

If you ever want to move on to bigger more serious games then you can start looking in to directly working with opengl or directx to to build games and coding in c++ and stuff like that. But it'll get you going and you can learn the concepts. You might not completely understand all the core principles of a game because jMonkey just gives you so many assets (for instance built in physics system, built in input handling, built in FPS and 3rd person cameras, etc, etc).

If you know java you could easily hop in to something like jMonkey and quickly start making games. You'll end up making a lot of "clone" games (eg asteroids clone, tetris clone, mario clone) before you actually make anything interesting. That stuff is vital.Įdit: The reason this post is so excellent is that it tells you exactly what to work with, what it is supposed to teach you, and it gives you key phrases to search for so it is possible to go from here by just using google.ĭon't feel like you have to start from the "bottom" and learn the very basics of creating games and working your way up. Raycasting renderer įPS Įdit: Realized I left out pathfinding. Platformer game Ĭhess versus a computer opponent Perlin noise algorithm īrainfuck interpreter Text-based adventure Ĭonway's Game of Life

My main thing is game programming, so that's going to show through a lot. Once you're to the bottom I'd consider you pretty skilled. I'd recommend starting at the top of the list and moving down, filling in anything you haven't done already. This is a list of projects roughly ordered by difficulty. Hire me! And holy cow, reddit gold? Thank you!) (After the overwhelmingly positive response to this I feel compelled to point out that I am, in fact, looking to start doing programming professionally sometime soon. I'm a hobbyist rather than a professional but I've been at it long enough that I feel qualified to offer some advice. User _Madk made this excellent post a little while back
