Just out of curiousity, how far did people get through Uni before they had some small games put together that you made during your spare time?
I guess what I'm trying to ask is, how much programming knowledge do you need to create a small 2D, playable, stable game? Because I have been programming for about a year and a half now and I still come to a point in making a small game where I think, "Gee, I should probably start over...".
well thanks for that...
adn about making a scratch engine or game, I have been working on a very simple 2D tile based 'engine', which is in fact the code I think i should rewrite! but I agree heaps with you Daemin, just by writing the stuff, even if it doesn't work half the time, I learn heaps...
I pretty much expected the answers that youse have given, but just needed some encouragement I guess! And I'm only in my first year of Uni so I got a while to go yet...
Thanks guys!
If you are looking to make a 2D game I suggest you search the internet for a Game Boy Advance Emulator and the Open Source GBA SDK. That way you are actually making a game that could be commercially viable in the future.
Programming for the GBA is so easy even I can do it. It shouldn't take you to long to have something up and running.
I would advise against trying to use the GBA emulator and packages for it when your first starting out. There are some funky things with the GBA hardware that can be done and some interesting issues to avoid. Not something for the beginner to tackle!
And since you're learning to program I would say stay away from the Macromedia stuff, they make good applications and programs, but they make them for artists more, rather than beginner programmers. Sure if you want to make something with some artists, go for it, but if you're just learning to program stick to the usuals.
To create a simple 2D stable game you'd need enough knowledge to simulate simple 2d physics, get images drawn on the screen in a nice order and without too much voerdraw. Organise the entities in the game level in some simple and efficient way and be able to handle user input and some other things in a nice fashion.
Generally this would come when you've learnt some rudimentary data structures, some principles on algorithm design and read enough stuff to gather the necessary knowledge of your chosen APIs that you're going to work with.
I would suggest just building a few scratch engines or scratch games that don't actually do anything but in the process of constructing them you will learn a lot about yourself and a lot about programming itself. It doesn't matter if you have to start over, since you're in Uni you're still meant to be learning and experimenting! :-)
I'd also suggest looking at doing some non-game related projects, maybe creating a solid application (an editor maybe, something with complete implementation of its chosen functionality and little or no bugs to speak of), or working with some other people on creating some embedded software etc.