Hello there, Gamedev. Today, I'll present to you my current project. (Please keep in mind that I've NEVER programmed/coded/scripted a game in my entire little life.)
Project: A 911 dispatch simulator/game with random events (Such as a cat being stuck in a tree) popping up on screen. The user (role-playing as a dispatcher), will have to send the proper units to the scene and will earn points (or some other currency) for reacting to each event in a timely manner.
Problem: I've never coded anything in my life.. I need to know what software could be used to make this (Something cheap .. or FREE?)
Prototype: (I know, I know, it looks terrible. It's not even in development yet. Shhh.)
(the picture's pretty big for the forums.. click this link please?) http://imgur.com/Dhc8Zfy
Additional Information: Please ignore the elementary-like image of the game/simulator. I did it in paint in order to provide an image to you all of the way I envisioned the GUI to look. The link above (imgur) is safe, I swear.. (you can trust me, it's the Internet, right?)
What Software?
Are you an artist then? If so, maybe Construct 2? It's pretty cheap, and you can drag and drop images. It's supposedly good (never tried it myself). Of course, you'll be limited to making simpler games, but then again, if your game isn't that complicated anyway, it's a good tool.
I'll save someone else the trouble and ask if you've read through the FAQ
If you've never programmed before in your life you're going to have to start off with some smaller projects and learn some fundamental skills. Since you want to get into games straight away I'll point you towards this little gem. I used it to learn the basics of programming and it's probably one of the funner (is that a word?) ways to learn as it teaches you the basics of programming by making you create simple but complete games straight away.
If you are dead set on creating this without any programming skills though I'd recommend using GameMaker. It has gotten a lot more impressive since the time I first used it some years ago. As long as you have a solid footing in understanding the logical progression of games you should be able to create something with this. You will have to eventually learn some sort of language if you really want to get creative in the future however.
That could actually be a really fun game if it were designed properly with the right random events and an appropriate set of decisions for players to make! I'm betting you could make that sort of game using Scratch. It's free, and provides a simple drag & drop system for creating your games or animations, but as far as I'm aware there unfortunately isn't a nice way of creating a stand-alone executable you can distribute.
Barring that you might have to fork out some cash for something like Game Maker (the US$50 Standard version would likely meet your needs), Construct 2 (US$130 for the Personal licence), or Stencyl (US$99/year for the Indie licence - you could work on your game with the free version till you're ready to publish though!) if you want to create your game without programming. All three packages have some form of free version available that you can try out, and based on your description of the game you want to make I'm sure all three would be capable of it -- note that I own copies of both Game Maker and Construct 2, but I've never personally tried Stencyl, so I'm going off things I've heard for that one.
For code help click here.
For art help click here.
For a rabbit with a pancake on it's head click here.
At least two thirds of this post should be helpful.
Are you an artist then? If so, maybe Construct 2? It's pretty cheap, and you can drag and drop images. It's supposedly good (never tried it myself). Of course, you'll be limited to making simpler games, but then again, if your game isn't that complicated anyway, it's a good tool.
I can vouch for it. I've used it quite a lot. It's pretty good, and only costs a little over $100 to make medium to large size games with. The free version is only really useful for making small games in it, because It has limits such as on the amount of code.
There are limits with Construct 2, even on 2D... but at least with 2D games, the limits are pretty far and few.
Well one thing I have found interesting is Kodu.
I think it is a nice and easy way to start with game development. It has no code but uses the same pattern, instead of typing an if statement, you are given to choose some conditions.
It is limited in choices so it is calling on your design skills more than the coding but as I said, it uses some coding patterns. Somehow, it is hiding the code behind some basic word that is meant to get 12 year-old kid on the path of development.
Once you have been going through that one for a while, you can start learning (or at the same time) programming and figure out the similarities.
Kodu won't make you a perfect programmer and won't get you a job at Valve or EA (anyway you don't want to work there) but at least int can be a soft start.
I would not recommend going for Unity even though many will claim it is easy to start and you get a game after two weeks. True though, but a not so nice game.
Unity is too often recommended to beginners, the easy interface, the high abstraction of complicated physics and rendering and they get stuck pretty early when realizing it is actually a professional tool in the end.
So to sum it up, don't try to jump before crawling with Unity and give Kodu a try.
Just my view,
