[10098]

While it's true that games don't necessarily have the same impact on people's lives as other, more "important" work, for me, making a game or studying how a game works is such a fun process that it's worth doing anyway.

I spent some time trying to make games in my high school years (NeHe's tutorials helped me a lot)and trying to understand how other games work (I remember the sense of achievement when I managed to switch textures in some crappy FPS game).

Today I deeply regret that I didn't put enough effort to study this field properly... I like my current gig, but I will always look at real game developers with a sense of envy.

[saraid216]

> games don't necessarily have the same impact on people's lives as other, more "important" work

This is honestly more for lack of trying than because it just doesn't. Some people are trying, but game development has the disadvantage of coming into its own after the ascent of capitalism and thus most people have been introduced to it as a cash cow rather than as an artistic medium.

[EvanKelly]

That's an interesting thought. How different would the interactive games landscape be if it was around during the renaissance. If game designers had sponsors that supported their lifestyle.

As I write this, I think this is the utopian vision of crowd sourcing. Creating a new class of patrons of the arts.

[otikik]

You just need some love. http://love2d.org

[voltagex_]

I don't think it's ever too late to start. I've dabbled in some XNA, but next on my list is to make an old school "scene-style" 2D scrolling demo.

[andrewb]

I've been playing around with MonoGame and it's not too bad. Considering Microsoft has stopped developing for XNA, it might be time to look into it.

I've been using a component based approach to building my game from scratch and it's been an excellent development experience. Too often I feel like I'm in the deep end and unsure if I'll sink or swim. So I try, sometimes an idea works, sometimes it fails but it's all fun.

It's all very beginner but I've started to blog what I've learned. http://andrewjamesbowen.wordpress.com/

Source code is available on GitHub too https://github.com/abowen/MonoGameOpenGL

[eropple]

I'd strongly recommend starting at a lower level than MonoGame. OpenGL isn't conceptually difficult (at least through vertex buffer objects) and encourages you to understand the actual process of what you're doing. I find it enlightening and it makes me better able to work in higher-level systems as well.

[nsxwolf]

After the 100 millionth time in my life of staring at a black screen and wondering where my triangle is, I switched to higher level frameworks and never looked back.

[CmonDev]

...or we could make actual games.

[girvo]

Depends on what your goal is.

When I was 11 years old, I was using GameMaker 3.5 (man I miss GML scripting, its what got me into programming in general) to build games, and get my ideas out. That was fun!

I'm 23 now, and am currently learning how to build games... this time, using C, SDL, and Lua embedded for scripting.

I also happen to have Unity3D installed on my computer, which I use for my actual game project, but I'm doing things the hard way and building my own engine and game on top of it as a learning process.

Just another perspective :)

[CmonDev]

The time to look at MonoGame will be when they implement the Content Pipeline. Otherwise it is not a replacement for XNA.