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Ask HN: Programming to Game Programming?

11 points by sockey ↗ HN
I'm a programmer with moderate experience. I believe I have the skills necessary to become a game programmer, but I don't know where to start. I've searched around. Just finished Andy Gavin's "So you want to be a video game programmer?" series, and I still don't know where to start.

I've looked into various javascript game libraries. I've run through the demos and tutorials. I even took a 3D modeling and animation class in high school, where I proceeded to make 3Ds Max my bitch, but now I'm out of high school and can't afford 3Ds Max. Now I mess around with Blender occasionally.

So here's my question. Where do I really start? Have I started? If so, where do I go from here?

6 comments

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Zolomon
http://gamedev.stackexchange.com - this website is great for finding answers to question you haven't asked yet!

http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions?sort=votes - here is a collection of awesome questions to begin with getting solutions for.

http://gamedev.net - here is another great website with everything you can ever need, check out the forums and article archive!

http://gamasutra.com - professionals hang out here.

http://www.gpwiki.org/index.php/Main_Page - here is another great wiki filled with good use.

You're in for a joy ride. Prepare to devour information like never before.

By the way, you'll learn best by just doing, so join in on http://www.ludumdare.com and other indie gamedev competitions! Use Google, it's your greatest resource.

I can recommend XNA with C# if you're on Windows, or PyGame if you're using Python (there are equally good platforms for any language you pick, don't worry about it - the same methodologies apply to them all (more or less)). Start simple and then go on to the harder stuff once you really feel like you've grasped the fundamentals. I love this question: http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/854/what-are-good...

Remember, the biggest thing you can do wrong right now is trying to write the next-gen MMORPG. Scale after you've got something working. And while building your game, you will have your engine (common question, common pitfall).

Good luck!

acron0
+1 for PyGame or XNA. Start small, don't over-stretch.
stonemetal
where do I go from here? This question is unanswerable without a destination in mind. So where do you want to go? What kind of games do you want to make, AAA vs indie, puzzle, action, RPGs? If you want to go AAA pick one thing and do it really, really well. If you want to make indie games you will do a lot of everything learn it all. Web games pretty much require HTML, CSS, JS and something server side. Non web games not so much, unless you are making the game's website as well.

Probably the easiest place to get started would be desktop based 2d puzzle games.

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[dead] guillaume_a
>Where do I really start?

Make a game.