Hello, I need guidance in wanting to be a game dev. I wanna start making my own game, an Indie game to be exact. But, I don't know where to start I would like to get the ball rolling soon, I'm 17, have a Mac, and this is what i chose as my career path but it's so hard to get the ball moving when you can't really find any help or guidance. I do not wanna start with a video game engine like Unreal I would like to start something in coding in terms of C++ or Java but also need to learn either of the two and build of that. If a Moderator could move this to somewhere more appropriate thanks you, I honestly had no idea where to put this. Thanks for reading and hope someone can help.
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macOS Hi, new to the forum but would like guidance
- Thread starter SpartanJ59
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First of all, register as an Apple developer at http://developer.apple.com . Basic access is free and gets you access to developer forums and tutorial materials. You won't get advance versions of OSX or iOS but you should be able to download xCode and sample tutorial projects you can build and run to get familiar with OSX development.
There are free "college" courses online offered by Stanford University through coursera or udacity that cover app development. I would take all those courses.
If you're short on money, avoid paying for those "learn game programming in 6 weeks" books in your local bookstore. You can find a lot of useful information on the web. If you can invest in books, spend some time reading reviews and reading samples before you pick one as these books are expensive and they are NOT all created equal.
A suggestion: drop the word "game" from what you say you're trying to do right now, as chances are what you have in mind when you say "game" are well beyond what you're going to be able to do for awhile (unless the game you have in mind is entirely text based, in which case it may be just a few days or weeks away.)
Games like the ones you probably have in mind are amongst the most complicated things to program.
So, for now, focus on just learning how to program.
If I may, I'm going to suggest your first language be C. Others will argue that the language is too confusing, but if you're planning on getting into games, you're going to need to learn the language sooner or later.
I suggest you read (and do the exercises within) the free ebook, Learn C The Hard Way. Here it is:
http://c.learncodethehardway.org/book/
Games like the ones you probably have in mind are amongst the most complicated things to program.
So, for now, focus on just learning how to program.
If I may, I'm going to suggest your first language be C. Others will argue that the language is too confusing, but if you're planning on getting into games, you're going to need to learn the language sooner or later.
I suggest you read (and do the exercises within) the free ebook, Learn C The Hard Way. Here it is:
http://c.learncodethehardway.org/book/
Definitely C over Java or C++ if apps are your end goal.
If you find C too confusing, you have other paths or other sources of information. Jumping straight into Objective C 2.0 is possible, but not for everyone. Don't give up just tell us what you find confusing and we can point you in a different direction.
As others have indicated, be prepared to realize that your programs may look nothing like apps for a long while yet.
B
Umm....What's with the "This file doesn’t appear to contain a valid ‘shebang’ line (application error code: 13304)" error?
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Sorry if I'm sounding really horrible and unprepared for something I really want to do, but last time I worked with code was 2 years ago and I was working on HTML
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Sorry if I'm sounding really horrible and unprepared for something I really want to do, but last time I worked with code was 2 years ago and I was working on HTML
You tried to run a script that didn't start with a "#!" (aka shebang) to tell it what scripting language was being used.
What were you doing that led to that error?
B
What were you doing that led to that error?
B
It sounds like you are trying to run the source code, instead of compiling it.
For C.
1) Go onto the Mac App Store and download Xcode (it's free).
2) Run Xcode and go to its preferences.
3) In the preferences go to Downloads, then under components select "Command Line Tools" and click install.
4) Once installed close down Xcode.
This will install the various basic command line tools you need.
Once you've done that you should be able to compile your program from the Terminal application. For example when you are in the folder with the source code file you can run:-
"gcc name_of_hello_world_file.c -o helloworld"
You can then run the outputted file with "./helloworld" if it compiled ok.
For C.
1) Go onto the Mac App Store and download Xcode (it's free).
2) Run Xcode and go to its preferences.
3) In the preferences go to Downloads, then under components select "Command Line Tools" and click install.
4) Once installed close down Xcode.
This will install the various basic command line tools you need.
Once you've done that you should be able to compile your program from the Terminal application. For example when you are in the folder with the source code file you can run:-
"gcc name_of_hello_world_file.c -o helloworld"
You can then run the outputted file with "./helloworld" if it compiled ok.
As Dark Dragoon says, welcome to the first major difference between HTML/Javascript and other interpreted languages (e.g. Python) and compiled languages like C.
Text Wrangler is a great editor, even for C, but is not a compiler or IDE (integrated development environment).
You don't actually need Xcode as you can compile simple apps just with the command line tools package if you want to use a third party IDE or external editor. https://github.com/kennethreitz/osx-gcc-installer
B
