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Practice coding with fun programming challenges

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Re: Practice coding with fun programming challenges

#2
I've always advised against being introduced to programming through game development.

As much as game development is appealing and fun, the process is complicated and requires advanced knowledge of some fairly complicated algorithms even for fairly trivial games.

Also you can find yourself spending hours shuffling sprites and designing levels which is time spent not learning programming.

Also engines like Unity provide a false sense of security when infact you have no idea what's going on behind the scene and when something goes wrong you don't know where to begin and end up discouraged.

Start slow, build your foundation, learn your bits and bytes, data structures and sorting algorithms first then venture out.

Re: Practice coding with fun programming challenges

#3

I've always advised against being introduced to programming through game development. As much as game development is appealing and fun, the process is complicated and requires advanced knowledge of some fairly complicated algorithms even for fairly trivial games. Also you can find yourself spending hours shuffling sprites and designing levels which is time spent not learning programming. Also engines like Unity provi…

I think learning to code by writing a game is perhaps not the greatest method to learn to code, and definitely not a great way to learn computer science, but it does have its advantages.

A visual feedback loop can be useful to those unfamiliar with computer concepts. Being able to think about complex algorithms with concrete examples (think graphics, physics, game state machines, dialogue scripting) can help reign in the abstract concepts.

Additionally, being exposed to multiple forms of art can be useful to find a creative outlet you may not have considered before e.g. music, art, writing, design.

That being said, I think making games is really hard. I think a lot of people want to make games and don't realize how difficult it really is. I think everyone should try it at least once.

I typically recommend Processing[0] to young hopefuls.

> Also engines like Unity provide a false sense of security when infact you have no idea what's going on behind the scene

And that's okay. Maybe that's a lesson that can only be taught the hard way. Maybe you care deeply about what is going on behind the scenes, maybe you couldn't care less.

Also, most successful games are not written from scratch. Unity and friends have had a staggering impact on the indie game industry. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that plenty of game developers have never used anything else.

I think the most important thing is that no matter what you do you should enjoy doing it. If you really want to make a game but you have no idea how to code, and you find it intimidating, maybe this is for you.

[0] https://processing.org/

Re: Practice coding with fun programming challenges

#5

I've always advised against being introduced to programming through game development. As much as game development is appealing and fun, the process is complicated and requires advanced knowledge of some fairly complicated algorithms even for fairly trivial games. Also you can find yourself spending hours shuffling sprites and designing levels which is time spent not learning programming. Also engines like Unity provi…

[deleted]

Re: Practice coding with fun programming challenges

#7

I've always advised against being introduced to programming through game development. As much as game development is appealing and fun, the process is complicated and requires advanced knowledge of some fairly complicated algorithms even for fairly trivial games. Also you can find yourself spending hours shuffling sprites and designing levels which is time spent not learning programming. Also engines like Unity provi…

I think learning to code by writing a game is perhaps not the greatest method to learn to code, and definitely not a great way to learn computer science, but it does have its advantages. A visual feedback loop can be useful to those unfamiliar with computer concepts. Being able to think about complex algorithms with concrete examples (think graphics, physics, game state machines, dialogue scripting) can help reign in…

Yes, processing is great. I like that it lets you explore graphically and creatively without a win/lose mentality. (Competition is highly motivating for some people, not so much for others.) If you're a Python fan, there's a Python mode for Processing [0], and if you prefer JavaScript, there's p5.js [1]

[0] http://py.processing.org/

[1] https://p5js.org/

Re: Practice coding with fun programming challenges

#8

I've always advised against being introduced to programming through game development. As much as game development is appealing and fun, the process is complicated and requires advanced knowledge of some fairly complicated algorithms even for fairly trivial games. Also you can find yourself spending hours shuffling sprites and designing levels which is time spent not learning programming. Also engines like Unity provi…

Games are fun. Here I'm teaching to code one without any engine stuff. Straight up programming: http://buildanappwithme.blogspot.com/2016/01/build-your-firs...

Re: Practice coding with fun programming challenges

#10
I think this is possibly the best implementation of this type of thing I've ever seen ... and jeez look at the number of languages it supports.

And it doesn't take half a month to load/download. Neat. It seems fun even as a non-novice, just to learn other languages in a fun way.

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