Hello, again. I'm trying to learn how to program my own game. I dont want to rip a game off someone, or have someone make a game for me. I want to learn how to do it the right way.
I figure my first step is to read the DM Guide. But i have a question about it: the DM guide is pretty old..Is it still worth the read? I know it teaches everything ill need to know. but is it outdated? reason i ask is because i noticed some little codes do not work (on the other hand i may be doing them wrong)
Also, can you suggest any reading for me to do? I dont mind how long it will take me to read something. I just want to learn this the right way and not cut any corners.
Thank you. Sorry if my question is in the wrong section.
ID:155299
 Aug 2 2011, 7:39 pm
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People tend to be split on the topic of the DM guide, some say it's a great resource, others say it's completely useless because of how outdated it is.
In my opinion, it still teaches the basics of the language fairly well, and from there you can move on to the tutorials(most of which are equally dated). I can't honestly say that there is a good, current, structured way of learning to make games with the BYOND language. There is a best way, but all we have to offer in terms of education is the guide, the reference, and the scattered tutorials/resources. What I feel we lack is a concrete way of teaching people how to be programmers, rather than just teaching the syntax(which we do adequately), so we end up with a lot of people who can edit code, but relatively few who can actually write it from scratch and actually end up with something useful. My suggestion is to study programming in general, via whatever means you have while studying DM using BYOND's resources. There are books on the subject, and MIT's open courseware program has a few courses on programming that aren't really language specific, but teach more broadly how to be a programmer. | |
I read through the DM guide and found it to be worth the effort. For what I am trying to do, the DM guide had probably about 70% of what I needed to know, and once I knew that, it was much easier to pick up the remaining 30%. More than anything else, the DM guide gives you a broad sense of how the language works.
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Thank you for your help, everyone. Im going to try and follow the DM guide as best i can. Even though some of it is outdated you are right, it teaches the basics.
Im going to try and not make it a habit to to come running to the forums every time i cant get something right away. Only if i have exhausted all other options. Thank you. | |
Second I haven't checked the DM Guide in a while to know if it's getting updated with all the new stuff that has come into BYOND really, sorry.
I would suggest looking for the small world sources for various types of games rpg, action demos, strategy games, and so on. Don't use the source if you really want to do everything yourself, but it might be nice for you to use them to understand the method the author of them used to get the result in them. Just my suggestion to you.
Best of luck!