I've been up for quite a while, so there is certainly a possibility that I have overlooked an article or thread regarding my question. With that being said, I am going to ask anyway.
Basically, I've always been interested in game design--pretty much every aspect of it. I am primarily interested in learning to design 2D games. I have absolutely no experience in game design or any coding that is used in the development of games. I know HTML and CSS; that's all.
What should I do to get started? I've watched people use Unity and I think I want to learn that engine.
Getting Started
I think for game design, you're perfectly fine with learning Unity. Although you might want to consider other game engines as well.
I played around with Unity3D for quite some time. If you don't have any programming background I'd suggest starting with UnityScript (aka psuedo-JavaScript). it's a very easy to pick up language and simplifies programming. The biggest drawback though is that it only works in that specific engine, so I'd suggest at some point switching to C# (or you can start with C# but it's a bit harder to pick up on when starting) as the same C# that works in Unity3D is the actual C# that is used in other engines and program developement. Here are a couple people on youtube whose tutorials I used personally so I know they're good.
http://www.youtube.c...er/TornadoTwins ~ The TornadoTwins have a tutorial using UnityScript, and it's a pretty basic game being made, but really helps as an introduction and I found them informative. However, at least when I last checked, the assets are no longer available for free so you need your own. But it's fine as the game you make with their tutorial doesn't even need any kind of graphics, I made my using 100% stuff I found in the Unity3D engine, such as sphere game objects for the worm player, and 2 cylinders and a sphere for the turrets, and Unity3D has a built-in terrain painting tool which I used as basically my only real "graphics".
http://www.youtube.com/user/BurgZergArcade BurgZergArcade have a very extensive C# tutorial built for Unity3D. It's by far one of my favorite tutorials I've ever followed through (I only got to about 105 or so because I didn't have any models and couldn't find any decent freeware ones that had walking, jumping, and a basic attack animation
), and even if you don't complete the series it's extremely helpful. However they aren't necessarily for an absolute beginner such as yourself I don't think as they don't explain every little detail of the code such as variables and functions, but they do explain everything that is higher than a beginner level.
I'd suggest doing TornadoTwins first and when you feel comfortable and want to, try the BurgZergArcade tutorials. I did that and found the basics not covered in depth in the C# tutorials were covered in depth in the UnityScript tutorials, and even though they're 2 different languages they're similar enough in their basics.
Hope I helped.
http://www.youtube.c...er/TornadoTwins ~ The TornadoTwins have a tutorial using UnityScript, and it's a pretty basic game being made, but really helps as an introduction and I found them informative. However, at least when I last checked, the assets are no longer available for free so you need your own. But it's fine as the game you make with their tutorial doesn't even need any kind of graphics, I made my using 100% stuff I found in the Unity3D engine, such as sphere game objects for the worm player, and 2 cylinders and a sphere for the turrets, and Unity3D has a built-in terrain painting tool which I used as basically my only real "graphics".
http://www.youtube.com/user/BurgZergArcade BurgZergArcade have a very extensive C# tutorial built for Unity3D. It's by far one of my favorite tutorials I've ever followed through (I only got to about 105 or so because I didn't have any models and couldn't find any decent freeware ones that had walking, jumping, and a basic attack animation
), and even if you don't complete the series it's extremely helpful. However they aren't necessarily for an absolute beginner such as yourself I don't think as they don't explain every little detail of the code such as variables and functions, but they do explain everything that is higher than a beginner level.I'd suggest doing TornadoTwins first and when you feel comfortable and want to, try the BurgZergArcade tutorials. I did that and found the basics not covered in depth in the C# tutorials were covered in depth in the UnityScript tutorials, and even though they're 2 different languages they're similar enough in their basics.
Hope I helped.
Author
I imagine it will take a long time to learn enough c# to be able to code a decent game, right?
Well i am 15 yeras old, and i am interesting with desining games the best choise is c++ so you can code there if u want to make youre own engine make it whit c++ if u know coding...
It's important that you make a careful distinction between design and development, in particular, design vs programming. If you're interested in design, you don't need to learn programming, although it sure wouldn't hurt if you knew its limitations and you knew what your developers were talking about without them having to water it down to "simple language." That being said, for design, it's fine that you use engines to create your games, so pick whatever engine and enjoy yourself. If you feel you're more technically, as opposed to creatively, inclined, then pick a good beginner's language and hone your skills. I personally enjoy math as a hobby, so the development of games goes hand-in-hand for me.
Engines are a little limited in what you can do graphically using GUIs, so, in order to eliminate that crutch, they provide you with scripting languages so that whatever functionality they don't provide, you can extend by yourself. If you want to make a functionally intense game using an engine, it's almost impossible to avoid scripting, so the further you go down with it, the more scripting you'll have to know. Don't worry though, programming doesn't bite ^.^
Engines are a little limited in what you can do graphically using GUIs, so, in order to eliminate that crutch, they provide you with scripting languages so that whatever functionality they don't provide, you can extend by yourself. If you want to make a functionally intense game using an engine, it's almost impossible to avoid scripting, so the further you go down with it, the more scripting you'll have to know. Don't worry though, programming doesn't bite ^.^
On the development side: I'd say regardless of what engine you choose to use, or if you are crazy like me and choose to develop your own, its important to master (or, at least, try to master) the fundamentals of your chosen language before trying to tackle a big giant project. A good solid grasp of the principles of design (in whatever paradigm -- OO, functional, what have you) is invaluble both in development and in review later on (not to mention debugging). You have no idea how much rubbish code I come across at my job, just because people didn't fully understand the tools at their disposal, or failed to adequitely comment or document what they were doing. There are lots of languages to choose from, and there are folk here who are pretty good with each one should you have trouble (You'll also find that languages within major paradigm groups tend to have a lot of commonality, so that learning one generally makes it easier to pick up another, or at least to read it).
On the development side, read this, it covers most of what you need to get started.
On the design side, that is a road less travelled. Not many people start off as purely designers, they either come from a programming background or an artist background. If you are unskilled in both capacities, there is very little you will be able to do with something like Unity or UDK, unless you have a solid team of artists or programmers working with you.
On the design side, that is a road less travelled. Not many people start off as purely designers, they either come from a programming background or an artist background. If you are unskilled in both capacities, there is very little you will be able to do with something like Unity or UDK, unless you have a solid team of artists or programmers working with you.
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