how do I start building project in c

[idle bay]

Hi. I amtrying to build a clone of Pacman, so that I can learn c and graphics library. But unable to understand how to do it? I found one Pacman project on GitHub but found it difficult to understand. I just don't know how to start building it. Any tips that I can follow

[vocal gull]

When your question is answered use !solved to mark the question as resolved.

Remember to ask specific questions, provide necessary details, and reduce your question to its simplest form. For tips on how to ask a good question use !howto ask.

[restive magnet]

I recommend your first game to be a terminal game, so that you can just print the text without having to worry about setting up any graphics libraries

[wanton sorrel]

Isn't part of the issue about the transition between text and graphics?

[restive magnet]

It all really depends on how much experience sgr19 has, which we don't know right now

I was assuming they have little

[wanton sorrel]

Hm. Maybe my advice would be to find a partially complete, or very small examples of game code, and dissecting that.

[restive magnet]

Let's wait on sgr19's response, cause we're flying blind right now

[wanton sorrel]

What we do know is that they're trying to learn C AND its graphics libraries, and a game has both of those at once, which can be challenging.

But you're right.

[zealous stirrup]

The first step is to choose a graphics library, since pure C can't do graphics without third-party libraries (SDL2 is good, for example). But you need at least minimal knowledge to use it (variables, ifs, loops, functions...). If you do, go read the tutorial 🙂 https://lazyfoo.net/tutorials/SDL/

[idle bay]

Hi. I have not developed any small project based on graphics. Can you share the task or steps I shall follow so that I can start understanding complex code and even build my own. I have difficult time to grasp complex code structure, how do I overcome it?

[restive magnet]

I recommend your first game to be a terminal game, so that you can just print the text without having to worry about setting up any graphics libraries

It doesn't have to be something as relatively complex as pacman that has a huge map, powerups, ghosts with AI, and so on

I recommend starting with something like writing Snake in C

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFtWBVMdAOA

[idle bay]

Ok. Is it possible for me to build complex codes once I learned to develope the small projects?

[restive magnet]

Absolutely; when people want to climb the Mount Everest, they always start off conquering a small mountain, and then slowly build up to the legendary ones like Everest.

If you don't understand addition, you have no hope of understanding multiplication, and if you don't understand multiplication, you have no hope of understanding exponentiation

[idle bay]

Thank you for your motivational words.

[restive magnet]

No worries, we're all here to help you out on your long journey that's ahead of you :)

@idle bay I always recommend using godbolt.org in order to learn any programming language, as it allows you to quickly test stuff without having to install and run a C compiler on your own computer:
https://godbolt.org/z/hzT946rTe

[idle bay]

Ok. I often use pythontutor website to understand snippet of code. I will check it also

[restive magnet]

That's also a great website

[vocal gull]

@idle bay Has your question been resolved? If so, type !solved :)

[idle bay]

'!solved'

[restive magnet]

without the quotes

[idle bay]

!solved