I want to start making my games, where should I start?

[Ronald Nand]

My Uni Break started this week, I'll have a lot of free time for a couple of months, so this is a perfect time for me start learning how to develop and create my own games.

Currently I want to make something small and simple to start, something I could upload on Kongregate or something, I might decide to make an Indie game if I'm actually good at making games. I don't have a team, its just me and I don't have any experience in terms of art and music, so I want something with some stock graphics and music. I have some basic 100 level programming skills, I understand, conditionals, loops and arrays.

I have a game I want to make but its probably going to difficult to make with the unique selling point being possessing enemies, so that sounds like something I have to code myself.

I want to make games, I feel like its the only creative thing I'm going to be any good at, but I don't know where to start. Can anyone give me some recommendations like what programs to use, what languages to learn etc.

Edit: I should point out that I want to start with a 2D game, top-down, side-scroller or isometric. I want to build up to 3D if I feel 2D is limiting my potential.

 

[DeadpanLunatic]

Twine [http://twinery.org/] doesn't do what you're asking for, but it's a great place to start in general, and even if you don't plan on making any sort of interactive fiction, it's still a great tool for quickly plotting out any sort of narrative you might want to include, and for going like "This scene links to this and then this links to this. Bam, got it."

I think that, in general, unless you have a really, really specific idea that you definitely one-hundred percent want to realize, you should start off by letting your current skills determine what you are going to make, rather than deciding what you're going to make and then spending hundreds or thousands of hours trying to pick up the specific skills you need to make that, because ideas are a dime a dozen, and odds are you're going to have another one along the way and end up chasing that instead. It's good to have something you want to work towards in the long run, but in the interest of actually ever finishing a game, you probably want to go for something that you can finish with the skills and knowledge you have right now, plus a little bit.

I know practically nothing about actual coding, so take all this with heaps and heaps of salt, but in your case GameMaker [https://www.yoyogames.com/studio] might be a good thing to look at (Spelunky was made in this, so was Hotline Miami, Gunpoint, and most of Vlambeer's games). If you're certain you want to do 3D eventually and have a bit of coding experience, maybe going straight for Unity [http://unity3d.com/] works too.

Super specific advice here, eh? I hope your attempts at development end up fruitful, and if you need some motivation along the way, the Idle Forums have a community [https://www.idlethumbs.net/forums/forum/38-game-development/] of similar first-timers.

Best of luck.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Twine I really wouldn't bother with unless the only thing you are doing is a scrolling novel.

GameMaker: Studio is a decent start, but it is intended for people with no coding ability or any other knowledge. So while that gets you started quickly you also run into walls very quickly where you could do much more but need to work around the engine constraints rather then doing what you wanted.

I would advise Construct 2 as a sort of intermediate starting point. If you follow any guide you will have a basic game and tool understanding within hours. And from that point on you can expand however you want, within 2D anyway.

Once you got a grip on how things are put together with games start also using Unity which will offer the full range of 2D-3D with very comparable tool sets.

Obviously you also need audio and image editors as a start (Audacity and GIMP will do all the tricks for free), and the coding languages will always depend on the tool, every dev sets up their own adoption of popular known languages so you need to adapt in every case.
Most importantly of all is less talking more working, no matte how long an wide our descriptions you will not know these tools until you use them so start doing that now, like right this instance.

 

[CrystalShadow]

I... Don't really know what to advise...

Aside from... Just find a tool you're comfortable with, and start doing something.

I mean, on paper, I have about 15 years experience at game development. Everything from 2d artwork, to 3d modelling, to hardcore 3d engine programming and stuff...

In reality, I only have theoretical knowledge, and have nothing practical to show for it.

Why? Because I never actually spend the time to practice and put things together.

If you actually want to make games, make some.

Even if they're terrible, you'll learn far more of value than if you just study a whole lot of theory.

 

[Ronald Nand]

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Thanks for the replies, sorry for the late reply, I was waiting for more posts. I've downloaded GameMaker and Unity in advance, so I think, I might try out GameMaker and Construct and then move up to Unity when I'm ready. I think I'll start out by making some smaller games that represent parts of the larger game I want to make.