What path should I take?

[Zellpheo]

Hello,

Over the last few years I have been interested in the field of programming/game development and hope to someday pursue the path through collage and so on. I am 17 and going into my junior year at high school and lately I have started to work on programming/game development. After browsing through these forums and the internet I came up with the general idea that learning Python as my first language would be best and using it with pygame. So over the last few days I have been doing this and working hard and progressing slowly, but my main questions are these.

1. Should I continue down this path and stay steady?

2. Will these be applicable in the future, such as will I ever use these again?

3. Should I just choose a new system/path to follow that will benifit me more?

4. Any advice on things to do after this/or the new system I have choosen?

All comments/pointers are welcomed, My over all plan is to one day become a game programmer if that helps at all, Thanks in advance!

[Reedbeta]

It sounds like you're off to a good start. Keep going. Don't be discouraged because progress is slow; that's life unfortunately (it takes a long time to develop skill at anything).

Python skills will very likely be applicable in the future, as it's getting to be a pretty common language. Even if you don't use Python again, though, the general programming skills (understanding constructs like variables, functions, loops, and classes; being able to break down a problem into smaller, easily solvable parts; writing well-structured, well-commented code) will be applicable to almost any other language you choose to learn. Moreover, many of the general game programming concepts will also transfer to other games. So even if you never touch Python + PyGame again, this isn't time wasted - you're actually learning quite a lot of useful stuff.

[fireside]

Python is a very good starter language. You might want to look at Pyglet rather than Pygame as it doesn't require an outside library and it's a little more object oriented. The down side is that there aren't quite as many tutorials for it yet. Either way though, it's a very good starter language that can be used to write very quick programs. It's important to write a lot of small games, so look around for tutorials and then do clones on games on your own and finally make changes in your designs. Once you get a little more advanced study grid type games that use Astar path finding and AI. Write a lot of small games. The most common mistake I've seen people make is trying to write a large game right away. Some people mope around on large games for years and then finally give up.

[Zellpheo]

Ok thanks will do, I will stay to smaller projects as long as possible, and what do you mean an outside library and obect oriented? (Sorry noob question probabley.)
Thanks in advance!

[fireside]

An outside library is a library that has to be loaded into python before the game can be played. There are fancy ways of explaining object oriented, but mainly it is the use of the class construct, which uses inheritance to make it easy to modify a program. It lets you re-use a lot code and still be able to make modifications. You'll get into that as you do tutorials, etc.

I stumbled across this online beginning python book while I was surfing a while back which looks like a nice way to get started with simple games:
http://pythonbook.coffeeghost.net/, it's aimed at a young age, though. I haven't been checking out tutorials for a long time, but there are a lot of online books, etc on the net.

[Zellpheo]

OK thanks a ton, the book is working out well.

[alphadog]

See my fourth post here (http://www.devmaster.net/forums/showthread.php?t=13456&highlight=python+algorithms).

The Swaroop book is very practical. The online docs on the Python site are good too.

Python is a very good language to start with and to later apply in game development. But, for broader and deeper marketability, you should try branching out to C++ and C# once you've gone through the early steps in Python once. Basically, repeat 1-3 with a second language before moving into Phase II.

And, most importantly, have fun and don't get discouraged. We all suffer from "Coder's Block" at some point no matter how advanced your knowledge gets...