Coders, I have questions for you.

Bear with me... My thoughts are all over the place and this is a mess.

I would like to learn how to create GUI's for a few reasons, but don't know exactly where I should begin to learn my first computer language to achieve this. The reason for this being that I want to make cheats/mods for games that seem more organic to the players. My best example I can give is changing starter Pokemon or your first Persona to any other ones not intended to be started with. Visually it would be just like it was meant to be there (unlike randomizers for Pokemon where it shows the original starters, not the change you made). Save editors for games are nice to toy with, but for me it breaks immersion because there's something "new" that suddenly appeared. I'm thinking of hopping from easily accessible (moddable) PC games in order to change them would be a good goal, instead of a PS2 game as another example.

I've had the idea of purchasing books on C++, or maybe C#, but a small problem with that is I have no idea which author I should learn from, nevertheless the actual programming knowledge that I need. The amazon reviews steered me away from them last time I looked due to critical reviews. This would be my preferred choice of learning, since I also don't want to use online resources that I'd need to stay on a page for hours and hours on end.

Do you know of any great well known authors that would suit me for this? Any and all advice will be appreciated. P.S: My notifications are broken so I likely won't get notified immediately, but I will check back.

I suppose it depends on what you're wanting to build GUIs for.  It sounds like ROM hacking tools and/or save data editors, which other people built and which (I'm guessing) are controlled by command-line?

If that's the case - specifically if you're wanting to build GUIs for existing command-line tools - your options are wide open.  You could use C++, C#, Java, JavaScript...

Under those circumstances, my recommendation in 2022 would be JavaScript/HTML/CSS.  You're probably thinking "those are for building websites / web apps though, right?"  Yup, but you can use software like NW.js or Electron to easily turn web apps into desktop apps. And those can execute command-line functions no problem.

Reasons for that over C++/C#/Java:

- easier to learn

- the world of web programming has tons of snippets, styling, animation, etc. you can make use of

- gives you some useful crossover knowledge. Most software jobs out there are maining Javascript.. very different from the world of 20 years ago. So you learn a very useful/employable skill in the process. May or may not come in handy, depending on your career path.

Huge thanks for this reply, I suppose what I tried to say is I wanted to build software/programs with a GUI for a lot of various reasons, but closely tied to helping gamers out with niche needs no one has done before. Just to fill in the gaps for software that's possibly wanted by others but isn't made yet.

About the career path: I won't have one. I have a lifetime of very low yet dependable income that I can utilize for things, at the expense of not being able to work. I just feel like I've got all the time in the world but no skills to show for it, so I'd like to hone in on a topic that seems interesting to me.

One last thing. I was just looking at your game on Steam before I decided to check on this topic, you're doing a good job with the bugfixes it seems by the looks of the discussions there. Man you got a lot of dedication to your game! I like to learn and "work" in short spurts, so I admire your commitment to the project.

I'll look into JavaScript first to see what that's like.

Learning to create GUIs for game mods is an interesting journey. For beginners, beginning with Python and libraries like Tkinter or Pygame might be an excellent first step. Books through famous authors like Mark Lutz for Python or Jesse Liberty for C# are notably endorsed for solid foundations. If you ever want to assist with essays or IT assignment help alongside your coding endeavors, our essay writing offerings are here to help you every step of the way.

I appreciate the assistance and all, but ever since I forgot how to even format and get XML mods working in Civilization V again I pretty much abandoned that idea, at least for now. I was looking into video tutorials on YT and felt like I was relearning XML from that w3schools website, but after I failed to get any of my mods working I just hit a brick wall haha.

All that stuff is super fascinating and all, but I'm just messing with stuff part time while being a full time goober. It would be super awesome to create basic software and mods for games I am interested in, but I'll have to revisit it someday I suppose. All I'll say is, thank christ himself I don't have a job/career in this field of work 'cause I'd be fired so quick lmao.

I can definitely understand the frustration with struggling to get modding setups working, especially when balancing it with other priorities. Even with a web development stack, creating functional and seamless game modifications can be quite challenging. The good news is, the web development skills you acquire, such as proficiency in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, can be transferable to a wide range of software projects, not just game modding. I can recommend checking tips on how to choose a proper tech stack here https://seclgroup.com/tips-to-choose-tech-stack-for-web-app-development/ Perhaps revisiting this passion when you have more dedicated time could be rewarding. In the meantime, don't be too hard on yourself - maintaining a healthy work-life balance is important, even in the tech world.

Guys, where to find web/app developer?

Josh1billion said:

I suppose it depends on what you're wanting to build GUIs for. It sounds like ROM hacking tools and/or save data editors, which other people built and which (I'm guessing) are controlled by command-line?

If that's the case - specifically if you're wanting to build GUIs for existing command-line tools - your options are wide open. You could use C++, C#, Java, JavaScript...

Under those circumstances, my recommendation in 2022 would be JavaScript/HTML/CSS. You're probably thinking "those are for building websites / web apps though, right?" Yup, but you can use software like NW.js or Electron to easily turn web apps into desktop apps. And those can execute command-line functions no problem.

Reasons for that over C++/C#/Java:

- easier to learn

- the world of web programming has tons of snippets, styling, animation, etc. you can make use of

- gives you some useful crossover knowledge. Most software jobs out there are maining Javascript.. very different from the world of 20 years ago. So you learn a very useful/employable skill in the process. May or may not come in handy, depending on your career path.

Click to expand...

I know what language I will learn after all, and it's C#. I decided to land on this language because once I noticed two of my favorite pieces of software, namely:
and
were built either exclusively, or the majority was made with C#. I know what goals I have in mind, which beginning steps I need to take. Before I even dive into it, I pinpointed that my environment is a major problem. Until I get a laptop to switch to a more productive environment, I've been tasked with building habits towards achieving goals. This is actually part of doing that, believe it or not.

My first personal project will be creating a "Xenoverse 2 Character Randomizer" and the main features I'm aiming for are stat/attribute randomization, starting character previews (hair, eyes, race, name, etc.) with the option to re-roll the character.