I have zero experience in java or anything. Where can I start? I want to make a game for the Android system, and possibly the iOS.
Also thinking of switching majors into something related.
None.
Just start doing it, there is no "correct" path. However, I would recommend you start out by cloning old Atari games (e.g. Breakout, Pong, etc.) to get experience finishing stuff.
An artist's depiction of an Extended Unit Death
I'd start with a text-based game because you don't have any experience in programming, and graphical programming takes more work than reading console commands. For a text-based game, all you really need to know is println and nextLine, and then logical flow operators such as if, while, and for. You can rely on what you learned from SC1 triggering to control state.
For learning Java, Inferno is right: start anywhere. There are loads of sites for learning Java, like this:
http://www.javabeginner.com/Here's some basic code in Java (hopefully it compiles; I'm writing from memory):
// Define a class to hold your code
public class Program {
// The main method is where all Java applications start
public static void main(String[] args) {
// Create a new instance of your class
new Program();
}
// Variables
// Scanner is used to read user text input
private Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);
// Constructor; this is called when you say "new Program();"
public Program() {
// Print to the console
System.out.println("What's your name?");
// Store the user's response into a string variable
String name = scanner.nextLine();
// Concatenate the user's response to another string and print that out
System.out.println("Hello, " + name);
}
}
You'll want to use an IDE such as
Eclipse for writing your code, though you could very well just do it in notepad and use the command line to compile if you wish.
IntelliJ is also a great IDE and probably integrates better with Android development.
You've got a long way to go before you're actually making Android apps, though, because you'll have to learn Java and then learn the Android SDK. Once you get to that stage, though,
AndEngine looks like it does some of the heavy lifting for you.
Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jul 6 2013, 1:36 pm by Roy.
In Advanced Video Game Design, we used Unity 3D Pro w/ Android + iOS compilers. Models/objects, effects, textures, etc. are fairly simple to grasp once you've gotten the hang of it, but you'll have to learn at least one of the languages MonoDevelop supports to get any logical programming done. Using class time alone, I had an Asteroids knock-off done in about a week, but I had previous JavaScript experience.
None.