Which would be the better route? I want to learn to make a 2d game, much in the style of old pokemon games, the main reason being it's for a friend, but I am interested in the practice as a whole. I've looked at tutorials but IMO they're crud each and every one. not a single one explains what certain things do, they just say things like "now lets create a game loop, it will loop through all the things the game needs" but no mention of how thats accomplished. so I learn more towards a book for hiring a teacher, but I wanted the opinion of others.

What do you guys think?

PS if you have any good

tutorials

books

or know/are somone who can be hired as a teacher

please post that too :D

By the time most people enter the professional world the have done all of those.

That is, they have hired teachers by attending a college or university, they have purchased and read and studied individual books, and they have read and followed hundreds of online tutorials.

There is much to learn, and more to know than one person can learn. Learn from as many ways as you can.

I would suggest buy a book. The reason for this is very simple. If you go to school for about 1-2 years you will always have the same content written in a book. The teacher will follow that content even if its out dated. Example: When i was in school learning to design websites. I was told to use <table></table> for structuring things also to always use HTML 4.1 as a DOCTYPE. Later when i got a job ( This was 3 months after) my future boss asked me to deisgn a simple website. I did so with tables of course. He then denied and said we use <div></div> and not tables . Also we are a uptodate Company we use the HTML 5 Doctype.

The conclusion is if you go to a school pay 20'000 USD or whatever your currency is and never move forward from the old state of programing. Then you be left behind which most IT Specialists are scared of.

Then again if your still young (around 16-18) and can choose a path to go and you wish to program games. Pick IT Specialist. This may sound bad since you mostly wont work with games but mostly make websites or other programs while you work. But this is your learning phase and when you bypassed that phase and still have your mindset on video games. You will do the same as me and learn to program other things in the free time like me :P. Just keep this in mind "If you want something, don't just think about it. Work! Do something! Actions speak louder then Words do!"

If you really want to learn I'll take you under my wing teach you a but recommend books etc

If only there was a new cool Java Game Programming book available with source code. Oh wait...

Fundamental 2D Game Programming with Java

by Timothy M. Wright

Link: http://amzn.com/1305076532

http://www.indiegameprogramming.com/new_book_information.php

It was sure nice of them to write this.

Heeeey, I see what you did there!

Pesky moderators, skirting around having to post in Your Announcements!

Heeeey, I see what you did there!

Pesky moderators, skirting around having to post in Your Announcements!

I did post in "Your Announcements" when it came out, but that was a while ago, so...

Frob is right: all routes are equally important. When it comes to learning, the more senses that you activate, the better.

Sometimes, though, you need to be coached into following the right path, otherwise you'll easily end up aimlessly fluttering about between books and on-line tutorials and whatnot.

Not always, of course. It just takes more discipline to autodidact.

Since we don't really have a background about you,I would start with the programmign language,(If you do not know everything about java yet) I would recommend you to read (and read every single page attentively) of the book "Head First Java, 2nd Edition" http://www.amazon.com/Head-First-Java-2nd-Edition/dp/0596009208.

It really explains and teaches you about java, unlike other books which are more like dictionaries than teaching books, then after you're done with it, watch some of Bucky Roberts (thenewboston on youtube)'s videos , he explains in details when he teaches and he cuts it in small videos so you can take your time.

Once you've mastered the basics you can then move on to watching tutorials on how to do a certain thing and understanding what they're saying and it will come by itself afterwards.