game programming
How to Get Started With Game Programming
First of all, learn how to program. It is very essential to have a understanding of all the basic concepts regarding programming. If you don’t know how to program, I would recommend starting with Python. It is a wonderful language that takes away the low level details for the programmer and allows him to focus on concepts. It is also a very fun language, I’m sure you’ll love to program in it. I picked it up in just 3 days (although I had previous programming experience).
Once you have picked up a language and know how to program, you need to decide which language you want to program the games in. That really depends on the kind of stuff that you want to do: engine development or game development. Engine developers create the core of the game, the engine, the stuff that powers up the actual game. If you choose this route, you will have to deal with all the low level details of programming. For this, you should pick up C or C++ since most of the engines are coded in these languages. You should also be very disciplined about memory allocation/deallocation and code optimization techniques.
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Game Programming – Where Do I Begin?
Since you are reading this I will assume that you have an interest in game programming or are at least curious about it. What is game programming and how does that differ from other types of programming? This is one of the most common questions I see when it comes to game development and rightly so. The techniques for programming games are as different from application programming as water colors are to acrylic paints. We will look at this from two points of view; the non-programmer who is just starting out and the experienced programmer who is looking at game development for the first time.
If you are completely new to programming you will find the information in this article helpful on the beginning of your journey. Before we can look at where to begin, I think it is prudent to look at “if” we should begin. Please don’t take this as negative because it is not intended to be that way. Like any other skill, programming is learned through practice and honed through and excessive amount of practice. Many novice programmers don’t understand how much work is truly involved in not only learning the syntax of a programming language but also in manipulating it to create a game.
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