What exactly is Scripting?

So I'm new to the game development community and I'm having problems understanding what scripting is exactly. I've read something online about scripting taking the place of a human operator or something? Also, due to my lack of understanding of scripting, does a designer using Unity need to know coding? Or can the programmer for the game do the scripting after the designing?

 

Scripting is a way to tell the elements of your game how to behave, in details. It's similar to traditional movies, where the actors read the script, memorize it and then play it in from of a camera. For a video game, since computer does not understand English (or any natural language) as human do, you need to write your scripts using a programming language.

A game designer is the person who think and decide about the fundamental concepts and mechanics of the game. This person is not a programmer, but it small development team the same person can have different roles.

 

Scripting = programming. (There may be nitpicky arguments about nuances between the two, but for the purposes of Unity they are essentially the same.) If you don't know how to program, you need to learn or hire someone who can.

--Eric

 

Thank you. I'm kind of new to programming (I've only been doing it for a little over a year now) but I'm learning pretty quickly. Also, c# is nearly identical to Java, so that's helping a lot with using Unity. I'm just completely new to the game development community and I have absolutely NO idea on how all this stuff works really.....I'm a complete noob. But tutorials are starting to help and hopefully there'll be a positive learning curve

 

Even as a game designer you need to know something on how your engine works.
So you can evaluate the effort your ideas will need and if it is even possible with your team.

For the beginning you can make some tutorials and then start realising your own ideas. In my case i made a random auto generated labyrinth where the player can collect some coins. That was pretty good for getting used to the unity engine. The algorithm for the labyrinth i´ve got from wikipedia

Grischa

 

I've been using Unity for about 5 years now, and it is now my day job. I learned to program through Unity development, and I still learn things all the time. Better ways to do things I previously learned, little nuances and shortcuts, problem areas to avoid, etc. It all comes with experience. You just have to keep doing it. The moment you stop is the moment you start to get rusty and forget things and have to spend more time researching. Consistent practice is the key to getting good at anything.

Best thing to do is keep asking questions. Never accept something you don't understand (except for Quaternions, that S*** is nuts). Just make sure you understand it in your own terms, and would be able to explain it to someone else.