How do get motivated

[Ratchet Miles]

How do you supposed I get myself motivated to actually want to learn to program? Little mistakes set me off, and I really want to be a game designer, but don't know how to pursue it. I currently only know HTML/CSS and a little JQuery, but want to learn something I can use to make great things.

[Wtalk2]

Get into C#.

 

It's not too complicated and you can use it to start developing games in Unity. As for the motivation part I find you need to pick something you want to make and just go for it. As long as you don't stop working on your project you will (hopefully) stay motivated

[TallOne123]

I'm in the same boat here. I'm a CS major but know next to nothing about all the popular languages.

 

I kinda see it like working out. You gotta make it a habit before you see any advancement. 

[Toddwjp]

start with simple projects, you learn by doing. think of something small you'd like to program and work towards that. then once you have done that do something else. just start simple.

[SteveGrabowski]

I'm in the same boat here. I'm a CS major but know next to nothing about all the popular languages.

 

I kinda see it like working out. You gotta make it a habit before you see any advancement. 

 

Languages are easy to pickup after you learn to program. Learning to program is the hard part.

[DavidTheWin]

Languages are easy to pickup after you learn to program. Learning to program is the hard part.

 

But learning to program by actually programming is the best way to go about doing it meaning you'll pick up at least one language in the process. Learning to program "theoretically" doesn't really do anything to prepare you for larger projects. If you spend your entire CS Major writing in pseudocode you might learn how to write an algorithm and reason about why things do or don't work and you might learn some design patterns like MVC and paradigms like OO and best practices like TDD but you won't have put them into use and putting them into use is where the real learning happens because that's when you have to do it for real and you'll make mistakes and realise why those mistakes were wrong.

 

Before starting my placement last year I had taken a Software Engineering course as part of my degree, it was really helpful covering the theory behind things like MVC, TDD and Agile etc but rarely put them into practice. When I started my placement it still took me a while to get used to and sort of re-learn what I was taught because putting the theory into practice is where you really learn how to do the theory.

[as96]

How do you supposed I get myself motivated to actually want to learn to program? Little mistakes set me off, and I really want to be a game designer, but don't know how to pursue it. I currently only know HTML/CSS and a little JQuery, but want to learn something I can use to make great things.

Game designers are not programmers, anyway just pick a language and start learning it, don't go right into game programming though or you will have too much stuff on your head to learn and you will probably give up, learn the language and then learn to make games.

[Brenz]

The best way to get motivated is to do something that you enjoy. Think of a small project that you would like to do and do it, you will learn as you do it and will find it much easier if you actually enjoy it plus it is a good indication if you could do it as a career in the long run.

[SteveGrabowski]

But learning to program by actually programming is the best way to go about doing it meaning you'll pick up at least one language in the process. Learning to program "theoretically" doesn't really do anything to prepare you for larger projects. If you spend your entire CS Major writing in pseudocode you might learn how to write an algorithm and reason about why things do or don't work and you might learn some design patterns like MVC and paradigms like OO and best practices like TDD but you won't have put them into use and putting them into use is where the real learning happens because that's when you have to do it for real and you'll make mistakes and realise why those mistakes were wrong.

 

Before starting my placement last year I had taken a Software Engineering course as part of my degree, it was really helpful covering the theory behind things like MVC, TDD and Agile etc but rarely put them into practice. When I started my placement it still took me a while to get used to and sort of re-learn what I was taught because putting the theory into practice is where you really learn how to do the theory.

 

I agree fully. That must have been hard learning software engineering without putting it into practice in groups. What I meant was what the first language is isn't so vital, but yeah, you have to be making programs or all that theory goes in one ear and out the other. I like Scheme personally as a first language because the syntax is easy and it tries to keep you from building bottom up. But more importantly my favorite CS book, SICP, uses it.

[DavidTheWin]

I agree fully. That must have been hard learning software engineering without putting it into practice in groups. What I meant was what the first language is isn't so vital, but yeah, you have to be making programs or all that theory goes in one ear and out the other. I like Scheme personally as a first language because the syntax is easy and it tries to keep you from building bottom up. But more importantly my favorite CS book, SICP, uses it.

 

Well we did do some programming alongside it but java coursework in a group of 4 doesn't resemble enterprise software in a team of 10 at all.

[Nuluvius]

@DavidTheWin has laid out the gist of how things are quite well I think. Learning any amount of theory is all fine and great but it's the application/implementation of it in the 'real world' where the journey really begins; there's a plethora of new lessons one will inevitably come up against rather quickly.

 

Some may come as a complete shock like how that apparently 'simple' objective can explode out into weeks of pain, strife and grief. Or how that corner you cut/detail you missed 5 months ago suddenly out of nowhere comes back to bite you just before home time on a Friday afternoon as Singapore's system takes a noise dive resulting in you loosing your weekend. Some my come as pleasant surprises though like when you shave time of an algorithm through hard work and painstaking attention to detail, finding out that what you think the code is doing is not what it's really doing. Or the very first time you drive a robotic drone/limb after researching and successfully implementing the protocol in an extensible way.

 

Mistakes, often harsh ones as well as plenty of criticism are all massive parts of our journey. It's how we choose to approach our lessons and what we then choose take away from them that end up defining us. If you can cultivate a strong and positive mental attitude towards it then your skills and abilities will grow a massive amount in a very short space of time.

[trag1c]

When im working on my game I spend 5 days creating new functionality, 1 day making my code look pretty, and 1 day to my self. I find this helps me to stay motivated to keep working and learning because the progress I make on many lesser quality pieces of code is more visible than getting 1 piece of really high quality code done. Now im not saying to drop coding practices and to totally forget about mistakes but what I am saying is to just to code and then dedicate a day to improving your abilities as programmer by refactoring your code and identifying what you as a programmer could of done better. Others may disagree with this methodology or even condemn it but I find this works to keep the motivation going..at least for me.

 

This site that has a lot of articles on programming and game development as well as a lot of very intelligent people. (LTT has very intelligent people as well)

http://www.gamedev.net/page/index.html