Looking for some advice

I’m looking for opinions on what to learn first. I came across this engine today while I was searching out resources and it’s definitely caught my interest. I want to get started on this, I’m not afraid of a challenge or investing thousands of hours, however I would like those hours to be productive so I’m seeking some advice from the people who have gone before me. Basically I’m a super-noob at this so I’m wondering if I should be learning java first and then returning etc. A little about myself…



I have no java or game development experience at all… The closest thing to game development experience I have is maybe 2 years of playing around with 3dsmax 8 maybe 5-6 years ago. Simple model designs simple textures and simple animations and some particle effects etc.



I currently work in IT and I have a general understand of how a programming language functions. I really not expecting to have a lot of trouble grasping new concepts and I do enjoy that kind of a challenge.



I typically hop right into the middle of a new project and would likely just follow the tutorials here and make some basics shapes “do stuff” and see where it leads.



Does anyone feel my time learning the basics would be better focused somewhere else? Is it typically too much for someone to just start up here with your engine?

Hello!



mmmm. This question is pretty tricky, but I’ll try my best. I think I’ll chop this up a little as I go…



First of all, as far as learning to develop games go, using jME3 is a nice middle ground between having to code the entire thing yourself (engine and all, from scratch basically), and just modding a popular game already deployed out there (but will probably lack ‘that one neat thing’ you want to do, always seems to crop up for me). Game design is similar to any other type of program in that you need some structure to the way you write it, but in a lot of ways jME3 will hold your hand unless you start overriding things. I guess the best advice I can give in learning how to develop games is developing a curiosity for how “they did it.” As in, looking at what you’ve played, but REALLY look at it. Look at how they pulled off tricks that maybe you didn’t even notice the man behind the curtain until you really started to look. It doesn’t hurt to look at games already in the wild and how their editors manipulate the game’s data.



As far as programming itself goes… This one is a bit tricky to give advice for I think. I don’t consider myself a very good java programmer, but I’ve enjoyed working with jME3 and I get results even with my crappy level of skill. I’m not really sure if you should worry about it holding you back. If you’ve coming from another language, it’s mostly the same just with a slightly different spin on a few concepts (that’s like, every language in a nutshell).



If you’re like, SUPER SUPER new with no experience with programming at all, it probably wouldn’t hurt to do some really basic java programs first just to get the feel for how it works. I just have a bad feeling that if you go straight into jME3 that the amount of java being thrown at you all at once might keep you from getting even the most basic things working.



In either case, try some tutorials and feel it out. Overall, jME3 is pretty easy in my opinion as far as learn-ability goes. It’s a little tricky at the start only because you have to start to grasp the concepts, but after that it’s really only limited by your imagination/creativity.



Oh and before I forget (almost posted it, whew), don’t start working with jME3 and expect to make the next Modern Warfare or WoW2.0 or something your first day. Take it slow, use placeholder objects, get things working, and worry about hi-res models, super special effects and explosions later. All of that is frill, best left till you’ve implemented the “important stuff.” And if you’re really stumped on something, hit up the forums and we’ll try our best to help! :smiley:



2c deposited. :smiley:

~FlaH

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@tehflah agreed, nice firm analysis



This reminds me of a thread which I posted my first post ever on the JME forums :P, might be some usefulness in there:

http://hub.jmonkeyengine.org/groups/user-code-projects/forum/topic/just-some-questions-from-a-newb

@theflah is right.



Dont’ forget that baby steps are the most important. If you start all crooked, it’ll be right awful to get back straight up. There are TONS of tutorials on the web, check “thenewboston”'s channel on YouTube. He’s got a very nice Java Gaming Tutorial. He doesn’t use jME but it’s still very good info (there’s a series of ~70 videos about general java iirc before the gaming ones). You would be very wise to watch them all.



Sun’s site is also filled with tutorials, papers and docs on Java. They’re not always the best since the language they sometimes use is not always obvious, sometimes too technical or somehow vague not giving all the info if you’re not aware of certain concepts. But nonetheless, it’s a great site to visit.



Then, there’s the books. There are so many good books about Java, game programming, etc. Although I can’t say I have read any, I’m sure some people in here can give you several titles you could get and read.



As far as programming goes, at first, like @tehflah said, start slow. Give yourself attainable goals. Baby steps. From there you can move on to other things, at your own pace. Eventually you’ll have an epiphany, then another. At that point things will fall into place by themselves.