Quote:Original post by Foobar of Integers
Making games is actually very simple. I'll outline the steps:

1. Post a topic asking about how to make an MMORPG
2. Use Visual C++ 2005. On the top left of the interface there's a "Game" wizard. It will ask you what kind of game you want to make.
3. ??? (This step generally involves a trip to Vegas across the desert in a large red vehicle)
4. Profit!

In all seriousness though, you need to be more specific than that. What kind of game? What are your goals?

Quote:Original post by nobodynews
What do you want your role to be in making a game? What do you think goes on in making games? I'm guessing that your idea of what game making is is different from the reality. If you want to lead a project then need to convince people you can complete something. In order to do THAT you need to either make an entire game by yourself or join an existing project that needs someone of a specific skill set.

Anyway, this particular forum (For Beginners) is mainly concerned with programming and I only know programming so that's what I'll focus on. There is also artwork, level design, music/sound effects, and character design. As you can see, except for programming those are all artistic in nature. Programming requires a large amount of creativity as well, of course.

Programming in itself is a ridiculously huge topic. To program you need a compiler, which is a program meant to translate human language-like text files into computer instructions. These language-like text files are written in a computer programming language. Just like human languages these programming languages come in a large number of flavors.

Once most beginners learn this they ask "what language do I start with?" and some even look up a few on their own and then ask us "which of these is best for making games?" The answer to both of those is riddled with zealotry, mis-truths, half-truths, and general confusion. There is no silver bullet. The important thing is to learn programming, which is how to think in a certain way to translate your goals into a program. A good programmer will ultimately know several computer programming languages. Once you learn one learning another is incredibly easy. Therefore you should probably choose one that's easy to pick up so you can see results and not get discouraged. Others will suggest languages after me, I'm sure.

And finally, don't be afraid of making mistakes. You will make mistakes. The vast majority of all programming time is spent fixing yours and others mistakes. This is good, you learn a lot about programming when you do something wrong. You will ultimately gain a greater understanding after every fixed problem. Good luck.

Quote:Original post by nobodynews
I changed my mind, I'll list some programs, in no particular order:

Game Maker. This is a program meant specifically to build games. I've never user used it, but I'd imagine you will eventually feel limited by it's capabilities. Or not, I really never used it. I will say that a few years back Gamedev.net had a contest and a game created using this program won.

Blitz Basic. A programming language for making games. Also never used this.

Visual C#. Microsoft's flagship .NET product. This one is particularly interesting with the creation of XNA. Basically, you can make games that will run on the XBox360. Some tutorials are located here, here, here, and a great reference from Microsoft here.

C++. There are a number of programs for using c++. These include Visual C++: Express Edition, Code::Blocks, and DevC++. A few good e-books are here and here.

Visual Basic.NET. Another .NET product, you can get it here.

There's Flash, but I'm not sure where to get free flash makers. Or even if they exist.

For other programming languages there's Python, Java, Ruby, etc. To find them just do a search on google. Something will come up.

Hope this helps.