Game Development

Hey guys,
I’m interested in game development but I’m not quite sure what languages I have to learn to begin as a developer. Also, is game developing like game designing? I’m not quite sure which path is the way forward.
Could someone clear all this for me?
Thanks in advance.

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C++
Look into unity
developement is going to be lots of math/geometry/physics

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Well if you do use Unity, Unity uses C# to create games, but it supports other languages too. C# and C++ are both similar, so if you have experience with C++, you should be able to understand C# concepts in game making within Unity, and the language is simpler.

But I’d mainly learn C++ since other game engines use it and it’s one of the most used languages in game development. Also, Codecademy teaches the language! :slight_smile:


Also: Unity has lessons on their website that should help you out when beginning to use the software, so that’s nice too :slight_smile:

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I’m always mixing up unity and unreal!
Can’t really go wrong I suppose!

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Or you can stick to HTML5 game development, so you only need to know HTML, CSS and Javascript.
(CSS and HTML to give the website a look, like on transformice)
Here’s a game I made on the HTML canvas (move with A and D and space to shoot).

Hope this helps :grinning:

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Thanks for the advice! Your game was great!

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Game Development is a very big topic. You need to have knowledge of programming languages. Nowadays there are many game engines that made game development slightly easier. But still, you need to learn some programming languages
There are two main types of programming for game development that you should pay attention to- what is known as system programming and web programming.

System programming

  • C ++
  • C#
  • JAVA
  • PYTHON
  • LUA
  • SWIFT

Web-based game development

  • HTML
  • CSS
  • JAVASCRIPT

Now you need to choose programming languages that are suitable for you.
If you want to know about all these languages in detail, then click on the above link

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hi Noellesilva, two years ago i was also at this stage and by my experience I’ve learned lot of things in game dev journey.
first- if you like game visuals means how you game would look like , for example, if you like Hollywood style games then you definitely go for unreal engine which support c++ as well as c# (Remember : c++ is a industry level language so make sure to give it preference).
i also shifted from unity to unreal engine not only because unreal engine supports c++ but also there are lots of bugs in Unity and most of them remains unsolved because unity community is not focusing on solving these issues but they just consider new features as their main goal so that is a big problem ------
so i will highly recommend to you unreal engine because it not only solves bugs in it but also this engine is most often used in game development industry

Hello everyone,
I want to become a game developer and I was looking through the pathways and I started the Computer Science pathway just to get me started. I came on this forum to get some feedback and see if that was the right move and if it isn’t then what should I be learning?

C++
Look into unity
developement is going to be lots of math/geometry/physics

Hey noellesilva,

I know this is late, but I wanted to point out that Game Design and Game Development are two different things.

Game Design refers to those who write the story/lore, the gameplay mechanics, as well as world design. Generally, these people are coming up with the ideas for the games. Although, I suspect Game Developers often come up with ideas of their own, as well. As anyone can have an idea for a game.

Game Development is what essentially allows all the ideas that Game Designers come up with, to come to life. They’re, simply put, programmers. They program the animations, NPCs, and every other aspect of a game that requires programming.

Knowing this, if you’re wondering which to choose, I would go with game development since the programming knowledge that you acquire will be extremely valuable and will allow you to transition to other industries if the gaming industry doesn’t work out for you. Also, game developers are generally paid more and have better job security. That said, it’s ultimately up to what you find more enjoyable.

For the type of languages you should learn; if your goal is to build 3D or 2D games on consoles, mobile devices or PCs, you’ll want to go with C# or C++. These are the most commonly used programming languages in game development. You’ll also want to learn a game engine, like Unity or Unreal. Both are free. Unity uses C#, while Unreal uses C++.

Unreal has more functionality and you can achieve some amazing visuals pretty easily in Unreal due to native tools that are built into Unreal and ready to be used. Unreal also comes with a visual scripting language called Blueprints. Instead of writing code, you perform visual programming by connecting block nodes that perform certain functions in the game. It’s actually pretty powerful. However, one should not rely on this if they want to create a really good game. Despite how powerful it is, it has limitations compared to actual programming. You will limit creativity and functionality of your game if you only use it. C++ is the primary language for Unreal. It’s difficult to learn as a first programming language, but it is powerful and fast. But it isn’t without its drawbacks. You usually have to do a lot of garbage collection after you’re done.

Unity is said to have a cleaner interface compared to Unreal, and it is easier to get around to doing things as a beginner. Unity also has a much larger community to help you and a larger repository of documentation to answer your questions or troubleshoot problems. Also, the programming language that it uses (C#) is easier to learn than C++. C# is easy to implement and doesn’t require any garbage collection. It’s also fast, but not as fast as C++. Unity also has a visual scripting language. They bought the visual scripting language called “Bolt”. Now it’s called Unity Visual Scripting. They have improved upon it significantly, but it isn’t as powerful as Unreal’s Blueprints visual scripting language, yet.

You can’t go wrong with either game engine, honestly. They both can ultimately achieve the same results at the end of the day. It is a bit more difficult to build AAA games in Unity than it is Unreal. But it’s easier to prototype and build more simpler projects in Unity than it is in Unreal. I would say, for beginners, Unity should be the choice. But it depends on the person and what kind of game you want to build.

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Hey just stumbled across this thread.
Some great insights on which language to pick and which engine.
Appreciate the time you spent relaying this information.
Peace and Love

Tried your game, ive just recently learnt html and css, started learning RUBY because i was told to learn it but its really annoying. I think im going to go down the javascript route.