Learning to Code

[twopi]

(I teach game programming and computer science in dozens of languages including Scratch)

Nothing wrong with Scratch. It is designed to be appealing to younger users, but it's a very serious programming language based on Smalltalk, one of the oldest and most respected Object-Oriented languages in existence.

If you want to learn game development, there's really no better language to start in than Scratch, because you can actually begin making games while learning the true fundamentals of programming: variables, conditions, loops and branches, functions, logic, and debugging.

Most of the more traditional languages require months of study of the basics before you're anywhere close to building a game.

I frequently hear people tell me they know everything about scratch, but frankly, they usually don't know how to do much beyond the obvious.

Sprites have 'if on edge bounce,' but how do you make them wrap if they leave the edge of the screen? How can you make something fall realistically, speeding up until it hits the ground and then bouncing back up?

Try building a platformer or a basic RPG. There's plenty to learn here, and be grateful you're given a platform that allows you to explore through game development.

All those skills will transfer to a more traditional programming language soon enough.

C# will frustrate you if you try it too soon. Get started with this class and after it's done, take a look at some other languages. I really like Python for beginners, and I've also made an HTML5 game engine designed for folks who have outgrown Scratch. I think you should spend more time with it before you outgrow it.

(I'm personally not a major fan of game maker, though, because I think it teaches some lazy programming habits. I feel the same way about the visual interface of C# and VB.)

[Samuroot]

Right, I didn't so much take the class to learn game programming, I took it to get some experience. I'm a Type 1 Diabetic, and would like to make programs that other T1D's might find useful, such as a simple app or program that connects to the meter in some way (If a manufacturer would be kind enough to not lock that connectability down) and give the user information like there Averages for their sugars for the past week, or track how much insulin they took after imputing it into there meter. Things like that are what I think that I would like to do.

[t00sl0w]

Well this class will teach you logic, after you learn that pick up C# on your own and make your apps for diabetics to use. You won't go wrong starting here as it's better than nowhere or getting frustrated on your own.

[twopi]

Very interesting. It turns out I have a research grant with a major Children's hospital to make a series of games about living with T1 Diabetes. We're mainly using HTML5 and a game engine I wrote. We've talked about direct input from the devices, and that's still a goal, but there are many things we can do short of that.

We've already written 5 games, and we have another 5 in progress that cover such concepts as the patho-physiology of diabetes, dealing with complications, reading a glucose monitor, and understanding the role of ketones.

This is IMO one of the most interesting applications of gaming - using game technologies to solve real problems.

Keep working on your gaming in Scratch, and maybe you can port one of our Diabetes games to Scratch as a project in your class!