Over the last couple of weeks I have circled back to one of my —always in the back of my mind— interests, namely game development. What makes game development so appealing, at least to me, is the being in total control of a world and its inhabitants and the challenge of bringing it all cohesively together.

I am also thinking of creating an online course for people who want to learn how to program but at the same time want the experience to be a fun one. Creating, from scratch, a basic —but, fully functioning— game is not only fun, it also has a very tight feedback loop so you can almost immediately see the results of whatever you are currently doing which is critical for a good learning experience. What’s more, the implementation of even a basic game would provide you with sufficient insight and knowledge to start you off on your programming journey. Of that, I can assure you.

I cannot truly call a game my own if I haven’t also designed the game’s artwork. So, the process of creating the artwork could be a part of the course, or even a separate course, for those that are also interested in that aspect of game development. To keep things manageable —and achievable— the course would focus on 2D game development as opposed to building a 3D game. 3D game development is, at least, an order of magnitude more difficult and time-consuming than 2D game development and I can imagine that it would be asking a lot from a person to learn how to program by implementing a 3D game.

Anyway, if anyone is interested in a course for learning how to program by implementing a small —but, fun and attractive— 2D game, including designing the artwork… well, just let me know by sending me (@brettkromkamp@indieweb.social) a message on Mastodon.

Have fun! Learn how to program.