Where do I start

Stricken618

Hello fellow gamers,

I am the newb next door and I need someone to tell me where to start. Where is the best starting point in the road to a professional game designer Do I start with 2D games Or 3D

EricGeorge

well, most say to start in 2d, and it makes sense, start from the basic and make something more complex, but I on the other hand like to start with where you want to go. My method (be warned this is a highly risky method that will probably not lead to a profesional game or future, but it works for me).

You want to make a 'next generation 3d space star wars style dogfight game' well, what would you start with, getting a ship and moving it onscreen. So find tutorials about making a 3d object on screen, then what, you gotta make it move, so look for tutorials on that. Then, I would go with a weapon system, make you ship fire, then make a basic enemy that doesnt move or have ai but will explode. Just take it one step at a time I say, but most other gurus around here will tell you a better more tried method, but I like to see progress and starting with a simple game idea such as pong is not progress in my game, but whatever works. Anyways, getting started it very easy to get lost in the written tutorials, here is a great site with video tutorials that take it from the VERY VERY start and really enlightens you to C# quickly, video tutorials are the way for beginers IMO, then once you understand the code structure the written ones will make much more sense. Here is a link to a site with good video tutorials (a couple hours worth total easy though, watch them over a few days)

http://www.xnatutorial.com/ page_id=46

Good luck!

dagfari

It also depends on if you know how to program in C#. If you're new to C# look here;

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/visualcsharp/easytolearn/

I found this very helpful.

Mordt2

This dude taught me everything i have learnt so far about XNA

http://xna101.spaces.live.com/

Lukily I use C# at work so have a grounds up in C# but once you get the hang of it its not that bad. Keep at it !

Mordt

Darkside

Simply search the forums for Tutorials for more info and read the XNA docs that came with GSE, the XNA team spent a lot of time getting usfull stuff in there.

For 2D start over at http://www.xnaresources.com/blog.asp, good 2D tuts

for 3D head over to http://www.riemers.net/eng/Tutorials/xnacsharp.php for 3D tuts.

Lots more links on the forums and my blog site (which remind me I have a few more to add)

Dave "LetsKillDave" Weller has also posted a humongous link page on his blog which whould be checked out - http://letskilldave.com/pages/XNA-Sites_2C00_-Blogs_2C00_-Games_2C00_-and-Tutorials.aspx

Enjoy learning

Darkside