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I am B.Tech. student and have done some CS courses and have some knowledge about programming languages. I know C++ (I've made some small desktop GUI programs with Qt and in Visual Studio), Java (also have done some GUI in Swing) and Python.

Now I want to learn to make 2D and 3D games which can be played on the desktop and also on the web. So which language will be best for this? I have played some web games and they all need Flash player to run, so are they all made in AS or some other Flash language?

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  1. Read what industry veteran Tom Sloper has written about a career in games design and development. It is the ultimate source for getting started.

  2. Start by making at least one 2D game, so you know what the game development process entails.

    1. If you are more used to Java, ActionScript 3.0 is a good language to learn in; it is forgiving; and deployment is very, very easy and deploys to nearly all platforms through desktop/mobile/web. You do not need to buy Flash Professional or Flash Builder, you can get a free IDE like FlashDevelop instead. The difference between Flash Pro and the others is that Flash Pro is a bit like Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign in that it you can use it to draw vector graphics you'll use in your game. But this is not actually necessary. And yes, ActionScript is the central language supporting Flash development.

    2. PyGame is another option, if you are more used to Python. I have used Python briefly, but I find it to be a sensible and concise language that does not restrict the user unnecessarily. I don't doubt that writing games in Python is good fun, but I would suggest to you that there is without a doubt more reference material for Flash/ActionScript. Python is generally for desktop apps.

  4. During development, when you get stuck, use this (this!) Q&A site for good questions that you can't answer through googling, or one of the forums I list below.

  5. (Optional, really) Get yourself some good books on game development, preferably specific to the language you choose. Amazon ratings are your friend.

General links:

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From your explanation it sounds more like you want to learn about Game Development, not Game Design. If you are interested in Game Development, take Nick's advice. I've done a whole lot of Flash Game development in the past, and all the resources he listed are top notch.

Also, you should definitely check out the following...

mochimedai.com: they provide lots of great resources and tools for Flash game developers, I used to hang out on their forums back in the day when I was creating my first indie Flash game.

BUT, If you want to learn actual Game Design, which is a whole different concept from game development, you should check out this blog

http://gamedesignconcepts.wordpress.com/

It's by a guy named Ian Schreiber, who co-authors a book called "Challenges for Game Designers". He wrote a blog in which he taught a free game design course over the net, the only requirement is that you had to buy his book, which he uses through the course, which is about 20 bucks on Amazon.

I started the course and then realize that Game Design was not for me, I was far more interested in game development. But if you want to dable into Game Design I definitely recommend it. The course was designed for total beginners, so you need no prior experience in game design to take it.

One of the great things about the course is that you don't do any programing, it's all paper prototypes, which really allows you to focus on the design. Of course this doesn't stop you from taking one of the games you designed during the course and turning into an actually playable prototype/game.

Good luck!

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