So I’ve wanted to do this for a while, and I’m just stating here since I feel closer to this community. I want to learn game development. As you might guess, I love playing video games such as this one, and I want to one day become a game dev. Lately, I’ve been trying to learn certain aspects of game development such as simple code and 2D pixel animation. I’ve made a small handful of 2D pixel sprites on Piskel that I’m not that proud of, and my most experience with code is a single game in GDevelop and uh…Game Builder Garage. The main reason I’m posting this here on the forums of all places is that I want to ask for help. If anyone with more experience has any tips on stuff like game engine recommendations, 2D pixel art/animation, etc. I’d really appreciate the help. If you want to watch any of my progress, I may occasionally post some of my own game dev content here, mostly small sprites and maybe even an actual game.
Learning Game Development
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO2sd_fXfws Let me tell you it’s kinda hard to find the right combination but I managed to pull it off with far greater willpower than was thought necessary. I’m game jamming but don’t let that fool you. I’m the only one developing and the other person gets lots of slack cause they do spriting. No game dev isn’t supposed to be easy you’ll spend many days and weeks and months learning on your own pace. No there is not enough resources to compare to sheer willpower of thinking, arranging and taking code samples and reusing a part of it to work. Well that’s just what it’s like in Unity, the game engine used by rotmg itself. It’s not so easy right away, it’s that simple, but it takes knowing what you are doing and lots of thinking to patch up a game and having reference scripts meaning you made some scripts and have them to look at for any project you are doing. I made some unfinished games and they serve me well with some reference scripts as I was game deving. .-.
HI I’m Jango, 26. I’m a RotMG veteran for as long as 11 years. The Boys In Blue is the guild I’m in. We are funny. :3
There are many approaches to learning game development, now more than ever. It’s hard to give a single recommendation as different people find different approaches work for them. They fall into a few broad categories, all very different.
- Do a degree, so go to university. This is in some ways the best way to learn, but it takes time and money. And it’s not needed – unlike many professions there’s no requirement or expectation you’ll have a degree, as a game developer.
- Use books to learn. This used to be the main way, if you didn’t go to university. It’s far less useful now as you can find the information online, and books are often just repackaged online content. Some people like it though, as sitting down and working through a book helps them focus.
- Do an online course. A lot of these have sprung up in recent years but the quality seems very variable, so unless one comes highly recommended I’d avoid them.
- Learn online from blogs, guides, manuals, forums. Anything that is actively used normally has a community of people writing about it, which you can often learn everything from, for free.
- Find existing apps like what you want to do, pull them apart to see how they work, and use that as the basis for your app. This depends on what’s available but a surprising amount is if you look for it, on Github e.g. or from the same place as you get an engine/IDE.
These are not exclusive. You can combine them, and probably most people do. The last two in particular, using information and code examples you find online, are easily mixed, and are often found together online.
Finally, this may seem very focussed on the learning side, but that’s deliberate. You aren’t going to get very far without learning how to code. Environments which promise the ability to make games with “no code”, as GDevelop does, are misleading. In GDevelop’s case its visual programming system is an inefficient and clunky way to write code, and severely limiting once you want to do something it doesn’t include.
I didn’t realize there were other options, so I originally was just going to get a degree and go to college. I’ll still aim for that, but thanks for showing me other options.
Yeah, I’ve already gotten a taste with that as I’ve gotten really frustrated sometimes with tryna learn how code works in stuff like GDevelop. I spent so many times tryna figure out why a hitbox changed with a new animation only to realize 2 days later that I just forgot to set all animations to the same custom hitbox.
Definitely do a degree if you can. Having a degree is not essential for game development, but it does help in many cases. Many firms explicitly recruit graduates e.g… And a degree is valuable in itself - you are unlikely to get another chance to spend 2 or 3 years in full time study, supported by grants or subsidised loans, pursuing whatever interests you.
It doesn’t have to be especially game related or even programming related. Many science graduates, especially maths graduates, end up in game development. A degree gives you other options in case making games doesn’t work out, or lets you pursue a career while making games in your spare time.
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