Good evening (at least it is where I live) fellow wanna-be game-developers and full fledged developers.

As you've might have noticed allready, I am quite new to this forum and would naturally put myself as someone who wants to take part withing the creation of games but lacks experience as well a any history within the game industry. I am gonna use this thread to present myself towards you, explain myself and my reasoning behind this post and to display one of the silliest concepts you`ve eevr heard off.

So who am I? And why should you even bother? Obviously there's no real answer to the second hyphothetical question, thus I'll simply try to answer the first as good as I can.

I am a 20 years old student, living in Germany (If you don't like my english I want to excuse for it right now!) and currently studying math at an nearby university. While math is probably one of the funnier things to learn (at least for me) I still cannot stand the thought of making a living with it. In general I like to soak up alot of Information on every "interesting" thing I stumble across, without directly searching for it (unless it is fun). On top of this I am a big fan of reading (You won`t believe how many books stand arround here, mostly fantasy novels, but mostly no generic Tolkien-esque fantasy with a few other more distinct books thrown within the mix.) and good movies/tv series'. With the latter I don`t really discriminate between animated,drawn or real-life as long as the movie/series is good at it`s core. I am quite the nerd actually and as such I don`t really like sport really much. Mostly this comes from the fact that I consider games to be more fun than sports most of the time. But there obviously has to be one exception! I like snowboarding. I am not really that good at it and due to it`s cost and the time needed I cannot do it frequently, but it brought me to levels of fun and joy only the best of videogames could compare to.

Taking a quick look into my future, having a job that is fun for me is far more important to me then money and/or reputation. Of course gaining the money to at least make a living sadly is a must, even for me.

While you all are probably allready guessing in what direction my job wish goes Is till want to take another short piece of digital paper for a short description of my gaming history and habits. I've started to play early game at quite an early age. Before I had my own console I was abusing my fathers big chunky GameBoy to play a little bit of Tetris. After a while I got a console as a birthday present (It was a N64) and from that point onward I started to be an avid gamer. That hasn't changed until now and probably won't change any time soon. But unlike my early days my interest lies not only within games but also within everything surrounding them. I watch press conferences like others watch their TV-Show, read Gaming magazines nearly as regular as my own newspaper and more or less recently even started to read up information regarding game developement. Alot of my friends play videogames too, such I have people to play Games with and people to chat about them. Anf if it is a game I really enjoy I start to visit their forums, give feedback and propose changes and suggestions. Two of those Games would be Minecraft and DotA. I`ve given up on making suggestions for the first one recently since suggestions like "If you place staircases in an Square shape (or anything else with corners) the staircases will form corner pieces if neccasary". Sadly those suggestions get lost within a big stream of Ideas that want Rocketships and Space Pirates in a game that seriously needs improvements on alot of other aspects first. With the second one I am still helping (read: trying to help, since I have no clue whether I am help or not) in my spare time.

So if you've read all that stuff you`ve probably noticed that I want to become a part of the gaming industry. But measuring my real interests within games and the fact that I cannot program nor am I really artistic, I believe I cut myself of many positions within it. If I am not compleatly dilusional it leaves me with 2 and a half possible positions that directly work with the game.

1. Game Designer
2. Level Designer (I am artistically bad only with the normal tools of an artist. If I am giving building blocks, I`ll build. I actually believe or at least hope that this would translate well into using a level editor. Also for some people Level Design and Game Design is quite identical)
3. A Writer
I obviously would love to get some tips on how to get into those positions despite the bad position ( no artist, no programer and no history within the gaming industry) I currently am in. And I obviously would love to get corrected if there are heavy misconceptions within my post. But I've allready taken notice of the fact that the Game Industry is no land of milk and honey, for the most part of it.

A few weeks ago I was testing a little portable Game a friend of mine had. It's called Game Dev Story and no it is NOT the reason for my interest within the Game Industry, but it is the source of a neat and silly little idea. Basically this Game allows you to do some seriously silly genre mixes and one of those mixes kept me thinking.

Mixing golf with and shooter. For some reason I couldn't stop thinking about it. It probably isn`t the best idea I`ve ever had for an game but it seriously is one of the weirdest at first glance but also quite practical to create.

But how do we want to implement golf elements within a shooter.

- The golf bats are your melee weapon of choice. Nothing special here.
- Golf bats are still used to shoot golf balls. But those little balls pack a punch.
- Other then the melee attack there are 3 ways of using your golf bat.
...- Quick shots. You drop the ball onto the ground and try to take a quick shot at your enemies,
... - Prepared shots. For those shots you calmly poisition you ball and take aim. Those are pretty similar to the shots that golfers to cover great distances.
... - Prepared shots using Golf-Tees. Those need a longer preperation, but you can achiever shots with more range,angle and height.


-That probably doesn`t make much sense to you. Of course one golf ball might hurt an enemy but wouldn`t a normal weapon be much better? Apart from the normal golf balls there will be others to use.
... - Explosive Balls. Those pack the biggest punch and are used to destroy certain targets or groups of enemies. They are also loud.
... - Flash Balls. Those work like Flash Grenads. Work wonders within dark areas or enemeis with overly devloped eyesight.
... - Big Bang Balls. Those don`t pack real power but they are really loud even louder then Explosve Balls. Thus they attract enemies within an bigger radius.They might also confuse enemies who heavily depend on their ears or sonic waves.
... - Smelly Balls. Those create a stench that attrects certain kinds of enemies. Those might even ignore real threats because of the smell those balls create. But be carefull with the wind.
...- Perhaps stuff like sticky-explosive balls or liquid nitrogen balls. Also I would like to excuse myself for some of the silly names. Especially the "Smelly Balls"
- Most balls have one thing in common. They are filled with some kind of semi-liquid mass. When they get a hard knock this mass will harden. When it is fully hardened those balls are primed and will explode on contact with almost anything. Dropping your ball for a quick shot will allready start the hardening process, leaving you in a hurry to get rid of that ball. With an prepared shot the hardening processs will only start once you`ve shot the balls (e.g. delivered the first hard knock to it)
- Balls dropped for a quick shot can also be left alone exploding after a while.
- Balls might also be throwable but obviously without the range the golf bat can give you and with the downside of the hardening process starting once they land (delaying their explosion for a while)

- We add wind into that shooter. It obviously affects the trajectory of your golf. It might also be used to transport the smell of you or the golf balls you've used. That might effect scent-based foes. Really strong wind could also hidner your own movement as well as stop or accelerate liquid based ttack (don't pee against the wind guys!)

- We add different types of terrain into it, making your various types of golf bats actually meaningfull.

- We give the putting bat/the putter the side effect of being nearly silent while shooting the balls (to not give away your own location) at the cost of a low range. You might end up rolling your explosive between the feets of your enemies or rolling an distractive ball directly into another direction.

- We add weapons. But real machine guns have to wait for the most part of the game. We give te player hinting rifles, pistols, shot guns and the other type of weapons some you might find in the hand of civilians within certain countries.
- Obviously the direction of thise Game shouldn`t be pure action. It`s ment to be slightly tactical and stealth based.
- Our character needs to get used to those weapons firs. He`s just a golfer trying to survive. You`ll notive him getting better with those weapons (less recoil, more steady aim and faster reloading) when he uses it. It would count his overall "experience" which he made with weapons and the "experience" made directly with this weapon. I obviously want to keep this a small part of the game as this is not ment to be an RPG.


Story-wise I would go for an apocalyptic scenario. I see no other reason why our peacefull golfer should become a warrior without one. I would love to be my enemies organic, wether they are generic zombies, aliens, mutants or just coming from an diffferent dimension. It would all the start with your Hero playing a game of golf.( you yourself are playing allready) But after a few holes hell breaks lose and you'll try to survive with nothing but an golf bat. You`ll be saved from the huntress who normally would keep the golf field free of marauding animals. Long story short. You and a few survivors establish a base. One of them is a proffeser of chemistry and quite usefull during this situation. He equips you with your special golf balls ( as he lacks any real method to store his explosive stuff he just improvisates and uses golf balls for it.

As you've probably noticed I've merely just put a brief thought into it and this is not anway near a full concept. On top of that the Idea itself is quite silly and I believe that this combination might not end up very popular but Is till felt the need to share it with you . I would seriously love feedback from anyone who managed to read this giant text-wall and I want to apologize if I missed the right sub-forum. I would also like to apologize for any possible typo I have made.

I wish all of you a good evening,
Cocofang.

I don't get it. You are 20 and you never attempted to make a game. You never dreamed of making one as a child, you never joined any team to make a game as a teenager. You never wanted to learn programming nor art. You obviously don't enjoy making games. You are not in a position where you have to make them either. There is not much money in gaming industry either so you can't do it for money. Why? Why do you want make games then? I'm completely puzzled

It`s not about much money for me. It`s about having enough money while doing the most enjoyable work possible. And I know that my possibilities are kinda restricted due to my lack of fitting skills.

But I actually dreamed upn making games when i was young allready. But never about programming one. Despite that I was frickling arrround with stuff like WC3 world edit unable to really grasp VJass (and as such being limited to the GUI based editor). And of course I´ve spent time thinking up Boardgames. Even though I think that`s nothing special. I am pretty sure every little kid in existence tried to create it's own boardgames.

The reason why I do want with games, is nothing more then the gameplay and perhaps the story. And as you`ve pointed out thats pretty much problematic. Of course i could just keep being constructive as possible towards the games I like, within my freetime while doing something else for a living.

Despite my reasoning behind it probably sounding extremely stupid to anyone else, I would want to ask for what to do. Should I start to write GDD's within my spare time and basically only be capable to deliver those without any real game behind them (no team and no programing skills) or should I work my way through whatever code I can trying to create at least small games so I actally have to show something off?

Despite my reasoning behind it probably sounding extremely stupid to anyone else, I would want to ask for what to do. Should I start to write GDD's within my spare time and basically only be capable to deliver those without any real game behind them (no team and no programing skills) or should I work my way through whatever code I can trying to create at least small games so I actally have to show something off?

I would suggest either picking up programming, art asset creation, or writing fiction. Programming would probably suit you better with your mathematical background. You're going to have trouble getting any sort of experience on independent projects without producing something more than game designs. People with those skills (art, programming, writing) will have their own ideas that they want to do.

For example, take myself. I am a programmer who aspires to work on games. I have my own ideas that I want to work on (with dynamic worlds and fancy plot-generating AI, but I digress). Your ideas aren't as important to my as my own ideas. Unless you can convince me that your vision is better than mine I'm not going to want to work on your project. It would be easier to convince people if you could bring something to the table for the finished project. However, I can't model or texture to save my life. If someone proposed a project to me with art assets in hand I would be more likely to listen.

Well, thank you both.

I`ll going to take Shawns advice and pick up some programming. I`ll also gonna write if I feel like it. I bet you ment more specialized writing as someone might be the best novel-writer on earth but still might fail to leave space for the Gameplay. I should probably strife to cooperate them directly into m concepts.

And even if programing will suck for me it will probably be a neccasary step to take, I mean many people have work to do that completely sucks for them but at least it would only a be a part of it. Despite of this thanks for your comments Acharis. having an realist help you is always a good thing.

But I am gonna continue studying math. Thus everything will go a little slower then I would probably like.

Is there any language you could recommend for a beginner. (Jave, C++, etc) ?

edit: Another short question: Would you recommend any kind of Level Editor to learn level design. What i mean is pre-defined Gameplay and grafic with the Level being up to you. E.G. Reggie! or something that is more official

Is there any language you could recommend for a beginner. (Jave, C++, etc) ?

Python is a good start for beginners, the pygame library gives it the capability to easily produce 2d games. There are tutorials aplenty on both.

Plus python is just fun to work with, I wish I could use it more often.