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Gamedev, Where should I start?

Mj Tapiru on September 03, 2019

Hi! I was hoping to get started on Game Development. I'm currently a web developer and is decent in javascript. I've tried Unity before ...
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Claudio Davi

I'm not a web developer by any means, my javascript is non existent, so I can't really help you there. But I have formally studied game development and currently am going through all these resources myself.

Feel free to message me if you get stuck somewhere (that is not related to javascript).

If you are into the coding part of game development I can't recommend this book enough:

gameprogrammingpatterns.com/

If you like game design, mechanics you could try some channels:

The Game Maker Toolkit
It goes mostly about how to convey the feeling of the game to the player

GDQUEST
Although it is focused on open source tools and engines like Godot, there's a lot a valuable material there about art and programming.

Brakeys
This one i think is great, but he talks a lot about unity and is mostly focused on that. Lots of valuable content there too.

I believe Extra Credits has some old game development playlists

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jhynzar profile image
Mj Tapiru

THOSE ARE SOME GOOD RESOURCES YOU HAVE THERE.

Thanks a lot! I'm sure to reach for your help if ever I got stuck. ^

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Arnaud Morisset

Hello. 👋

I wrote an article which lists some frameworks for game development with Javascript: dev.to/arnaudmorisset/an-overview-...

PhaserJS is a good choice if you're already a web developer, start by learning fundamentals and sharp your skills in GameDev with it. You still can move to Unity or whatever later if needed.

I also gave to following advice to another web developer who wanted to learn game development: dev.to/arnaudmorisset/comment/9naa

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Mj Tapiru

Thanks for the advice! I really appreciate it a lot! ^

I'll start practicing coding on PhaserJS.

And that is a great article you wrote there. I'm looking forward to more well written posts from you in the future! :)

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Antonio Radovcic

The browser and canvas-api are already a pretty good framework for game-dev. If you‘re more about learning then I‘d suggest going without a library first. Those libraries always come with a huge overhead. If you want to do a puzzle game for example, chances are that you don‘t need all the webgl and performance-tweaks. Plus you can transfer the knowledge more easily to other languages and frameworks like Löve2D or Pico8.

If you‘re more about shipping, by all means use Phaser or Unity or Construct3.

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Mj Tapiru

OHHH. Thanks for the suggestion! In light of that, I'll try the game development tutorial of MDN on making a 2D Breakout game!

Thanks!

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Antonio Radovcic

I forgot, if you want to focus on pure game-design, without having to mind the code, you should try store.steampowered.com/app/929860/... from Google.

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Matthias Wurm

Hello there!
I have to admit that I am not that experienced in game development with web technologies but you might want to have a look at three.js as well if you have a 3D game in mind (threejs.org/).

Other than that it really depends on what kind of game you are making. Take a card game for example or a 2D platformer - both of these games could be made with some vanilla javascript as well.

Hope I could help you a bit. :)

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jhynzar profile image
Mj Tapiru

It's not just by a bit, it makes ALL THE DIFFERENCE.

THANKS! ^

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Matthias Wurm

You're welcome! :)

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Rafael Ahrons

Youtube channels can help you!!!
Unity 2 Player Game Tutorial #1 - Setting Up The Game
This tutorial is amazing, I've just watched and learned a lot of stufs.

An Overview of the Javascript GameDev Ecosystem
Just learn game dev with the leaguage you know, search for frameworks to do it with what you know and let's go!!
This article explan it very well.

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Mj Tapiru

OHHHHHHH I'll try that video on the weekends! Thanks! Do you have any other recommended channels? I'd love to check it out. ^

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artydev

Hello,
You could start creating simple games.
Like the one I coded for my little girl
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