Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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."

3 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. Not a book, but... by Dial-Up · · Score: 5, Informative

    Well, this isn't a book, but just as good. The Game Programming Wiki is a great resource for game programming in several major languages. There's also a very active message board that is extremely helpful.

  2. Screw books by RootsLINUX · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I have never been a fan of learning how to do something by reading about it. The only way to learn good game programming, IMO, is to actually try doing it. That's how I started with the game in my sig and its been working so far. While not a book, may I recommend you take a look at the Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL) library? It's free, cross-platform, and is really easy to learn to use. It's written in C, but there are extensions to it in other languages. Good luck!

    --
    Hero of Allacrost, a FOSS RPG for *NIX/*BSD/OS X/Win
  3. Start Easy and Produce something. by xMonkey · · Score: 5, Informative

    My #1 suggestion would to get yourself a copy of Flass MX or something simular.

    You number one roadblock will be graphics.

    Flash is an excellent way to quickly prototype game ideas. And the more you use it the faster you can prototype ideas.

    I think game design NEEDS to be fluid. You need to get something working play it, find out whats fun about it and whats not fun. Determine what works and doesn't work.

    Prototype everything first. Then when you have a solid design of the game play and mechanics, you can start something a bit more serious.

    And more than likely your prototypes will be acceptable flash versions, and you might actually have a finished product in Flash.

    --
    Now I've seen Everything