Beginners Help

[lintsniffer]

I was thinking of making a game while I start to learn a programming language. What type of game is generally easier or better for beginners to make? A top-down shooter, platformer, etc.?

Also I would appreciate tips on what language I should try to learn and how I should do it.

Thanks, from a future game dev

 

[yaustar]

Depending on the language, I would say a simple game like Tic Tac Toe or Tetris/Snake/Pong would be 'better' if you are still learning the language. Which language are you planning to learn?

 

[lintsniffer]

Well last year in high school I took a course in C++ and I liked it, but the teacher was crazy and all teaching/learning ended up being done by me. I have no idea if that is even useful for a gp2x game, but I guess thats my only background.

 

[yaustar]

I would hazard a guess that you have the basics of programming down (for/while loops, if/switch statements, passing by reference, passing by pointer, return by reference etc, pointers). In which case, have a read through Thinking in C++ Vol 1 which is a free eBook, it will take you through the naunces of the language and in between you should be ready to learn SDL (Lazy Foo). The game ideas still stand as they are relatively simple compared to a platform game which will have basic physics and collision detection against a grid based game.

Or as I mentioned in this thread another language may be more suitable.