On Nov 30, 8:10 pm, Joel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I don't know of any platformer tutorials, but here's a pong one if it
> helps.http://www.adamzap.com/blog/?cat=5
> I don't want to discourage you from using pyglet/python for this (and
> I'd love to see a platformer written with pyglet), but
> if the kid isn't that interested in programming so much as the end
> result, you might try using GameMaker. The free
> version is fairly full-featured, easy to use and can teach some basic
> programming. It's also
> designed with platformers in mind. The downside being it's not free
> software, only runs on Windows and won't teach anything other than its
> own
> scripting language. I gave up on it because I couldn't get a handle on
> some of its idiosyncrasies (and wanted to learn a real language,
> write cross-platform software, etc), but plenty of people have made
> some excellent games with it.
Joel, thanks for the input.
This guy had been through a video game camp, and from what I gather,
it sounds like they used something not unlike what you suggest.
Ultimately this left him unsatisfied, because he felt that they
weren't doing 'real' programming.
He told me that he wants to learn c++ on Windows, even though he has a
Mac, so he does seem to have the idea of "doing it right" or doing it
"for real".
So he *does* want to learn programming, "real" programming. But I
don't think just sitting down and saying "This is a variable, this is
a function, this is an array, this is an object" is going to grab him.
He doesn't want a lecture in computer science at this point. He
doesn't want to learn programming in and of itself; he wants to learn
programming to make a video game. I guess it would be like the
difference between going into mathematics versus engineering. In both
fields, you learn math, but the ends are different. Maybe at some
point in the future he will want to learn more about programming in
and of itself, so
My thought is, if he wants to do it "for real", he's not going to be
satisfied with an unpopular or uncommon scripting language. I don't
think at his age he would have the patience and perseverance for c or c
++; troubleshooting memory errors would just to too abstract and not
very much fun. At one point I was thinking of flash because of its
ease of use and instant graphicality, but it also costs and is not so
open-source.
So I see python as kind of a compromise. You're not going to have to
deal with memory errors or other more abstract computer-sciencish
problems, but it is powerful enough to be a "real" language, and it
can probably take him as far as he wants to go. Or so I hope ;)
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