new here, just a few quick questions.

Start Here.

Thank you, anybody else..

Do you already have any applicable skills, or are you starting from scratch?

Do you have any particular types of games or target platforms in mind, or do you just want to get set up with the basic skills to make games in general?

Can you/are you willing to spend a bit of money if we recommend any books or software (don't worry, we're good at keeping software recommendations cheap, and someone always chimes in to point out any free software that's potentially useful) if you might need it, or would you prefer people stick to recommending free resources?

I have no skills, in this area of coding. I do code in php,mysql,css,xthml.. All basicly for the web. I am looking to start from the basics. I would like free resources if possible, I can shell out some money in a week or two for book and programs. I wish to learn the basics first. Though, my project revolves around a browser game. What area should I be learning for this? Basics come first though, no matter what.

What kind of browser game? Flash? PHP? &#106avascript? Need a little more information.

Hmm I would say start here http://nehe.gamedev.net/ but not for programming. If you need to learn c or c++ I would buy sams teach yourself or something like that. But that NEHE is a good resource for learning OpenGL.

Also try things, like Linux! Learn how to use gcc and g++ and make. Buy a good book on the UNIX command line. You might like it I know I do.

Ok, I see two viable paths for you based on what you've told us:

1. Learn a non-web programming language and pick up the basics of game creation. Good choices would be either Python (you can get everything you need to get started from the website, and in addition to the resources on that site can find some good resources to help you get started here), or C# (get the tools you'll need free here along with some resources, there are some more resources listed here, and although it's finished already you could potentially take a look at our C# Workshop from last year).

Both are excellent choices for a beginner and are quite capable of producing some very good quality games once you've learned the language. Either can potentially be used in a browser-based game, but as this seems significantly easier with Python (although I must admit I've never tried to do so with C#) I'd probably recommend it as a good choice.


The first thing you'd want to do with either language is spend some time learning the basics, before trying some very small and simply game projects.

Alternatively...

2. If you're aiming towards a web-based game you could also skip learning other languages altogether. PHP, XHTML and MySQL are everything you need to get started on a browser-based game. I'm afraid I'm not aware of any resources off the top of my head to learn specifically what you'd need for making one, but I'm sure there'd be some good articles/tutorials out there, and it also wouldn't be inconceivable that you could piece together what needs to be done yourself by learning techniques used in non-game sites and seeing how you can apply them.

If however you wanted something more graphical in the browser you'd want to look into Flash/ActionScript (or Flex), or Silverlight (developer site) which would actually lead you back towards choosing C# or Python.



Hope that's of some help, do ask if you have further questions. [smile]