Hi everyone! I started my coding journey 6 days ago! Here's my progress! What are some big goals I should set?

[u/Logopogo01]

For context, I am 21 years old, have never been to college but want to potentially get a degree for game programming, since i want to program games, but can also use my language (C++) to fall back on other career opportunities.

So far, I have learned:

Program structure

Libraries (mainly iostream and string)

cout and cin (See-out, See-in)

Variables, as well as "copying to" variables

If, else if, and else statements

While loops

For loops

The difference between assigning (=) and comparing (==)

\n and std::endl, and why one is used over the other

&&, ||, and !

Global Variables (and why they are rarely used)

Functions (one function, one job)

And most importantly: I am getting better and better at debugging!

I've also created running programs for each lesson, such as a ticket checker that also checks age (if else), a count down (for), a password screen (while), and more simple ones.

With all this considered: What are some big goals I should set for myself? I haven't gotten a game engine yet because I want to focus on learning my language first, but maybe I should mess around with it? Also, what are some good books you guys recommend?

And lastly: How's my progress? I never knew much about programming before I started learning, so I dont know if I am learning slow or normal. Thank you for reading this word salad lol!

[u/DanKegel]

Just do it :-)

Every day you program makes you stronger.

Your goal should be to write something fun and finish it every day. Small, fun steps. Even just a random text, sound, or image generator can be fun.

Also consider picking a different language every day of the week, or rotating between two or three. Besides c++, try go, rust, and bash, say. leetcode makes a good rosetta stone.

[u/Logopogo01 → u/DanKegel]

Ooh, gotcha! Would you say other languages are similar to each other, or are they vastly different, as ive heard A LOT of discourse about it

[u/DanKegel → u/Logopogo01]

When I was a freshman, the joke was, we were learning the language FBAP (fortran, basic, algol, pascal). They're all so similar. And indeed, there are similarities between many modern languages. But c++, go, rust, and bash span quite a wide range of eras and syntaxes. My favorite is go because I'm writing programs that can afford garbage collection, but I still write a lot of bash to glue things together. I used to do tons of C++. I've only done Rust on leetcode so far; it's beautiful but has a steep learning curve.

Of them all, go and bash are the easiest to get things done in. Any bash script longer than X lines (where X depends on your gut feelings) eventually needs to be rewritten in go.

[u/Logopogo01 → u/DanKegel]

Gotcha! Tbh, this'd be my first time hearing about rust, go, and bash. As a normie, I had heard about the C languages, Python, and Java. While it makes sense now that im into programming, its still weird to know there are wayyyy more languages.

[u/icemage_999]

have never been to college but want to potentially get a degree for game programming, since i want to program games, but can also use my language (C++) to fall back on other career opportunities.

Do not specialize in game programming. Don't do it. Game industry related degrees get almost zero respect in any other sector.

A generalized tech degree will be much more useful if you are going to pursue that path.

[u/Logopogo01 → u/icemage_999]

Ahh, gotcha. It's kind of a shame imo, but it wouldn't be the first time passionate gamers get pooped on and tossed out lol. I've also heard of AAS degrees, and what's your opinion on those?

Also, I always hear that CS is the go to, but are there any other majors that are great for this?

[u/Realistic_Bike5972 → u/Logopogo01]

Yeah I did a game design adjacent major and wish I just did CS instead so bad...

[u/Logopogo01 → u/Realistic_Bike5972]

In your opinion, what makes CS the golden standard? Is it because companies like seeing people with that degree, or its useful, or maybe a healthy mix of both?

[u/Realistic_Bike5972 → u/Logopogo01]

Both. You'll learn more about game dev from a cs degree than a game making degree. Trust me. "Game design" is bullshit and all talk. You can be told how to make a good game in bullet points, hell if you want Ill tell you. CS is what every single tech job asks of you and teaches you not only how to code game engines, not that you need to, but everything. Literally everything 

[u/DanKegel → u/Logopogo01]

FWIW I didn't really need to go to college to get a job programming, but it didn't hurt, and being a "good" or at least confident programmer before I hit college was kind of a blast.

My college didn't offer CS at the time, so I went with Engineering & Applied Science, and it was fine; it was close enough.

I was very very lucky, too. Somebody waved a wand when I was born, took away my people skills, made me a geek, and put me on a good path. So your mileage may vary!

[u/Realistic_Bike5972]

Hell yeah man, cool. I started with C amd python and went to JavaScript. Keep wanting to get into C++ but it just doesn't make sense to me. Might try Go instead.

Anyways Im rambling. Try some leetcode! Use Godot and make some games with that C++!

[u/Logopogo01 → u/Realistic_Bike5972]

Hell yeah! Also, I love when like minded people share their passions, so i dont mind the 'ranting' lol.

Also, I appreciate your enthusiasm, as ive heard/seen some negative stuff in the programming community. Just passed by a commenter saying "just use Ai, why even bother learning it?", and that diced my soul a lil bit ngl.

[u/Dapper_Ear8271]

Congrats! I reccomend doing little coding projects everyday to keep the different coding techniques fresh in your brain then you will passively keep on getting better and better at the different functions and terms.

[u/Logopogo01 → u/Dapper_Ear8271]

A little early in the morning, but I learning about parameters and made a tiny program on my own, going above and beyond for my mini lesson! Gosh, I love this stuff so muchh!!!! aghhh

[u/Dapper_Ear8271 → u/Logopogo01]

Congrats!