I have a game idea

[Grapple Convoy]

I don't actually know what python, java etc actually are (other than species of snake and variety of coffee), so the advice here is already too technical. Unlike many others here, I do not work in IT so my pre-existing knowledge is already limited. I would very much like to learn, but without being afford to afford a course, it's not going to happen. Remember that some of us do not have computer-related jobs.

[vanpeebles]

Why do you need to go on a course? Back in the speccy days you learnt at home and pottered about, trying various things.

[Rep]

Your better off just buying a good book to be honest, you probably won't get that much out of a course, since there's still a massive amount of work to be done on your part compared to other subjects. You don't need to work in IT either to know how to code, just a willingness to learn. There's an unlimited amount of free/cheap materials out there.

[Decider-VT]

I don't actually know what python, java etc actually are (other than species of snake and variety of coffee), so the advice here is already too technical. Unlike many others here, I do not work in IT so my pre-existing knowledge is already limited. I would very much like to learn, but without being afford to afford a course, it's not going to happen. Remember that some of us do not have computer-related jobs.

A lot of the learning on a course comes from tinkering around with new ideas on your own anyway, so it's worth trying at home. Don't be daunted by it, as there's a plethora of learning materials available for beginners. Really, have a quick read of the first chapter of that book I linked to. As long as you don't dive in with notions of creating your masterpiece straight away you should be OK- part of the fun is learning along the way and constantly improving.

[vanpeebles]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12703674

[Sketcz]

Good feature! There's actually a handful of genuinely decent games on the ZX81. I love reading about these old coding tales.

This could be you Press Start, tomorrow, if you want it to be:


If you want a tiny taste Press Start, without much effort or learning, I recommend starting with QBasic (the QB64 Windows update is more stable than the old DOS, though you can't run games without compiling first, so it's a little bit slower to see your creations). But you can learn to programme text adventures in about 4 minutes, and it's proper blue screen coding, as opposed to "game maker" style shenanigans with drop-down windows and clickety boxes.

Can you explain this idea of yours, or is it top secret?


I know a few forums have dedicated sub-forums for bedroom coders, I don't think there's enough on NTSC-uk, but perhaps we could turn this into a thread for budding indies, and help Press Start along with making something?

[vanpeebles]

At the moment I've been doing a little basic coding on my QL(a frontend for the infocom zip player) and I'm also working on a QL text adventure(using something like the The Quill)

[Sketcz]

At the moment I've been doing a little basic coding on my QL

Proper retro hardcore!

I don't actually know what python, java etc actually are. My pre-existing knowledge is already limited. I would very much like to learn, but without being able to afford a course, it's not going to happen.

Well, it depends on what you want to do with your programming. If it's just mess around, there are simple/easy languages where you can create a simple text adventure, or 1980s style arcade/Atari game, in a fairly short time. I like to recommend QBasic to people because, despite how old it is (originally DOS), I taught myself using their help files (which are generally regarded to be some of the best ever included with software), meaning I didn't need to pay any money.

I made my first game about 10 minutes after loading it (it was a text adventure). Then I stole bits of code from other games for controls, graphics, sound, number-rounding, and made some stuff up. I never did learn arrays (which allow hundreds of bullets on screen instead of just 2 or 3), but I can code games which are bit like old Atari 2600 titles.

The biggest problem is sheer laziness/effort needed. No matter what the language, making a game on your own, even a simple one, is going to require several weekend-days, for several hours of that day. It really is a tremendous amount of effort and self-discipline. 10 hours and up to infinity depending on what you want, sifting through lines of a foreign language.

Programming is fairly straight forward to learn yourself so long as you don't throw yourself in at the deep end. Lots of people/idiots will tell you to learn in C which is a horrible idea for a newbie.

Don't be afraid to google how to do things and to copy example code. Learning how to work with other people's code is handy and adapting their code to your usage will build up your knowledge without you realising it.

What Smurf said. Find an easy starter language and try to work with example code to get an idea of how to do things. If someone's got code for their entire homebrew game online, use the entire lot and tweak different bits more and more until you understand how it works.

A lot of people make simple Pacman or Galaxian clones which you can tweak - these are great for understanding how collision detection works, how AI starts out, what loops are, and so on. Find a really simple game (maybe even in ASCII instead of real graphics) and go from there.

Just stay away from Tetris. I read one how-to book which said you should start with Tetris because it's a simple idea and the coding is easy to learn - bloody hell it's not! Making a Tetris clone on my own without another's code to help, to this day still fries my brain, since the game needs to keep track of every single block, in relation to every other single block, scanning for gaps and full lines, dropping groups of 4 separate collision boxes bound to each other and affecting each other's physics into an area replete with possibly hundreds of other blocks, each affecting each other, and they all need to move at the same time when a line is cleared. It's more difficult than coding a manic shooter, since there things are simple: your ship + enemy bullet = death. Having said that, understanding arrays might make Tetris easier.


EDIT:
And here's something I made earlier in QB: a poetry RPG modelled on Monkey Island's insult swordfighting, with voice acting. As featured on 1UP. And no, it doesn't really feature Christopher Walken, that was me yanking the collective chains of the internet. The haiku are inspired by games, such Streets of Rage, Mario and Metal Gear.

[FreelancePolice]

Proper retro hardcore!



Just stay away from Tetris. I read one how-to book which said you should start with Tetris because it's a simple idea and the coding is easy to learn - bloody hell it's not! Making a Tetris clone on my own without another's code to help, to this day still fries my brain, since the game needs to keep track of every single block, in relation to every other single block, scanning for gaps and full lines, dropping groups of 4 separate collision boxes bound to each other and affecting each other's physics into an area replete with possibly hundreds of other blocks, each affecting each other, and they all need to move at the same time when a line is cleared. It's more difficult than coding a manic shooter, since there things are simple: your ship + enemy bullet = death. Having said that, understanding arrays might make Tetris easier.

I actually found Tetris to be quite simple once I laid out how I planned to do it. As everything "ticks" you can do the line checks at the end of every tick and it felt fairly natural for the end of a game loop. My art skills are fairly rudimentary so I scribbled on the NES title screen and called it my own. It does have the USSR anthem on the title screen though