So, been thinking about this for a while now. How I would teach the new IDE, commands and how to code a game. I read a lot of board game rules and teach them to my friends.
So as I've said before I would be using a simple RPG as an example. If you cut down an RPG and make it super simple it will still cover almost all aspects of 2D game programming. Except physics. And structured the right way you can start simple and then build on it and make the course longer if needed. Going with a real project is so much more stimulating then covering separate topics and shows how to actually making a game. Which I think is the hardest part for new programmers to understand. How all these commands actually turn into a working game.
We will be starting with an editor. Which is way easier than creating an actual game and a huge timesaver. Almost every game would benefit from an editor. This covers all the basics like sprites, images, text, camera, input, files etc.
First lesson: Starting AppGameKit for the first time. Creating a new project. Describing the main.agc file. Going through what the initial code does and finally running it. With the suggested default code I gave to Paul, this would be the perfect start.
Second lesson: Every programmer needs to understand variables. We got the screen FPS so why not use that with integers, strings and floats. Print stuff to the screen. We can also get the mouse X and Y coordinates and print them. We will be needing them for the editor anyway.
Third lesson: Let's start structuring up this project. Create a new file and include it. Create your first type, that we will be using constantly throughout the project. We'll be going into screen resolution and setting things up for the way an editor works. This is different from how I would make most games.
Fourth lesson: Time for sprites, and also functions. We will make the basics for the UI. That can scale to any resolution in real time. Like if the user maximizes the window.
Fifth lesson: Creating a grid. We can now start moving the camera/screen and see the results. We will be using keyboard input for this. We can now talk screen and world coordinates. Using the mouse screen coordinates we can show the world tile being pointed at.
And then it goes on from there
Thoughts anyone? This is a crash course on how to make a game. Showing how easily it can be done in AppGameKit, when you know what you are doing.
