[Page 2] My learning method, What about yours?

Hello again,

Following the last post, you probably feel more excited to join the game development process :)
We should finish reading this post together and share your thought right before start developing our game, alright?

In this post, I will demonstrate to you my methodology of learning how to program and how to create my own games, I think it will seem to be similar to others.

1. Must be passionate and hard-working in what I am doing
2. Break the big "cake" into small pieces and try to completely finish one before try to "eat" another piece.
3. Read docs, wiki, and help sections from the engine's home page. In this case, it is Cocos2D-x Index by title
4. Hand-coding each example (I meant, re-typing the entire example, do not copy & paste the code)
5. Watch online video tutorials on YouTube
6. Create our very own programming style yet following the world-unified-standard. Confuse, hah? It means the code must be clear and the format should be readable. Variables names, functions' names should be meaningful and written in English even though your first language may not; it is because I observe that almost all the code examples, documentations are in English, and there are many other people around the world can understand and help you when you need (it is just my suggestion)

So, these methods above may be enough to help us begin to learn.
What is your approach of learning? Share it in the comment section below, so we all can see it and I will pick the yours to re-post on this blog post :)

Thank you, and see you in the next page Install Cocos2D-x to develop our games.
Happy coding

[Page 1] Mobile Game Development For Beginners

Hello to all of you,

In early 2014, Flappy Bird was brewing the Game Development Communities worldwide. It's such a strong push to many passionate-indie game developers to be motivated and believed their games can be one day "sparkling" in the top of App Store Marketplaces. Also, there must be many young people had "wished to be like him", "I could have been able to do it", and you know what, me too. However, to become a true game developer whose games get the players' attentions is not the blue-road-to-heaven, the road ahead of you and I is definitely going to have many "thorns" to hurt. I guarantee that, hehe !!

But, don't be discouraged my friends, you will be very proud of your achievement if the way you have gone through. "There are no big dreams nor dreamers who dream small." Just be who you want you to be, and you will become it.

Long story short, let's dive into the solution.

So, we want to create a game that can entertain us as well as bring us some money.
I have been using the cross-platform game engine called Cocos2D-x to develop my simple mobile games.
*cross-platform: means the game after development can be played in many different devices, it can be on your iPhone, Android tablet or a Windows Phone, etc.



Supported programming languages: Lua, JavaScript and C++
I use C++ to develop my games.

Why do I use Cocos2D-X with C++ to create my games? (FYI: there are plenty of multi-platforms mobile engines that allows to create apps and games as well)

At first, when beginning to learn how to make a mobile game, I also tried a lot of tools and engines but finally picked the Cocos2D-x for the following reasons (my very own opinions):

+Cross-platform, writing code once, running it on several operating systems, and many different types of devices (tablet, phones, etc.)
+Support both Windows OS and MacOS, as well as popular and powerful IDE such as Eclipse, Microsoft Visual Studio and XCode.
+Portability, it uses C++, Lua, and JavaScript which are relatively common and easy to learn even for beginners. I chose C++ which I have been taught in my college.
+Open-source, most of other good engines charge you money to personalize your apps (games), others require you to leave the company logo in your apps. However, those are great if you purchase the full version (pro, paid versions). In my opinion, they are good in case you have a start-up studio or a company.
+Great community, and many available tutorials and code examples for us to learn.
+Etc.

Who would be the best fit to follow this game series' blog?
(Requirement)

+Enthusiastic with app development (not only games)
+Basic knowledge of computer programming. C++ is preferred for game development
+Basic knowledge of physics
+Knowing graphic design is an asset :)
"Code is the bone, Game-play is the soul, Graphic is the appearance"
+A Windows computer (prefer, I use to develop my game) or a Mac is still okay. If you have a weak computer, you should have a dedicated device (it could be your phone or your tablet, using it for development, testing as well as deployment)
+Time and patience

Lastly,
You may ask, there are many online game-tutorials or blog posts, why do I still need to create this game series?
My answer:
This blog is used not only to help some of you (who may read this) to learn how to create simple mobile games but also is the back-up pages for me to store everything I have been learning digitally, making it easier for me to access anytime and anywhere I want. Everything I know, I learn, I do, I practice, I make mistakes, I will write on this blog as a form of document. I think it will help me to review as well as to learn from other people as well. I may be wrong, I may be making mistakes, you- the reader may be giving me the solution and contribute to the blog, this blog is not only belong to me, all of the resources and learning curve in here can be yours as well :). We love sharing, don't' we?

Thank you for reading,
Be prepared to fight, and to conquer the passion :)
With loves,

See my learning method and share yours in Page 2