I'm working very solo, though I get help from my girlfriend/roommate (she's actually IN school for computer science, though she mostly knows Java, at least we're capable of helping one another). It's understandable no one wants to help too much when there's no immediate payoff. I wish I had more friends to bounce ideas off of, but, at the same time I don't want to suck any friends into getting too involved... for potential legal problems, who knows.
I'm completely self taught (though I took a basic 'game design' class once). The internet is my first resource, though I do have a growing bookshelf.
Javascript/jQuery (or will require it):
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Javascript: Step by Step
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JavaScript and JQuery: Interactive Front-End Web Development
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jQuery Pocket Reference
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jQuery Game Development Essentials
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The Web Game Developer’s Cookbook
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HTML5 Game Development “For Dummies”
PHP:
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Beginning PHP and MySQL: From Novice to Professional
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PHP Objects, Patterns and Practice (there are newer editions)
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Object-Oriented PHP: Concepts, Techniques, and Code
(Keep in mind that there are often
great deals on Amazon for used books. Some of these I picked up for less than $5!)
I've also completed a few free courses for fun on
Codecademy to brush up on a few things. I often have fun making random little dummy projects (with javascript/jquery) in
jsbin. And, of course, I prefer to develop locally with
WAMP rather than host a site yet and have to worry about free hosting rules or inactivity policies (because why pay for development space?).
At this point I'm in a bit of a creative rut with my site. I fear I'm nearing being done with my coding but I dread moving on to the art. I worry about it being good enough, etc. (I fear having to scrap everything and redo it in a year because I change mind or I've improved.) Regardless, I lurk the forums.
