Hi all, I am a new member to gamedev, long time reader, first time poster. I have been working on a city building simulator, which will be a hybrid of many of the good games I've played over the years. I have developed a foundation for the housing structure, store mechanics, resource collection, etc. Then moved over to the graphics side, using GIMP, and come up with a decent tileset. Now I am currently working on the art for the buildings.

Just to make you aware, I am not a programmer, yet. The extent of my programming experience consists of Apple basic and Pascal, and after being exposed to these I decided that programming was not for me. I went in to electronics instead. I may end up having to learn programming at some point (with python currently leading as a topic of interest), but for now I am squeaking by working with programs.

GIMP seems to be a suitable graphics program, which I have had some experience with over the years and know enough to be dangerous. I have also recently found blender, which seems to be a more than capable 3D modeling suite, although I think it's overkill for an isometric city game. Blender does have a game engine built into it now, for a few revs it seems, which is a nice plus, but I have also looked at contruct classic and construct 2. Again, the constructs seem to be more suitable for my needs, although blender is just really freakin' cool.

So, one of my questions is regarding the use of open source and free or low-cost lisence game engines vs. more "professional" suites like unity. Do you really get that much more bang for your buck? There are a multitude of engines available, and it is somewhat daunting as a novice to even know what is worth it. I have looked at game maker, but it seemed a little dated feeling when compared to construct, which is why I'm leaning that way. If you would like to suggest any good engines that I have missed, what I'm looking for is something that would be under $1000 for a commercial license, good support, documentation, tutorials, etc., and I do also like the latest and greatest.

Another thing that I am currently looking at is the graphics, writing, sound, etc. Without currently having much money to spend on the project, I don't see many other options except becoming a graphics artist, writer, etc. I mean how feasible is it to think that someone may be interested in joining me in this project, and how much convincing do people need to realize that I'm not just some shmoe thinking it would be cool to make a game? So far, I've just been moving forward with the "show as much as you can" mentality, so I have been also trying to document my progress on a few wikis. Of course, doing it all by myself, I've found that it is a lot of work to keep up with everything.

So, every now and again, I just fallback and actually play some games, reach out to communities like I am doing here, and try to relieve some of the pressure that can build up.

I would appreciate any feedback and opinions that you are willing to provide, and I look forward to seeing how I may fit into this community.

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Hi Pointer, thanks for the feedback. I will check these out tonight. Ya, the programming was back when these languages were new, so I'm sure things have changed somewhat. Although, I'm sure programming can only change so much, it's lines of code. I guess I will have to breakdown and take a look at it for my own good anyway. I do have a reason to learn it now, which does put a different light on it compared to 20 years ago. Hmmm, object oriented, that does sound kind of interesting.

Thanks again for the input, and I will check these out

Hi Serapth and ATC, thank you for chiming in as well I will definitely check out the gamefromscratch engine line up, as well as that site in general. That alone looks like researching fun, good for a few hours at least. And it is good to know that the engines market seems to basically be competatively priced as a marketplace of its own. I guess marketing people do have their place, as well.

3DGS actually does look like something to look at, and I will download it and compare it to blender, at least. That should give me an idea of what I may be able to work with, given my lack of programming knowledge.

I did download and look at codeblocks, just to expose my eyes to the new world of programming, and I can at least still see. I should have learned by now not to speak out of ignorance, but what can you do. It appears from just looking at this that programming has changed, and I think I'm starting to understand why it is called "Object oriented" and "visual". The best I could gleen from taking a quick glance, before my eyes started to glaze over, is that it has become somewhat "modularized" (for lack of a better word). I may or may not dive into that pool, it looks rather deep.

As for now, as the events of the last couple of days have unfolded, I think I will go back to the drawing board and finish up a GDD. I wanted to actually include specifics to the point of numbers for all of the stores, decorations, resource collectors, min-max level progression, etc. But I think that would be overkill, and somewhat a waste of time, at this point. Balance will only be achieved in the game when I get a chance to actually put it into an engine and mess around with it. At least with all of this in mind, it gives me an even more clarified picture of what I would need in a GDD, for myself, and if a programmer were to become interested.

Hi all, I am a new member to gamedev, long time reader, first time poster. I have been working on a city building simulator, which will be a hybrid of many of the good games I've played over the years. I have developed a foundation for the housing structure, store mechanics, resource collection, etc. Then moved over to the graphics side, using GIMP, and come up with a decent tileset. Now I am currently working on the art for the buildings.

I'm just curious how you've been working on that without allot of programing knowledge? I don't mean offence by this i have a huge interest in simulators