#151732 - Echoer - Tue Mar 04, 2008 12:34 am
From the looks of it, people say this quite often, but I want to develop for the DS. Seeing as the only coding I've ever done was Visual Basic .NET at school, I realise I have a long way to go.
My question for the experienced DS programmers are this:
How long do you think it would take to learn all I need to know? 3 months? 6? 5 years?
Thanks in advance.
#151740 - tepples - Tue Mar 04, 2008 3:24 am
After having learned QBasic, it took me about 3 months to get up to speed in C to the point where I could make simple games using graphics in text mode (e.g. a roguelike or a Tetris clone). From there, it's a tiny jump to being able to program for the GBA.
_________________
-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.
#151778 - gauauu - Tue Mar 04, 2008 10:00 pm
Also keep in mind that Tepples is rather bright ;-) It really comes down to your aptitude for programming...for some people, it comes fairly naturally, for others, they have to pour a lot of time and energy into it to get anywhere.
If it comes naturally, then a few months of good effort might get you there. If not, it might even take a few years.
Just don't be discouraged if in 3 months you haven't figured it all out. If you're having fun learning it, then enjoy the journey.
#151783 - elwing - Tue Mar 04, 2008 10:43 pm
| gauauu wrote: |
| Also keep in mind that Tepples is rather bright ;-) It really comes down to your aptitude for programming...for some people, it comes fairly naturally, for others, they have to pour a lot of time and energy into it to get anywhere. |
sure brightness is an important factor, but if you have a good experience with an other language, some good software engineering capability and the required vector/matrix + geometry math, moving to an other language is quite fast...
#151818 - silent_code - Wed Mar 05, 2008 3:41 pm
after all, it's not just the language. once oyu master the language as your primary tool, you still need to learn "game programming".
i think, depending on your present skills and your dedication, about two years of learning, experimenting and lots of ups and downs should get you to a level, where you can actually call yourself a game programmer. that's not that long and you're constantly learning (by doing)!
by the time you should have started a lot of small/medium sized projects and hopefully not canned *all* of them (even that is quite common, don't be discouraged!), so you have created yourself a reasonable code base (don't throw stuff away!).
well, go ahead and join us! Henshin a go go, Baby! ;?D
happy learning!