My friend and I were creating a board game in our spare time, but it ended up becoming way too complex for a board (too many values and things to keep track of and keep the game flowing), so we decided it would be a really good idea for a computer game. For a long time, we just kept playing it on the board (which was just a big grid) and used paper and all kinds of beads and stuff to keep track of things in the game. We were surprised at how deep, simple, and addictive the game was, and we constantly tweaked the rules and made it more balanced and things. We've been making and playing this game for years, but we can't really share it with anyone because no one wants to sit and try to learn the game because it's just way too complicated for a board game, but it would be very easy and accessible as a computer/video game. The problem is we have absolutely no idea how to go about making one. We have both played around in ZZT and Klik n Play and RPG Maker and stuff back in the day, but that is nothing we'd be able to use in making this game anyway. And we'd like to make the game so that many people can play. I play games a lot and I thought it was really neat when they started putting indie games on XBox Live Arcade. I told me friend that our game would be really good for something like that. Now, I know I can't just go to a forum and make a post and be making xbox games within a week or something. But I really like this idea and I think the idea of making games is fun anyway, but all I know about is those little programs that let you make games, but you're kindof limited to the game tools (like RPG Maker, etc.) and that's not really what I want to do. I looked around this forum and it seems everyone already knows what they're doing though. What kind of advice do you have for me, someone who is 100% new to the idea of making a computer game? With this game, we already have all of the rules and have "played" it before and it works very well, but we just don't know how to make it pop up in the computer, ahaha. So what should I do to get started in making games so that one day I can see our game come to life?

You might check out pygame at http://www.pygame.org/news.html

Pygame is a python binding to SDL.

Basically, python is a fairly common scripting language that people use. Scripting languages are often much simpler to learn than compiled languages such as C++, C# or Java.

SDL is short for the "Simple Directmedia Library" which is a cross platform library (meaning it works on windows, linux, mac and other platforms with minimal or no changes) that lets you make programs that have graphics and sound (ie games).

So...

Python is an easy language to use.
SDL is an easy, cross platform multimedia library that simplifies otherwise complex tasks.

Pygame is the combination of the two.

I think there are some tutorials on that site too so hopefully it shouldnt take too long to get started (:

An obvious answer is "learn to program". That will give you the toolset with which you can manipulate a computer to do your bidding. That's a long path: expect 1-2 years at least for what I imagine would be a 2D game.

There are engines available that can expidite this process: Torque, Unity, Unreal. Probably Torque is a good start. They all require some knowledge of programming, but you don't necessarily need to know it as deeply. Using a 3rd party engine is a far speedier route towards making games anyway than trying to create your whole thing from scratch.

Another option could be flash if this is representable as a 2D game. Again you'll need to know some programming (ActionScript) and learn to use a new tool, but it's another option

-me

Hi Nesseggman,

If you wanted to release your board game for the X-box you need to look-up XNA creators.xna.com to start programming using XNA you need to first learn C# (CSharp) this is where you should begin, look-up tutorials on C# learn the basic concepts of programming most of all have fun and be patient.

Good Luck,
OneHitWonder

TorqueX is a good solution for XBLA development too, and again, way easier than building from scratch.

-me

Thanks everyone :) I will start looking around these python, torque, etc. things and see how that goes. Hopefully I will be making hello worlds or something soon :)

I did take a Java class in college for general ed stuff, but it essentially taught me how to make little calculators and other text thingies, and I have no idea how one would make a game with that, or how you would do anything with it other than complete the labs we were doing in class O_o