hello gamers and developers,

i am 19 and a new member here and i joined because i want to join the field of programming and developing video games

and i recently joined BS

i want to ask that which thing or which language should i've to focus or please guide me about the fields of video gaming like graphics coding designing etc

please guide me in detail so i can choose the future studies accordingly

currently the key subject i am learning is C++

and also i want to learn the relation about engines and coding like yeah i know i'll learn all the languages in my studies but they wont teach me how to use cryengine or unreal engine etc etc

so i want to know is it good if i start learning of creating video games by using engines without knowledge of coding? is it possible

and i am having an aim for software engineering

then what type of gaming field i can join?

Regards,

Learn a LOW level programming language (C is good) REALLY well. Now you can learn most other languages in 2-3 days. Learn a few weirder ones that aren't C-like (Scheme,Lisp come to mind). C++ which is what you're currently learning is fine, but I (And many other hardcore professional devs) want people to understand memory management and if the lowest programming language you know is C++ you will be lost at a lot of things that have become recently important in mobile game devleopment.

Relations to game engines to coding : In essence game engines are like giant libraries to make games. Some are much more complex and bigger then others, but in essence it's a tool you use to make your game that takes care of things you don't want to code yourself. Which is fine, because we wouldn't be very far if every time we wanted to make a game we had to code our own graphics rendering and physics (Though people that can and do, do this, are awesome).

Starting learning to make games without coding.. Is this possible, yes? There are plenty of plug and play game creation gui driven game engines that hide all the code. But I would buckle down and learn coding, cause you'll need it sooner rather then later.

If you become a software engineer, you can uh, join any gaming "Field". Most software engineers become some kind of coder/programmer/software engineer in the industry. It's a pretty generic role. I myself programmed in the game industry on many games whose skills directly correlated to what I'm doing now in the scientific/medial field instead of games. So you'll have plenty of options. Also, joining the industry as a programmer is probably the path of least resistance due to the lack of software engineers in general in the world to meet the extreme demand.

Learn a LOW level programming language (C is good) REALLY well. Now you can learn most other languages in 2-3 days. Learn a few weirder ones that aren't C-like (Scheme,Lisp come to mind). C++ which is what you're currently learning is fine, but I (And many other hardcore professional devs) want people to understand memory management and if the lowest programming language you know is C++ you will be lost at a lot of things that have become recently important in mobile game devleopment.

Relations to game engines to coding : In essence game engines are like giant libraries to make games. Some are much more complex and bigger then others, but in essence it's a tool you use to make your game that takes care of things you don't want to code yourself. Which is fine, because we wouldn't be very far if every time we wanted to make a game we had to code our own graphics rendering and physics (Though people that can and do, do this, are awesome).

Starting learning to make games without coding.. Is this possible, yes? There are plenty of plug and play game creation gui driven game engines that hide all the code. But I would buckle down and learn coding, cause you'll need it sooner rather then later.

If you become a software engineer, you can uh, join any gaming "Field". Most software engineers become some kind of coder/programmer/software engineer in the industry. It's a pretty generic role. I myself programmed in the game industry on many games whose skills directly correlated to what I'm doing now in the scientific/medial field instead of games. So you'll have plenty of options. Also, joining the industry as a programmer is probably the path of least resistance due to the lack of software engineers in general in the world to meet the extreme demand.

hmmmm

so what do you think i've to start learning video gaming development along studies or i've to wait for completing of my studies and then after learning programming languages i've to start job?

if i should start learning video gaming along then what to do? which engine is best for me?

i want to have my first ever game 2D

like meat boy or limbo

but i dont want that much graphics and then not enough actions only jump and using of arrow keys

just want to make my first step in gaming development

then that will be my first step and in the final year i could polish that for the project if that will be really good :/

but please guide me :)

A question that comes to mind is why do you even want to use a game engine for a simple game you are describing in the last post?

I am coming from Java field of view and I can tell you that Java gives you the ability to deploy a form that has the ability to be drawn on with almost no preparation (talking about 20 lines of code).

As I am a self taught programmer I find it easier to learn programming if you start with a high-level programming language (one could put java in this basket) but there is a down side to it.

Until you don't learn a low-level language (like C) you won't have a lot of an idea of what kind of memory usage your program has. Also, low-level languages have the ability to control the way your hardware does things (linking to memory locations, reading from it,...).

As a final statement I would suggest you first make a decision whether you like the speed at which you are learning new stuff at school or not. If you do then just follow and sooner or later you will learn enough to create some of the basic games. But if it is too slow for you then I would suggest you pick a seperate language than the one you are learning at school as this will give you freedom of what and when you learn. There are things teachers will tell you they don't want to see in the code and won't explain it well even though it could be a useful thing (also they don't have all the time in the world to teach you). When you decide which language you want to go with you should learn the basics (sooner or later you will realize that things like variable types, if statements and different loops appear in most of languages and only the syntax is a bit different from language to language). This way you will be able to read examples of code from which you can learn more in depth stuff. To finish off I would say for me the best way to learn was by trial and error (that reminds me of another thing... Learn to read errors that pop up in console. Don't be affraid to ask Google of what he thinks your problem is as most likely at start you will be met by the basic errors that are well documented on the web).

PS: I am currently working on a 2D old-school Snake game (which for the most part covers everything from rendering on the screen to keyboard control and stuff like that). It is written in Java but as soon as you figure out the basics you should be able to at least have a clue what a clum of code means even if you didn't learn that language. If you want to get access to the source code (or even Eclipse environment setup I use) just email me (I think email should be in my profile) and I will do my best to give you what you need/want.

PPS: If you have any other questions please leave them here

Have a nice day/night,

JKKDev

Java and C# are a fairly good choice to learn programming with. You can worry about structuring memory later.

In all fairness, C++ can be a benefit to learn first if you do it right, which is hard to do because learning to program is a wicked problem. This is why it's easier to use high-level programming languages because they make choices for you and you generally don't risk making bad decisions off the get-go. When you learn C++ after you've learned Java, you will have the opportunity to compare how Java or C# do things differently, and it'll be of great benefit for you to reflect on why that is. If you intend to learn programming as a career, take it seriously and treat every program as an opportunity for learning (not necessarily experimenting, but learning for sure).

An engine is a piece of software that provides for you the mechanics for getting things done and you just have to provide it your parameters (that's a very basic explanation). It's a little bit like using a synthesizer to produce a new sound by twiddling with the knobs.

thats what the problem is need a complete guide

will you guys please recommend me a newbie bo*bie beginners book? in which i can learn about video game development and all its relation with languages and what i can do in it

i dont want a book to learn languages as in my studies almost all the languages are included

i just want to start a book for gaming to learn it along so i can make a proper way for myself :/

hope you guys are understanding my problems :)

I get what you are saying. I have never read a book about basics of a game so I can't recommend any but not long ago I've seen a topic in this very section which had a graph of parts of game engine and also some recommended books which are mostly talking about different aspects of a game and not about programming it. You might want to take a look through posts here (I think it was in relation to how game engines are made or how to make one).

so what do you think i've to start learning video gaming development along studies or i've to wait for completing of my studies and then after learning programming languages i've to start job?

Do not wait, start now.

However it all depends on what you want to code. I believe the best way to learn is to actually do the thing you want to do. So start making games. Even if they are simple and easy ones. You'll need some experience, so do some simple games like Pong, scrollers etc. You can use some engine, you can try SDL too - it's easy to use and you're studying C++, so i don't believe you'll have much problems. Try to learn various key concepts and techniques for writing video games. For example, some day you might want to make a unit find it's path through a tiled grid, learn how to implement an A* pathfinding algorithm now rather than later. The more problems you encounter and solve, the better you'll get at what you do. Even though I would advise you to check some engines as a beginner, I would advise you against working with things as "black boxes" - I believe you need to know what you're doing even if superficially. So some physics, math, 2d/3d theory won't hurt. It's good to have at least some idea about what's going on when you do something ( example: rotate an image, draw to the screen, resolve collisions etc.)

Good luck in learning and don't give up on your dreams.

^^

thnx

yes nice idea i'll try to create pong kinda game and then will try to edit n edit n edit like mods

maybe its gonna best way to learn ^_^