For advice on where beginners should go to start making games

Newbie & Debugging Questions
#1

Hi there good peoples of the internet!

I have been wanting to get into game programming(i saw a ludum dare video and it inspired me)for a long time so i started to learn java from a book which my dad bought many years ago. I understand the basics of Java and was wondering where to go from from there. i want to be able to create games and have used stuff like scratch(Which isn’t that good) but would like to go a step further and make proper games. Any advice would be much appreciated (Books, websites and etc):smiley:

#2

Perhaps you should take a look at http://www.GreenFoot.org/doc or even http://Processing.org . :slight_smile:

#3

Watch all these:
https://buckysroom.org/videos.php?cat=31

Then these:
https://buckysroom.org/videos.php?cat=25

…and eventually these:
https://buckysroom.org/videos.php?cat=30

…and bonus: These if you’re interested in using slick2d (I recommend LibGDX though, it’s more up to date)
https://buckysroom.org/videos.php?cat=54

If you watch all of those (at least the first two links) you’ll have a pretty solid groundwork of java fundamentals. It doesn’t cover everything, but it does knock out a huge amount of basics.

#4

What kind of games do you want to make?

I mean you can start making some games with very little - a text adventure only needs a couple of different functions and you can do them in any language!

Tell us a game you dream of making… :slight_smile:
Which was the ludum dare that inspired you?

#5
  1. Ok then, I will start out with a text based game. That’s sounds like a fantastic idea:D
  2. A game like realm of the mad god looks like it would be realllllly fun to create
  3. If I can recall correctly, it was called Jameson the pilot. I saw a video called top Ludum dare entries and I tried to find out about Ludum dare. It looked really appealing and I will want to take part in it soon:D
#6

Realm of the Mad God - “The First Ever Free-to-Play Bullet Hell MMO”. Lol - that does sound good :slight_smile:

Great thing about starting with a text game is you can get some basic code established and then evolve it up incrementally over time to add some graphics instead of descriptions, multi-player instead of single-player, whatever, bit by bit, but it’s always still kind of the same game!

#7

Best advice I can give: Start simple :wink:

#8

Building a text based game could be a good opportunity to focus on learning how to make good game play, rather than spending heaps of time focusing on how to do graphics too.

#9

One thing, don’t take thenewboston’s examples lightly. He tends to go against general naming conventions as well as other things.

#10

Read articles and tutorials rather than watch videos.

Haven’t watched a single video tutorial and I like to think I’m doing fine.

#11

True, his naming conventions arent perfect, but he fairly good at explaining how the basics work in a way anyone can understand… and that’s whats important. :smiley:

#12

Could you link us some articles and tutorials if possible? Thanks:D

#13

No one tutorial can teach you exactly how to do something. Chances are you’ll have to follow heaps of tutorials before you even get a basic game working.

You could try the cokeandcode tutorials. They’re not perfect, but I remember finding them quite helpful when I started.

Of course, not very many tutorials (including the above) are aimed at people new to programming. You will probably need to learn Java before you follow along tutorials.

For learning Java, follow these three in this order:

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/getStarted/index.html
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/index.html
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/essential/index.html

For learning programming, there’s not much we can help with. It’s something you have to work out yourself.

Finally, Google is very useful. Use it when you can to solve problems.

#14

I started out with zetcode’s Java2D Games Tutorial. They are written for beginners in mind. Also watch thenewboston’s videos.

#15

This is what helped me make my first little game! :slight_smile:

#16

Just had a fly over these, short and concise videos. I watched a few of them, stuff I knew but still.

Edit: Oh and yeah, he breaks quite a few Java formatting rules but meh.

#17

Yeah, he does break a few rules, mainly naming conventions. But if you keep that in mind, his explanations on how the basics work is great!