Recommended Schools for Computer Programming with Games...

[oughtobe]

as the main focus... I've always wanted to learn how to program with C or C++, but I felt like it was hard to keep gaming in mind when you are learning... Does anyone on the AGD staff or any programmers that visit the site know any good schools or courses or books or anything to get started? Also if you know any good forums or sites that I could find information about this, I would greatly appreciate it... thank you...

[MusicallyInspired]

I started getting interested in this myself a couple years ago. I just got myself a couple C/C++ for Dummies books. May seem like a lame approach but it's really helped thus far. I'm still reading but honestly the bulk of what I've learned is from practice and asking questions to people who have experience. I wouldn't know about any schools or anything, though.

[oughtobe]

I started getting interested in this myself a couple years ago. I just got myself a couple C/C++ for Dummies books. May seem like a lame approach but it's really helped thus far. I'm still reading but honestly the bulk of what I've learned is from practice and asking questions to people who have experience. I wouldn't know about any schools or anything, though.

do you know what you would need to know how to script or program AGS? is it basically c or C++ modified for adventure games?

[MusicallyInspired]

It's definitely got a heavy dose of C/C++ in it, but it's quite a bit more simplified at the same time. It's not that hard to learn, though. It comes with a detailed help file that's helped me in the small AGS projects I've dabbled in. Basically, if you have a basic understanding of basic programming and have basic programming skills you can easily make a half decent AGS game........basically.

[oughtobe]

It's definitely got a heavy dose of C/C++ in it, but it's quite a bit more simplified at the same time. It's not that hard to learn, though. It comes with a detailed help file that's helped me in the small AGS projects I've dabbled in. Basically, if you have a basic understanding of basic programming and have basic programming skills you can easily make a half decent AGS game........basically.

I guess my question is, does anyone know any good books on C or C++? I have some basic understanding of scripting and programming, you tell it the answers so it can deal with the questions... That may be a little too simplified, but does anybody know any good books and really understanding C or C++? It helps me if I can visualize things and basic programming makes sense, if x = yes go to 100, type stuff, but then C and C++ seem to get really abstract, kinda like basic algebra and advanced abstract algebra...

[MusicallyInspired]

Like I said earlier, the C for Dummies/C++ for Dummies books are a good start.

[pass]

I agree. I learned C++ from "C++ for dummies", and I really liked the book. You don't have to know anything too advanced to start programming in AGS. There's the excellent help file that AGS has, which has all the functions you can use (with explanations and examples), and some other general explanations.
I'd suggest going through the beginner's tutorial in bigbluecup.com. It might be a little outdated (there was a major version release lately), so you might have some inconsistencies, but I think it's nontheless a good starting point.

[cmrobinson]

Check gamasutra.com to get some info on schools and such, they also have some great articles on a wide variety of topics. As far as actual computer game schools ... I've heard things about The Guildhall at SMU