Where do I go now?

General Discussion
1

Hey all!

I’ve got a goal of creating a 3-dimensional, fast-paced, multiplayer fighting-game and am planning on using Python and Panda3D, as well as Blender, for accomplishing this task.

I am however very green on programming and I’m still learning the basics.
I have almost finished the book “Python Programming for the absolute beginner” which can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/Python-Programming-Absolute-Beginner-Michael/dp/1592000738.
The book brings up the following areas.
Building, slicing and indexing strings.
Working with functions.
Reading from, and writing to, text files.
Creating and manipulating sprites (I haven’t finished this).
Tackling Object-Oriented Programming.
Creating a GUI.
Working with sound and music and creating animations (I haven’t finished this).

Now I’m at the second last chapter which tackles 2D-graphics, using sprites. The last chapter goes more deaply into this. However this is done using Pygame and a modified version of Livewires.

Hence I wonder this: If I’m planning on using Panda3D later anyways will I have any use for learning the basics of Livewires and Pygame or should I just skip the last chapters for now and continue learning other, more important things (in lack of better words)?
If so does anyone have any advice that they can offer me? Should I just throw myself into trying to make something simple for my game (for example a “Main Menu”) and use the Panda3D manual whenever I need it or should I practice more in the use of Python first?

Any kind of advice or comment is much appreciated.

2

My own opinion is that any experience with programming is useful experience that will help you in future projects. I’d recommend going ahead with the 2-d examples and such; it can be very useful to see how real-world problems are solved, even using a different engine than the one you ultimately plan to use.

David

3

the more you know the better!

4

it may be easier to start with pygame and similar, but you could as well start with panda after learning python basics. i went that way and i don’t regret anything. it needs a few months of learning before you can cleanly code something interactive, but it’s fun :slight_smile:

5

I’ve just finished the book and I’m gonna get started with Panda tommorrow.

Thank you all for your advice and opinions!

6

If I’d be you I’d better start with Rabbyt. It’s ingenious for fast small games developing and is a really good practise for beginners(for noobs we have cocos2d).

Panda3d is sophisticated, mained at medium-big size projects to develop in short time… and is great for open source artists! Of course it’s nothing relaxing like Rabbyt or (*** ** ********!) [size=75]Game Maker[/size].

Just go one and belive in yourself :wink:

-cheers Your Mešča

7

MentalDisaster, can you please stop posting unhelpful, misleading or entirely off-the-point replies?
[size=0]And can you please remove the userbar? Anyone here can tell that you’re using Panda3D and Python.[/size]