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Taking your programming skills to the next level

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by stereosound, Apr 13, 2012.

  1. stereosound

    stereosound

    Joined:
    Sep 13, 2011
    Posts:
    75
    What's the next steps to take to further your expertise/knowledge in programming a game once you're beyond (or at least seeking beyond) basic syntax and understanding the tools available that you could get out of a reference manual? Games don't really have tutorials that something like photoshop has -- I can look at tutorials of other works by people in photoshop and advance my own technique in exchange by learning what they did. In game design, there's not the same sort of knowledge base -- at least readily available -- I'm assuming because of how much of a varied artform coding actually is. I don't really care about HOW to code it, so much as guidance on how to approach things.

    There's clearly a knowledge gap between ways experts can approach problems and ways someone newer can. A well-known example is something like A* path-finding. If you hadn't heard of something like this, it's a bit daunting of a task to try to accomplish -- but once you are aware of the technique, either there are examples you can implement in your own work or at least you have the logical steps required to do it yourself. Is this just something you learn with getting a computer science or equivalent degree, is it something you learn with practice, etc. What's the secret!
     
  2. TwiiK

    TwiiK

    Joined:
    Oct 23, 2007
    Posts:
    1,729
    Not really sure why you're saying there aren't tutorials for games in the same way as for Photoshop.

    Have you you looked here: http://unity3d.com/support/resources/

    or here: http://forum.unity3d.com/forums/23-Teaching

    or here: http://www.burgzergarcade.com/tutorial-category/unity3d

    or anywhere.

    Tutorials for games are just as plentiful as tutorials for Photoshop. Also, you do not need to seek out Unity specific tutorials as any game concept can be used in Unity, but if you're a beginner then that's perhaps the easiest.
     
  3. Jaimi

    Jaimi

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2009
    Posts:
    6,204
    Do it under pressure, to support your family. You will learn that doing something without a plan gets you nowhere fast. And that being a cowboy and doing whatever you feel like when you want doesn't show that you're smart. Instead, it leads to costly mistakes and the unemployment line.