I’m able to do the “artistic” part of game-development; character designing/modeling, music, environment modeling, etc.
However, I don’t have experience in programming. I don’t know what language should I learn first.
Also, many people on the internet have said that you need to be good at math and physics before learning to code… well, I’m terrible with math.
Is it true? Why do I have to learn those before programming? How far can I go without understanding math and physics? And what kind of math do I have to be knowledgeable at?
It depends on what style of game you want to create. Depending on that, you can choose an already existing engine, where you can already get quite far without big coding knowledge.
I’ve done it the hard way when I was a student and created my own small 3d engine, for such a thing you’d need basic knowledge of Trigonometry, but you don’t need to be “good at math”, I’m not either
Start by learning the basics of game development through online courses or tutorials. Familiarize yourself with game engines like Unity or Unreal Engine, and explore fundamental concepts in programming and game design. Practice by creating small projects to build your skills gradually.
Wow, that’s amazing enough. I heard that people can focus on single tasks like nature (grass, tree etc.) optimisation and have lots of money working full-time only on this. If you have so much skills then I’m truly jealous now.
What language to learn is a pretty big topic. First language should be the one you see simple. Elixir language have best community and it’s core team is really focused on documentation. However unfortunately there are not many projects that provide a game engines or binding to it. I would say it’s still worth to learn it as a first language as you should have some general programming skills.
If you are good at design it does not matter as long as you use a rock stable and solid game engine. There are lots of them and as you can see on various videos often you have things like “motion editor” i.e. instead of writing every game’s physics you have a GUI tool where you can do lots of stuff with a “few clicks”.
What’s best? You would need to describe your features wish list and maybe somebody can give you a close match. In general I would say try it yourself. As long as there are GUI tools and lots of tutorials you can “give them a try” without learning specific programming language.
Let’s say that now you have tried few most popular game engines … Compare their features and point out what you kind of code you have to write in order to make your desired game to work. If you think that you can write a code needed for some game engine then it’s good for you. The more game engine passed your “test” the more choices you have.
If you worry that you would have a problem with any engine then … forget it and find a job! It may sound not seriously, but not every job would do. First create a simple webpage (even static one from generator would do) and put there samples from your “artists” side of game dev. Then search for a company who’s looking for let’s say a graphic designer and mention that you are willing to learn the programming part.
Smart companies would find that they can have more money is you would have more skills and therefore offer you a sponsored professional programming course. After it you would not only have general programming or basic game programming (using game engine), but they could also teach you how to actually write a game engine. I’m not in game dev branch, but it’s a common rule that companies prefer candidates that are willing to learn new things.
As you can see there are lots of possibilities and what you end up with should be your own choice. We can only give you some hints. Wish you a good luck!
