How to start?

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5 comments, last by Choo Wagga Choo Choo 8 years, 9 months ago

First of all, if I type anything wrong, sorry.
Hi, since I was a child I wanted to make my own game because games made me happy, and I wanted to bring this happyness to any other person out there, but until now I've done nothing to learn and etc.

I'm here on gamedev for the first time and I would like to ask for help, if possible, any sites or information on how to start It's enough for the time being. I'm trying to learn unity ( It's not the only engine I know, but engines Is the only type of GameDeveloping programs I know ). I want to start making my first game, a simple platformer which the character is a square who jumps and avoid pits, that's It but I think making this type of game is a good way for me to start learning. Oh, I almost forgot, I'm really scared of coding, scripts and etc ( I don't even know the correct way to call It ), Is It normal to have fear of this crazy texts? Omg, I think I'm going to be stuck in that for a long time when use It for the first time.

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engines Is the only type of GameDeveloping programs I know

If you want to make a game, you don't need to write your own game engine. I would start with either game maker tools (rpgmaker etc.) or modding an existing game. You don't need to be a coder guru to make games, thought some scripting will be involved here and there, but it will not be too challenging.

There's a game maker/development humble bundle (still active?), check it out. It could include some useful stuff.

This may sound obvious but some times it just needs to be said. Take the time and write a simple game design document.

Now that is over I can say you have done a great job at thinking simple first. Many people want to jump right in and make the next top AAA game which usually ends as an epic failure. Setting reasonable goals for yourself and your game will help keep you going. Look at as many game engines as you can evaluate. Find one that meets your needs and feels comfortable to you. Think about when you go shoe shopping, do you take the first pair you see? Or do you try on a couple before picking the ones you like? Game engines are like this and may appeal to you in different ways. Try and find the one that fits best with your needs and skills.

As for code if your squeamish with code then find someone that can help you in that arena. This is where having your game design document will help because it will tell others exactly what you have in mind. But at some point you will benefit with a little understanding of code and how it glues your game engine into your game play. The coder inside me wants to say don't fear the gobly gook, just start simple and move forward.

The next thing I have learned is try and start an iteration process that ends fairly quickly and leaves you with a game that can be played. I spent a couple of month doing this on a simple ASCII based game that I wanted to recreate from my child hood. This really helped keep me motivated during the development. My project taught me exactly what I wanted and that was how to get past the boring code process and start actually building a game.

The next step after getting it playable is to have others you trust play your game and give you feedback. Don't take the feedback personally most people will try and give you ideas on how to improve your game. Many times this is easier to say then to do. Again this is why you should pick people you trust. Once this is done try and open it to as many people as you can get.

The last thing is to remember to have fun! Your building a game..

I can certainly understand why the prospect of looking at a sea of someone else's code might be intimidating between the fear of breaking something, becoming lost, or just not understanding what the developer was thinking he wrote the code.

But this time around, you should be the one writing everything. You won't be starting with a sea of code, you'll be starting with what you already know or at least the one new thing you've decided that you want to tackle. If it seems that whatever it is that you're trying to do is too advanced then there's probably something else that you should be trying to understand first and you should shift your focus accordingly.

Coding isn't hard and it's nothing to be scared of. it's really easy. All you need to do is look at a tutorial for displaying text that says "Hello world!" then move on from there


engines Is the only type of GameDeveloping programs I know

If you want to make a game, you don't need to write your own game engine. I would start with either game maker tools (rpgmaker etc.) or modding an existing game. You don't need to be a coder guru to make games, thought some scripting will be involved here and there, but it will not be too challenging.

There's a game maker/development humble bundle (still active?), check it out. It could include some useful stuff.

The humble bundle deal is active. There is a lot of good tools that can be use to start game development. (Rpg maker series, Stencyl, Game maker)

The most important things is to start with somethings small like pong, Tetris, Pac-man and finish it.

have you tried out some of the free unity editor extensions for a visual scripting solution?

I'm curious on anyone's experience here.

Personally, I don't have a problem with firing up the default MonoDevelop and banging something out.

But I might imagine prototyping being accelerated through visual means, especially if the visual system is tailored toward solving specific problem areas.

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