What should I learn next?

[Colin Campbell]

I'm at a crossroad here. I could go in the internet site direction or the 3D animation/ game programming road. I'm kind of leaning towards the 3D animation and game programming direction, and was wondering what languages I should have down pat before jumping right in. I thinking I should learn C and C++, but am not sure. What do you think?

BTW- Anyone with any knowledge about developing games out of flash, please PM me. I have a couple questions.

[CyanBlue]

I say you stick to the ActionScript or whatever language you are good at for at least 3 year or whenever you feel like you are done with that language... Once you get the hang of what you can do with that language, you are pretty much open to other languages as well... Excel in one language and you will learn other language pretty fast... Don't jump around language to language... I did jump from one to another like every year and I don't know those languages much... Stick to one and be the master of it... That's what I think you should be doing as a growing new generation... ;)

If you still need to learn another language, I'd say go for C++... Just my 2 cents... :)

[tg]

Originally posted by colin14
BTW- Anyone with any knowledge about developing games out of flash, please PM me. I have a couple questions.

post your questions here to the benifit of us all.


i started out as a vb/asp programmer, and have been doing a.s. and cfml now for about 2 years. i've dabbled some in c++ and java, and looks like i will be picking up the vb gauntlets again here soon.

like cb says, give yourself a good solid foundation with 1 language, that will make other languages easier to learn in the long run.

i would say c++ too, but i don't know much about 3d programming.

[Colin Campbell]

Well, I'm starting to look at going into programming games, also doing the graphics. I was wondering specifically what the professionals used to make them. After the graphics are made... like how the control the characters through programming and other stuff. Is there a .exe or mac program thats used for that?

[Timmee_3Styler]

ya thats sorta what I wanna get into after my comp sci degree cause I have alot of interest in Artificial Intelligence :)

[Colin Campbell]

Can somebody help me out.. I'm kinda at a loss. Am I already having my mid life crisis? :p

[spriggan]

Serious game makers make their own game/graphis engine Colin. Flash is a graphics engine that you can code a game engine into. Some companies sell their graphic engines (3d ones), the cheepest run about $100 and look like things from about 5 years ago. As for how the graphics are created, usealy in Maya or Max if 3d or Photoshop if 2d then the graphics or modles are imported in much like flashes load movie. As for what language either C++ or Java will do, both are easy to learn basics in but manipulating graphics isn't an easy task comparied to useing flash.

My suggestion is to goto Amazon.com and do a search for game design or programming you get lots of hits there. Look for books with good rateings. Also look at your local libary. Also takeing classes at a school would help you.

Game programming is not an easy skill to just pick up. If you just look here in AS.org's forums you'll find a lot of people that just pick up flash and think X game is old and simple thus it must be easy to make. And in most cases they're way to coplicated for someone who dosen't have a grasp of Programming and the language to do. Don't jump into it head first thinking since you've done some codeing (as) that you'll beable to quickly learn what you need to know to make a game. Start out simple and build up, there are so many things that flash does for you that you have to learn to do with other languages. Also there is lots of planning and development that don't involve codeing.

[patmanwb]

I guess it depends on what you want to do. I started with pascal, then perl, then a Java and finally with javascript and actionscript because my employer wanted to get into the business of making games for the web, not just Java based but Flash based.

I have been a software developer for about 8 years now and I feel now that with the practices I have learned so far I can learn any programming language. Just need to take the time and effort to learn all the gory details.

If you are going to get into 3D game programming, they use a number of different languages; c, c++, java (yes even Java!) ,Assembler.

I would start with C, since it is the foundation for C++. There you will learn fun with Strings and things hehe.

Good Luck!

[tg]

Originally posted by colin14
Am I already having my mid life crisis? :p
hormone flucuations. hehhehheh.

[Timmee_3Styler]

lol he gotcha colin ;)