Can a beginner jump into game programming?

A friend of a co-worker of mine is interested in programming games,
but he has no experience at programming at all. Could he jump right
into a C++ programming book or should he start with a generic visual
basic for beginners type of book?

Basically he is really interested in getting into programming games,
but has no programming knowledge. What would you recommend?

Thanks for the help.

> A friend of a co-worker of mine is interested in programming games,
> but he has no experience at programming at all. Could he jump right
> into a C++ programming book or should he start with a generic visual
> basic for beginners type of book?
> Basically he is really interested in getting into programming games,
> but has no programming knowledge. What would you recommend?

It's like saying he is interested in hiking but don't know how to walk at
all...

Learn prorgamming first. Start with either C++ or Java. Java is probably
easier to learn than C++ though. Your friend will have a very long way to go
before being able to code the game he has in his mind.

Do a google search on game programming... you'll find a ton of sites with
related information.

> Basically he is really interested in getting into programming games,
> but has no programming knowledge. What would you recommend?


Well, www.GLBasic.com is the answer. It's easy(est) to learn and
capable of nice games. He should try it, there's a free demo version
for download that's capable of full 2D features. No trial, no
expiration, full manual+tutorials, full email support.

--
-Gernot

Post here, don't email. If you feel you have to mail, revert my
forename from:
tonreG.Frisch.at.Dream-D-Sign.de@invalid.com
________________________________________
Looking for a good game? Do it yourself!
GLBasic - you can do
www.GLBasic.com

james_thompson99@hotmail.com (James Thompson) wrote in message news:<bf1efec6.0401290900.37daaf85@posting.google. com>...
> A friend of a co-worker of mine is interested in programming games,
> but he has no experience at programming at all. Could he jump right
> into a C++ programming book or should he start with a generic visual
> basic for beginners type of book?

Whatever he does, he should NOT study Visual Basic. It teaches a host
of bad habits that will be hard to break if he decides to move on to a
more powerful programming language. Also, VB is not endorsed by MS
anymore (in favor of VB.NET).

> Basically he is really interested in getting into programming games,
> but has no programming knowledge. What would you recommend?

I'd recommend he start with C or C++. Java would be good too, but it
is very OO and may be too much too soon. If he decides to learn C++,
he'll have to be careful to avoid too much OO stuff right off the bat.
Therefore, C may be the best language to learn initially. Though it is
not as popular as C++ for game programming these days (some people
still swear by it, but there's not much performance difference between
C++ and C these days), it'll give your friend a taste of programming
and will let him see if it is "his bag." If he likes it, he can go
onto C++ and his knowledge of C will give him a leg up (C++ builds
upon C).

Still, it'll be quite a while before he'll be able to program anything
that can be considered "professional" or "quality hobby." Most of the
programs he'll write for the first several months will only be
interesting to him AND he'll probably write many programs initially
that aren't even games at all--they'll just serve to get him used to
programming.

If your friend is interested in game programming professionally, he's
got a hard road ahead of him. Game programming is very competetive
these days and most programmers specialize in a very niche field of
game programming (such as 3D graphics rendering, AI, physics, etc.).
Most of these disciplines require advanced math education. If you're
friend hasn't ever programmed before, he probably doesn't have a broad
math background. But, he needn't despair: everything in programming
can be learned.

HTH :^)

james_thompson99@hotmail.com (James Thompson) wrote in message news:<bf1efec6.0401290900.37daaf85@posting.google. com>...
> A friend of a co-worker of mine is interested in programming games,
> but he has no experience at programming at all. Could he jump right
> into a C++ programming book or should he start with a generic visual
> basic for beginners type of book? Basically he is really interested in
> getting into programming games, but has no programming knowledge. What
> would you recommend?

Actually, before investing the time & energy into learning to program,
your friend should consult Tom Sloper's excellent site:
http://www.sloperama.com/advice.html

Your friend should read through most (if not all) the articles before
deciding whether to get into game programming. It may save him a lot
of head- and heartaches.

HTH

Hi Gernot.

I just went through your GLBasic page and i was disappointed to se that you
used win32 gdi to
draw the mandelbrot in the VS .Net (C++) comparison example. Most people
that are serious about programming graphics and games know that drawing per
pixel in win32 gdi is much slower than directdraw. After a couple of
alterations (using directdraw instead) i got the C++ example to run much
faster than the GLBasic version. I feel that you are kind of lying to all
the newbies (including me) out there about the execution time being somehow
much better in GLBasic.

What are your comments on this?

cheers
//iman


"Gernot Frisch" <Me@Privacy.net> wrote in message
news:bvd4kk$r6030$1@ID-37212.news.uni-berlin.de...
>
> > Basically he is really interested in getting into programming games,
> > but has no programming knowledge. What would you recommend?
>
>
> Well, www.GLBasic.com is the answer. It's easy(est) to learn and
> capable of nice games. He should try it, there's a free demo version
> for download that's capable of full 2D features. No trial, no
> expiration, full manual+tutorials, full email support.
>
> --
> -Gernot
>
> Post here, don't email. If you feel you have to mail, revert my
> forename from:
> tonreG.Frisch.at.Dream-D-Sign.de@invalid.com
> ________________________________________
> Looking for a good game? Do it yourself!
> GLBasic - you can do
> www.GLBasic.com
>
>

> I just went through your GLBasic page and i was disappointed to se
that you
> used win32 gdi to
> draw the mandelbrot in the VS .Net (C++) comparison example. Most
people
> that are serious about programming graphics and games know that
drawing per
> pixel in win32 gdi is much slower than directdraw. After a couple of
> alterations (using directdraw instead) i got the C++ example to run
much
> faster than the GLBasic version. I feel that you are kind of lying
to all
> the newbies (including me) out there about the execution time being
somehow
> much better in GLBasic.

I used GDI to keep the source code simple and small. Of course, using
DirectX ur even a memory DC/Bitmap combination would be a lot faster
and there's no question: C/C++ is faster than _any_ game programming
language. If it wasn't, why whould commercial game programmers use it?
If you are a C/C++ professional and have a good game engine you're
familiar with, game design times may not differ much from GLBasic
development times. If not, GLBasic is a great tool for
one-man-game-development and prototyping of new game ideas.

If you converted the source code so it uses DirectX, please give it to
me. I'll include it into the package. I don't want to mislead anyone
by my quick comparison tests. I didn't want to fool anyone. Basically,
my intention was to point out how much easier programming with GLBasic
instead of C/C++ is, not how much faster/slower it is.

Again:
C/C++ is better for high quality games, harder to program, lot's of
additional code required. I won't comment about the other game
languages.

Thank you and best regards,
Gernot