Hi, I have a few questions re getting into programming. It’s not for me so apologies for the possibly clueless nature of the questions. I have a soon to be 14 yr old wanting to explore game design and programming.
Is Unity a suitable starting point for a complete novice? While he is passionate about playing… It would literally be first step into this side of things beyond some very basic school stuff.
Will a Pavillion G6-1326 sa work as a starting piece of hardware? It’s 1.8 GHz AMD Dual-Core E2-3000M APU with Radeon HD 6380G Discreet-Class Graphics with 3gb ddr3. Even if it’s only suitable for a certain level of learning and would require a more powerful system if he is to make full use of the engine… I just want to know he can prove its more than a passing whim before thinking about spending on better hardware.
As a learning tool, is there any justification to the paid version early on?
Absolutely not. Download the free version and get him started here: http://unity3d.com/learn
Since it’s free you can simply try out yourself if the Computer is capable enough. Starting with 2D games makes sense for many reasons, and those usually aren’t too demanding on the hardware.
If programming is for him, 14 is a good age to get started in my humble opinion. Unity and C# is a good choice too.
Unity is probably a good place to start. Particuarly if he has a strong aptitude for math/science.
Your PC sounds fine. Just download Unity personal and see what happens. The editor itself is pretty light weight. Performance is more dictated by the game being made then the editor itself.
If Unity is to heavy, switch to a lighter system like GameMaker. But try Unity first.
I’d suggest picking up The Yellow Book by (iirc) Rob Miles, which is free, and learning programming using that. It’s not Unity specific, but programming isn’t a Unity specific skill anyway. In addition I’d also start working through the Unity Learn tutorials to learn Unity in particular.
At some point, start work on a simple game. A Space Invaders clone or something. After that, start making things that are iteratively bigger or more complex.
I just so happen to have a job teaching middle school kids how to program… A little younger than him, yes, but I think I might have some useful tips.
What’s his background with technical skills? Does he have strong math and/or language skills? It’s not essential if he wants to get into programming, if he likes it, he’ll learn all the supporting information and thinking skills as he learns to program, but it does give an indication on how deep he can start.
Unity happens to have a nice set of introductory videos to basic coding. Not the most in depth on the technical side, but it should be enough to work with the engine (I would suggest he go through the videos on the editor itself before doing the coding part). There are also a bunch of complete project tutorials that go through the whole process of making a simple game.
Pair it with a good C# book (see @angrypenguin above) and he should be set… If he’s got good self motivation.
Programming is a field where you will run into problems frequently that don’t have immediately obvious solutions. Learning how to solve problems is more important than the actual technical skills in many cases, and things can be very trial and error at first… and basically the trial error never ends because its a creative skill and people are still figuring out what we can do with programming.
The good news is websites like Stack Overflow and Unity’s own Answers page have a lot of great tools for getting help from the community on programming questions, many of which have already been answered. The key is searching the right questions.
Hope that helps!
EDIT: One other thing I’d like to point out on motivation. I might just be a complete nerd, but just immersing myself in the tools, and seeing what people have done with them, has been a way for me to stay motivated (not that I’m one to talk, I don’t get a lot of personal projects done, what with college and all). I also find that watching videos on game design to be very motivating (such as the Extra Credits series).
He is academically strong in general and videos and blogs should be right up his street too.
Only potential issue is that he is a 14yr old with all the distractions etc that come win it. I’ll set him up with Unity and get him something like The Yellow Book as suggested.
Up to him where he goes with it all but I wanted to check for a starting point that would be helpful to his interest rather than dissuade him. Thanks again.
