Hi Laurel,
Well, its different for every person out here, and its possible to
teach yourself to program and write games. If you pay for a service
such as
http://safari.oreilly.com
you can pay to read college level programming books on a variety of
programming languages, game design, and specific topics like
artificial intelligence, and so on. However, I will warn you that it
can get expensive using a service like Safari, but is much cheaper
than paying for college level courses that will essentially teach you
the same thing.
As for myself I attended a college, Wright State University, where I
took a number of computer science courses on C++, Java, Visual Basic,
and SQL. After leaving college I used Safari to update my programming
skills by reading books on Python, C#.NET, VB.NET, DirectX, artificial
intelligence, and basic game design and programming. So my education
was pretty extensive before I actually sat down and wrote my first
audio game.
That said, my aim was to get a degree in computer science so I could
enter the work force as a professional programmer. I had hoped to get
a decent paying job with Microsoft, IBM, or some other well known
software company making $60,000 a year. that didn't happen, and the
kind of education I had isn't necessary for an independent game
developer who wants to create games on the side as a hobby.
Today there are some much easier and less expensive ways to program
games. You can try an all purpose game engine like Philip Bennefall's
BGT which contains all of the basics such as DirectInput, SAPI,
DirectSound, etc all wrapped by a light weight scripting language
known as Angelscript. It is a good entry language to programming, and
is much simpler than picking up an all purpose programming language
like C++, Java, or Visual Basic and having to learn it with DirectX,
SAPI, and everything else you need.
However, if you are seeking a more semi-professional education in
programming to write games as well as other applications I think that
http://safari.oreilly.com
is the best place to get started. They have hundreds of books that you
can read online in your web browser for about $50 a month. You can go
as fast or as slow as you want, and essentially get a college level
education in programming by using the same textbooks used by students
and professional programmers.
Last but not least, I am working on building a developers website that
will teach new game developers to program games from a beginner level
and slowly work up to more advanced topics. There isn't much here yet
but
http://developers.usagamesinteractive.com
will hopefully soon be a low cost resource for people like yourself
who wants to get into game programming at the entry level. Right now I
am busy just uploading tools, APIs, and other software required by a
developer, but I'm also working on tutorials I haven't uploaded to the
website yet.
Cheers!
On 1/30/12, Laurel laurel.stock...@gmail.com wrote:
Hey,
I have a question for those of you who write games and all. How did
you learn how to write the games that you have created? For example,
how did you learn the computer coding languages you needed, and how to
build your game from an idea to an actual game. Was there a course you
took, or something online or an accessible book you read that helped
you? I have several ideas I'd love to work on, but I really don't even
know where to begin. /smiles/
Laurel and Stockard
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