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Newcomers AppGameKit Corner / need help with learning agk coding!

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rcandyman24
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Joined: 15th May 2023
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Posted: 15th May 2023 22:10
hi all,

I have tried to learn appgamkit coding and don't seem to get the main concepts.

iv tried the main agk tutorials and still struggle.

I think what would be helpful is pointing out what main coding structures would be most useful and easy to make my first game.

Implementation of the coding iv learned has been difficult.

any advice would be great!.
Virtual Nomad
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18
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Joined: 14th Dec 2005
Location: SF Bay Area, USA
Posted: 16th May 2023 00:31 Edited at: 16th May 2023 01:16
hi, rcandyman24, and welcome.

a few years back, TGC sought some basic game templates written by the community with the intended audience being total newcomers such as yourself.

those became part of Games Pack 1 which, along with Games Pack 2, became Free for all owners of AppGameKit.

inside Games Pack 1, you'll see a "games" folder which houses most (if not all) of the community-made templates, all of which contain commented code where the authors explain what they are doing and why (to varying degrees of effectiveness).

if you don't yet have the Games pack(s), i suggest that you grab them and install, then find ".../App Game Kit 2\DLC\Games Pack 1\games"

then, as a newcomer, i suggest looking at a couple of the simplest, best-commented game templates like Cube and Angry_Blocks which should prove insightful to you.

in general, and i'm no teacher, but the simple games that i code consist of creating a world to play in, setting some goal with hazards or conditions that present a challenge (which is theoretically FUN ), and player input.

for me, a lot of my coding enjoyment comes from implementing some (single) functionality that i haven't explored before while one facet of AppGameKit that i've come to embrace is AGK's implementation of Box2D physics which you'll find in many of my games (the aforementioned Angry_Blocks uses this).

so, for example, i wanted to make a Pachinko type game which is relatively simple under the hood; i dressed iit up a little and made it somewhat fun and shared it as Ranch Rush.

in brief, i created a world which is distributed pins or pegs for the animals to bounce off of and spaces at the bottom that i want the player to try and reach. then:

1) drop a random animal wherever the player is currently pointing to (at the top), every 2 seconds.
2) check if an animal reaches a pen at the bottom and add score appropriately.
3) rinse and repeat in a loop until the 20 second timer is up.

the rest is "dressing it up" and tying to make it more fun. that game was created during a Game Jam which received some public input on how to make it better. with that, i added a couple of different features as afterthoughts that were received well enough.

this is basically how i approach whatever i do with AppGameKit in a nutshell and i hope that it helps.

the rest of my enjoyment comes from sharing what i piece together which, after you find some success in achieving your early coding goals, i hope that you do
Game_Code_here
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Joined: 2nd Jun 2020
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Posted: 16th May 2023 06:33 Edited at: 16th May 2023 06:36
Here is the first of many good tuts, all teaching the code with examples.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KRazhSI-SA&list=PLlLxfPB9MrBtN8vFOZIUhotV9cs3VCV5Z
Virtual Nomad
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Joined: 14th Dec 2005
Location: SF Bay Area, USA
Posted: 22nd May 2023 02:29 Edited at: 22nd May 2023 02:32
rcandyman24 wrote: "hi everyone!

i recently posted for help on agk
i think i need to be more specific what i need help with

i think it would be very helpfull to point out parts of the language like arrays , types etc and how i can learn to use them.

im not sure how to utilize the language

i understand variables, if statemtns etc

i find some tutrials go too fast for me.

what should i learn first and than what should i try buildings?

i should also add im wondering what main logic you coders use alot so i know kinda the pattern"

that's your last 2 posts that should have been made in this single thread while it's all starting to smell like bot.

in the off chance that it's not, refer to the Guides which are basic tutorials that can't "go too fast".

beyond the most-basics, and from those, functions (specifically User Defined Functions) and Arrays are necessary for more than the simplest programs, IMHO. skip Shaders, Plugins, Networking/Multiplayer stuff for now.

now, since you advise that you "understand variables, if statemtns etc", show us what you CAN do so far so we know where to start, otherwise (and dispel said odor).

and, if my nose is wrong, i apologize but i see a lot of bot posts and they are very similar.
chikega
FPSC Reloaded TGC Backer
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Joined: 28th Jan 2021
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Posted: 27th May 2023 23:50 Edited at: 27th May 2023 23:52
Besides what has already been mentioned above, as a beginner, I've found the Hands On AppGameKit Studio Books by Alistair Stewart to be invaluable.
Pfaber1
6
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Joined: 7th Jan 2018
Location: England
Posted: 29th May 2023 10:39
I think in your shoes I would think of the simplest 2d game I can and code it . This game might take a while to make . Use the inbuilt documentation which is very useful. If you have any specific questions then fire away.
Pfaber1
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Joined: 7th Jan 2018
Location: England
Posted: 1st Jun 2023 20:51
I never owned the hands on books and have done ok with the documentation built into Studio and asked questions on the forums. But I would still like to read them and maybe one day I'll get them. Gonna see if there are any steam keys available.

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