New to programming? Wanna learn how to make games? 2 GT GameDev forum frequenters, Moose and LukeSquall, post some beginner tips below. If these don’t help you, feel free to post a question in the forum and we’ll help you out.

Moose suggests: If you’re beginning programming (more specifically Game programming) there’s a website with a lot of good articles! Here’s the link to my favorite page (take out spaces):

http:// www.gamedev.net/ reference/ start_here/

I suggest the articles:

# Game Programming Beginners Guide

# What Language Do I Use?

# How Do I Make Games?: A Path to Game Development.

Those are three good ones, of course they all help and they’re all good! I suggest checking out the rest of the site, too!

Hope it helps beginners.

Moose

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LukeSquall says: Ok. I have been in and out of this forum quite a while now(well, not as long as scribbs, someone and sub_reb)...and I have seen hundreds of questions–most being the same. For instance ‘where do I start’ or ‘What is the easiest language’. Well, just to help most of you, I decided to put togethet a little FAQ. So please, and newbies to programming please read ahead!:

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Where do I start?!!

Well, look at it this way–EVERY programmer was here once. Even the great programmers that made final fantasy, metal gear solid and even the clasic mario! So don’t feel scared, we all gotta start somewhere. I remember when I first started...‘How do I do it?! Where do I do it?! What do I have to but?!’ Well, the good news fols, is that if you’re reading this, you don’t have to buy anything–you can start now! The first thing I did, was choose my language...

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Which Language?!!

Well, here’s a list of the most popular languages at the moment:

ASP; C; C++; CGI; Java; Javascript; HTML; Perl; Quick Basic; Visual Basic...

Also, another one is ActionScript, which is the programming language used in flash, but that is something completely different so I will not go into that.

As a beguinner, I chose Quick Basic(QBasic) as a lot of people recommended it. But to be honest, it is totall up to you. Most languages are similar, especially C and C++–but they are 2 language which I dont recomend for a beginner. C and C++ is what professional programers use, and if you’re like I was, you’re probably thinking ‘Well I’m going straight for C++!’ but trust me–you won’t get anywhere! HTML is used for websites, so if you looking into making games, I wouldn’t chose that as a first language. Also, Javascript is like an expansion to HTML, but it IS possible to make games in javascript. Visual Basic is mainly used for programming windows, but I am not totally sure as I have never really looked into that. But as I said earlier, QBasic will probably be the best choice.

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OK. I’ve got my language...But how the heII do I use it?!!

Well, in programming, there is 2 things needed–a language and a compiler. ‘A compiler?!’. Well, look at it as a machine–you feed a programming language into one side, and out the other side comes out your program. But, it’s not quite that simple, as you’ll have to get the right compiler for your language. So let’s just say you’re learning QBasic. Basically EVERY QBasic complier is free, but when you want a compiler for a more advanced language such as C, you’ll need to start spending some money... But before you put anything to a compiler...you’ll need to learn some QBASIC!

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OK I get it so far, but I dont have anything to put in this ‘compiler!’

Well, you can simply take some tutorials! You can either buy a book from the local book shop, but that cost some money, so you might prefer some online tutorials. A very good site for programming tutorials on a lot of languages is:

http:// www. programmingtutorials. com

(just remove the spaces)

...OK, so now hopefully you’ve found a good tutorial that suits you. Maybe you’ve already read a bit and if you’ve been following this from the beginning you would’ve chosen a QBasic tutorial. Now all you need is something to throw some source into!

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Where do I ‘feed’ my source into?!

Ok. I was talking about compilers earlier. if you’ve chosen QBasic, a pretty good site is:

http:// www. qbcafe. net

(again just remove the spaces) there you will find some classic compilers and a few tutorials.. When choosing a compiler, always choose one that suits you best. Don’t choose one just because it’s got a good one. Check a few out, a see which one feels best, because you’re going to be using it a lot...

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So what now?!

So you should now have a tutorial and your compiler open. Read through the tutorials following everything. A thing I always do when learning a new language, is type in the examples from the tutorials, test them, change them a bit and see if I can make things work the way I wantm which helps me understand the source a bit more..

Hopefully, that would’ve helped a few newbies to programming. I learnt a lot of that myself from people like sub_reb and jona. So thankyou to them. =]

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Got a tip to help out newbies? Post it in the forum and if it’s good I’ll consider adding it to this list.