming knowledge and pick up a great book like "Tricks of the Windows.....Gurus", u''ll find that u can understand a lot of stuff, in the first few chapters. For example, allow me to boast a bit. I can finish Chapter 2, 3, 4 in 3 hours, 4 hours, 2 hours each respectively. Chapter 5(about COM introduction) isn''t gonna be at all tough for COM programmers. If any chapter in the book is gonna get real tough, it''s gonna be Chapter 7 or 8, and yes, yes! The last 4 Dark Masters of LaMothe : Chapter 11, 12, 13 and 14. :-D

It''s always better to have good programming knowledge before going into game programming, cos'' the later parts like AI and Trigonometry can be daunting. :-D Good luck, kids!!!!!!

"The feeling of mastering and understanding hard stuff in Game Programming is just like the feeling u get when u perform an Air-Walk in the basketball court, soaring.....and everyone''s watching in awe......."

It has to do with how well your experience and skills match up with the type of game you want to develop. For me personally, writing a game like Tetris would be easy, but developing the type of game I would like to see is almost overwhelming.

For your average non-programmer turned web developer, developing most any semi-complex game is going to require a great deal of study, and practice. For your typical computer scientist with a great deal of ideas plus knowledge in other fields, developing a game can be taken in stride with little complications.

Hi,

Ignorant people may laugh at simple games, point out flaws in simple paratrooper, paddle etc. Trust me you may not even know the the ingredients of a game after some 3-4 years of programming, but definitely you will be in position to logically think how to work your way around programming. Yes it is a long road, but patience and determination pays off. So if you don''t know programming put off making games for some time.

Try text games - tic-tac-toe, hare and turtle, towers of hanoi(don;t think this is a game) etc.

quote:

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Original post by JMpgwr88
Hello. I am fairly new to programming and am interested in game programming specificly. I''ve been searching the net for tutorials to get a feel of what its like before i spend $50 for a game programing book. The tutorials I so shocked and confussed me. It seemed like endless lines of code all for something simple to happen. So my question to all you is: Was it hard to start off and is it hard to code? Also I dont know any other friends that program or anything of the sort so I''ll be going solo. I dont want to spend time and money for something that will only make life harder.

Thank you for your input.

~Jake

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Alright, I started out quite a while back and I can tell you one thing, at first, I didn''t understand anything not even how to create a windows program. Then, I started pushing myself to learn windows programming and I got into it fairly quickly.( I had 10 years of DOS programming experience though so I know the language pretty well but I''m still learning. ) Yes, game programming is hard, You have to know the language you are using pretty well. If you don''t, your project will die out. ( Trust me on that one ).... Learn C/C++ before even reading about game programming or you will just burn yourself out...



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Game programming can be very hard if you start with a big project in mind. If you choose something a little bit easier it will be much easier. One book I suggest you is "Trick of the windows game programming guru" if you want to do your games working on windows. But, if you''re not familiar with windows programming it could be a good idea to start in dos mode. The point is that you don''t want to spend all your time on game trying to understand how windows work, you just want to discover new algorithms or how games work. What I suggest you is to start by doing a very simple thing like a character that can move left and right on the screen and can shoot an enemy or even easier, try to do a pong-like game. The first game I ever did was a clone of pong. So just remember to start with a simple project. Good luck.

I am still currently new to the whole game programming thing. There is one thing i have learned while teaching myself OpenGL. I am only 15 and found that if you want it enough and love and have fun w/ what you do the question of "is it hard" doesn''t really exist. Cause i now love math and have to learn stuff like Cross Product, Dot Product, ect. and havn''t even been to Geometry. You can teach yourself anything you want if you want it bad enough. Now i love games and i love programming so i want to be a good programmer and hope to make a good 3d game engine. Well also another thing is the have a friend (in phisical world or online) to help you through some of it and help each other w/ math and logic. If you want to get into my ICQ Number is: 54663790. now keep in mind i am still new but if anyone that is new or advanced want to help me out or be helped just message me! : ^ Þ

- Lurking

JMpgwr88, if u are completely new to programming in general then i suggest you start out with Visual Basic. Visual Basic will give you the basic knowledge of what programming is all about. It is the easiest of all programming languages and it is fun also. It is meant for making Window based application (not games). Although it is possible to make 3d games in VB but it is not meant for games. But i say you start learning VB and you will have some sort of idea what programming is.
To be good at programming you gotta spend time making small programs and make something that inspires you or you want to..no matter what language you use to program(don''t think you can''t..beacause trust me you will finally finish it even if you don''t how to get started unless u remain determined). Internet is place information; you will find everything that you u need. That''s how i learn. I am a high school student. I have no tutors or anyone to tell me. I ask around other experts on the net and read tutorials when i get stuck with something. Like a month ago i decided to make a Screen Saver in VB. I didn''t know how to get started so i went around reading tutorials and exploring my previous code and in 3 weeks i was done. I learned many many things that i didn''t know in VB. And it felt so good at the end when i was done and saw my final code running.
F22 Lightning 3 Screen Saver
http://www.angelfire.com/fm/strikernr/f22l3saver.htm


StrikeR