Hi everyone, I have a little confusion regarding what exactly I have to learn to become a game developer.
Just to let you know my goal, I am a high school Business teacher and would like to learn coding to make simulation games on various Business topics like marketing, finance etc. for my students so that they get a glimpse of how the corporate world is by playing these simulation games.
I have a strong will to learn to code and code these games myself.
Through FCC videos, I have learnt the basics of Javascript. I also know a decent amount of Java, HTML, CSS and mySQL as I had learnt it in school.
However, I would like to know what exactly has to be learnt to code simulation games and become a game developer. Since there is a lot of things to learn under coding, I donât know what exactly I have to learn to reach my goal of making these Business simulation games.
Kindly advise me on a learning pathway for the same so that I will feel confident that what I am learning is the right thing to meet my goal.
Since youâre looking at game dev as a way to augment your current profession rather than trying to become a full-time game developer I would suggest looking at tools that do as much work for you as possible.
What you use will depend on what you want to build. Are the simulations 2D or 3D? Regardless, youâll want to learn a game engine. Hereâs some options:
If 2D, one option is to look into Phaser. Itâs a JavaScript game âframeworkâ which might be a good fit for you since you already know some JavaScript. It differs from a game engine in that it doesnât have as many tools to help you build your games. Thereâs no graphical interface where you can set up your levels or scenes in your game. But this might not be a problem for you depending on what you want to build.
Another option for game development if you want to be able to choose between both 2D and 3D is Unity. This is a full fledged game engine with a graphical interface. The learning curve is bigger than Phaser but itâs a lot more powerful. The disadvantage for you is that the coding is done in C# so youâll need to learn another language. C# is basically Java with slightly different key words anyway so youâll probably fine
Some options for something with a visual editor and a more shallow learning curve are Game Maker Studio and Construct3. Both are 2D only but are really simple to spin up a very functional game in a short amount of time. Both use a âdrag and dropâ style of programming (similar to scratch if youâve heard of that), however GMS also has its own programming language you can use as an alternative to, or in conjunction with the D&D style of programming. The downside of these engines is that the technology is very specific to the engine and the skills arenât as transferrable as building your game in say C# or JavaScript.
Unreal Engine is another great option thatâs similar to Unity but I donât have any first hand experience with it. I can only say I know people who prefer it over Unity.
Every single one of these options have their own tutorials and guides as well as plenty of other helpful resources to help you get started.
Will surely check out the best option(s) suited for my goal