absolute first time developing!!!

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by ktfright, Jan 1, 2009.

  1. ktfright

    ktfright Well-Known Member

    Dec 18, 2008
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    Student,Rapper,Game Dev.
    Hawthorne,California
    hi, i need help!!! i have the sdk, but i have NO idea how to make a game. i have a million ideas, but learning objective c and c++ is very difficult when you have no idea what you are looking at. i dont even know openGL. can someone help me with tips on how to make a game, and how to understand the sdk and all the other stuff? i really want to make a game!!!
     
  2. I would second picking up a book. Or, are you a student in someplace that teaches programming (high school, college)? Can you take classes in computer programming (community college or something)? For some people, a programming class might be easier than learning out of a book, especially if you are really, truly starting from scratch.

    If you learn C, C++, Java or something similar it will transfer to Objective C pretty easily. But there is no substitute for the work of the learning how to program in the first place, IMHO.
     
  3. BulletDev

    BulletDev Well-Known Member

    Sep 20, 2008
    784
    40
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    produce applications under "Bullet Development"
    Vancouver, BC
    Sometimes it helps to look at a few tutorials. It will give you an deep insight on what your getting yourself into.

    Just search "iPhone SDK Tutorials" in Google.
     
  4. Altrez

    Altrez Well-Known Member

    Jan 3, 2009
    83
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    IT
    Kentucky
    ktfright,

    I feel that one of the best places to start is here:

    http://developer.apple.com/iphone/

    Watch all the videos and take notes. Look at all the code examples and download the SDK. After you have done all of that. Then you should have most of your questions answered.

    Good Luck!

    -Altrez
     
  5. fairlady

    fairlady Well-Known Member

    Dec 31, 2008
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    Owner: Fairlady Media
    Raleigh, NC
    You'll likely need design/graphics, too

    In addition to learning about programming, you'll also need to learn about design and graphics. Many game concepts don't become successful apps because of poor implementation of design and graphics.

    If you'd like to learn to do graphics yourself, I would recommend learning Adobe Illustrator so that you can create vector images. These can be resized to any size without loss of resolution, which becomes very important when designing for the small screen of an iPhone. A great resource for learning Adobe Illustrator is The Adobe Illustrator CS3 WOW! Book. From Illustrator, all your graphics will need to be sized accordingly and converted to .png files.

    Alternatively, you can outsource the graphics, but this can get expensive. You'll want to make sure you check an illustrator/designer's portfolio before hiring, and expect to pay $40-$100 per hour for a good person.

    You might be surprised how many graphics go into a game; our Whack 'em All! game has over 200 graphics in it. (We've got a video demo at http://www.whackemall.com)

    I hope this information is helpful.
    fairlady

    http://www.fairladymedia.com
    http://www.whackemall.com
     
  6. mehware

    mehware Well-Known Member

    Nov 22, 2008
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    If you got some money maybe consider The Unity iPhone Basic license. (You do need unity's 2.x indie license as well. Its what I and a few people use for our iphone games. This way your not starting from scratch. If you start from scratch there is a huge learning curve to learn objective-c/c++/openGL if you do not have any programming experience. Programming is just half the battle. http://unity3d.com/unity/features/iphone-publishing My game "Tilt It" http://www.mehware.com/TiltItDemo.html was made using Unity. It just took some JavaScript/C# and some basic modeling. Unity's physics/graphics engine did the rest.
     
  7. Talon Raines

    Talon Raines Member

    Jan 6, 2009
    14
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    Game Engineer
    Orlando, FL
    If you're that new to Obj-C and C/C++, my advice would be to find someone to work with that does know it. You're not going to get anywhere fast if you are learning programming from the ground up.

    Another option might be one of the engines made for iPhone developement. I saw a few mentioned in this gamasutra article that might interest you.

    Good luck.
     
  8. Drenguin

    Drenguin Well-Known Member

    Jan 10, 2009
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    Hello, this is my first post so please don't pound me if I did something wrong. I am also a beginning developer and have no background experience. Thanks to this awesome book, Beginning iPhone Development by Dave Mark and Jeff LaMarche, I am well on my way to becoming a developer. However Objective-C seems impossible to learn without a human being teaching it to you.

    I know most developers out there do not have a human teach them so there must be some good resources out there. Are there any good Objective-C books that give examples specifically for the iPhone.
     
  9. games42

    games42 Well-Known Member

    Dec 28, 2008
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    do you need to know objective-C if you use Unity? Does'nt unity simplify everything? Also are these books still good if all I'm using is Unity?
    Beginning Iphone Development and the Cocoa Programming book (both mentioned above)
    http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Cocoa+Programming+for+Mac+OS+X
     

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