Hi all, Can anyone recommend any good books on Games Programming for a beginner just starting out in programming.
Best Regards.
A good place to start if you want to do this in Visual Basic is Sams Teach Yourself Game Programming with Visual Basic in 21 Days. VB may not be the best for games depending on what you want to do. But, if you're not wanting fast 3D stuff, it may be suitable.
Thinking about things, VB is nice for database work, but if games are what you want to do, C/C++ is probably what you want to learn. Tougher for a beginner, but why waste time on an unsuitable tool. You can find some examples at www.gametutorials.com. Good luck.
There is actually a very good book Called "Microsoft Visual Basic Game Programming with Direct X"
However c/c++ is the perfered for game programming but this book shows you how to make games in VB that are comparable to games programmed in c/c++ now since .net the rules might change a bit. but VB is good way to build a prototype of a game you might want to put in c++ later.
Dont let others opions of VB and game programming influence you.I have known alot of experance c/c++ programmers that got lost once they got past the GUI interface of VB and got really underneath VB. anyways check out the book it is very good resource for game programming but you should at least check out c/c++ as a language as well
I have a book called Programming Games with Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 that teaches the very basics of logic, without getting into the more advanced topics like DirectX and such. It's an okay book, but the games they go over in here are rather simple (i.e. tic-tac-toe, paper rock scissors, minesweeper) but they are a pretty good starting point.
If you want more info...
ISBN: 0-619-03561-7
If you aren't comfortable going headfirst into c/c++ development Java makes for a nice mid-step.
You'll learn good programing conventions for C++ (going to C++ form java is fairly easy), and you'll have a nice plateform to develope 2D games on. Much more robust than VB in my opinion, and more automated than C++.
Java _can_ do OpenGL, but not quickly or easily. However, 3D is not a simple thing for beginers.
The other plus to Java is that most game script languages are based on it. Unreal script and Tribes2 (or "Torque" engine as garagegames.com likes to call it) are both very powerful and easy to learn with a good understanding of Java.
If you want to get into 3D, and if you own either Unreal Tournament 2003 or 2004, you might want to look into learning to mod them. Much easier than programing an engine from scratch (done that too - very complicated) and still lots of fun. There are tons of tutorials on how to mod your favourite game all over the net.
I *think* garagegames.com now has a free 'trial' version of their engine, while the engine might be all c/c++, the scripting is easy and there is alot of community support.
Actually, there is even a free version of the unreal engine for the same 'educational' purposes... That would probably be a better way to go.
So, to sum it all up. A good language to learn is Java, it will bridge you into other more powerful languages, and is a pretty good language in itself.
Look into modding Unreal, I've done alot of messing around with it and really enjoy it, there isn't much you can't do with that engine.
As for books, any good 'intro to programming with such-and-such-language' should give you all the basis you need to start making games. Once you know about pointers, arrays, data structures, conditional statements, all the general programming concepts, games become doable. The only hard part becomes graphics. As for graphical programming, you might want to look into NeHe's tutorials (http://nehe.gamedev.net/), they are nicely written.
Good response, if 556 days late ;)
Good response, if 556 days late ;)
LOL, thats what I get for not looking at dates... I wonder why it was at the top of the page that day? ... ah well ... I'm a dolt :rolleyes:
yeah - so I'm developing a 4-d game in COBOL-74 - anyone have any advice on how I should go about it?
Youre going to need the finest computer in the world then: An IBM System/38. And a supply of 8.5" floppies. :D
yeah- check it out... I'm going to allow the user to select any historical figure from any time. Instead of merely presenting a image of the person, I'm actually going to teleport them into the computer's memory and manipulate them according to predefined game rules. That way I can make Atilla the Hun fight against Slorg the destroyer of the planet Nerotha using nothing but sticks and orange peels. It's great fun!