Hi there, I'm an aspiring graphic artist and I currently am working on my personal project.

Now my problem is I suck at programming, I tried to learn C++ and gave up after a couple of days, and anyway I suck at advanced mathematics.

So I would like to know if it is okay when the time comes and after I find a programmer to leave every choices of programming my project to him, such as language choices, creating an engine or not...Do programmers who participate in other people's project mind or Don't they mind whether it's them or the project owner who chose?

I'm afraid the programmer will say something like "you don't even know which language you want the game to be written in, I don't think you're serious about your project so don't count me in".

So I would like to know if it is okay when the time comes and after I find a programmer to leave every choices of programming my project to him, such as language choices, creating an engine or not...Do programmers who participate in other people's project mind or Don't they mind whether it's them or the project owner who chose?

It really doesn't matter what language he uses. It would be a good idea to leave it up to him because then he can work with whatever he wants to. If he does for some reason think less of you because you don't know what language to use, then he has issues. That is his thing to worry about. You could give some suggestions and why, but if you don't have a clue about programming leave it up to him.

It may be a better idea for you to use some game making utility that already has an engine ready to use, because all you want to do is make the art assets and game part. If you are planning on getting a programmer to help you though, get him involved as soon as you can. This way, he will feel more apart of the project and can help you in the planning stages.

Thank you for your answer, I feel more relieved now that being a total ignorant in programming shouldn't be an issue in the development of my project ^^

I tried to learn C++ and gave up after a couple of days

I'll just say two things on this point.

First, learning to program will take a long time - certainly a lot longer than a few days. Should you want to learn to program (and you don't have to - you can focus purely on art; but being able to prototype your own simple projects is useful and understanding what the programmer is talking about, when you find one, would also be helpful), it will take a lot longer than a few days, even just to learn the most basic concepts and to become an expert will take many many years. Basically, if you want to learn, don't give up so soon.

Second, C++ is a notoriously difficult language for beginners (and even for experts!), I would highly highly recommend learning another language first. You will not notice any difference in performance (or other reasons people typically use C++ for games) at your level, so it is not worth worrying about it. When the time comes where your projects would benefit from being done in C++, you will either have other programmers to do it for you, or you will be ready to learn it yourself (and it will be a lot easier to learn when you already know another language). My recommendation for a beginner language is Python, as it is very easy to learn, support everything you would expect from a modern programming language, has some excellent books and a very active community in case you need to ask for help.

and anyway I suck at advanced mathematics.
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So do I, but it has never held me back too much.

Programming isn't really as much math as people make it out to be. Some understanding can be quite useful, especially some knowledge of logic, but you will get by just fine without it. If you are making a 2D game, you will use surprisingly little advanced math (a lot of basic math for stuff like movement and controlling the camera and physics, but nothing terribly demanding). 3D graphics do require a lot more advanced math, but if you use an existing game engine (which is a good idea anyway), most of this will have been done for you.

So I would like to know if it is okay when the time comes and after I find a programmer to leave every choices of programming my project to him, such as language choices, creating an engine or not...
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Yes, definitely let the programmer decide! Unless you do learn to program yourself, and therefore participate in the programming, you shouldn't tell the programmer how to do their job. You wouldn't want the programmer to tell you what colors you can use or if that you should use Inkscape instead of Photoshop or whatever.

Do programmers who participate in other people's project mind or Don't they mind whether it's them or the project owner who chose?
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Unless the project owner is an expert programmer, or there are some very good reasons to have the decision made for them (eg, if you are making an XBOX Live game, you probably want to use XNA and C#), the decision should be left up to the programmer. After all, it is the programmer who has to do the programming, so you should let them decide how to best do this. You wouldn't ask a mechanic to fix your car, but then tell them which tools you wish them to use, would you?

Most people hate being told how to do their jobs by people who are not qualified to do it themselves.

I'm afraid the programmer will say something like "you don't even know which language you want the game to be written in, I don't think you're serious about your project so don't count me in".
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Quite the opposite! If you are not qualified to make the decisions, leave them up to somebody who is. Show that you are serious about a project by doing what you are qualified for (in your case, I guess, by creating awesome art assets for the game).

It may be a better idea for you to use some game making utility that already has an engine ready to use, because all you want to do is make the art assets and game part.

This is good advice. It also shows potential future collaborators that you are serious, have good ideas and are good at what you do. Basically, it lets you prove yourself, but it also lets you find out for yourself what works for you, so that when you do go ahead and program something (or have someone program it for you), you already have a good idea what you want and how everything should work.

I would not worry about finding a programmer until you have worked on a few personal projects first. That way, you have more to show for (and you will have refined your skills) when you try and attract a programmer to help.

Okay thanks, I will give a look at python

My project is a little rpg-ish (not entirely, its a bit of tactical too) mixed with some kind of board game. It will be 2d. So I dare think it's not the hardest kind of game to program, hopefully .

Python aside, which game making utility would be the best choice to do this kind of game?

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Python aside, which game making utility would be the best choice to do this kind of game?[/quote]
If you are making a 3D game, you might want to look into Unity. For 2D games, there are some on this site, http://www.ambrosine.com/resource.html.

Yeah, I get your point. The one we can really count on is ourselves in the end.

I'm taking an interest on unity, and yeah, I think with enough passion and effort I'll manage to learn scripting

Now for the 3d modeling which utility should I use ? (freeware and the easiest to understand if possible)

Now for the 3d modeling which utility should I use ? (freeware and the easiest to understand if possible)

Maybe not the easiest, but probably the best 3D modeler out there for free is Blender. There is a pretty large community going for it too.

Knowing something about game programming will benefit you. You might understand why something works or does not. If you don't have the ambition to work as a programmer for a company then don't bother with C++. However, there are many tools out there that can help you out, some are easier then others and this reflects how much freedom you have within the program to make games. Everyone can make a RPG with RPG maker, same goes for game maker with some more effort. Both these programs are perfectly designed for amateur programmers to do some more with the art they create.

You could also enter a modding community, a lot of games allow you to mod there program with the supplied tools. Starcraft, elder scrolls, halflife, unreal, etc they all have editors which are fairly easy to undertand with some effort. Dota (WC3), world of starcraft (SC2), Andoran (Oblivion), Counterstrike (HL), etc are all mods with there own art content mostly made with the editor supplied with the disk. It does require to script more or less to change things here and there.

Then there are more advanced programs too, SDK's. UDK, Ogre, Unity, etc. Very powerfull tools that give you a lot more freedom but have a steeper learning curve. The graphics engine is supplied and with a couple of tutorials you can jump in and import you artwork and start playing around. But to make a full game out of it you pretty much need to program and feed code to these engines but scripting can get you pretty far. UDK has a very user friendly environment where you visually script things together.

You could also just choose a much easier language then C++, something like C# or Python, great games have been made using these languages and are much easier then C++. I started out a year ago with C# and felt pretty comfortable with it. With the XNA library you won't have to worry about learning directX/openGL programming and can start sending your sprites or models to the screen right away.

It just requires some commitment to learn this but it will eventually help you out a bunch if you want to make your own game and stay in control. And if you do get good at it you have a big advantage, since we programmers suck at art .