Kemon wrote:

I'm completely new to making games. I used to build on muds but I grew past that. I really wanna see my visions on byond, and I was wondering what I need to learn/do before attempting at building a game here?

Glad you asked. :)

If you want to start building games through BYOND, you'll certainly need to read the DM Guide. It is basically BYOND's only true language programming book type of thing(though it's certainly smaller than any book I've read for any other programming language!). Don't try to read the whole thing in one sit, but do find a consistent way of getting through it. Also, don't skip around or skim through it; that would only hinder your own learning process.

As you progress through the Guide, be sure to go off on your own *small* experiments and try to accomplish things for none other than yourself. The projects aren't the kind to release, just to sort of learn more and get in some practice.

If you would like to see other people's programs and source codes, don't be tempted to download some game's ripped source! Instead, pay a visit to DM Demos and pick up some learning-approved material from fellow programmers. Don't be tempted into copying and pasting; that won't help you at all. Instead, try and read through them and understand why what things do what they do. The two demos I started with are hub://dantom.yourfirstworld and hub://deadron.stepbyond --- I recommend these to you as well.

From there, you'll want to basically continue making small snippets of random things for nobody but yourself. This is an excellent way of learning while practicing. Pressing F1 in DreamMaker will reveal to you the most handy DM Reference. If you go to the Index, you can look up basically all the specifics about the language. A good idea might be to pick random topics from the Index, and then make a practice project for yourself to demonstrate the use of that topic. The DM Reference has probably been the single most important thing in learning the language for most of the developers here. I imagine this would be true for you, as well.

And, of course, as you progress through your endless learning quest, you can always feel free to ask any questions you have on the Developer Forums. Just be sure to post in the correct forum! Before posting, though, you should read the Forum Help. Also, try and make it a point to use the forum search to see if the question you have has already been answered for someone else at an earlier date. That way, the Community doesn't have to consistently answer the same questions time and time again.

Good luck!

Hiead