C# Help

I’m new to programming and want to start learning C#. I don’t really know where to begin, so i was looking for help.

Does anyone here know and good tutorials where i can start?

And should i solely learn C#? Or should I learn something like XNA as well for graphics (do I have to?)?

Couple of notes

*I have a MAC, so I don’t think XNA is an option, is there any language like XNA i should use (that’s possible with a mac)?

*I’m using MonoDevelop

It depends on your goals. Why do you want to lean to program? What are you planning to do with the knowledge once you have it?

Originally posted by starfiregold:

It depends on your goals. Why do you want to lean to program? What are you planning to do with the knowledge once you have it?

skynet.png

My goal is to make games, but when I’m more knowledgable I’m sure I have more ideas.

Initially I’d start with simpler 2D games set up like pokemon maybe with the tile scheme to it, then 3D games. maybe like a game similar to Legend of Zelda or paper mario or banjo-kazooie (or maybe even a fan game)

and obviously A LOT of simpler things when learning and such. I know it’s gonna take long

The mono equivalent to XNA is MonoGame:

http://monogame.codeplex.com/

It will run most places mono will.

MonoDevelop is alright, but to be brutally honest if you want the best development experience for .Net/Mono then you want windows and Visual Studio.

So is it worth it to learn c# on a Mac for my purposes? Or should I try a different language?

Visual Studio is absolutely not essential. I’ve written some pretty complicated stuff with SharpDevelop, and I think MonoDevelop is pretty much the same thing.

As with any language, you should find yourself a good book or online course that starts from the beginning, and don’t move on until you’re sure you’ve absorbed each module/chapter. The first few sections will be a bit dull but they’re fundamentals that you need to understand before you can create complex applications (which a game is).

I guess you are targeting Unity, if you’re posting about C# on this forum? If not, C# doesn’t provide a ‘game loop’ in the same way that Flash does (enter-frame events), so making a live-action game is a bit trickier. XNA is tied in with DirectX so there’s quite a lot to learn before you can make use of it – I’m not the one to ask about that as I’ve never used it (still should get around to learning that though!).

C# is quite a pure object oriented language, so you’ll need to make sure you’re familiar with OO principles. If you’re coming from AS3, that should be okay (and conversely if you’re not but choose to move into AS3 in future then it will help a lot).

i have no experience with AS3. i know its gonna take a lot to learn and it’ll take a long to even start thinking about a game. i’m not really targeting Unity actually. I know that’s kind of contradictory since I can’t post anything on this site. I don’t really want a book, but I’ve been looking for online lessons. I don’t really know what to look for in tutorials though. i found a couple that look good but idk…

http://www.freewebs.com/campelmxna/tutorials.htm
http://www.csharp-station.com/Tutorial.aspx

Even though one is free webs it looks good. any advice on these? are they good, or should i find another one?

or should i find another one?

Take a look at these tutorials. They do use XNA based code, but the C# and game design principles are the same. Having never made a non-text based game without XNA (C#), I don’t know what classes are provided by XNA over C# itself. Every resource helps.

By a text based game do u mean a console file? And CAN I make a non text based game with pure c# (if that’s what u Meant by text based)? And should I use something like xna that I can use on a Mac?

Is monogame the same as XNA? Or at least similar?

Originally posted by 0ii0:
http://www.csharp-station.com/Tutorial.aspx

Yes. I found those tutorials to be very good.

You should give Unity a try. There is a free version, and it will make learning C# a lot of fun.