Game programming starting languages

As far as professional game programming goes, I think the core of most games are still written in C++. Tools are sometimes done in C# as well. Content code is often done in some kind of scripting language.

But of course many more languages have been used, even in the professional world.

I (personally) would use C#, C++, Java or FreePascal (in this preference). I would not recommend using any runtime interpreted (script) languages (Python, PHP, Tcl, ...) for the core of a project.

I think the core of most games are still written in c and c++.They are very important.

Python is used by a few notable games as their scripting system, is used fairly widely for tools/pipeline development, and is integrated into Maya for DCC scripting.

All in all, it is a language that is being used a little bit here and a little bit there for different aspects of the game development process. It is a generally useful language.

As the others have pointed out, the most common language used for (console) videogames is C++. You'll eventually need to know C++, but I think that Python is a great stepping stone as it is easier to learn for most people. In the long wrong you'll know multiple languages and will learn to use the appropriate tool for the specific job at hand.

Python is an excellent place to start.

+1 for Python.

Learning the concepts when starting out is much better then choosing the "right language".

Not to mention to keep interest its important to see results and with C++ it just takes too much time learning to be able to do something useful.

Quote:

Original post by Chrono1081 +1 for Python. Learning the concepts when starting out is much better then choosing the "right language". Not to mention to keep interest its important to see results and with C++ it just takes too much time learning to be able to do something useful.

+2 for Python but sometimes I think it's just too simple most newbies since they seem to blow it off or the IDE just turns them off to it?

In my opinion, you will want to study C# so that you can use XNA, which has a lot of boilerplate code already written for you (especially the asset pipeline). Basically, with XNA, you can just put in pictures and models just like that. Ultimately, though, you will want to learn or convert to using C++ as it seems to be the industry standard. When you have learned C#, learning C++ is not terribly difficult. Functions that you will be used to using have different names and so on, but you will still have classes and structs.

As for graphics APIs (after you have worked a bit with XNA, which is not a graphics API), I would recommend learning OpenGL and then converting to Direct3D.

Python with Pygame, or Panda 3D for 3D games, is a good place to start. Granted, it's not meant for the low-level parts of a game, but that's fine - by focusing on the 'game' aspect of game-development you gain a better overview of what game development includes.


Actually, there's a lot of Flash developers that are perhaps only somewhat familiar with Actionscript, but they're building games regardless. It may be light on programming, but game-development is more than programming alone, so it can be a good starting point. Before I became a programmer I created levels for shooters in my spare time. It didn't teach me much about programming, but it did give me a lot of insight into game-development. So yeah, that sort of was my starting point, modding existing games.

Quote:

Original post by Moeller As far as professional game programming goes, I think the core of most games are still written in C++. Tools are sometimes done in C# as well. Content code is often done in some kind of scripting language. But of course many more languages have been used, even in the professional world. I (personally) would use C#, C++, Java or FreePascal (in this preference). I would not recommend using any runtime interpreted (script) languages (Python, PHP, Tcl, ...) for the core of a project.

That is awesome. I've been a fan of C++ since the start of the programming studies 2 years ago. But the only thing I couldn't find since last year were the tutorials and the like needed to make a simple game in C++. So while I search for a decent tutorial about C++ game development, I'll try to make a decent game out of Pygame. Thanks for your reply.

gideux