Game Development: Where to Begin Part 1

I’ve decided that it’s finally time to contribute something else useful to humanity.

My other video still covers some things that I didn’t get a chance to address here, but I feel like I’ve done a better job explaining things in this video (I recommend watching both).

If you’re still stuck, message me, and I’ll personally see to it that you’re pointed in the right direction.

If you enjoyed this, check out “The Adventures in Game Development” series.

Check out all the tutorials here on https://www.bigrookgames.com

If you would like to see any additional features in this series, please leave a comment below!

Transcript:

so i can probably guess what you’re  thinking you’re looking up and you’re  reading the title and you’re probably  like what the hell doesn’t this dude  already have a how 2 1 through 3 and  you’re right I do but the entire reason  i made the how-to was so that when  people ask me how do i get started what  do I need to do to get going on game  development i could just direct them  towards that video but as times progress  people still keep asking me that and  these are people that I know if watch  that video  personally I don’t really re watch our  videos so i went back and now i’m  thinking myself  ok maybe I should have a look at this  maybe it’s not getting the point across  so I watched it and while I still agree  with all my points in it i feel like i  could have done it a lot better  like I it’s really abstract the the  viewer doesn’t really leave with the  sense of our I need to go out and do  this this and this and I’ll be sort of  game development and since it is our  most popular video I’d really like to  redo it  seeing is a kind of represents us our  project if it’s the first thing people  see of me I kind of like for it to suck  a little less so that’s what i’m doing i  still recommend you watch that other  video because i’m going to be recovering  several parts but I’m also not going to  cover some of the things cover so I’d  like to make that kind of a prerequisite  if you haven’t already seen it go watch  it and come back  ok before i waste anybody’s time or more  importantly waste my own time let me  address the question i keep getting i  can’t believe i’m getting this question  what program do i use to make insert  game here  ok this is a programming channel this is  called game development and we’re not  using programs for writing programs here  so if you’re not interested in  programming learning to program writing  your own games leave why are you here to  go find RPG Maker go do it all the other  cool twelve-year-olds to do it see you  later  alright this is for those of you who  really don’t care what I have to say you  just want a real quick 10 second answer  you don’t want to hear all the specifics  you just want to go out and learn this  is your answer you go get a book for  example I want to learn java I don’t  know why you want to do that but if you  did you go and buy a java book if you  want to you know do your back end of a  website and PHP you go out get a PHP  book start teaching yourself if you want  to I don’t know why you’d want to do  this but if you did you buy a JavaScript  look if you want to embed Ruby into your  engine as your scripting language you  should probably go out by Ruby book  start teaching yourself if you want a  ride engine and c++ very good idea i  recommend it you go out get a c++ book  you want to use the sdl API and your  engine you want to start learning how to  do graphics sound input with c c++ go  get a book like this if you just want to  be a sadistic bastard the book of choice  to probably be a calculus could go out  and get one start reading now I know a  bunch you are probably thinking to  yourselves why don’t you just look at an  online tutorial their free you don’t  have to go out buy these expensive books  well that’s also true but for those of  you who actually really don’t know where  to start these books will probably be  your best bet  the reason being is these authors get  paid lots of money to write these  they’re going to take extra care to make  sure that those of you who really don’t  have any experience who don’t know is  going  what’s going on they’re going to take  extra care to make sure you understand  it they start off assuming you’re a  complete idiot because they’re making  money off these books that need to be  good  the people who write online tutorials  probably assume you already know kind of  what you’re doing or else you wouldn’t  be looking at an online tutorial to  begin with  you know those people have lives they  have jobs they’re not going to explain  things quite as well but either way  you’re gonna have to teach yourself  unless you pay a lot of money go to a  fancy school or college the teacher game  programming and even then it’s it’s a  task that really your teaching yourself  no matter which way you look at it no  matter what approach to take  i recommend  if you really have no idea where to  start go find a book you can go wrong  with it  they already assume you’re an idiot and  half these books so even if you’re an  idiot you’re set  ok  those of you who are still here and have  an exit out of this video or left to go  buy a book already or anything i’m  assuming you’re ready for me to  elaborate  I believe there are generally two  methods to get going with game  development two different paths you can  take and one of them involves a game  development specific language and the  other one involves general programming  languages we have to keep in mind is  there’s a trade-off here with the game  development language it’s going to be  easier to develop with you’re going to  have everything you need to get started  sooner it’s not going to take as much  time not gonna not get two tries hard to  do things in it but at the same time  it’s going to be a lot less powerful  that if you used a multi-purpose  language but then the multi-purpose  languages are going to take you a hell  of a lot longer to learn not only if you  have to learn them but you have to learn  an API or library to associate with them  so i’m going to go through and discuss  how to get started with either these  paths  ok as I’ve said languages their game  development specific such as blitz plus  dark basic and I know there’s plenty  more out there those are probably a good  place to start  they’re easier to begin with there  easier in general to develop with they  take a lot less time but at the same  time you’re compromising that with the  amount of things you can do with them  how powerful they are things like that  what you have to keep in mind is that  when you’re programming a game it’s  different from you know just standard  programming das council things you have  things like input audio video different  hardware manipulation you have to worry  about and these languages are good  because they have that kind of thing  built-in you don’t have to worry about  go getting another API opengl allegro  sdl all that kind of stuff to integrate  with your project  its built-in the language it handles  that sort of thing for you so all you  have to do is basically learn the  language and you’re set  if you if you’re looking to take this  path i know there’s plenty of books out  there just look for one on dark basic  blitz plus any sort of game specific  language because it has that stuff built  in once you learn that you’re pretty  much set this is the the easiest way to  go  also I’d probably recommend this if you  don’t have much experience even if you  plan to use a multi-purpose language  later this will definitely be a good way  if you get your foot in the door with  game development  alright for those of you who are taking  this path i’m going to assume your  little more hardcore little more  experience or maybe a little more  arrogant and stupid or no but you should  know that this is going to require quite  a bit more effort on your part rather  than just being able to run off and  learn your little game development  language it’s a two-part process you  have to learn your general programming  language than some sort of way to create  a game with it manipulate the hardware  stuff like that because these languages  are not meant just for game development  you know c c++ you can make anything  from simple little dots windows to paint  shop pro I don’t know if they actually  made that c++ but you could pretty much  it you can make any sort of application  with this they don’t have built-in you  know input audio video manipulation that  requires an additional library and so  just keep in mind  first you have to learn the language  then the next step is going to your  library or API  all right before any of you try and move  on step 2 i’m putting a disclaimer right  here  not of you I forbid every one of you to  move on with this step unless you know  your language game development is  already one of the most difficult  applications of programming out there  you’re gonna be the learning a graphics  API a game development library anything  like that on top of your actual game  logic you know learning how to test  collision learning how to do AI things  like that the very least you could do is  be halfway competent with the language  that you’re using as your tool to  develop this so do not move on until you  become decent at the language just  concentrate on that until you’re good at  it.