#game development

boomeyer:

piggywheel:

boomeyer:

I’ve said this to my non-techie friends countless times. It’s no secret that being able to code makes you a better job applicant, and a better entrepreneur. Hell, one techie taught a homeless man to code and now that man is making his first mobile application.

Learning to code elevates your professional life, and makes you more knowledgeable about the massive changestaking place in the technology sector that are poised to have an immense influenceonhuman life.

(note: yes I realize that 3/5 of those links were Google projects)

But most folks are intimidated by coding. And it does seem intimidating at first. But peel away the obscurity and the difficulty, and you start to learn that coding, at least at its basic level, is a very manageable, learnable skill.

There are a lot of resources out there to teach you. I’ve found a couple to be particularly successful. Here’s my list of resources for learning to code, sorted by difficulty:

Novice

Never written a line of code before? No worries. Just visit one of these fine resources and follow their high-level tutorials. You won’t get into the nitty-gritty, but don’t worry about it for now:

Dash - by General Assembly

CodeAcademy

w3 Tutorials (start at HTML on the left sidebar and work your way down)

Intermediate

Now that you’ve gone through a handful of basic tutorials, it’s time to learn the fundamentals of actual, real-life coding problems. I’ve found these resources to be solid:

Khan Academy

CodeAcademy - Ruby,Python,PHP

Difficult

If you’re here, you’re capable of building things. You know the primitives. You know the logic control statements. You’re ready to start making real stuff take shape. Here are some different types of resources to turn you from someone who knows how to code, into a full-fledged programmer.

Programming problems

Sometimes, the challenges in programming aren’t how to make a language do a task, but just how to do the task in general. Like how to find an item in a very large, sorted list, without checking each element. Here are some resources for those types of problems

Talentbuddy

TopCoder

Web Applications

If you learned Python, Django is an amazing platform for creating quick-and-easy web applications. I’d highly suggest the tutorial - it’s one of the best I’ve ever used, and you have a web app up and running in less than an hour.

Django Tutorial

I’ve never used Rails, but it’s a very popular and powerful framework for creating web applications using Ruby. I’d suggest going through their guide to start getting down-and-dirty with Rails development.

Rails Guide

If you know PHP, there’s an ocean of good stuff out there for you to learn how to make a full-fledged web application. Frameworks do a lot of work for you, and provide quick and easy guides to get up and running. I’d suggest the following:

Cake PHP Book

Symfony 2 - Get Started

Yii PHP - The Comprehensive Guide

Conclusion

If there’s one point I wanted to get across, it’s that it is easier than ever to learn to code. There are resources on every corner of the internet for potential programmers, and the benefits of learning even just the basics are monumental.

If you know of any additional, great resources that aren’t listed here, please feel free to tweet them to me @boomeyer.

Best of luck!

I’d also like to add some more specialized resources!

Video games:

Easy game engines (virtually no coding): 

• Game Maker Studio (2D; free and paid versions)
  
• GameSalad (2D)
  
• RPG Maker (2D; numerous versions ranging from free to $69.99)
  
• Stencyl (2D; free and paid subscription versions)
  
• Scratch (good for kids and is more general; 2D; free)
  

More difficult game engines: 

• Unity (lots and lots of platforms; C# and JavaScript script; 2D, 3D, VR; free and paid versions)
  
• Unreal (specializes in graphics; C++ and visual script; 2D, 3D, VR; free with a royalty on successful products)
  
• CryEngine (Lua script; 3D; paid subscription and full license versions)

Mobile game development: 

• Corona (free and paid subscription versions)
  
• SpriteKit (2D) and SceneKit (3D) which are built into the official compiler to create iOS apps (see iOS apps for more resources)
  
• also all of the above game engines (cross-platform)
  

Game console development: 

• Game Maker Studio (with a paid subscription)
  
• Unity
  
• Unreal
  
• CryEngine
  

Note that games can also be created on more general platforms like iOS and Android apps, but the resources listed above are specialized for game development.

iOS apps:

In order to develop iOS apps, you’ll need to purchase an iOS developer program membership for $99 a year, which requires an Apple account. Here are some general resources:

• Xcode (the official IDE for iOS apps; can be installed on OS X)
• Start Developing iOS Apps Today (Objective-C)
• Ray Wenderlich iOS tutorials (Objective-C and Swift)
• Code School: Try iOS (Objective-C)
• Developing iOS 8 Apps (2,3,4,5,6,7; Swift)
• TutorialsPoint: iOS Tutorial(Objective-C)
• How to Make iPhone Apps With No Programming Experience(Swift)
• Swift Tutorial: Building an iOS Application (2,3)

iOS apps are developed in the 2 official languages of Apple: Objective-C and Swift, the latter of which is newer and generally much easier to learn.

Objective-C resources:

• the official documentation
• TutorialsPoint:Objective-C Tutorial
• Ry’s Objective-C Tutorial

Swift resources:

• the official documentation
  
• The Swift Programming Language (free official e-book)
• Swift: A Quick Reference Guide

Xcode also has SpriteKit, SceneKit, and Metal built in, all of which are incredibly useful for creating apps that require elaborate graphics, particularly games.

SpriteKit resources:

• How to Make a Game Like Candy Crush With Swift(2)
  
• Sprite Kit Swift Tutorial
• Create Space Invaders with Swift and Sprite Kit
• iOS SpriteKit Physics Tutorial in Swift
• Build the Game of Life(Swift)

SceneKit resources:

• Scene Kit Tutorial: Getting Started(Swift)
  
• An Introduction to SceneKit(2; Swift)

Metal resources:

• the official documentation + other resources (Obj-C)
• iOS 8 Metal Tutorial with Swift (2,3)
• Getting Started With Metal(Obj-C)
• An introduction to 3D graphics with Metal in Swift

Also, in order to publish iOS apps, you’ll have to juggle certificates, app ids, and provisioning profiles. This process can be convoluted at times so here are some resources:

• How to Submit Your App to Apple: From No Account to App Store (2)
  
• Beginner Tutorial: iOS Certificates & Provisioning Profiles

Android apps:

In order to develop Android apps, you’ll need to register as a developer for a one-time fee of $25. Here are some general resources:

• Android Studio (the official IDE for Android app development; free; can be installed on Windows, OS X, and Linux)
• the official documentation
• Getting Started
• Android Tutorial For Beginners(2,3)
• Learn Android SDK From Scratch
  
• Introduction to Android Development With Android Studio

Android apps are developed in Java and the layout is coded with XML.

Java resources:

• W3schools: Java Tutorial series
• TutorialsPoint: Java Tutorial
• Core Java Tutorial

XML resources:

• W3schools:XML Tutorial series
  
• TutorialsPoint:XML Tutorial

For publishing (which is somewhat easier than publishing iOS apps):

• How to Publish to the Android Market
  

3D modeling/animation:

• Blender (can also be used to create games; Python script; free and open-source; can be installed on Windows, OS X, and Linux)
  
• Maya (specialized script; free trial, free 3-year student subscription, and paid subscription versions; can be installed on Windows, OS X, and Linux to an extent)
• 3ds Max (Python script; free trial, free 3-year student subscription, and paid subscription versions; can be installed on Windows and OS X)
• RenderMan (specialized script; free for non-commercial/educational use and pay-per-license for commercial use; can be installed on Windows, OS X, and Linux)

Misc. resources:

Stack Overflow is an ask-and-answer community for programmers. It’s amazing and will save your life. Sign up and don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Github offers a student pack (here) if you create an account and prove you’re a student. This gives you free access to a bunch of great programming resources for free for a certain period of time, such as Unreal Engine. Also, Github in general is a site that you can host your code on. Other users can see it, and “fork” it to make a copy of your code and modify it.

Parse is a backend service that allows you to store data in databases it hosts on its own servers. It lets you use push notifications, create users, store and retrieve data, etc. It’s compatible with iOS apps, Android apps, Windows apps, Xamarin, React, Unity, OS X, Windows, JavaScript, PHP, .net, Arduino, and Embedded C. It’s free up to a certain limit that depends on the services you use.

Cloud9,Codebox, and Squad are online IDEs that allow for real-time collaboration and support a variety of languages, so they’re useful for team projects.

And some general advice:

• Your program will not work right away, 99% of the time. That’s okay. Do your best to figure out where the error is. Here is some advice on debugging (written for PHP but the methods can be generalized).
  
• If you’re stuck, Google. Google like there’s no tomorrow.
• Ask questions on a community like Stack Overflow.
• For that matter, browse relevant Stack Overflow questions. You can probably find some solutions there.
• Don’t be afraid to copy and paste.
• Take breaks sometimes if you’re getting burned out. But don’t stay away from your projects for too long or you’ll lose track of its status.
• Backup your code. On the cloud, on a USB drive, wherever. If your IDE has a backing up feature like snapshots, use it whenever you hit a milestone.
• If your project is big, split it up into milestones and set goals. Don’t tackle everything at once.

Like the OP said, coding isn’t just for professionals and “geeks” anymore. Anyone can learn it if you really try, and with the rapidly expanding tech industry, learning coding can really broaden your opportunities.

If any of the links are broken, or you have a question or some information/resources to add, you can contact me through the askbox or the OP through his Twitter (as mentioned in his post).

If you’re interested, try some of these out and best of luck!

Great work expanding on my humble list to include a much fuller collection of resources for learning how to code! Cheers!

(forgot to put this over here…oops)

But anyways hey it’s been a while since I made any real post over here, this isn’t a comfirm that I’ll be back posting updates on a regular just thought I should slide in a bit of the things I’ve been doing. If you follow me on twitter you already saw all of this stuff, it’s just the same thing but tumblr version ey

So far I’ve just been trying to catch up in graphics since I’m still very behind. Like eventing stuff is away ahead of the graphics I have to make which means there’s nothing graphic wise I can show aka no new areas or things to post. (which is one reason I’ve been fully dead.) Though most of my time has been towards redoing areas and other graphics since pixel art skills changed a bit and the maps in the demo are old (also a lot of dull shading…making stuff look dull)

example of one of the reworks i’ve been doing
(finally trees…)

Since I mention eventing, I’ve been going back to fix up old events just so the gap with events and graphics don’t get way too big leading me to get very overwhelm with all the art I have to do.
(because….it’s a lot of art….)

So I just been cleaning up events to make them easier to understand or just easier for future me. As well as I’ve been fixing how certain event systems work, for a example the dialogue!

Left is the old version, while the right is how it looks now

Now when characters are talking, you will see two portraits if two characters are talking. Like this style a lot more since if Chris is like angry and it slides back to Vladimir, you can still see the angry Chris staring at him. (Idk think it’s neat for showing a character has a expression still on their face than swapping back and forth with the art not letting a expression hold as another person is talking…also I just like how it looks…..)

Besides the dialogue getting a makeover the menu screen has been getting special treatment as well. Originally I was going to event a menu though gave up since I was still very new at eventing menus and other stuff so I just sided with using the default menu screen rpg maker gave you but just slap scripts on it.

But now I went back to my original plan since I know how to use events….well I think I do…but what I’m saying is that now I feel confident that I can event the menu I wanted to event in the beginning. You can see the wip menu over here weeeeeeee

It’s a huge prototype still so all art and stuff is very rough, mostly since I’m just making sure it works. (making polish art and slapping it to a thing which isn’t done….isn’t smart…just a waste of graphics and time if you scrap the idea when you start coding it in and learn it doesn’t work) So far all the submenus work as they should I just need to fix the inventory which is a hot mess which is why I didn’t show it….because it’s very broken.
Maybe when I sand out all the problems I’ll show it off.
(Oh also I was testing something out hints the kazoo kid muffin sprite.)

But that’s been most of the stuff i’ve been working on, not all…since there are a few more stuff I’ve been fixing event wise but that’s just making stuff neater or a mini feature which I don’t want to show off yet… hopefully the next time I update won’t be like a year later….

Update time, heck yeah ^^b

At the time I’m writing this Verloren’s demo is basically 100% done, the only two things I really have to do is add a few random npcs in one area of the game and to test to make sure everything is working before I send a build to my cool testers who are also the folks who been giving me feedback. I plan for the testing to take a month or two, maybe.

The demo with length isn’t long, maybe around 15 minutes at best (can be wrong).
Also one mini change to the demo I did last minute was remove the bust art, mostly since it’s going to get rework and had a hard time using the old one. 
;v;b do hope that doesn’t bug anyone while playing it, the full game will have bust art. In a future I would slide a update maybe to add the bust art in game. 

Because I don’t know how to end this post have a thing I made base off a comment a friend of mine made:

TheUbisoft conference is being streamed in our studio’s largest room, on two giant screens. I’m sitting with a few of my colleagues – about 300 of them – waiting for the segment for our game to start. We’ve all been cheering and celebrating all of the announcements so far, but the most exciting moment for our team is of course going to be when For Honor makes an appearance, first in the form of a new cinematic trailer, then with our creative director Jason VandenBerghe setting the stage for the world of For Honor, followed by game director Roman Campos-Oriola playing through a level.

I’ve excitedly watched E3 – the game industry’s biggest show – from afar for years and years, but this year was special in that it was my first time taking in E3 while having a personal investment in what was going on.

I’m working on a game that was taking part.

As I say each year, I always hope that this will be the one where I actually get to go to E3, but despite not going, it was definitely the most exciting one I’ve experienced so far. I had a great time as always watching all of the keynotes, while getting excited for the big game reveals, but following it all while you have something “in the ring” just makes it that much more special.

And even better, people seem to really like our game. As I write this, the 3rd and final day is coming to an end, and already we’ve received a “Best of E3″ award from GameSpot. I’ve also watched a few videos and read some hands-on write-ups that seem to be really pumped by the gameplay that was experienced. 

So what next? As the fantastically funny Aisha Tyler announced at the end of our segment during the Ubisoft conference, you can go to the For Honor website to register for upcoming Alpha and Beta access. 

The game’s release date was also announced: February 14, 2017 – Valentine’s Day!

It’s with great pleasure that I can announce that from next week, I’ll be taking on the role of production coordinator at Ubisoft here in Montreal.

Following the defeat of Shinra, it’s been an interesting month of exploration, and I’m incredibly excited for this new challenge. Although it’s technically the same role that I had at Shinra, it will be within a much bigger team, which I look forward to joining.

I’m also quite excited that I’ll be working on a game this time (as opposed to a platform, which is what we were building at Shinra), and a new IP at that – I’ll be joining the For Honorteam.

It’s also going to be quite interesting for me to have a new studio experience, to compare with my previous one (as an employee of Eidos Montréal, but working out of the Square Enix Montréal studio), and I’m already happy that I’ll be seeing a few familiar faces once I get there – and also working in what is quite possibly the biggest game studio in the world (current employee count here in Montreal is apparently 2750). 

Michel Ancel is one of my favorite game creators, and I’m incredibly excited to join the company that gave birth to games like RaymanandBeyond Good & Evil – and of course also the ridiculous number of other Ubisoft games that I’ve played over the years.

New year, new company, new game!

The Plain in Quest Of Graal is the first world of the game but it’s the last one that we added

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