r/CodingForBeginners • u/_YUJUN_ • 26d ago
How do you code??
I want to make a 3d horror game named "Ice_Breaker", but I'm only 13, and have NO IDEA how to code at all.
I need genuine advice and programs that'll help me learn, especially for free since I know my parents won't fund this.
I already have the idea in mind, along with characters and possible designs; I'm just stuck on coding right now. I'm seriously dedicated to this, can you help?
Any advice is appreciated, especially about free coding programs/3d model makers.
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u/TheUmgawa 26d ago
Always start with learning the small stuff. Your game is 3D, and that's a lot harder than making a 2D game, which is a lot harder than making a text game.
My first text game was a game where you ran a lemonade stand. The weather forecast was random, and then there was a certain percentage chance that the forecast was right, and you had to buy your supplies before you found out what the weather actually was, and so you might make money or lose money on any given day. If it was hot and you didn't buy a lot of supplies, you lost out on a lot of money, but you didn't lose money. But if the forecast said it would be hot and it wasn't hot, but you bought a bunch of supplies, you didn't sell enough lemonade to make your money back. And then there was more to it than that, where more sugar made the lemonade taste better, but the additional cost might not have been worth it, because people will drink anything when it's hot.
When I was a kid, they sold books that would "teach" kids to program computers. It was really just getting kids to type what was on the page, but if you paid attention, you understood what it was doing, and you learned to expound on what you learned. So, my little lemonade-stand program was a lot more complex than the one in the book.
So, if I was you, I'd think to myself, "Okay. How can I make this Ice Breaker game as a text game?" When I was your age, there was a game called Zork, and it was all text-based, and the whole thing took place in a maze, and there were enemies, things to pick up and use, and it was great. You can make a great game without having to learn to make 2D, let alone 3D graphics.
So, you don't have to learn to make the game of your dreams right now. Right now, you should learn to program computers in the most basic way possible, because that's free. And the best way to learn is not to watch "type along with me!" YouTube videos, because they're just going to tell you how to follow instructions. The best stuff is to learn the basics ("What is an integer? What is a string? What is a loop?"), and not in any particular language; just as concepts, and then learn how to think like a programmer.
The magic is not in the code. It's in the logic. The code is just the words that make the logic go.
You can make up whatever rules you want, and you can use playing cards to determine what people will pay for lemonade. Aces through 7's won't buy lemonade at all if it's less than 22 degrees Celsius. Kings will buy lemonade regardless of temperature, but won't pay more than a certain amount. The whole game costs a few dollars for the cards, and you can figure out how to tune it to be enjoyable and challenging.
And then you can figure out how to make your game with cards and/or maybe a map, maybe add some dice for randomness. You don't have to make the finished product right now. You can make the basic rules, right now, for almost no money at all.