Creating a Game (Any Platform)

Doggiie on 12/06/2015 - 18:50

I think I have a very vivid imagination throughout my entire life being a gamer (both AAA and casual indie) and I have some (potentially) good ideas for games. I have storyboarded a few games on paper, including interfaces and game 'screenshots' and I think it's pretty sleek. Some projects are smaller than others, some are for mobile devices and some are for handheld consoles. Problem is, I'm not a programmer!!

I have experience with Starcraft 1 and Warcraft 3 world editors, I have made a few maps and that's where I became familiar with loops, if functions and such. I also learnt VBA at uni for a semester in engineering which taught me pretty much a majority of niche things.

So where do I begin? Is making a game much harder than it seems? Especially considering a game that takes up 50MB is actually a plethora of coding. Is there a recommended language I can learn which is more versatile for compiling games?

Thanks guys!

Computing

Comments

  • weesals on 12/06/2015 - 19:37

    GameMaker is a very accessible cross-platform 2D game engine. It has a visual editor which does not require code, but also provides a very easy scripting language. Starting with click-together games and transitioning to scripted would be a good way to learn. Unity is a great 3D game engine, but you'll need to learn C# (or JS.Net) to work with it. They provide tutorials on the unity site.

    Generally as you learn to develop games you'll notice that the things you assume are simple can turn out to be extremely complex. Game mechanics that seem unique and simple to implement often lead to poor gameplay (thus are avoided by AAA games). You'll be much more likely to complete games with a really simple core mechanic (like Crossy Roads, Doodle Jump, Angry Birds), so start small and avoid MMO-anything or complicated strategy games.

    Also join your local game developer group and come to meetups:
    Adelaide - ARGGGH
    IGDA Melbourne
    IGDA Sydney
    Brisbane IGDA

    As for which language to learn; C# and C++ are the big ones, but most are imperative and based on C Sytax. Starting with gamemaker will help you understand the other languages.

  • airzone on 12/06/2015 - 21:00

    I made an RPG engine / maker a long time back.. I could never design nice graphics or make a compelling story, hence focusing on the engine and maker. Learn an OOP C style language like C#, but TBH I don't see the value of stuffing about with manual memory management in C/C++ except for very specific reasons. VBA is good at teaching bad habits.

    For the game, as already said, keep it simple. The simple games are the most compelling, and the really good AAA titles have jaw dropping budgets.

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