Coding games tutorial: Learning programming through game development

[GeorgeW]

I've heard that learning programming through game development can be really effective because it's more engaging than traditional coding exercises. What are the best coding games tutorial resources for someone who wants to learn programming concepts while building actual games? I'm looking for tutorials that explain programming fundamentals in the context of game development, not just game-specific scripting. Has anyone used game development as their primary way to learn programming?

[Ethan_R]

Harvard's CS50's Introduction to Game Development is free and excellent. It uses Lua with Love2D, which is a lightweight framework perfect for learning. The course teaches programming concepts through game development projects, and the assignments are challenging but rewarding. It's a proper computer science course disguised as game dev.

[John.W]

I learned programming through making games in Python with Pygame. Python is a great first language because the syntax is clean and readable. Pygame handles the graphics and input, so you can focus on learning programming concepts. There are tons of Pygame tutorials that start from absolute basics and build up to complete games.

[Abigail.A]

The key advantage of learning programming through game development is immediate visual feedback. When you change code, you immediately see the result on screen. This makes debugging and understanding cause-and-effect much easier than with traditional console applications. Start with simple graphics and gradually add complexity as your skills improve.

[Steven.J]

Check out 'Code.org' and 'Scratch' if you're completely new to programming concepts. They use block-based programming to teach logic without syntax. Once you understand concepts like loops, conditionals, and variables visually, transitioning to text-based programming is much easier. Many professional developers started with these tools as kids!