OK i''ve tried so hard to create a game but failed when it came down to the programming part. People told me to start off with creating 2d games. Now i dont even know where to start. Is there any site with a few tuturials or something. I made a few 3d models and I want to do something with them so I need to learn the basics. I''ve used Morfit, 3dgamestudio, 3dimpact, 3drad, crystal space, and fly3d. Most of them either you need to know programming or you are very limited. So I figured I start small and work my way up is this a good idea? please give me all the advice you can! PS. People also told me to stick with one job either make models or put all my time into programming. But its like impossible to get a programmer to do free work unless the game makes money. Plus i heard if learned correctly programming is very rewarding in the end. THANKS! Sean

well if you can model well you can try to find programmers on the internet who want to work on a MOD for an existing game. You can also import your models into existing games without a programmer, if you just want that satisfaction.

If you really want to program, you have to learn the basics first. Basics will most likely not include game development. This is good to note, so you won''t be constantly thinking "does this part relate to making games??" as I did. Nothing you learn with a basic C/C++ book/tutorial will be wasted.

This first part is the biggest challenge in getting started. It was the hardest for me, and you''ll probably learn a lot like I did; from an artist point of view. I would recommend a book or tutorial which teaches by results. Something that will show you how each operator or instruction will make a difference in the output, then shows you how to do it yourself. Don''t use something that just tries to explain every detail about a feature, then moves on. That''s not an artist''s way of learning.

I learned by playing with JavaScript in web pages, then with Sams Teach Yourself C in 24h, then online tutorials for C++. But I wasn''t very motivated with the C book, because at the time I was totally clueless as to how games were constructed.

By the way, a while afterwards I made a space invaders clone on a webpage with JavaScript

I know the feeling, and it''s good to ask for advice on it.

It may seem like an impossible wall, but the most important thing to do is - before picking up an engine or anything - to learn some C or C++ out of a book. Online tutorials won''t really suffice.

If you really, really need to be lazy about it like me, you can always try learning Python instead, since there is the excellent 2d module Pygame for that. Again, a book should be necessary - the official Python tutorial is decent but I found it a bit unsatisfying in parts.

If you need exercises, search introductury Computer Science class websites and they''ll have plenty of good, worthwhile projects that are meant to teach certain things about programming. They''re usually meant for C or Java, but that doesn''t make them worthless.

And you can use your 3d models in a 2d game very easily; you just have to make some 2d renders of them, and then use them as sprites. Without special tools for saving as a sprite, though, you have to take care about how you do it. Blindly resizing the image and plopping it in your game will either result in a colored border around the object due to antialiasing, or bits of the shape missing if you''ve made your border black and the model also reaches total darkness. You''ll either have to get a render that''s at the right size in pixels to start with, or expect to do some post-processing work.

I recommend Python for learning programming. It''s an extremely nice language in basically any way you look at it, except in speed. However, since basically all of the modules written for Python is written in C, the performance loss won''t be that great.

You probably won''t need very advanced graphics in the beginning anyway. There is a game written in Python using the PyGame module which is pretty good looking called SolarWolf.

Python also has support for OpenGL which is nice for 3d graphics

There is a GREAT free book availible for download (or on/offline reading) called "How to think like a computer scientist using Python" or something very similiar. I read it from cover to cover in maybe four hours of spread out reading time.