I’m trying to make a pocket pet game, like the evolution of all the little calculator screened toys in the 90’s and 00’s. I don’t want it to be the whale hunting, spyware riddled garbage that most phone games are. I’d rather like to release it on F-Droid instead of Google if I release it at all. I have all of it worked out on paper, from the random tables to the creature stats, to the combat mechanics, you can play it as a pen and paper if you wanted to. Problem is, I’m a pen and paper guy, and I’m having an awful time trying to learn anything about code. Where do I go to get help with this?
You’re absolutely right about the intimidation.
Is there maybe a guide or something that’s more a guide book on common things and less “learn this whole foreign language from scratch”?
There are tutorials that have you build a game to learn the basics and syntax and stuff. Oh, right, if you actually do use GameMaker avoid that drag&drop layout at all costs lol it’s not “easier”
But if you have it all written out already, now you just need to read the manual on whatever development platform you chose and figure out how to make the computer do what you have written. Like, if you want the title screen to have scrolling clouds and a bouncing logo for example, you’ll need to find out how to change the logo sprite’s Y coordinate and the clouds’ X coordinate using the documentation.
Tldr do one of those “my first game” tutorials on whatever platform you chose to get the feel of it.
No. Learning anything is hard. It is important to accept this. There is no special explanation or trick that gives a shortcut to learning.
When people say “learning to code isn’t hard” they are also correct, but they are speaking relatively. Learning to code isn’t hard as learning things go. Compared to playing piano, guitar, doing skateboard tricks, juggling, etc… it’s just practice and focus and reading and watching and practice and time.