How To Start Coding A Game: Beginner Steps

To start coding a game, begin by choosing a game engine or programming language, then learn the basics of that tool and start with a simple project.

Ever dreamt of making your own game? It can seem daunting, but it’s absolutely achievable. Many people wonder how to start coding a game and it truly begins with a single step.

Choosing the right tools for development is vital. Consider engines like Unity or Godot, or languages such as Python with Pygame. These platforms make the coding process more manageable.

Once you have your tool set, focus on tutorials, and build from there. Start with something basic like a simple 2D platformer, or a text-based adventure. You’ll learn along the way, one step at a time.

How to Start Coding a Game

So, you want to make your own video game? That’s awesome! It might seem like a giant task, but it’s totally doable if you break it down into smaller steps. Think of it like building with LEGOs – you start with small pieces and put them together to make something amazing. This guide will help you get started on your game-making journey, focusing on the coding side of things.

Choosing Your First Game Idea

Before you even write a single line of code, you need a game idea! Don’t aim for the next Grand Theft Auto right away. Instead, start small. Think about games you enjoy playing. What makes them fun? What are the basic mechanics? Here are some simple game ideas perfect for beginners:

A simple platformer: Think of a character jumping over obstacles. You can start with just moving left and right and jumping.
A top-down maze game: A character navigates through a maze. This teaches basic movement and collision.
A simple puzzle game: Matching colors or shapes. This can help you with logic and user interface.
A pong-style game: Two paddles hitting a ball. It’s a classic for a reason – it’s simple yet fun.
Text-based adventure game: Use text to describe a scene, and players type in actions. This is a great way to learn game logic without needing graphics right away.

The key is to pick something that feels manageable. Don’t worry about making the most original or complex game to begin. Focus on learning the fundamentals, and you can always build bigger projects later!

Picking a Game Engine or Programming Language

Now that you have your awesome game idea, it’s time to pick the tools for the job. Think of this like choosing between different LEGO sets. Some tools are easier for beginners, while others are better for more complex games. Here are some popular options:

Game Engines

A game engine is like a pre-built toolkit that has everything you need to make a game. They usually handle a lot of the technical stuff, making it easier to focus on game logic and design. Here are some good ones for beginners:

Scratch: This is a visual programming language, meaning you drag and drop blocks of code instead of typing. It’s perfect for kids and people new to coding. It is totally free and very easy to learn.
GameMaker Studio 2: This engine uses its own language called GML, but it’s designed to be easy to learn and you can also use visual drag and drop interface. It is great for 2D games and indie developers. It comes with a free trial, but for use you need to purchase a license
Unity: Unity is very popular because it can handle both 2D and 3D games. It uses C# programming language. It has a free personal license and can be used for making complex and beautiful games.
Godot Engine: It is another great open source game engine, and the best thing about it is that is totally free, and you can create both 2D and 3D games using it. It uses its own script language called GDScript.

Programming Languages

If you want more control over your game, or you want to create something a bit more complex, you might want to learn a programming language directly. This gives you deeper understanding and can be more rewarding, but it will be a bit tougher at first. Here are a couple good choices:

Python: Python is popular for its easy to read code. You can use libraries like Pygame to make games with it. It is great starting place if you are serious about coding games.
C#: It is very popular language that is used by the Unity game engine and many other applications. It is a little more complex than Python, but its worth learning it.
JavaScript: You can make games right in your web browser using JavaScript and HTML5. There are also frameworks and libraries like Phaser that make game development easier.
Lua: Lua is easy to learn and is often used with game engines like Roblox Studio.

Which One Should You Pick?

For total beginners, I highly recommend starting with Scratch. It will give you a good feel for how games are put together without having to worry about complex coding. If you feel confident to try a more complex game making engine, then you can try GameMaker, Unity or Godot. If you want to dive straight into code, give Python or Lua a try. Don’t be afraid to experiment and see what feels best for you. Each one will teach you important skills!

Setting Up Your Development Environment

Okay, you’ve got your game idea and your chosen tools. Now, it’s time to get everything set up! This is like organizing your workspace before you start building.

If You’re Using Scratch

Great news – you don’t need to install anything! Just go to the Scratch website and create a free account. You can start building your game right there in your web browser.

If You’re Using a Game Engine Like Unity or Godot

Download the Engine: Go to the official website for the game engine and download it. Make sure you have enough space on your computer.
Installation: Follow the instructions to install the engine on your computer.
Opening the Editor: The game engine is called the editor. Once installed, open the editor.
Creating a New Project: When you open the editor, create a new project. Choose if you want a 2D or 3D project. Give a proper name to your project and click on ‘Create’.

If You’re Using a Programming Language

Install Python or any language of your choosing: Go to the official website of the language you chose and download it. Follow the instructions to install it on your computer.
Install a Code Editor: Code editors are like fancy word processors for writing code. Popular choices include VS Code, Atom, or Sublime Text. Choose one and download it.
Install any libraries: If you choose to use libraries like Pygame (in the case of Python), you’ll need to install those too. Follow the installation instructions from official website of those libraries.

Once you install and setup your programming environment, you are good to go to write your first line of code!

Understanding Basic Game Development Concepts

Before you dive too deep into coding, let’s cover some basic concepts you’ll see in almost every game. Think of these as the basic building blocks of game logic:

Game Loop

The game loop is like the heartbeat of your game. It’s a continuous cycle that keeps everything running. It typically does three things repeatedly:

Input: Checks for player actions like keyboard presses or mouse clicks.
Update: Moves characters, checks for collisions, and updates game elements.
Render: Draws everything on the screen.

Every game engine or programming framework has a game loop built in so you don’t need to make one from scratch.

Sprites

Sprites are the images you see on the screen that make up the characters and other objects in your game. You can use pictures you draw, or find pre-made images. You can also create your own sprites if you know how to use softwares like photoshop or gimp. Many games use sprite sheets where many sprites are stored in one image.

Game Objects

Game objects are the basic items that will be part of game. For example the player, enemy, props, items and others are game objects. Every sprite will be a game object. Game objects can have properties like name, type, position, velocity, and also any custom variables that you want to create. It is good practice to make every element in the game as game object.

Positions and Coordinates

Every game object has a position. Positions are expressed as x and y co-ordinates in 2D games. In 3D games, they have a z coordinate as well. For example, x=0, y=0 would be the top left corner of the game screen and x=400, y=300 might be in the center of the game screen, in most cases. It’s important to remember that game positions are normally measured in pixels, the tiny squares that make up your screen.

Collisions

Collisions happen when two game objects touch. For example, when your player touches an enemy, that’s a collision. You can then write code to handle what happens when a collision occurs. For example, the player might lose a health or the enemy might get destroyed.

Variables

Variables are like containers that store information. You can use variables to keep track of things like the player’s score, health, or position. There are different types of variables, such as numbers, text strings, true/false values, and more. Variables are essential for game logic.

Functions

Functions are small blocks of code that do a specific task. For example, you could have a function to handle player movement or to create an enemy. Functions help you write your code in organized way, and you can reuse them in multiple places.

Writing Your First Lines of Code

Now we are getting to the fun part – actually coding! Let’s start with something simple, like moving a sprite around the screen.

Example Using Scratch

In Scratch, you can drag and drop blocks to make your character move. Here’s what some simple code might look like:

When green flag clicked: This starts the code when the player clicks the green flag.
Forever loop: This makes the following code run continuously.
If [left arrow key pressed]: Check if the player has pressed the left arrow key.
Change x by -10: Move the sprite to the left by 10 pixels.
If [right arrow key pressed]: Check if the player has pressed the right arrow key.
Change x by 10: Move the sprite to the right by 10 pixels.

That is all it take to make an object move!

Example Using Python with Pygame

If you’re using Python with Pygame, you would need to do following: first initialize the library, create display window, load your sprite image, setup your variables. and write a game loop, where you take user input, update the sprite position and render the image on the window screen, Here’s a very basic example:


import pygame

pygame.init()

screen = pygame.display.set_mode((600, 400))
pygame.display.set_caption("My First Game")
player_image = pygame.image.load("player.png") # Load your sprite image

player_x = 50
player_y = 100
player_speed = 5

running = True
while running:
   for event in pygame.event.get():
      if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
         running = False
   keys = pygame.key.get_pressed()
   if keys[pygame.K_LEFT]:
      player_x -= player_speed
   if keys[pygame.K_RIGHT]:
      player_x += player_speed
   screen.fill((0, 0, 0)) # Fill screen with black
   screen.blit(player_image, (player_x, player_y))
   pygame.display.flip()
pygame.quit()

This simple code does not have boundary checking so the player can leave the screen and go to infinite, but this example gives you the basic of making your player move on screen using python and pygame library. For boundary check, you will need to do a check based on x coordinate whether the position is within boundary or not.

Breaking Down the Code

pygame.init(): Sets up Pygame to work.
pygame.display.set_mode((600, 400)): Creates a window that’s 600 pixels wide and 400 pixels tall.
player_image = pygame.image.load(“player.png”): Loads the player’s image, remember that you need to put your sprite image in the same folder where your python file is located.
player_x = 50, player_y = 100: Sets the starting position of the player.
while running:: Starts the game loop.
for event in pygame.event.get():: Checks for events, like the player closing the window.
keys = pygame.key.get_pressed(): Gets the status of all the keys.
if keys[pygame.K_LEFT]:: Checks if the left arrow key is pressed, and moves the player to the left.
screen.fill((0, 0, 0)): Fills the screen with black color every frame
screen.blit(player_image, (player_x, player_y)): Draws the player image on screen with updated position.
pygame.display.flip(): Updates the screen to show the player at new position.

Don’t worry if you don’t understand all the code right away. The point is to start playing around and seeing how it works.

Adding Game Logic

Once you can move a sprite, it’s time to add some game logic. This is where you make your game interactive and fun. Here are some things you might add:

Basic Player Mechanics

Jumping: This requires changing the player’s vertical position. You can add a speed variable to control how high your player jumps.
Shooting: You can make a projectile (a bullet or other object) come out of your player and move across the screen. This needs another sprite, and a logic to update it.
Moving Platforms: You can also make platforms that move up and down or left and right and your player can move over it.

Simple Enemy AI

Simple movement: Make the enemy move back and forth.
Following the player: Make the enemy follow the player when the player is close.

Game World

Backgrounds: Add an image to make your game look beautiful.
Level Design: Create maps that players can explore. You can draw different patterns in your map.
Scrolling: When player moves, make the camera view move so your world looks infinite.

Scoring and Game Over

Tracking score: Add a variable to keep track of the player’s score and show it on screen.
Game over conditions: Set conditions when the game should end, like player health reach zero or player falls off the map.

Testing and Iteration

Testing is crucial part of game development. As you add more and more features, you’ll want to playtest your game often. Look for things that don’t work right, or that are not fun. Change things as needed. Keep repeating this process, it’s called iteration, until you are happy with your game. Here’s what you can do:

Play Your Game Frequently: As you keep building the game, play your game to see if anything wrong happens.
Ask others to playtest: After you have added enough content, ask your family or friends to playtest your game. Ask them for honest feedback and make changes based on what they said.
Don’t be afraid to change things: If something doesn’t work the way you want it, change it. Its part of game development process.

Keep Learning

Game development is a continuous learning process. There are always new skills to learn and new things to build. Here are a few ways to continue learning:

Online Tutorials: There are tons of tutorials available online for your chosen game engine or language. YouTube, Udemy, and Coursera are excellent platforms for learning.
Game Jams: Try participating in game jams where you have a short time to make a game based on a theme. This will teach you a lot!
Online Communities: Join online forums and communities to get help and advice from other developers.
Read official documentation: Official documentations are very valuable in solving issues that you might have. Read official docs of your game engine, library or programming language.

Starting to code a game might seem overwhelming, but remember to take it one step at a time. Break down your game into small tasks, keep it simple, experiment and don’t be afraid to ask questions. The most important thing is to have fun and be creative. Happy coding!

How to make YOUR dream game with no experience

Final Thoughts

Start with a simple game idea and choose an appropriate engine or framework. Begin by learning the basics of your chosen tool’s language. Focus on creating a minimal, playable version, even if it is just a simple mechanic.

Break down the game into smaller, manageable tasks. Add functionality step by step, testing frequently. Don’t be afraid to experiment and iterate.

This approach makes learning how to start coding a game less daunting. Practice consistently and you’ll build coding skills over time.