Scripting – Where to begin?

[Anonymous]

Hey all.

I’m looking for some direction and advice as to where the best place to start would be. My primary skill set lies in art and level building but possessing the ability to script your own content appears to be highly desirable in the industry.

Having built a mod using the Aurora toolset, I became somewhat familiar with NWN Script, which is based on C syntax, and got to the point where I was able to pick a part my programmers scripts and spot errors and even began writing (copy/pasting and editing more so..) various quests of my own, even if they were fairly basic.

Given that, I don’t understand any of it on a fundamental level. My goal is to be eventually become proficient with scripting my own content within an existing engine or toolset.

My question then, is where to begin? Would learning the basics of a C language be a solid foundation on which to build on? I have my eyes set on either UnrealScript or UnityScript, but is it foolish to dive in and try learn them before gaining a firm grasp of a base language? I figure with both engines providing iOS dev tools, either would be a great place to start.

Thanks in advance.

[Anonymous]

As a programmer I’m probably badly placed to advise you what’s a good route to "ease" into programming. But I reckon you’ll not be wasting your time to look into Unity3d and using Javascript for your code because of the large community built around it of people in a similar position. There’s a lot of shared code out there for simple tasks and it’s driving a lot of cool games. Plus it was pointed out to me on Saturday that there’s lots of community "editor" addons are showing up these days. (EzGui, SpriteManager2 plus I think some visual scripting tools). Javascript is probably not the world’s best language but it is fairly ubiquitous – and should still look familiar enough if you’ve previously used c-like syntax.

I’m not a fan of Unreal long-term because of the narrower scope generally allowed by the engine. I know this isn’t as bad as it used to be (when any gameplay diverging from unreal tournament was going to be hard to implement) – and I know kismet is supposed to be awesome, but Unity3d seem to me to have more openness built into the DNA of the company.

[Anonymous]

Are you looking to script or to code?

If you’re looking to script then don’t look at unrealscript. It might say script but its more of a coder’s language than a scripters one. For the unreal engine Kismet is what you should be looking at (and there are loads of tutorials for it).

[Anonymous]

Are you looking to script or to code?

If you’re looking to script then don’t look at unrealscript. It might say script but its more of a coder’s language than a scripters one. For the unreal engine Kismet is what you should be looking at (and there are loads of tutorials for it).[/quote:b615c5f61d]

I’m really just trying to learn how to script gameplay events. I see more and more job listings for level designers that require solid scripting knowledge. I’m actually looking forward to the challenge, but knowing where to start always seems to be the hardest part.

[Anonymous]

Yeah some good advice from the lads there Paul

I would also suggest looking into Lua – widely used scripting language and generic enough to be useful for some time to come.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lua_(programming_language)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Lua-scripted_video_games
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Lua-scriptable_game_engines
http://www.lua.org/about.html

Keep in mind that visual scripting systems are a lot easier to get into and very common – such as Kismet for unreal engine was mentioned and flowgraph for the Cryengine both provide a way to script complex events – so you have other options.

It depends really on the type of games you want to make but as suggested JS might be worth looking into seriously too as HTML5 games are going to be *big* in the coming years me thinks.

[Anonymous]

+1 for using Javascript with Unity.

Its pretty easy to prototype ideas with a few lines of code and some default objects.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice lads.

Having done a little more research, it looks like I’ll try my hand at some Unity3d and Javascript. More so, I really just want to get started. I’m guessing that other languages become more accessible once you develop an knowledge of another?

Lua looks like a good option too, cheers for that Ian. Apparently writing an addon for WoW is a good place to start.

Paul

[Anonymous]

I would go for learning lua. Its very easy to pick up. If you knew lua you could easily learn unrealscript etc. too.

[Anonymous]

I found these tutorials really helpful for getting to grips with scripting in Unity:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMWhtKjUr10

3D buzz also did a unity series lately where you used the engine as a level editor like Unreal which is good for getting to know the program if the above tutorial gets too heavy!

[Anonymous]

Spent the evening mucking about with Unity and instantly fell in love with it. Seems super robust and the editing tools are really intuitive and streamlined. The real-time viewport is just brilliant. Looking forward to sinking my teeth into this. I noticed a visual scripting plugin on the Asset Store – might give that a look, though it costs a pretty penny.

I hashed a small level together and tried a build for Android, but I’ll need to fork up $400 for that option!

I’ll check out those video tuts tomorrow. Nice one John.

[Anonymous]

Unity is great alright but it is a significant learning curve if you’re new to programming. I’d start with the tutorials mentioned above and move on from there. Another option is to start building your portfolio and try get in the door of a games company who are willing to train you as you work on other areas. There are lots of open source options as well if you want to roll out some quick games. I recently Stumbled upon alpacaengine (this is my first post so I can’t include a url, but search and you will find it). Good luck!

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