13 year-old (learning) programmer looking for advice

SuperChar

Hey
So,I'm 13 and in my spare time I've been learning C++
Was just looking for some advice from you guys as what to do
I looked into Unity before I started programming and what I've learned so far in C++ doesn't seem to help with Unity
All I've learned is about numbers and variables and stuff like that
Should I learn something else or should I try getting into game design as I have clear ideas of games I would like to make
Thanks

Kilgore__Trout

Hello SuperChar,

Welcome to the GD forum. 13 is a good age to start, wish I'd been as industrious as you are being : )

I guess the best thing to do is to try different approaches out, and see how they work for you. Great games have been created using a variety of methods.

I can't really comment on using C++, but the general consensus appears to be that it allows greater control, hence performance at a cost of being more difficult to work with. In the early stages of development, you'll be making decisions on what engine to use, or whether to build your own. Since games are very time consuming to make, if you are working on your own, you'd likely be better off using an existing engine.

I've been using Unity for some time now, and it seems fairly solid. It has a great interface, is free, and does a lot of things for you, but the performance when using some of the more advanced graphical features isn't optimal.

Moving from a standard IDE to something like Unity can be a little confusing at first. You'll need to stick with it for a while. Tutorials are a great way to get to grips, then you could make a few simple games. If it is something you are interested in, you could look at these tutorials. They are in javascript, and you'll have a simple game to show for it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-X-Ebh1kYA

Jumping straight into Unity may work for some, but may be overwhelming for others. Being familiar with a Unity language will be a massive help. If you want to get learn more about C#, you can't go wrong with the new boston:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_9lfHjYtVg&list=PLE783AE5991B563FA

Hopefully someone with experience in C++ will drop in, and give you the rundown on that route.

Good luck!

Torakx

Hi Superchar,
I also use Unity and work in C#.
C++ is good for understanding the foundations of how computers use memory etc in games.
And I have heard it is more difficult to learn, but you can do anything with it.
It's like having a blank page to paint on , where other languages and most game engines are giving you a picture just started with the basic shapes done for you, if that makes sense.

So Unity will handle how things are done through the graphics card and cpu without you having to program it.
Both ways are good. Sometimes it just depends on where you want to end up.
Really once you learn any programming languge even just the basics, you will begin to understand other languages too. Which means you can always do another language later and it will be even easier then to learn the second one.

My advice is to try Unity. It is great for importing packages other people make to do stuff you might not be able to do by yourself.
Since you are starting out so early, you have the potential to learn really fast once you are enjoying what you do!

There are 2D game engines that are drag and drop code, which may or may not help..Sometimes I think this slows learning because it isn't coding and only helps you understand very basic stuff. I found it harder than learning to code for example...

Unity has 3d and also the engine has been updated to be a 2d engine at the click of a button.
It has a lot of community suppport for tutorials.Unity's JavaScript(special unity language like the popular Java but not the same) is slightly easier to learn I hear. It has more shortcuts when coding.
But I would say C# seems more sensible overall, as you can use it outside of Unity for other stuff too.

I found this helpful for getting the basics of using methods etc.

http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/#?fbid=JweTXKGrw9a
Lots of languages covered here. Just looked agin.. ok not lots, but it has C# and I found it the best for getting the basics

Google search is your friend also. I often don't know something like exactly how to rotate an object a certain way and will just google search "Unity rotating object C#" for example and get loads of results to grab some code snippets from.
Then you see it work in the engine and after a few times using it, you have learned how to rotate objects... and so on.

Also if you have or use FaceBook, there are a couple of game development groups that are extremely helpful when you need information.
Infact they would give you tons of info on tutorials for starting out too
If you are on FaceBook and interested in finding those groups, you could send me a private message on these forums, I will add you and then invite you to all the game dev groups I am in. About 3-5 of them I think.
But it's not an essential to learning and you could probably find them yourself too

I actually had to check the age limit for Facebook haha
It's 13+ so ok there. I only opened an account to make contacts for game dev and get information etc.

Have fun on your journey in programming, I am glad I began and wish I had started sooner!
Back when I wanted to learn (age 10) I had a commodore C64 and no such thing as the internet
Had to teach myself to make text adventures and I gave up after a while.

witnessmenow

Before you get into game development I think it would be well worth doing some learning/ projects on object orientated side of things. At the very least you will need to have a basic understanding of Classes. There is much more to it than that, but you can pick that up later.

I can't recommend one at the moment, but there will be plenty of introduction to Java courses for free online that you could do that should go over the basics. Do the sample projects in them and get more familiar with development

Whatever idea you have for your game, its too complicated for your first game Something really really simple like space invaders should be your first bet. Don't be afraid to follow tutorials. You learn a lot from each game you make so you want to get some of your mistakes out of the way in games you dont care about

I'm back re-visting my first game because it is my best idea, and I have learnt so much from other games that I am re-writing it with the improvements.

This isnt the busiest forum in the world, but the people who see your posts are generally really helpful, so if you need help with something don't be afraid to ask! Even if its a general programming question I'm sure people will have no issues helping you out.

SuperChar

Hey
So I had ECDL (computers) today in school and in the computer lab there was a poster for the Call to Code competition Google are running
Should I enter this?
It says on the rules page that every question has to be submitted in either Python, Perl, C++, or Java
Thanks for all the previous comments by the way

Torakx

SuperChar wrote: »

Hey
So I had ECDL (computers) today in school and in the computer lab there was a poster for the Call to Code competition Google are running
Should I enter this?
It says on the rules page that every question has to be submitted in either Python, Perl, C++, or Java
Thanks for all the previous comments by the way

Go for it Sounds like a good way to give you some goals/motivation at the least.
You already mentioned wanting to learn C++.
Even if you decide after that competition to switch, you will still find what you learn so far useful.
Java is another nice common language, I think used a lot in web development. But not 100% sure.

Edit: Just jump into everything that interests you in the slightest. Make as many mistakes as possible and be happy you made them. All my mistakes in life have been the greatest lessons I have learned. Make it fun, don't worry about failing or "losing" and you will grow tens times as fast.

Jonny Blaze

Hey SuperChar, well done on starting to learn programming so early!

You mentioned that all you were learning about in C++ were numbers types and variables and stuff.

This will be pretty language specific to C++ as it is pretty much describing the available 'data types' that the language supports.

This is great background information to have in general for programming and is one of the key ways languages are different to one another.

Most of the C 'family' of languages have similar enough data types but things like Python or Javascript have some significant differences.

If I were you I would keep learning programming in general and try to write at least a few little games or projects "the hard way" before getting stuck into an editor/ engine like Unity.

I found that I appreciated much more what Unity was actually doing by trying to code it myself first. Things like raytracing, lerping and even writing your own Vector2 and Vector3 classes will give you a bit of a boost in the long term. They are hard to do yourself but what you learn out of it will be worth more than just going into unity and called Vector3.Lerp.

You have all the time in the world to learn and improve so I would advise slow and steady at first to avoid hitting a wall later on where you feel you aren't making progress because you just don't understand what's going on internally to make things in Unity work.

That's my opinion about it at least! Good luck anyway!