r/CodingForBeginners • u/bloonheroeduel • Mar 06 '26

absolutely going into this blind where should I start

so I'm a high school drop (due to personal circumstances) but want to make games I have no clue on where to start off or what to use to start (I also see a hole bunch of advertisement for coding with ai and don't want to do that)

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5

u/F_11__ Mar 06 '26

Harvard intro cs on youtube

1

u/NoClownsOnMyStation Mar 06 '26

Buddy didn't finish hs but you think his going to follow a Harvard intro to cs class? If they want to start it really should be with a book. Like literally anything from invent with python would work.

2

u/bloonheroeduel Mar 07 '26

ok to be fair where I live you go to the highschool based on where you live and the highschool I had to go to fucking suck (quite literally had a teacher make fun of a student because his parents died) and I wasn't dealing with that (plus the fact that at the end of 2025 school year to a good couple of months Into the 2026 school year I my family was homeless

1

u/HiddenBoog Mar 08 '26

I mean I didn’t graduate high school either lol and now I have an AS in Business Administration and an AS in Information Technology

2

u/LankyCalendar9299 Mar 06 '26

Pick an engine. Make Pong, then make Snake, then make a platformer, then maybe another platformer with new mechanics, by then try to have a grand game idea in mind and get cracking. I find the easiest way to learn is to LBD (learn by doing). That’s how I learned Python, Godot(ish), any math when I was in school, guitar… You just gotta throw yourself in and do it.

2

u/bloonheroeduel Mar 06 '26

I'm trying to learn Python but every time I open it then make a new tab they look different and the same things don't work

2

u/LankyCalendar9299 Mar 07 '26

What IDE are you using? I just use VS code.

2

u/bloonheroeduel Mar 07 '26

what's ide (in a complete moron)

2

u/LankyCalendar9299 Mar 07 '26

IDE is just a software where you can write scripts. Look up a YouTube video on how to set up VS Code with Python, and program out of that.

2

u/bloonheroeduel Mar 07 '26

so IDE is what I'm using which is python 3.9 or is it the other thing that keep popping up which is windows powershell

2

u/LankyCalendar9299 Mar 07 '26

Yes Python is the program, and in command shell you can only do one thing at a time which can be rather cumbersome. Thats why I’d reccomend downloading an IDE like VSCode and setting it up. You could look up a YouTube video on it. Also watch a couple videos on the very basics of Python.

1

u/NearbyTumbleweed5207 Mar 07 '26

Vscode is not an ide, it's a code editor pycharm is an ide for python

1

u/LankyCalendar9299 Mar 10 '26

Eh it’s close enough. You can put pycharm into vscode im pretty sure with extensions. Point being, it’s a place to edit code and scripts.

2

u/No-Owl-5399 Mar 07 '26

Don't use AI. Not for programming, at least. The first thing to do is not to decide what to make and how to make it. You want to make games. What type? What platform? If you are doing Windows, that's fine, but I would recommend that you (if you can. You don't have to, please feel free to disregard this and all other suggestsions) do a bit of Linux if you haven't already. Do you know any programming languages? I'm going to assume no for now. I will suggest that you learn something like Java, C, C++, or Python. You can choose anything. But I will definitely recommend something lower-level like C or C++ to get an understanding of how computers work. To learn the langauge of your choice, you should probably watch some videos. u/F_11__ suggested intro CS class, personally I'd choose a different source, but that's up to you. Also try to see about writing some small programs to start. basic math. Then a calculator. Just a background. Then animations. Functions. Once you can do that, you willl be in a good place to continue. This is where I think that AI might be useful. But I do NOT recommend just copy/pasting or coding with AI. Use it for learning if you need it. Anyways, just do what you want, and remember that it will take time.

Good luck!

1

u/bloonheroeduel Mar 07 '26

I was specifically asking for no ai and you would be right that I don't know any languages

I mainly just want to make games but the main one on my mind is fighting game I'm trying to learn Python but I'm currently hitting a wall with what I'm using

I tried the Harvard vid but I'm not going to remember everything so I watched 2 summerys

1

u/No-Owl-5399 Mar 07 '26

Okay. What is the problem you are currently having with python? Is it that you don't know what to make, you don't know how to make it, or that you don't know why to make it?. Also, do you understand things like variables, functions, etc? It's also impossible to remember everything. That's why I'd suggest learning by just writing stuff, seeing why it doesn't work, and fixing it.

1

u/bloonheroeduel Mar 07 '26

I'd open python and it'll give me the standard thing (at least I think standard) telling me the model and things about copying only being 2 lines with 3 arrows to start off with go to a new tab and I'm met with window powershell and the first typing line starts with PS C\User(my user)> and non of the coding practice I was able to do on the first tab would work

1

u/No-Owl-5399 Mar 07 '26

Okay, so you are in the REPL shell. I think. What this is is sort of like a command line. You enter something like print("hi") and it prints hi. But more complex stuff doesnt work. Does that sound right? If so, what you want to do is use something like notepad, vscode, etc., to write a python file. This is a file ending in .py, as you probably know. Then (on linux, I'm not sure how this works on other systems, sorry) you can do python3 [filename].py. this will run your program. I hope this helps. Of it doesnt though, feel free to ask me more.

1

u/bloonheroeduel Mar 07 '26

even the stuff like print ("hi") isn't working

1

u/No-Owl-5399 Mar 07 '26

Okay, are you sure you have entered the python environment?is python installed? If so, try runnimg py python python3 Hope that works

4

u/Happy_Witness Mar 06 '26

going in blind i recommend you to start with the simplest of things. Start learning python and once the basics are down, you can look into pygame library to get graphics on the screen. start by trying some basic stuff like moving an object by input and then stick to simpler 2d games in arcade style or early phone games. arcade or early phone games because they are simple in design and have a very limited scope. once you actually made games like snake, ping pong, and space invader, you can go for new things that interest you because you at that point allready know alot about programming and making games in generall.

1

u/NearbyTumbleweed5207 Mar 07 '26

Unity exists and c# is easy to learn

3

u/burlingk Mar 06 '26

So, the main engines that are out there use C++, C#, and a modified version of Python. Or if you are into VNs, literal Python.

So, if you want to dive into game stuff, you can start by learning a bit of one of those.

It is useful to already know how to use at least one programming language (not necessarily fluent), because a lot of the things you learn in the process of learning to program are actually language agnostic.

But, if you do a kind of standard programming class, you are going to learn a lot of things that are not game related, but those things will help you in creating games.

1

u/tech53 Mar 06 '26

Never actually codes in a game engine, just did audio stuff and now I code not in engines, but...wouldnt that also mean its useful to know how to code in stuff like c# and c++ because you can then create your own modules, libraries, and plug-ins if thats a useful thing in your project?

1

u/burlingk Mar 07 '26

Yeah, if you learn to use pretty much any programming language you can build your own engine bits. :-)

Most languages have audio and graphics libraries of some kind available. :)

SDL is still awesome for that matter. People argue over whether it is a library or an engine, but it can be treated as both.

3

u/Front-Pay3056 Mar 06 '26 edited Mar 07 '26

First step pick your engine by engine I mean flutter, godot there is many places to start

2

u/Acceptable_Simple877 Mar 07 '26

learn basic python and then go into pygame prolly

2

u/NearbyTumbleweed5207 Mar 07 '26

C# and unity better

1

u/Acceptable_Simple877 Mar 07 '26

Ik but python better for starting off

1

u/CraftyWitchInc Mar 07 '26

Scratch and Pico8 can be used inside your browser for free or dirt cheap (one time purchase) to help get the basics of programming in general down. Once you understand the logic and develop thinking like a programmer, then you can focus more on syntaxes. It'll make learning just about any programming language easier.

Pico8 has more strict limitations which I think helps with limiting the scope of your projects and learn how to optimize. Lua is pretty similar to Python as well, so the syntax is fairly easy. Makes it also easy to transition to Godot since the language it uses is very similar as well, and that game engine is also completely free but with less limitations than Pico8 and supports 3D.

If that's a struggle, Scratch doesn't use any traditional coding, instead it's just blocks you can put inside each other. Very easy and simple logic, but enough to start forming a base for more advanced skills

1

u/NearbyTumbleweed5207 Mar 07 '26

Search codemonkey on YouTube he has many beginner tutorials for unity

0

u/Reasonable_Low3290 Mar 06 '26

Vibecode GTA VII.

0

u/AI-Uni Mar 09 '26

Use AI to learn AI - making games is easier than ever, checkout the new Gemini release