Where to Start for a Self-Teacher/Learner

[Zynux]

Hello, first time posting here. Not sure if this question is relevant for this website's purposes, but here goes.

A little backstory: Because of my passion for game creation all my life, I have written down, brainstormed, created stories and thought up many intricate game ideas and have dreams to create a game business in order to become a Game Designer/Director (entrepreneurship, basically).

However, I want to make sure that game creation is something that I really want to do. I don't want to go to school and spend all this money only to realize that maybe game creation is not up my ally.

Therefore, I figured that the best way to see if game creation is right for me is to try it out myself (since I am a great Self-teacher/learner) by starting small and taking baby steps in the programming department (maybe to create fan games or something). If I want to be a game director, I feel that I need to at least be able to understand and communicate with the programming side of game creation.

The problem is that I want to get into programming, but I have no programming knowledge whatsoever, but want to learn. You can say that I want to teach myself this to somewhat “prepare” for what is to come in the future (hopefully), but don't know where to begin. Therefore, I would definitely like some advice as to maybe books, websites, and other sources for someone who wants to self-teach themselves programming and game design.

Thanks in advance.

[yaustar]

http://www.codecademy.com/#!/exercises/0 is a good place to start for basics. Once you feel more comfortable writing code, start looking at alternate languages and libraries such as C# with XNA, Python with Alice, Unity and UDK.

http://www.khanacademy.org/#computer-science has some talks/exercises for computer science and you can pick up some more University material from here: http://www.openeducation.co.uk

[Zynux]

Wow! Fast reply.

Thanks for these links, I'll definitely check them out.

[nazer858]

http://inventwithpython.com/index.html

This is a great book that I've been going through myself. Code Academy and Khan Academy are both great, but at moments can be a bit overwhelming for those who are absolutely new to programming. The site is great because it really breaks down every single line of code and how things work.

http://jordanmechner.com/blog/2011/09/atomic/

I'd highly recommend reading this piece as well. A great outlook on game development, and lists some great resources for starting out at the bottom. Good luck, and I hope you find these links useful!

[davebost]

There is a lot of great content for building XNA-based games for Windows Phone over at http://create.msdn.com/en-us/education/gamedevelopment.

Also, check out the full catalog of Educational content at http://create.msdn.com/en-US/education/catalog/. You can filter the "Dev Content" area by various game development areas. You'll find a number of Hands-on labs that take you from File|New Project to completed game (Ex. Catapult Wars). There's also content there that spans building XNA games for Xbox and Windows as well.

Good luck!

[Destin Bales]

Great idea!

There are a ton of options and you will hear a lot of different answers to this question. In my opinion, the (free!) Stanford Programming Methodology online course is the best way to get started.

Read more about that and the (free!) Unity engine here:

http://www.ineedtomakegames.com/how-...xperience.html

Best,

Destin

[tsloper]

Originally Posted by Destin Bales

Great idea!

To whose idea are you replying?

[Destin Bales]

Originally Posted by tsloper

To whose idea are you replying?

Hi Tsloper,

I like how the original poster has decided to get his hands dirty to see if he really wants to make games, and to do so he's looking into learning a bit of programming.

However, I want to make sure that game creation is something that I really want to do.

I think that is a great idea. A less attractive alternative could be to spend a lot of time and money on school before knowing whether or not it is the right career for you.

Best,

Destin