Game Programming

[Gregrs]

I've always wanted to get into game programming, but never really knew where to start. Now, what I'm looking for is to create very basic/complex games depending on how you look at it; more of a terarria style I guess you could say. A 2D game with animations and somewhat complex. I'm not sure how to explain it, so I hope you're picking up what I'm putting down.

 

What's the best way/language to make this style of game? And where should I start? P.S. I don't have money to pay for lynda.com or classes online.

[vorticalbox]

give unity a go

 

https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/modules/beginner/2d/2d-overview

[jol159]

10 minutes ago, Gregrs said:

I've always wanted to get into game programming, but never really knew where to start. Now, what I'm looking for is to create very basic/complex games depending on how you look at it; more of a terarria style I guess you could say. A 2D game with animations and somewhat complex. I'm not sure how to explain it, so I hope you're picking up what I'm putting down.

 

What's the best way/language to make this style of game? And where should I start? P.S. I don't have money to pay for lynda.com or classes online.

Well I would say go and learn c++ or c# as these languages are used by most studios and game engines (unreal, unity and cry engine) for example

[Nuluvius]

Lightweight Java Game Library (LWJGL) is another valid choice.

[sjoerd108]

On 5/22/2016 at 7:22 PM, Gregrs said:

I've always wanted to get into game programming, but never really knew where to start. Now, what I'm looking for is to create very basic/complex games depending on how you look at it; more of a terarria style I guess you could say. A 2D game with animations and somewhat complex. I'm not sure how to explain it, so I hope you're picking up what I'm putting down.

 

What's the best way/language to make this style of game? And where should I start? P.S. I don't have money to pay for lynda.com or classes online.

I would recommend you take a look at the unity engine. It uses c#. It is a very powerful game engine that lets you create simple 2D games to advanced 3D games. It is free for personal use and multiplatform. It supports Android, IOS, Windows, Windows Phone, Linux, Web and more. A few games that run on Unity are:

 

- Crossy road

- Kerbal Space Program

- Polybridge

- Monument valley

 

Here is one of my own apps I made using it. It is very simple but it gives you an example:

 

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[trag1c]

OGRE with C++ is easy enough to get started with. It has the majority of the components needed by a game engine so if you're interested in a bit of the lower level stuff its a great start. 

[Gregrs]

I sort of forgot to mention this, but do any of these programs let you upload them to stuff like steam and orgin for free, and people can play them? Probably should have mentioned that.

[trag1c]

18 minutes ago, Gregrs said:

I sort of forgot to mention this, but do any of these programs let you upload them to stuff like steam and orgin for free, and people can play them? Probably should have mentioned that.

Nope. Steam you have to go through the green light process regardless of what you used to make the game. Origin you will probably have to sell your soul to EA.

[Gachr]

You just need to learn whatever language the engine you chose uses.

For the commercial boys, there is Unity, it has 2D, but it isn't the "true" 2D.  It is extremely multiplatform, but comes with quite a lot of drawbacks. It uses C# for scripting.

There is also Unreal, I think it got 2D support quite recently, but it's still the same league as Unity. It is also quite multiplatform and is more professional, but the community is much smaller. It uses its own "graphical" scripting or C++.

 

As for the open source ones...

There is Godot, it supports both 2D and 3D, but its 3D support isn't the greatest. They are working on it, however. Unlike the engines above, it has its separate, true 2D engine. It uses its own, Python-like language for scripting.

And then there is MonoGame, it's not an engine, but a C# framework. It supports pretty much all modern platforms, and it has true 2D, but only 2D, however I've heard that they are adding more and more 3D support. Since it's a framework, it will be more difficult to create games, but it will be certainly more fun and the better way if you're a math-minded person. Terraria was created using XNA, and later MonoGame.