Making Your Own Game?
Posted:
Fri Jun 28, 2013 5:28 amby Thief
I'm a weirdo and completely obsessed and passionate about video games and the medium as a whole. I want to make games but don't know how to program in the slightest. I'm a decent enough artist but with practice I could be much better, but other than that I'm a man with ideas (which are useless) with no way to implement them. I'm finishing up my last two years at University and during that time I want to use my free time to better myself so I can then create a game.
If I were to start learning how to program, which language should I learn? Would anybody have any tips or words of encouragement? I want to start working towards this goal but don't know where to start. Has anybody tried to do something like this here? Thanks, hope to hear from some of you.
Re: Making Your Own Game?
Posted:
Fri Jun 28, 2013 5:52 amby south carmain
some great places to start
http://unity3d.com/ (free powerful game engine)
http://www.youtube.com/user/TornadoTwins (tutorials on how to make games on said game engine)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXmVym6L ... 51207E3105 (C# coding tutorials for beginners, the coding language you will need to make games)
if it feels overwhelming and you want to go for something easier and straight forward then check out RPG maker I guess
Re: Making Your Own Game?
Posted:
Fri Jun 28, 2013 6:09 amby MiTT3NZ
+1 on Unity. Plenty of great tutorials for it (seriously, it's a ridiculously high number), plenty of freebies in the asset store, plus Unity itself is free (you can go pro for £1.5k, but unless you want a black skin and want to write shaders, there's really no point)
RPG Maker's alright, but Ruby (the scripting language) is a pain in the arse to learn if you want to customise the mechanics. On the plus side though, it is very simple for turn-based battles, fetch quests, etc. and Google image results will provide you with plenty of free sprite sheets.
If you want to do 3D modelling, then 3DS Max is the best for it, imo. Cinema4D's good too, but you have to pay for either one of them. Blender on the other hand's free, so you might wanna look there.
Texture-wise, Photoshop or Gimp. MS Paint (XP version, not that shitty update they came out with for Vista & 7) is brilliant for creating your own sprites.
I've also found using Google street view's excellent for recreating certain real-life places. For example, if you just want to create a very low-poly version of your city, you can start off by just making box 3D models, screen capturing the building on street view, then use stretch/skew/perspective in Photoshop til it looks just right.
Either way, as a hobby, it's much easier to get into than you may realise. If you want to release it commercially though, I'd advise talking to people in the relevant communities, such as Unity, IndieDB/ModDB, RPGMXP(some other letter or two here, I can't remember what the place was called anymore), or just have a PM chat with Segata, the guy's got some good advice.
But yeah, plenty of resources on the internet, but don't make the same mistake as 99% of us make by trying to jump straight into it. Just play around with each program to familiarise yourself with everything, then download some demo projects to play about with, then you can look into tutorials n shit. Otherwise you'll probably just turn yourself off the idea.
Re: Making Your Own Game?
Posted:
Fri Jun 28, 2013 6:11 amby Giorgio
I will probably write more, but (for now) as a quick reference, check these:
As for the tools, libraries, engines et cetera, I have compiled a list (as a collection of those I found the most interesting, including useful links) in a Google Document:
Re: Making Your Own Game?
Posted:
Fri Jun 28, 2013 9:01 amby Thief
Thanks so much for your responses :) very helpful!
Re: Making Your Own Game?
Posted:
Fri Jun 28, 2013 10:53 amby Mr.Din
One thing that's kept me motivated is doing fan projects. It's a great way to get a feel of the concept when you're starting off, Usually coming up with GOOD original concepts is hard to do straight from scratch at least imo.
Re: Making Your Own Game?
Posted:
Fri Jun 28, 2013 3:38 pmby Henry Spencer
Remember, there's always other avenues too, not necessarily actual development, like working on fan translations. Rom hacking and language translation aren't the only things these projects need: There's some projects out there that only require some editorial work or help with textures or testing.
Doing artwork is another option, improving on that, since art is very important in games, more than people realise. Most people can be sold on your game just by how good it looks, if it appeals to their aesthetic tastes, then you've already won.
Re: Making Your Own Game?
Posted:
Fri Jun 28, 2013 3:42 pmby lavrentis
Games programming is done in C#? Always thought most of it was done in C++ myself, that said it's good news for me as I am a lot more proficient at C# than C++
Re: Making Your Own Game?
Posted:
Fri Jun 28, 2013 6:08 pmby Segata Sanshiro Jr.
My issue is the complete opposite. I've got the skills to promote and do bizdev, and program but I need to recruit people to do the everything else. I've got like 2 projects that have working prototypes but the graphics are just black boxes with text scribbled on like "BG_01" or "PC_1".
If you're not interested in getting too heavy into programming you might want to focus on "lower" C. Knowing C# or using something like Game maker script, j script or .NET you'll be able to get the job done. If you want to be a programmer then you'll want to learn shit like C++ but that shits hard and kind of annoying but if you've got a passion for it you'll slide right in.
Also +100 to basically everything Mittz said, he's basically hit all the points I'd say. Ryudo also pointed out one of the easiest tools out there. Hotline Miami and a bunch of other games like BariBariBall were made in Gamemaker.
BTW Thief I asked and perhaps you didn't see, but if you're feeling good about composition I need some sample music, you can make yourself a quick 20-50$ if you can give me a good 30-60secs of music PM for the details if you're interested. (actually that goes for anyone who feels like their skills are competent)
Re: Making Your Own Game?
Posted:
Sat Jul 06, 2013 3:14 pmby wude
I also want to create a video game, i started with gamemaker then mugen and now i'm trying a bunch of free 3d engines
i learned a lot of stuff, but i still have a lot to learn (organic modeling/sculpting, programming, animations..)
Good luck
