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Getting Started with Game Development?

Posted by Zonk on from the new-devs-in-the-making dept.

Knight2K writes "Recent articles about casual gaming have given me the itch to try my hand at writing some games. I haven't written any since my college projects, and they never followed any formal game design practice or patterns (unless it was unconsciously). I'd like to start just by writing simple board games and card games that my family liked to play that have no digital counterparts as far as I know. Eventually I might want to branch out and do 3D work. I mostly work in Java right now, but I'd re-learn C++, if needed. My question: what books would you recommend to a beginning game developer? Good introductions to game theory would be welcome, but also language or platform-specific suggestions are useful as well: OpenGL, Symbian, C++, Java, J2ME, etc."

2 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. SDL & C/C++ on Linux may be a good start by green+pizza · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What is your target? Do you want to write a game for a Windows PC? If so, then maybe you should look into C# and Direct3D. If you want a cross-platform game that you can compile on Windows, Linux, BSD, and Mac OS X, then look into SDL and OpenGL.

    You might want to start here if you're going the cross-platform route:
    http://www.libsdl.org
    http://andrew.textux.com/tutorials/tut1/tutorial1. html
    http://www.kekkai.org/roger/sdl/

  2. Good introduction to game theory! by MrDomino · · Score: 3, Interesting

    [...] Good introductions to game theory would be welcome, [...]

    You and a partner commit a crime, and are arrested. In the interrogation room, you learn that the two of you will each go to jail for 2 years if neither of you says anything; however, if you testify against your partner, you'll get off free while he ends up with 6 years. If both of you confess, you both go to jail for 4 years. What do you do?

    You are playing a game where you are given $50, and then asked whether you would like to take it as is, or flip a fair coin. If you make the latter choice and turn up heads, then your total amount will be doubled to $100; if you turn up tails, then the amount will be halved. Do you take the $50, or take your chance with the coin?

    You appear on a game show where, at some point, you are told to pick one of three doors. Behind one of these doors is a prize; behind the other two, nothing. You pick a door. The host then declares that he will open one of the empty doors. Having done this, he offers you a chance to switch to the other, single remaining door. Do you switch, or do you stay?