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LOCKED 7/11/2012 2:35:50 PM, Old PRE-ALPHA topic

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109 months ago by
Richy

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This is kind of a weird question, but I'm aiming it at literally anybody who has an answer to give.

I'm an aspiring programmer in visual basic (shitty, I know, but it's all that my school would teach)

long story short, my teacher was useless, I'm lost for the next step education wise and I'm just wondering how some of you people got into programming and what you did to get where you are now?

I hope I get some answers, cause I would love nothing more to get into games development, as it's been an ambition for years!! (Coming from an 18 year old, that is saying something ;])

thanks a lot for reading guys, I look forward to hearing what you've got to say =D

Richy
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109 months ago by
muggsbud
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:)
I have been trying to pick up programming for 7 years now, ever since i learned how computers work. (i'm 17)
The first experience i had with code was when i played roblox about 2 years ago. (still can't use lua, but then again, no one ever taught me how and I'm no good with self teaching.)

thus far I have a very basic start in java, C++ and visual basic. i suck at visual basic and am just learning c++.

I'm aiming to go to a game design school. most likely full sail university ( fullsail.edu ).

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109 months ago by
DrVagax

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I am going to a game design school too!
But i am not going to do the programmers way, currently i am creating levels in UDK.
And i am writing games (concept, name, gameplay, art) 2 games are done
- The Thunders: prologue
- Dark Light

I could share some with the community over here :)

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109 months ago by
Gemberkoekje

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I'm doing the International Game Architecture and Design course in Breda, the Netherlands. More precisely, the Programming department.

I've been playing on a Commedore since I was 3, and I've been 'programming' (making shapes n such) since I was 5.

My first real programming experience was in PHP/MySQL, where I learned to make dynamic web sites.

Then I got through QBasic/Pascal/Visual Basic/Delphi and now I'm a hardcore C++ coder, though still learning every day.

You can find my portfolio here:
http://www.gemblog.nl

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109 months ago by
mrcalhou

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I think the first program I ever really got into was Babylon 5 when I was little and my daddy watched it...Oh, wait...

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108 months ago by
sloder

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Im at the most basic of basic of programing( i dont think anything can be more basic). How i got into it? There is a cool game that alows you to build everything. It's called Gmod. There was an addon to this game wchich alowed you to use gates and all that wire stuff (addon is called "Wire". Wait a moment....). and after some time a chip called "Advance expression 2" appeared. It was programing chip. It alows you to make your contraption fly while looking like a superman when its made out of sticks. Thats where it started for me.

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108 months ago by
Alpha502

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i have been trying to learn to program for a very lond time...what is the best (free) scripting language you can download?

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108 months ago by
Richy

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DrVagax:
That'd be good if you could share some =] seems interesting :D

Alpha502:
The best language to learn on (imo) is visual basic 6, though it's not very versatile... I believe there are free compilers for C++ but if you want to get into any language, and you're too skinflint to pay for it, then torrents are the best way... you really should pay though, but Visual Basic is made my Microsoft who've got more money than most countries of the world... xD I whole hardheartedly condone stealing from them!!

Everybody, thanks for the replies :D It's been interesting reading them, and I'm looking forward to reading more from people, if there are any.

Thanks guys!!!

Richy
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108 months ago by
Alpha502

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the reason im not paying for it is because i have no money

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108 months ago by
D4rkFr4g

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I started off in Keyboarding class back when I was a freshman. I could already type fast so I spent most of the class digging through QBasic code for a bunch of old games. I reverse engineered a snake game and added a bunch of features such as a theme song, title screen and added cheat codes and other stuff. I had a lot of fun doing it so I started to dig into it more.

The best way to start is to get a programming in C++ book. If your strapped for cash you can find them usually at the library or at bargain book stores. I don't recommend torrenting software especially if your considering programming as a profession. After all you may be the one that people will be stealing off of down the road. It's a really easy language to pick up and once you get the basics down you can easily switch over to C#, C, Java, etc. Jumping straight into Visual basic may be easier but if you don't understand what's going on in the background it's hard to fully understand your code.

After learning some basics get a 2d game design book. It'll help teach the basic structure of writing any game. At that point you should be able to code any old school Atari game fairly quickly. I think I coded Pacman from scratch first which took about 2 weeks. I also did asteroids afterwards and it took about 3 days. You'll get better with practice.

Once you understand the basic 2d games you'll have a good start. After all a good percentage of current games being published are in 2d. Some may use 3d models but are still 2d

Going into 3d requires a bit more math knowledge, Trigonometry, Calculus, Linear Algebra, etc. So make sure to pick up these skills if you want to get into 3d stuff.

What helps most is practice. Find some open source code and modify it to find out what happens, play around with it. Recode an old game and add new features. Save your code and use it as a learning experience down the road. Have fun with it.

I'm currently taking classes for a CS Major so I'm learning about advanced Data Structures and Algorithms. Efficiency and all that. Programming efficiency and proofs gets a little boring for me but I know it's worthwhile.

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108 months ago by
TheVillageIdiot

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Gotta agree with D4rtkFr4g. Learn C++... then it's all about practice.

Dont waste your time with the others... they cant do much, and will only hold you back when you feel the need to progress to a new language - like c++. :P

Best off to start with a small project... any kind - and digging straight into programming a game probably isn't the first thing you should choose to code... but it'll do, as long as it's say 2D and not too complicated.

Then it's just finding another project, or increasing the complexity of the first one.

Playing around with other peoples source code can also be usefull... but it still means you need to have an idea of what it does and why.

Regards,

TheVillageIdiot

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108 months ago by
Seranis

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I'm not on the game-coding level, but I did two three-week "you did well on the act for a 7th grader" CS courses in the summers of middle school because I've always been interested in how they work, and I'm now in my junior year of Computer Engineering(half electrical engineering, half cs). They've covered C and C++ because they can't seem to make up their minds, but more in C++.

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108 months ago by
DrakeFox

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I started getting a bit into programming on my C64 looking through BASIC programs and figuring out what the different things meant and putting small games together for myself.

Was quite an interesting experience when I started to have English lessons in school and realising that IF and THEN and ELSE actually meant something other than something to write to make it do this stuff.

But wasn't until had a bit of education in Java I started making bigger projects than small snake/artillery/text adventure games.

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108 months ago by
voodoo6358

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I just ordered two C++ programming books off the internet.. be at the library in 2 weeks.... any tips for programming? and muggsbud, if you played roblox then youl be sad to hear that the developers are ruining it. all their updates that are suppposed to "fix" it make it slower and crappier.......... dont copy them.....k?

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108 months ago by
muggsbud
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I haven't even looked over there in about a year and a half. They've been heading down that road for a while, charging insane amounts of cash for anything extra worth worth it's time (but not the money), and the places that people were making were stuck in 6 archetypes. most of them were extremely broken. :(

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LOCKED 7/11/2012 2:35:50 PM, Old PRE-ALPHA topic

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