Video game coding books for beginners

[TNTGODZZ]

Well 2 things. after hiatus, im back to the old ksp off topic forums, and it feels nice.

but now for the serious business: im doing a games design course, and the one thing it doesn't teach about games is coding. i want to learn a language which can help me create a game, like say C# or C++ but they are difficult for a beginner, like myself. so what is a good language to begin with which has good use when it comes to games, and more importantly a book which can teach me. Many thanks, you dudes keep staying awesome

[Nuke]

you can write games in many languages. the question is do you want to design your whole engine from scratch, make extensive use of libraries or use a pre-existing framework?

i personally would opt for c++. its fast enough that you can really optimize where you need it, and still gives you all the oop goodness that makes your code shiny. the only libraries you really need are sdl and opengl (unless you want to use one of those multi-gigabyte microsoft sdks so you can use directx), that covers input, graphics, sound and the like. toss on a physics api if you want (physics code is fun so i am writing mine from scratch). its a considerable amount of learning to go from hello world to something that you can play. ive been working on my engine on and off for at least 5+ years and its still not quite a game yet.

[TNTGODZZ]

im looking to use a pre-existing engine like unity. it just seems to be the most flexible (see kerbal space program xD ). i hope to get to that stage eventually, where i can create my own engine and games.

[ZedNova]

Python and Lua are easy to learn. Then i'd step up to Java, C, and C++.

[Nuke]

i actually use lua to test ideas and prototype systems and stuff. its also pretty quick to build a gui application for custom hardware interfaces (arduino and other stuff). lua for windows comes with a script editor and all the modules you would ever need (most of those libraries are also cross platform, so things written on windows can theoretically work on everything). i use it to test game engine ideas. there are a number of lua based game engine frameworks as well. its also a good way to extend the capabilities of your engine and has a nifty c api.

never used python. but i dont think ive ever heard one person say one bad thing about it. its just something i haven't had a need to learn yet. not sure how it would be to make a game engine with it.

[ZedNova]

When you really start learning to program, and feel like you're getting ready to make your own game, i'd start making mods for games first. That will give you alot of experience with programming.

Roblox uses a form of Lua dubbed RobloxLua, It's got a crap community but the Engine it uses is fairly flexible and easy to program with. - and it's Free

Not many games use an engine made with python, Civilization IV uses some python programming, but that's if you want to mod it. It's more of a language that you learn to understand the basic jist of programming because it's so simple to create Gui's and such with it.

Minecraft uses java, and it's got a massive modding community. It costs money and is a little harder to mod compared to Roblox or KSP, ( IMO, but i'm no expert ) but there are resources all over the internet that are available to you.

As for books i can't recommend any, since I've only read one on how to program with python, that was years ago and i forget the name of it.

Edited December 14, 2013 by ZedNova

[tom1499]

If you want to learn Unity I would suggest C#. You may be scalded by the 'Hardcore' programmers, who use Linux and are sworn to c++ and open-source, but you can code in whatever language you want. Unity uses Javascript, C# or Boo (kinda Lua-like). I would say C#, as its more flexible, it's a popular language and you are free to use most of the .NET framework with it. (Unity doesn't include some of the DLL's) You can either download Unity and use the built in IDE Monodevelop, or download Visual Studio Express, learn some C# and then get started on Unity. I would recommend downloading visual studio, learning C# and then linking it with Unity.