Monkey Game Development: Beginner's Guide
Monkey Forums/Monkey Beginners/Monkey Game Development: Beginner's Guide
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| Hi everybody, First thing first: merry christmas to all of you! I would like to know if this book is still a good introduction to monkey programmming. It's a 2012 book and may be outdated but it's only 5$. https://www.packtpub.com/game-development/monkey-game-development-beginners-guide Thank you! |
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| it is what I learned from a few years back. It was then and still is now a good introduction to Monkey as a language. It isn't a great reference guide for everything the language does if that's what you're looking for (and as far as I know, that doesn't exist) but it does take you through creating a bunch of small games, teaching you as you go. Well worth $5 |
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| I started with monkeyX half a year ago and I have this book too. I really like it because it shows how to properly use the framework fantomEngine. But for the monkey language itself I really liked the video tutorials by invaderJim. In my opinion it's better to get some grip on the language first so you can understand and alter example source codes much easier. |
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| Some important things for you would be to read all of the docs that are included with Monkey, and as much source code as you can. Write code every day even if you are simply rewriting code from an example. Make flash cards and study them with Anki software, only make flash cards of things you already understand. Reviewing every day using spaced repetition, which Anki does, will help you to memorize and not forget, which is important. Never copy and paste code while learning. Use "site:monkey-x.com search term" in Google for anything you get stuck on. Do not be afraid to ask any questions. |
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| I bought the book and it was very well written, but I probably got more from the series of YouTube videos that InvaderJim did personally. My biggest learning issue is not following through - I will go for periods where I code, then don't touch Monkey for 6+ months then have to refresh myself. As Soap said, the best thing you can do is code everyday. But if the book is selling for $5 you'd be crazy not to buy it - you'll easily get your moneys worth out of it even if you don't intend to go down the fantom engine route. |
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| As a beginner one important thing to understand is how monkey is structured! The language: monkey-x The mandatory framework: mojo (1 or 2) included with monkey-x download. Mojo is what makes monkey capable to create games for different platforms. Whit these two you can create games! Additional framework like fantomengine or Diddy or... will make your life easier but are actually based on mojo(1or 2) Learning monkey and mojo(1 or 2) is essential. After that you can chose an additional framework for it's features and syntax comfort. There's two mojo: the old one has a bit less features but covers the maximum different platforms (windows phone included) Mojo 2 is based on opengl and is more capable in terms of features but for html5 the browser must have webgl installed and I think it is not windows phone capable. Some 3rd party frameworks are based on mojo1 others on mojo2... Good learing |
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| Thanks guys for the kind words. The first 2 games in the book are written in plain Monkey/mojo1 if i remember correctly. Invader Jims videos are perfect to get a good picture of the language. And so is the documentation that ships with monkey. My book concentrates more on game development. 99.5% is still valid. It will give you a good overview over my framework. I doubt i will see another dime for selling the book but for 5 usd i would buy it. |
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