How do you create games?

[MGG=REVIEWS]

You know as i am in my second year in high school, teacher was telling us that we should prepare for our job for when we leave and i want to be come a game designer and hopefully be creating my own game ideas within years after but i dont know where to start,
with the price crunch thing money is a tight subject, so does anyone know any game software that will teach me and maybe let me create my own games?

 

[J-Man]

Try using SDKs of existing games, and joining a mod team is a great way to get experience. Look what happened to those Narbacular Drop guys; they had a great idea, and got snapped up by Valve.

 

[Danny Ocean]

You know as i am in my second year in high school, teacher was telling us that we should prepare for our job for when we leave and i want to be come a game designer and hopefully be creating my own game ideas within years after but i dont know where to start,
with the price crunch thing money is a tight subject, so does anyone know any game software that will teach me and maybe let me create my own games?

The Valve Source Developer kit comes free with Half Life 2 I think, but it doesn't exactly 'teach' you.

 

[MGG=REVIEWS]

I will admit the source engine is a pretty big imspiratoin but it's to complicated to study for me right now i need something basic, modding is good but most of my game need modding directly from the source code itself

 

[Nimbus]

Try this:

http://scratch.mit.edu/

A little too basic perhaps, but it's free.

 

[MGG=REVIEWS]

Thanks, 2D animation game are cool have any 3d game creators besides Dark basic, FPS creator reality factory and all the others which cost loads but except you to know the ropes

 

[J-Man]

I will admit the source engine is a pretty big imspiratoin but it's to complicated to study for me right now i need something basic, modding is good but most of my game need modding directly from the source code itself

I think that getting lots of modding experience under your belt is definitely the best way to start. By modding at such an early stage, you'd have already put yourself ahead of many other developers. I think creating an entire game is a little ambitious what with little experience.

 

[Zersy]

You know as i am in my second year in high school, teacher was telling us that we should prepare for our job for when we leave and i want to be come a game designer and hopefully be creating my own game ideas within years after but i dont know where to start,
with the price crunch thing money is a tight subject, so does anyone know any game software that will teach me and maybe let me create my own games?

i know the best place.............. go get LittleBIGPlanet!!!!

 

[MGG=REVIEWS]

Ok, my laptop wont run half life and it is alot better to get it on the 360
but i have over 300GB of memory to run any game creating software but the graphics aren't that good

 

[J-Man]

Ok, my laptop wont run half life and it is alot better to get it on the 360

You can only properly mod on PC, I suggest you upgrade ASAP.

 

[worstknightmare]

you could try making some flash games, get a version of macromedia flash and start trying to learn some actionscript, I heard that its close to C++ programing language which is used heavily in programing most games. Plus you can get your name out there already if your flash games are good, people might recognize your name from one of your flash games.

 

[MGG=REVIEWS]

C++ i downloaded it before, it was abit hard to understand...kinda waired i know how to program website using HTML (basic) but don't know how to understand C++ language

 

[MGG=REVIEWS]

Ok, my laptop wont run half life and it is alot better to get it on the 360

You can only properly mod on PC, I suggest you upgrade ASAP.

It isn't my laptop that the problem..it's vista

 

[curlycrouton]

I have a question, how old are you? I'm not being rude, but I can get a better picture of what you need to do.

You want to design games? Don't we all.
That's why, although it may not seem it with companies such as EA, only the best can do it.
If you are serious about this, you're going to have to put a lot of time and money into it, make no mistake. You've got to be good at PCs in general (If you're a console gamer, you need to buy a PC as well, it's an essential for a games designer of any platform), and creative. There's plenty of courses at plenty of good colleges and universities, take a look around, see what suits you. You'll need to take one. After that, you could probably get an apprenticeship or go to work somewhere small, see how it all pans out, and then who knows from there?
Oh, and one more thing, start with Flash.

Good luck with your career!

 

[MGG=REVIEWS]

13, i need to start with basic rather than flash, i dont want to start a carrer yet pretty amazing if i do i just need some XP under my belt and then i will move onto bigger things

 

[Baby Tea]

13, i need to start with basic rather than flash

Not to be rude, or to put a wet blanket into the conversation, but you need education. Not a 'teach yourself this or that' type of education either. I know a lot of people personally, as well as myself, who learned a lot through self taught 'screwing around' and reading books and such on the subject, but nothing beats an actual education in the field.

You want to program games? Learn C++.
C++ too hard right now? Heck, start with the scripting tools that come with Neverwinter Nights or something.
Or learn Flash! You may think it's useless or not what you want to do, but learning one programming language will make understanding another easier. Not a breeze, but easier.

I put bold on your age, because it made me chuckle. Not in a 'you suck' sort of way (not at all) but in a 'Ahh, I remember...' sort of way. I wanted to get into 3D animation so bad at that age. The school I was at had only 2 copies of 3D Studio Max, but it wasn't used for any classes. So I got into it for extra credit and fell in love. I KNEW (at the time) that's what I wanted to get into!

Then, of course, time passes and so do ideas and what I think I want to do.

I'm not saying you won't ever be involved in this industry (It certainly could happen), but what I am saying is that it takes a good amount of education, but even more dedication and time. You're 13. Which, despite what you may think, is crazy young. If you're into it, you've got the time to one-up those who get into it later then you, but you've really got to work hard. It ain't going to be a cake walk.

I really do wish you the best, but hear me out: Education. Dedication. Time. You'll need 'em all.

EDIT: So my post is just a longer version of Curly Crouton's post. But that doesn't make my, or his, post any less valid!

 

[MGG=REVIEWS]

Ok...but how do i learn C++ script and does any game that i could mod for starting

 

[MagikMystery]

The program that first got me into writing computer games was called The Games Factory, it was great because it let you make resionably good games easily and without writing any code at all (it had a system where there was a big grid and you put in conditions then said how it affected all the other objects on the level, i.e. when bullet collides with player then -5 from player health and create blood at the players position, etc.) Of course this was about 10 years ago but I checked and the company which made it are still arround and they've made a sequel and also lots of other programs. Also I think the demo is free and it's basicly the whole program except you can't make the .exe files for other people to play it (you can obviously still play it yourself and you can also just get otther people to play it on your computer).

The website is http://www.clickteam.com/eng/index.php and I would strongly reccomend downloading the games factory 2 and trying it out. Learning a programming language is somethong you'll have to do eventually of course but this will be much more fun and you'll get results almost straight away. It's also a hell of a lot easier than learning a programming language.

Hope this helps.

And by the way, I'm currently studying computer science at Uni (Cambridge to be precise ).

Edit: Also, I agree with Baby Tea in that you need a lot of education, dedication and time to do this, which is also another reason why the link I suggested is a good idea, it can help you decide wheather you really want to persue this further.

 

[MGG=REVIEWS]

how do i download it?

 

[Baby Tea]

Ok...but how do i learn C++ script and does any game that i could mod for starting

Grab a game that comes with an SDK or tools for modding or has them available.

Half Life 2
Oblivion
Fallout 3 will eventually release their toolset (The PC'ers hope)
Neverwinter Nights (1 or 2)

And I'm sure their are more. I haven't been too deep into the PC games in a while.

As for C++, since you might be too young to get into a local community college night class (Maybe not! I'd say check it out if you can), pick up something simple (Maybe C++ for dummies or something...check online reviews of beginner books) and go at it. Don't expect to be awesome at it right away, and don't expect it to be easy. It takes a while. Like learning an instrument and doing advanced math.

EDIT: MagikMystery's advice is great if you're looking for something more on the simple side right now. Were I you, I'd probably heed his advice before mine.