If you know *nothing* then try pong.

I've never made tetris or Pong, I found it too boring.

I've made PacMan, Space Invaders, Galaga (and now writing a scriptable/moddable version of this).

They're nice and easy to make, I'm almost done with my scripted version which I'm releasing as Open Source if you need to look at the code.

You will see a lot of advices eveywhere ... everyone starts with a game that they feel comfortable with ... but only 1 out of finishes thier games out of 1000.

My advice is to finish what ever you start developing ... make it simple ... very simple ...

And if you wanna ask me ... Tic Tac Toe, Pong, Tetris, PAC MAN and then Mario.

And just for info ... I never finished my first game :( but I am working on a commercial one now ... so that will be finished for sure ... hehe ... ofcourse I know how to create one.

There is a lot of difference between knowing how to create games and creating a game. So ... what ever idea you have ... just create it ... you will experience and go through lots of stages and phases that you haven't heard anywhere or read about ... ;)

Hope that rings some bell somewhere ... :)

Cheers!

Instead of beating the boring drum as the others, I suggest you start making what you want too (wow, there's an idea). I personally don't see why it's a sin to not finish a project you start (yes, go ahead and show me why--the button is in the right hand corner). Why start with something "small" when you've already gone through the dry tutorials in the books. Unless someone is paying you ($ $), I don't foresee a reason to make another Pong. At last count, I think it was up to 3,645,390 versions floating around. If you just have to make something "tiny" then at least make it original. For instance, have four paddles surrounding a block of squares and call it "Quadruple Breakout." Of course, I'm sure that's been done.

Since I assume it's going to be 2D (yuck!) I suggest thinking about your two favorite 2D games (please let it not be Tetris and Centipede) and find a way to combine them into one. Of course, no one can tell you what you should do because this is your experience and you're in charge.

WARNING! Before you start, break it down into small chunks as to avoid the overwhelming feeling of "where do I start." Split up the work into "fun size" bites. Also, realize that you have a book the size of a small dog and a 2D engine to boot so most of the legwork has been done! You'll need art but that's what free sprite libs are for. The more design and planning you have, the less development and production time you'll need.

Okay, thanks everybody!

I'm doing a re-make of Sonic 2 for my FG but I got a a lot of time. but its not my first project of this magnitude. For a first game to get your feet wet, I suggest maybe like Jump Joe, or maybe even Quebert(2d). The reason I suggest those cause there aren't documentation for these. Believe it or not, I found my self doing better if its an original game that no1 else has done, or I find myself borrowing code, or alogorithms. But Jump Joe maybe animated him a lil, or Quebert or maybe even astorids with some monsters...I dunno, also depends on how much time u'r willing to put into the project...