Hi Guys! I have a dream, and in this dream i become a Game Developer xD

I Study every day to bring this dream to true...

I Have knowledge in Java, Javascript, C++ and C#.

And now I'm faced with a cruel doubt: Focus on Directx develop or search for a engine?

My initial goal is to develop gamens in 2D, Like Super Nintendo games.

What you guys suggest me?

Since now, my sincere thanks

Hi there Kaedo and welcome to the forum,

First: It's very cool that you chose the path of making games and

followed your dream, I hope you won't ever regret it.

Well it's a big advantage that you already know how to program.

And because your dream is to make 2D games, I won't suggest you

to go for Directx or any other big 3D engine like Unreal Engine 4, as they focus

more on 3D than they do on 2D.

I would suggest you to first choose a programming library. (Something that

has many programming classes and functions, etc. particulary for game development).

Two of those that are being used widely are:

-SFML(http://www.sfml-dev.org/)

-SDL/SDL2(https://www.libsdl.org/)

Personally I like SFML a bit more, but as the difference in use isn't

that big and as everyone has it's own preferences, I suggest you to take

a look to some documentation and tutorials and see if the library is compatible

with your favorite programming language (if you have one).

About engines: I don't know very much about 2D engines, because

I personally like it to build as much of a game by myself, but for what I know,

RPG maker (http://www.rpgmakerweb.com/) would suit you good, but I won't

suggest you to use it, as the scripting language is Ruby.

If you know which of the above things you want to use, you can start learning.

For now, put the whole Super Mario games thing aside for a while, as this

probably won't be the first game you make. In fact, it is. in my opinion, the best and

the most useful to start with small games. (for example, start with pong, then astroid, then

tetris, then breakout, then a small platformer, etc. Or something like that) and post the

source code here on GameDev.net, so that more experienced people can review it, if you want to.

Then, if you think you have made enough small games and gained enough experience, try something bigger.

(Maybe already your game idea, maybe something less hard for a while). Make it a little bigger everytime

and gain more and more experience every time, until you have your game.

I hope this helped you a bit, if you have any questions, you can ofcourse

always ask them here or in a PM.

Good Luck,

RaoulJWZ

As you're already experienced in c# check out monogame. It's a game framework written in c# which is very good at 2D graphics.

Good luck in the road ahead!

Game development is a broad field. So focus on what you want to do. I want to get into writing graphics code. For that reason I focused on learning directx and opengl and how to build a graphics engine based on that. I would not recommend that the everyone though. If you would rather focus on game design, then stick with a game engine. If you would rather learn the technical side of things, then write you own engine code. Just keep in mind that if you do that, don't expect your physics engine, graphics engine, or ai to be as good. At least not at first. Don't try to make a fully featured game engine right away. Start simple. I think starting 2D is a great idea. That 3rd dimension adds a lot of complexity and can sometimes make a game worse.

Libgdx would be good as 2d java crossplatform framework for you.

Welcome!

I'm in the same boat as you. At the moment I'm learning the SDL library and drilling into coding a 2D game from scratch to really gain an appreciation of how a game fits together. I'm also learning Unity because it's popular, good for prototyping and I feel an engine could help streamline the development process in the future.

Hope this helps!

Everyone gave awesome answers, but I'd like to promote Java2D here too, since you mentioed you have some experience with Java. The user Glass_Knife here on GDN have both written a book, and a really great tutorial on it, and you won't be worrying about dependencies :)