On Sunday, 15 March 2020 at 17:58:58 UTC, Steven Schveighoffer
wrote:
I want to try and learn how to write 2d games. I'd prefer to do
it with D.
I've found a ton of tutorials on learning 2d gaming with other
languages. Is there a place to look that uses D for learning?
Should I just start with another language and then migrate to D
later? Anyone recommend any specific tutorial/book?
-Steve
Back in the 90s, when I was young, I learned a lot about game
programming on MS DOS using allegro. That library is wonderful in
that it allows you a lot of things that you need in a simple 2D
game in a pretty straightforward fashion. It's really easy to get
pleasing results with it. And it's still around, has become cross
platform without losing its focus. And it has really decent D
bindings.
The other library that comes close in both completeness and ease
of use is PyGame, but this is Python only. It's a wrapper around
all the SDL_* libraries (image, ttf, mixer, etc..), but done in
such a nice way that it's usable in a very neat way from Python.
In response to Arine, I have to disagree regarding big hulking
game engines. Learning how to properly use one of these game
engines for a simple game is about as much effort as coding it
from scratch and the later is much more useful as it teaches you
the fundamentals of what is going on inside these big, scary
monsters. The abstractions that Unity and UE4 build upon are
useful for creating something fast, but you still require a
really deep understanding to use them properly. These are tools
for (semi-)professionals and there's an implicit expectation that
you are at a pretty high proficiency level.
