another newbie question

!-Megaman-! · Post by **!-Megaman-!** » Wed May 05, 2010 12:12 am

Hi

I been wondering, how many time do i have to spend on learning the engine and the language, to actually start codin` a project freely?

Im an 3d/musician artist, and kinda hopin to make my own game someday:-)) so what do I start with first and whats the time cost for the whole learning curve?)

Thx, much appreciated!)

grunt · Post by **grunt** » Wed May 05, 2010 2:51 am

Well, know how to program in the first place can get you a head start. Any language will help you with the basic ideas of loops, functions, arrays etc... Know c++ before you start will be even more of a help.

I had to learn those before I attempted to program irrlicht stuff. Irrlicht does have the lowest learning curve through.

!-Megaman-! · Post by **!-Megaman-!** » Thu May 06, 2010 12:14 am

grunt wrote:Well, know how to program in the first place can get you a head start. Any language will help you with the basic ideas of loops, functions, arrays etc... Know c++ before you start will be even more of a help.

I had to learn those before I attempted to program irrlicht stuff. Irrlicht does have the lowest learning curve through.

Okey, but how many time is there I must spend on C++ in order to code well, it may be strictly individual, but still...?

Kalango · Post by **Kalango** » Thu May 06, 2010 2:35 am

Well, c++ (and most of the programming languages) is a bit hard for starters to code a game right away. But there are actualy some books that teach programming in a game driven method. Instead, imo, i think you should start with easy stuff like game makers or game-ready enviroments like unity engine or something similar (since you're an artist you could focus a bit more on art and gameplay than with low level game engine building from scratch).
But answering your question, i think with a lot of will and hard work you can start coding games in less than 6 months ( i mean a lot of hard work...and research about programming models, data types, computer graphics, etc).

!-Megaman-! · Post by **!-Megaman-!** » Thu May 06, 2010 6:19 am

Kalango wrote:Well, c++ (and most of the programming languages) is a bit hard for starters to code a game right away. But there are actualy some books that teach programming in a game driven method. Instead, imo, i think you should start with easy stuff like game makers or game-ready enviroments like unity engine or something similar (since you're an artist you could focus a bit more on art and gameplay than with low level game engine building from scratch).

Yeah, I know about the books and it isnt hard to find information nowadays.
As for game makers I dont really like them in the first place cause, they are so restricted as to what you can make there (no?).In order to start making a game faster, I plan to stick with an single engine and learn every aspect of how its functioning, etc...instead of coding a new one:-)

Kalango wrote: But answering your question, i think with a lot of will and hard work you can start coding games in less than 6 months ( i mean a lot of hard work...and research about programming models, data types, computer graphics, etc).

Thx for the answer! I guess it certainly something worthy to know ecpecially, I think, 6 months is not a big deal.

Acki · Post by **Acki** » Thu May 06, 2010 12:00 pm

!-Megaman-! wrote:In order to start making a game faster, I plan to stick with an single engine and learn every aspect of how its functioning, etc...instead of coding a new one:-)

that could be a problem though...

remember Irrlicht is just a graphics engine !!!
you'll have to deal with sounds, physics, AI and maybe networking at minimium, too !!!
With such game makers you have all this packed into one solution, although I don't like them too...

with Irrlicht you'll have to use separate libs for all additional aspects !!!

xDan · Post by **xDan** » Thu May 06, 2010 2:00 pm

I would say just get started on your game and then as you progress it will become evident what you need to learn

Having said that, it might be demoralising if you go down the wrong track and have to rework stuff as your knowledge improves. So it might be wise to practise by making some smaller games first before your magnum opus!

But learning to do programming well is a huge task, think how long it took you to be proficient as an artist or musician... I guess it depends on what type/scale of game you want to make too. Maybe in 6 months you'll have the skills to make a mini game of some sort. But to make, say, a first person shooter with physics and such, is a monumental effort. I've been coding C++ on and off in my spare time for maybe 8 years and I'm only just approaching that level.

You might look at things like Unity3D or UDK, if you want to make a game and not an engine. Presumably you can make plugins for them to expand their functionality if necessary, although I wouldn't know.

Kalango · Post by **Kalango** » Thu May 06, 2010 3:04 pm

Yeah, knowin what you want to do will lead the way for learning stuff an also keep you going withou giving up. I sugest that you start with simple stuff(thats why i sugested the game makers, wich are not hat restrict nowdays). As Acki said, Irr is only for grapics and inputs, you'll have to research about physics, networking, math, game enginerring, etc.
God luck man.

!-Megaman-! · Post by **!-Megaman-!** » Thu May 06, 2010 3:35 pm

I've been coding C++ on and off in my spare time for maybe 8 years and I'm only just approaching that level.

Dammit:-) Something certainly sounds discouraging about that:-)
and actually scaring me away a bit from that point...

...and whats with irr and the libs classes, is it that difficult to get it all to implement to work together (physich, sound, etc..) ?

ent1ty · Post by **ent1ty** » Thu May 06, 2010 5:43 pm

Well, I've been coding for like 4 years, but only for last few months every hour of my free time, and I already got a FPS going. I'm not saying it is easy, sometimes, I look at the code I produced and realize how ugly it is.

But I believe that if you use all your free time, and have at least 5 hours a day of it, you could make a fps in half a year or less.

Oh, and about my game, pre-omega version should be coming soon!

Brainsaw · Post by **Brainsaw** » Fri May 07, 2010 5:33 am

Don't get discouraged with all the replies here. Yes, programming is not that easy and yes, making a full scale commercial like game is a huge task one can't handle alone nowadays. But: if you really want to learn programming just do it. But you should start with something simple. If it should be a game you could create the next Tetris clone (I guess I have done about 10 of those in various programming languages). And get a book that gives you a step-by-step introduction in the very first place. Back then when I started programming and the internet wasn't available for the public (OK, there were mailboxes and stuff, http wasen't developed at that time), but I learnt it from a nice step-by-step programming book (aka "the Commodore 64 manual").