
Ask HN: How to get into game development - lilod
Hi,
I&#x27;m really interested in the game development, I myself is a front-end developer and have some basic c++ skill. I wonder where to start if I want to get into the game development. Should I start with some course or books?
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cbanek
I've worked at gaming companies, and although I never worked on the games
themselves (more the backend, console, etc), I would suggest just writing some
games yourself!

There's a lot of aspects to game development, including gameplay, art,
storyline, and many of those aren't technical. If you do get into a technical
problem that can't be easily solved, cheat! Many games have an addictive
mechanic that comes from a hard technical problem you want the player to
solve.

There are some frameworks for writing games, and you can get familiar with
whatever you think will solve the problem.

Also, just apply to a game company! They need web people too, and it's easier
to use your skills to get your foot in the door, then you can learn from the
inside.

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lilod
Yeah maybe I can apply to a game company directly

~~~
cbanek
At the very least, there's nothing to lose! Just getting an onsite interview
at some of these places is pretty amazing - you get to see all the concept art
and meet so many gamers. Everyone is always looking for good tech skill, so if
you've got it, they'll eat it up!

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HAL9OOO
I would check out [http://phaser.io/](http://phaser.io/)

You should be able to find a lot of tutorials on the phaser site itself as
well as [https://www.reddit.com/r/phaser/](https://www.reddit.com/r/phaser/)
or [https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/](https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/)

It's a HTML5 game engine and I've used it to create some really simple games,
game development is a lot of work/time however so see if you can get into it
as a hobby and you will know if the enjoyment to work ratio is worth it for
you.

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keviv
You can start building casual games in any 2D platform. Both
[https://love2d.org/](https://love2d.org/) and
[https://coronalabs.com/](https://coronalabs.com/) are free (Corona SDK has a
enterprise version as well) and both use Lua. There are decent tutorials on
the web and you can build a small casual game in a couple of days. There are
tons of HTML5 game libraries as well but with Love2d and Corona SDK, you can
build native games.

~~~
lilod
Will definitely check it out

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BillBohan
If you're interested in modern game development in 3D, you might want to look
at Unreal Engine 4.

[https://www.unrealengine.com/what-is-unreal-
engine-4](https://www.unrealengine.com/what-is-unreal-engine-4)

It is free to download, you can play with it all you want. You must agree to
pay royalties (5%) if you start making money with a game you develop.

