Hello everyone. I just joined GD.Net earlier today. It feels great to be here among you all.

I want to be a game developer, to be a bit more precise, a game programmer. I love programming and coding. I am very serious and passionate about it and I really want to see myself making a career out of it.

I am a working professional and I have a good working knowledge of Java and I know the basics of C, C++ and Python.

I would like to point out that I have gone through the FAQ section. I just want some guidance in this field. I have no prior experience in game development but I have experience in programming.

1. What programming language should I concentrate on?

2. Should I start with a game engine like Unity or Unreal? Or something else?

Thanks a lot.

If you already know how to program, then I recommend starting with an engine. You might consider Unreal since you know the basics of C++, but I'll go ahead and suggest you check out the Unity tutorial videos done by the Unity team since they're so useful. I haven't used Unreal so you might want to look over some tutorials for them and see which ones YOU like better. Once you decide on your engine, you'll be able to determine which language you should concentrate on.

Once you have your engine decided, you should take the awesome-epic-amazing idea that you have for a game... and put it off to the side for a very long time. Make simple games to learn the skills necessary for making your cool game. Take a look at this article, it tells you which games you should make first and why.
http://www.gamedev.net/page/resources/_/technical/game-programming/your-first-step-to-game-development-starts-here-r2976

Welcome to GameDev,
- Eck

If you already know how to program, then I recommend starting with an engine. You might consider Unreal since you know the basics of C++, but I'll go ahead and suggest you check out the Unity tutorial videos done by the Unity team since they're so useful. I haven't used Unreal so you might want to look over some tutorials for them and see which ones YOU like better. Once you decide on your engine, you'll be able to determine which language you should concentrate on.

Once you have your engine decided, you should take the awesome-epic-amazing idea that you have for a game... and put it off to the side for a very long time. Make simple games to learn the skills necessary for making your cool game. Take a look at this article, it tells you which games you should make first and why.
http://www.gamedev.net/page/resources/_/technical/game-programming/your-first-step-to-game-development-starts-here-r2976

Welcome to GameDev,
- Eck

Hi Eck,

Thanks a lot for the kind and helpful reply. Whoever I asked previously, suggested me to start the basics with Unity because its a bit easier to work with than Unreal. So, I will try to brush up C# a bit first and then dive into Unity basics. Having done that, I will try to start programming some basic and small games which you have suggested me (from the link you shared).

Hope I can do something good in this field in the future.

Thanks a lot Eck :)

Once you have your engine decided, you should take the awesome-epic-amazing idea that you have for a game... and put it off to the side for a very long time. Make simple games to learn the skills necessary for making your cool game. Take a look at this article, it tells you which games you should make first and why.
http://www.gamedev.net/page/resources/_/technical/game-programming/your-first-step-to-game-development-starts-here-r2976

^^^ This!

As for language and engines, I recommend a different route.

Try C++ and SDL.

https://www.libsdl.org/

Tutorials are here: http://lazyfoo.net/tutorials/SDL/index.php

Game Engines are great to speed up initial development, but with something like Unity, you don't have source code, and need an understanding of what all those black-box components are doing so you can use them. That is really hard to do if you've never put a sprite on the screen, or captured input, or messed with intersection testing and collision detection.

I want to be a game developer, to be a bit more precise, a game programmer.

When you say this do you mean as opposed to lets say a graphics programmer? Or do you mean it more abstractly as in I want to program games?

My advice is, when starting out pick a project you can complete in a week. Once you've gotten good at making small (pong sized) games in a week move onto something bigger you can produce in a month (a simple platformer) then on to bigger and better.

Your next project should always challenge you to learn something you don't know how to do yet.

Also, learn a scripting language such as lua, python, etc. These are indispensable in game development and will make you a better all round developer.

Good luck in the road ahead!