Aspiring game programmer, advice?
by Jim McLuckie · in Torque Game Engine · 12/07/2001 (10:57 pm) · 3 replies
I am very interested in programming a game using the Torque engine. I love this engine...it's terrific...Tribes 2 is totally underrated. But anyhow...I've had a little experience with C a couple years ago (nothing big, I forgot most of it) and took a class in Visual Basic last year (pretty basic stuff). I already have a good idea of what I want to make (I'm continually working on the design...in the most general terms, it will be an online only class and team based modern warfare game). Will I need a huge amount of knowledge on C++ and everything else before I dive in? What would you guys suggest I have as experience before I get into game programming with the Torque engine? By the time I'm experienced enough, will the eingine be out of date? Any books suggestions, advice, and/or links would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
#2
I know a little bit of C++ and a moderate amount of the old basic
so I think after christmas I might buy it even though I don't know much cpp
12/08/2001 (7:26 pm)
the more I read of posts like these the more I think "why don't I just buy Torque now?"I know a little bit of C++ and a moderate amount of the old basic
so I think after christmas I might buy it even though I don't know much cpp
#3
12/09/2001 (11:04 am)
Thanks for the very helpful post, Chris. If you can provide more information as to what you did to learn C++, how long you think it'll be before someone with little experience can actually start coding the game, etc. I'd really appreciate it. Oh, and do you think gameinstitute.com is any good? You don't receive college credits, do you? 
Torque Owner Chris "Dark" Evans
If you pick up languages easy, then get it. Otherwise, get it and go somewhere like GameInstitute.com and sign up for their Introduction to C/C++ class. Either way, just get it :)
This has got to be one of the best opportunities an indie can get. For $100 it's worth it, even if you're creating free games, and you're not getting any money out of it.
In short, if your a beginner and learn languages fast then get the engine. After you think you're familiear with C++, go to a local college and take a real c++ course, it will give you the things you couldn't learn on your own. You can teach yourself as much as you want, but you still won't know some of the slang. There will be things you've never heard of, and tricks you never would've thought of.
It's up to you, when I got it the only language I knew was VB. Now I can get around pretty good in C++, I'm not an expert, but I can do some pretty complex functions. Another thing I learned because of this engine was ASB/SQL. Our game connects to a database, and since I'm the only programmer I had to learn how to program databases, now I can do anything with it.
Dark