If you're into Flash to be a programmer, then go make a game, it'll be good practice. If you finish something cool then it'd be a good portfolio piece to show your game designer skills if that's a route you're going for.

If you're into it to be a web-designer, then go really learn your design fundamentals, grids, colour theory, typography, first.

There are really very few projects where a flash intro is going to be the right choice right now, and most likely, there'll be less in the future with HTML5 coming through. You really don't want to be left behind with this stuff. I have nothing personal against Dreamweaver or Flash by the way, used them a lot in the past, but nowadays they're pretty marginalised.

It sounds like you've learned some HTML skills, and some scripting basics, and you're putting effort in, so that's a awesome start mate. Just make sure you're using your time wisely! 

Is to make money! I would like to be able to hopefully get a job working for a web design company, increase my skills base and gain some experience, with a view to gaining the ability to make larger and more lucrative websites or systems and make larger paychecks. OR get into anything really, just as long as I'm learning more skills which I can use to make money. I think that making games is probably a lot more fun than learning networking systems, but I just dont know which is the more sensible thing to persue at this time. Hell - anything to do with IT would be better for me than general admin/PA work I'm doing now. I just want to get into something with prospects, which I can really master and get paid for. Then I want to get pregnant, buy a house and a car etc and start a family :)

But seriously - I want to get some proper training in programming. Learn how to make games with Flash, Java, everything. Learn how to make programs to do specific things.

I suppose I have answered my own question really (there's that stream of consciousness) - I want to do what SleepwalkR and Kinn said - bite the bullet and learn how to code! The question is basically do I go for a databasing course and learn how to put some real fire into my practical web-design capabilities? Or do I go for the probably less boring and more stimulating Flash or Java coding and learn how to make games and whatnot? Flash seems liek a good idea for that option because I am already familiar with the interface, but Java could be much more useful down the line by the sounds of it.

So I suppose it should maybe be Java AND databasing (Python, Pearl, Ruby as stated above). But in what order? Which is best for a n00b to learn? My heart says Java (because making simple games and stuff could be great fun).

I am literally at a crossroads in my life, I'm pondering this realtime, with intent! Advice? Other than what has already been said?

Thanks again all, Starbuck :) 

 

In layman's terms ;) 

I think the most important question is, do you have time? If so, you could try a few different things to see what works best. If not, I think the fundamentals approach 9ie the boring stuff) suggested is better. 

There's plenty of big companies using it (google[1]), and it has a wide variety of applications.

[1]http://www.python.org/about/quotes/ 

... and THE smartphone doesn't support flash. So, um, ...

Learn web design (which means learning general design a bit of course), learn javascript, learn something server side (python, ruby, etc). Play around with them all a bit, then dive deeper into what takes your fancy the most? 

What would that be? There's more phones in the wild that run android now than apple can shake a stick at. 

Is a very good way to learn programming, yeah. I would agree that it's also much quicker to learn than java. But don't let it be PHP. 

I've been reading the beginners guide, and I like the part where it shows the Java and Python versions of the "Hello World!" exercise:

Java:

class Hello {

public static void main (String[] args) {
System.out.println ("Hello, world.");
}
}


Python:

print "Hello, World!"



This is reminding me very much of BBC Basic already ;) 

What language you choose isn't that important, you should probably learn a few actually just to make sure you don't get your mind locked into a too narrow way of thinking. Learn about common data structures and techniques that can be used in all(or most) languages.

Knowing a language is just s start though, another large part is getting familiar with the libraries/frameworks that goes with the platform and language of your choice. 

the important thing like any journey is that you get started.

Learn to cast your programming spells as we enter the age of magic. 

And start with C++

It might be a bit of a learning curve at first but you will thank yourself later. 

 

But I think that learning some of the theory on Python will give me an edge towards comprehending some of the C++ stuff. I tried to learn C++ once before and after the second chapter it got REALLY REALLY confusing for me.

This morning I have been reading (and trying in the Python Command Prompt) this ebook:

http://openbookproject.net/thinkcs/python/english2e/index.html

And I'm actually 100% on what I have read so far! 

with a nice, easy-to-learn but powerful language in a managed environment, AND do some game dev to boot:

1) Get Visual C-Sharp Express (it's free)
2) Get XNA Game Studio (it's free)
3) Program XNA games using C-Sharp

It's super-awesome. I've been doing it for 2 years now. And you might even make some $$$

http://create.msdn.com/en-US/ 

Surprised it worked out, been playing through Travail with a friend and we completed the first episode so far. Been a while since I played the pack, so it's still somewhat fresh to me thankfully.

Only problem is the friendly fire. No matter what setting the host puts it on (fitzquake) we can still damage each other which isn't so fun to have a grenade accidentally shot to the face. ;_; 

I think you need to be on the same team or wear the same colours. 

set 'teamplay 1' then both set 'color x y' so y is the same for each player - x can be whatever (any number between 0-13 if you didn't know).. then you may have to restart the game (possibly)

q1 coop is awesome. not played it in ages :| 

just pants colour, iirc. 

If you want An Old Evil listed on Quaddiced, tell me the cheat codes ffs! What an asshole mod - incredibly hard AND regular cheats disabled. Nice shotgun though. 

shit I don't think I remember any of the mod stuff for that, it was a long time ago... on the other hand, most of my maps from that were remade and used in later projects (masque, coven, etc). I never got to see the other guy's maps (murderous martin) which is too bad. 

Thought you might as it contains fixes/enhancements by aguirRe from 2006 (sort of implying you were in contact). No idea what was changed in the maps, but most certainly it wasn't balancing - many or tough monsters and traps but hardly any health.

So I guess I'll be forced to use some lame-o screenshot and make something up for the file description... 

I think aguire just fixed it up to remove errors and released it as it was gameplay wise. 

That SOE4 and SOE5 map, coven, should be on quaddicted