Post by Scylez in Chasing Tail comments

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Besides the sanghelil character, I put a couple other halo references in the text too ;) I wonder if anyone will notice those! I

Thank you for the super kind words! I'm glad you really liked the game and enjoyed it enough to leave such wonderful feedback. I love reading through posts like this and hearing other peoples likes and dislikes with the game. You've given me a really stellar review here and it's hard to say how cool and how much it means to me. I can't be more happy when something I made has a positive affect on someone else. It's the entire reason I wanted to make games in the first place!

You may have already guessed this, but Scylez's struggles in the game were my own and for a long time it was super hard to get into programming. I loved the idea but couldn't get started. Programming its self was a neat concept, and I really love games so learning programming by writing games was the best way for me to learn. I did have a ton of terrible games at first but creating them made the experience of learning much easier and through brute force and many many failed projects I was eventually able to learn enough to be comfortable. Hopefully you'll also be able to find that spark that helps motivate and teach you.

Thank you for the fun review. Hope school goes well and hopefully your programming adventures are just beginning! They say it takes 10,000 hours to become a master so don't get discouraged if you're not a pro right away! Everyone always has more to learn :)

LoneDroid455 years ago

(Once again I would like to apologize for my late comment/reply I'm somewhat of a night owl) Thank you so much for putting the time into this comment. It means alot to see how much work you have put both into the game and your community. I'm sorry for the 2 day late response, but I have read your reply Extensively, and began the hunt for more references. Needless to say I was like Marv from home alone 2 when he was hit with the bricks.

I'm not entirely sure if this is it, but, your comment might be enough of a spark. To be honest, I didn't think it was entirely possible to learn through trial and error. (Although now that I think about it, I see how it could be done) I think I might follow in your footsteps and attempt some games of my own with the little knowledge I do have. I don't mean to impose, or steal any more of your time, but I was wondering, Do you have any advice? Starting programs, coding languages, tips and tricks, things to avoid? Thank you once again for such a fun and eye opening experience. Keep up the awesome work.

Scylez5 years ago

I'm in no way an expert so take things I say with a grain of salt, but I can tell you some things that I encountered when trying to learn.

Starting was the hardest part for me because I instantly wanted to do everything and it was frustrating to have just barely grasped the concepts of programming. Not only was this frustrating but starting was also a slog. It took a long time to learn all the basics and understand them well enough where I could take information from elsewhere and build upon my knowledge. At the beginning it seemed like many books, tutorials, and videos assumed I knew information that I didn't, so my questions as to "why" never got answered. So for me the hardest part was the beginning and I assume that's what stops a lot of people from progressing.

I think having a medium that encouraged me to learn more helped a great deal. I wanted to make games, so learning more enabled me to do more. I started out making text adventures in C++ just with Visual Studio which didn't require much knowledge so it was a good starting point. Then I moved to making 2D games with C# and XNA and I learned a great deal more about classes and the actual flow of OOP. And then I discovered Unity and things really blew up. I knew enough to make simple games and was hooked on trying to do more and that's how I ended up here.

This may be a long winded response but I guess it boils down to start small and work your way up. If you look up tutorials make sure you understand the code that's being presented. I've followed tutorials before and written code along with a video but in the end, I ended up with code I didn't understand and couldn't really edit. I had lots of questions on "why" that never got satisfied. Other than that, just find the best way to learn for you. For some people it's books, others it's videos. for me it was a combination. Books really helped me start and grasp the concepts, but for more advanced things it was hard to understand and a video or example was much more helpful. I had a Unity book and followed along making an adventure game and I remember creating the inventory system they described, but in the end what I mentioned above happened. I followed the instructions, ended up with a working inventory, but had no clue how it actually worked. Setting smaller goals and accomplishing them made the learning process longer but more understandable. And now I'm still learning a lot. I'm in a place where I can look at the projects and code I wrote last year and instantly see code that can be improved, and hopefully next year I'll see the same thing.

Maybe this helped you and maybe it didn't but I hope you'll give it a shot and see where it ends up. I learned the most when I was having fun, and I find a great deal of joy programming. I think of it as a puzzle with infinite solutions, and the puzzle is to find the most efficient solution. If you want to start small, just download visual studios community edition and make yourself some simple C# winforms applications. It's a good entry point without the need of fancy graphics and can do whatever you want. You could make a custom DM screen, or a personalized reminder app, or even a really cool text adventure. If you want to make games specifically, Unity might still be a good starting point if you don't overwhelm yourself but I'm honestly not sure. I don't have much experience with other game engines since I wanted to pick one and really learn it inside and out. I can't recommend XNA anymore since that language is pretty much dead. So just try things out and see where it takes you :D

LoneDroid455 years ago

I always seem to have a 2 day delay don't I? I wanted to thank you for your detailed response, and your words of wisdom. I have many ideas for games, and so many of them require complex coding skills I have yet to acquire. I have never worked with C++, only Java, HTML, and Python. I hope this might be enough to go on to branch out. Thank you So so much. Once again you made my day, and given me a place to start. I, may not be back on here for some time. So much to do, prepare for and learn. But, I do hope I am able to come back some day, and thank you again for these kind words, and advice. Until we meet again, this is Lone Droid signing off.

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