How to Learn Game Coding
Becoming a video game programmer and coding video games is a very rewarding experience as you will be able to see your creation played and enjoyed by many individuals. Coding video games can be challenging depending on the type of game you wish to create, and certain aspects of coding video games are not necessary for certain types of games. If you have a proper understanding of your game before you begin learning to code, you will be able to more effectively code your game.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Outline your video game. Determine what type of video game(s) you will want to make. Commercial game coding requires many more individuals and resources than developing a game at home.
-
2
Choose your programming language. Modern commercial games are programmed almost entirely using C++ because of its flexibility and popularity. Other common languages are JAVA, which is good for learning how to implement movement and speed on graphics, ActionScript, which helps program Flash games, and Visual Basic which is easy to learn and fairly popular.
-
-
3
Write your first program. The first hurdle to overcome as a potential video game coder is getting to know your chosen language and actually putting together the code. It may not initially be game related, and you may have to follow instructional resources through the process, but it will help you understand the programming language.
-
4
Get a compiler. A compiler is the resource that turns source code (which you can craft in Notepad or a similar program) into an actual executable file which, when clicked, will carry out everything written in the source code, just without the end user ever seeing the source code itself. Free compilers are available, but the paid versions are usually better.
-
5
Choose your target platform. If you are making a PC game, then you will need to familiarize yourself with the differences in operating systems (Linux, Macintosh and Windows are the larger ones). If you want to develop for consoles, such as the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 or Nintendo Wii, you will need to get work with a game studio. Creating commercial games out of your basement is simply unfeasible with current technology.
-
6
Continue learning. The most important aspect of any education is its continued pursuit. After you learn how to code in one language, you could crack open another book and learn another, or you can expand your knowledge of the first language you learned. Learning about networking, physics and graphics can also help you along the way, although these topics aren't strictly video game programming related.
-
1
References
Resources
- Photo Credit ANSI image by DBX60 from Fotolia.com
