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Designing an app
- Thread starter Th.e.0
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- app build programming
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start basic, and work up...
(No one can skydive first without getting over the fear of flying..)
I'd be starting with 'Connect 4" or basic app that even reports back information only ... then build up from there.
You need to know what commands do first, before u can build anything, since if anything goes wrong, u'd be at a loss for fixing it up. To me, while u can Google that stuff and help at hand, i always feel like the only way u'll learn is write it yourself..
If u just copy all your code, u won't learn a thing. but if u write it yourself (which would take time), at least u learn along the way which is much more valuable. That's how i learned html anyway
(No one can skydive first without getting over the fear of flying..)
I'd be starting with 'Connect 4" or basic app that even reports back information only ... then build up from there.
You need to know what commands do first, before u can build anything, since if anything goes wrong, u'd be at a loss for fixing it up. To me, while u can Google that stuff and help at hand, i always feel like the only way u'll learn is write it yourself..
If u just copy all your code, u won't learn a thing. but if u write it yourself (which would take time), at least u learn along the way which is much more valuable. That's how i learned html anyway
If you want to make a game, there are all sorts of game engines that will help you and often have good tutorials. There are code-free options such as Construct 2. Ones that rely heavily on coding such ad Cocos2D. And others somewhere inbetween such as Unity. You can start with most for free, so investigate and try a few.
I guess there are probably equivalents for non-game apps, but I haven't looked too closely at those.
Thank you so much for the help. I've tried unity but am finding it hard to make something original as I'm a complete novice when it comes to coding. Which the apps you suggested can u publish on App Store/play store? Thanks
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Thanks again for the help. But I have never really done any coding. If you could suggest a way to learn or teach my self to code that would be really useful. Thanks
I would recommend starting with the following book.
https://www.amazon.com/Foundation-G...d=1473161148&sr=8-3&keywords=javascript+games
It will give you a fairly good overview of game design without weighing you down with learning engines as well. Once you have defined your needs you will have the background to pick an appropriate engine, if one is even needed.
Simple answer, is no, I do not recommend using an engine at all. That book will teach you how to write a basic engine. Building your own, let's you tailor it to your specific needs ( obviously ). It also shows you that it really is not that hard to do. To answer your question, here are a list of game engines:
https://html5gameengine.com/
Thank you. So you think the best option is to write it straight from HTML code?
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I had a look at the site and it looks like the best one is construct 2.
Just going to weigh in here. If you're interested in developing for iOS then personally I wouldn't be concentrating on javascript or html. Sure, sooner or later you may find you need to learn about them, and some of what you learn may help when you move to iOS - but only the very basic concepts of coding.
Instead, I'd recommend you find a good Swift/iOS tutorial. There are plenty over at https://www.raywenderlich.com
Also, have a look at the official Apple Developer Library where there are plenty of tutorials (personally I prefer Ray Wenderlich's tutorials though) https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/navigation/
Be prepared to do a lot of reading, and a lot of trial and error!
Instead, I'd recommend you find a good Swift/iOS tutorial. There are plenty over at https://www.raywenderlich.com
Also, have a look at the official Apple Developer Library where there are plenty of tutorials (personally I prefer Ray Wenderlich's tutorials though) https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/navigation/
Be prepared to do a lot of reading, and a lot of trial and error!
So the best options I can see are unity, construct 2 and pure HTML coding. From what I know unity and construct are both highly rated but both don't have the freedom of HTML script. I'm going to give it a go soon so which do you think is the best? Thanks for your help.
I've created demos with ImpactJS, Phaser, pixi.js, Three.js, Quintus and more. I ended up just writing the engine I needed. Construct2 does look pretty impressive, but would have to dive in the code to really check it out.
Good luck!
PS superscape has a point, but seems to dismiss javascript too readily. iOS limits you to a single platform ( although the knowledge can easily be shared to other languages, kinda like learning Spanish and Portuguese, most code languages have a lot of similarities ), whereas JS is agnostic and that makes it more practical.
Say you want to build a game, javascript can do it. Medical practice client based software, JS, yep. Medical practice client / server JS again. Single page web application, JS. But what captured my time was that I could write javascript once and with very minor tweaks deploy it to Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, Android, Linux, Kindle and whatever they come up with next week. Here's some examples to blow your mind:
http://threejs.org/
Here's a direct example:
http://hexgl.bkcore.com/play/
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Yeah, I didn't mean to dismiss Javascript completely. Learning javascript most certainly isn't time wasted, and its a fairly good way to get started with learning programming in general. You'll learn about flow control, variables, functions, conditional statements etc and although the syntax might change, the concepts are pretty similar in many languages. You can do some cool stuff with Javascript.
I think the point I was making was that if, as the OP states, the goal is to write apps for the iOS/Mac App Store then the most common way of doing that is in Objective-C or increasingly Swift in Xcode (although I appreciate there are other, less common methods).
To use your analogy, although knowing Spanish might make it easier to learn Portuguese, if the my end goal was to learn Portuguese then I wouldn't learn Spanish first. I'd book myself straight on a Beginner's Portuguese course. I think that was the point I was trying to make.
So what do you think is better to use(I have a mac) JavaScript or swift? Also, I have never done anything than really basic HTML coding so how would you suggest I learn the code? I can see the benefits of coding and why it's best to not do things like unity. Thanks
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[doublepost=1473238063][/doublepost]Is all of those websites and games on three gs made in JavaScript. They were amazing. Wow!
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If your end goal is to write apps for the Mac/iOS App Store then I'd start learning Swift, probably using the Ray Wenderlich site if I was you. They have an 'iOS Apprentice' course that looks good. I should also have mentioned that there are some good guides at lynda.com.
If your end goal is just to learn about programming in general then javascript and html might be an easier starting point, but that's not the best way to create an app for iOS or Mac.
Thanks. Yes mac/iOS is my end goal so I'll look for demos and guides to start learning. When I looked before at ray wenlerlich's site it looked pretty good. Thanks for the help and I'll give it a go.
The other game engines I mentioned can export for those stores. I have only looked at the website and a youTube video about Construct 2, but I have heard good things about it.
It doesn't have a Mac editor (so you would need to use Windows), but I know a few people who love Game Maker. It can export to iOS, Android, etc. There is currently a Humble Bundle where you can get Game Maker, the export modules, and source code for several games for $15. I am told the coding knowledge required is quite low.
I use Unity. It took quite a while to get up to speed with programming as my background is as a games designer. The only popular code-free option at the timed I was learning was Gamesalad. I tried that, but found it too easy to break a project without having a way to correct it.
It is a perfectly reasonable choice to choose something simple to get into making your own games. You can always spend time learning something deeper when you feel more confident and want to do something more ambitious.
Thanks. I have a mac and have downloaded unity but am finding it hard to make something original. Do you have any tips for making it original and do you have to pay to publish on the App Store? Thanks
I suggest just making things as a learning exercise. Work on the originality once you are comfortable with the tool. Unity provide some good tutorials. You can download them from the Unity Asset Store. I highly recommend the Survival Shooter tutorial. It is available as videos (although they applied to an older version the last time I looked) and a PDF (which had been updated). The best method is to watch a bit of the video, then follow the PDF to try doing it yourself.
It is $99 a year to be able to publish apps on the Apple App Store, but you can then publish as many apps as you wish. The Google Play store has a one-time $25 fee.
Cool. That is quit expensive for an app that might not make any profit. Thanks for the tips though and I'll keep trying.