Fun Programming for Beginners

Take a game in which you instruct something or someone, but only before the game actually starts. That's where the programming comes in. In these games you will be required to make a script in which you outline how your "character" reacts to different events. I put character in quotations because more often than not, the "character" that your is under your control, or your instructions, is a robot.

In the context of robots, and specifically the ones in Robot Battle (I will talk about Robot Battle after), you can program how the robot moves, uses its radar, evades missiles, avoids walls and enemies, tracks enemies and much more. Often I liked to pit my robots against each other in a "survival of the fittest" contest before trying them against robots that other users have made, and have put up for free download on the official site. If you make a robot that you think is truly the best, you can also upload it to the site, although I'm not sure how active the community is anymore :( . The game, which you may have already guessed, is Robot Battle, and you can download it at http://www.robotbattle.com where you can get help(maybe, again not sure about community activity), and find tutorials on the specific programming language for RB, Robot Scripting Language (RSL).

I know, you might be saying, "I don't know how to program, so how can I possibly make a GAME?!?!". My answer to you is, "I was lying, you cant". Just kidding, you can!! All it takes is a little creativity, a little research on the methods used to program and boom!, you got yourself a nice little game. Don't be ridiculous though, your not going to be making the next biggest PC game to hit the shelves of your local Walmart though, at least not yet.

There is some good news for you in the fact that, once you learn the basics of the software that I will recommend to you, you can learn the hardcore, line by line coding at your own pace. "Wait a second," you say. "Isn't writing lines of text the only way to program?". The answer is "No". The software that I am recommending to you goes by the name of Game Maker (makes sense right?) and it utilizes a drag and drop programming interface in which you can move around and use programming blocks that contain some basic pre-written code within. After entering some variables here and there and setting up some flow to your code you could have a decent little game. Whenever you feel like you are ready to start typing some code, you can use script blocks in which you can write your own code, which can add more functionality and power to the code of your game.

As a side note, the game uses a language called Game Maker Language (GML) which is exclusive to this software. If you are interested in letting others rate/play your game, you can submit it to YoYo Games, the official site for game maker, or alternatively play some games from other users or read some of YoYo Games' many well written tutorials or wiki pages on the GML language. The site is always being updated and their is a very active community their as well. http://www.yoyogames.com/ is a link to the site, go there you must...

OK now, don't go rushing to find your old Lego sets in the attic because this Lego is a little different and well, a little more expensive. At over $300 a pop, a robotic Lego Mindstorms set is probably one of the more expensive ways to learn programming, but it sure is neat/cool/fun/"insert adjective here"!

If and when you get one of these sets, the programming method you will use right off the start will be through software with a sort of block type graphical interface similar in a way to Game Maker (see #2), but, in my opinion, much more limiting. The software provided will satisfy your programing needs for a little while, but eventually you will feel like you need more power, and, something that lets you read and change your code better. At this point I recommend you pick up ROBOTC from http://www.robotc.net/. Unfortunately after the trial, you will have to shell out a little for the Robot C language software, but it is well worth it in my opinion.

Once you start programming some cool little robots, you can make some videos of them and put them on Youtube, like I did, or even go and buy another set so you can link them up with their built in bluetooth capabilities, because they are so dang cool! (Also what i did)

This involves some just pure, written code with, most commonly, output in a console window. Now this way may seem boring to some but it doesn't have to be.

For beginners looking for a more serious entry into programming, this may a good method for them. There still are decisions to be made, however, regarding the language you want to use. If using a basic easier language to begin with is important to you than I recommend downloading a copy of Qbasic. A quick Google search should give you a link to download the compiler. If you want to learn a language that you can carry with you in the future and that has more use, I recommend learning C++. Visual C++ from Microsoft is what I'll recommend downloading to program with. If you want to make a real looking, form based application right away, I suggest Visual Basic, also from Microsoft. Python is another language, but I haven't really used it so I cannot give any recommendations regarding it.

Regardless of what language you choose, their will be large amounts of documentation on it all around the internet, so finding tutorials and resources for learning the languages shouldn't be too difficult. A site that I will suggest for help and a good programming community is Dream in Code at http://www.dreamincode.net/ . Many books are also available on the different languages, so you will have many resources to help you develop your "coding" skills. Program on!