Because I don’t have enough projects on the go I’ve decided to try to learn the basics of how to code a game. I think most programmers (and computer nerds?) have at some point said that they want to make games. It’s really kind of universal, and for most of us they’re the first thing we ever did with a computer (or a console, I guess).

I’m not going to be challenging Mojang or Bethesda — heck given my track record (and never-ending wake of abandoned projects) I probably won’t even finish a game. But what I will get is a better understanding of how games work. Ultimately, it’s the learning that I want.

Because I’m not a complete masochist I’m not going to be starting from some blank C++ file and build everything from scratch. I’m going to use a game engine called Godot that handles the low level details and that just allows me to focus on the game itself.

I’ve also found a YouTube tutorial series that takes a ‘start from the basics’ approach to building a game using the Godot engine and also provides a set of graphics and sound files so that the tutorial can focus purely on the implementation of the game and all the necessary coding.

In the first few lessons I’ve managed to build the base “world” of the game (a grassy field) with some bushes. I’ve also completed the work for basic collision mechanics, animation of the character walking through the world, and how to tie that to control inputs to make the character wander and explore the tiny world.

If you’ve wanted to learn how to code a game, or ever wondered about what it entails even at a basic level I encourage you to check out Godot, and the YouTube tutorial series by Heartbeast. Or even keep an eye out for more posts in this series.