So I want to make a game

[him over there]

Hey everybody. Nice to see you, you all look great. Have you lost weight? New shoes?

Anyway on to the topic at hand. I'm sure many of us have wanted to make a game before, if not simply for the fact that we want to get involved in the medium we love. I was wondering what kind of tools are out there that I could use to pursue this little pipe dream I have.

Now I know there are programs like game maker and game salad that are a sort of drag and drop pre package program but I'd like to go beyond that. A programming language like C++ or Java. I have nearly no experience with programming but I've got the internet at my fingertips so I could figure something out.

What I'd like to know is what kind of programming language is most easily accessible to newcomers? Where can I acquire a copy of it? If anybody who does work with this would be willing to help I'd be very grateful.

 

[aattss]

I'd recommend you ask here:
http://www.gamedev.net/page/index.html

Well, actually, people have already asked it too many times there.

I would recommend TheNewBoston too. They have a lot of videos on both Java, C#, and C+, as well as 15 on C. By the way, I'd recommend you start on either C# or Java.

 

[him over there]

I'd recommend you ask here:
http://www.gamedev.net/page/index.html

Well, actually, people have already asked it too many times there.

I would recommend TheNewBoston too. They have a lot of videos on both Java, C#, and C+, as well as 15 on C. By the way, I'd recommend you start on either C# or Java.

Thanks for the tips! I really appreciate it. Is TheNewBoston a site? I'm asking simply because you haven't linked to it.

 

[Joey Bolzenius]

Game art

Gimp is a great, free program almost identical to Photoshop used for textures of all kinds.
http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

Maya is used for a modeling and animating 3d objects characters, environments, vehicles anything you want to create. Used a ton for game art.
http://usa.autodesk.com/maya/

If you are a student Autodesk lets you use Maya unrestricted for 3 years along with other 3D programs like 3DS Max.

 

[him over there]

Game art

Gimp is a great, free program almost identical to Photoshop used for textures of all kinds.
http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

Maya is used for a modeling and animating 3d objects characters, environments, vehicles anything you want to create. Used a ton for game art.
http://usa.autodesk.com/maya/

If you are a student Autodesk lets you use Maya unrestricted for 3 years along with other 3D programs like 3DS Max.

Thanks for the references, however since I'm incredibly new to this I was thinking that 2 dimensional gameplay would be far more accessible for the time being. I also have a copy of gimp already that I make [sub]terrible looking[/sub]gif.s with. Do you know any other programs that might be more my speed?

 

[aattss]

I'd recommend you ask here:
http://www.gamedev.net/page/index.html

Well, actually, people have already asked it too many times there.

I would recommend TheNewBoston too. They have a lot of videos on both Java, C#, and C+, as well as 15 on C. By the way, I'd recommend you start on either C# or Java.

Thanks for the tips! I really appreciate it. Is TheNewBoston a site? I'm asking simply because you haven't linked to it.

His website is at http://thenewboston.org/

 

[him over there]

I'd recommend you ask here:
http://www.gamedev.net/page/index.html

Well, actually, people have already asked it too many times there.

I would recommend TheNewBoston too. They have a lot of videos on both Java, C#, and C+, as well as 15 on C. By the way, I'd recommend you start on either C# or Java.

Thanks for the tips! I really appreciate it. Is TheNewBoston a site? I'm asking simply because you haven't linked to it.

His website is at http://thenewboston.org/

Thanks again. This looks like the exact kind of thing I'm looking for.

 

[DrNeroCF]

Start with Flash. AS2 is super easy to learn, and most importantly, is easy as can be to distribute and show off, and has a massive established community.

 

[him over there]

Start with Flash. AS2 is super easy to learn, and most importantly, is easy as can be to distribute and show off, and has a massive established community.

I've heard flash is simple but also that the program itself is unreliable and crashes often. Never the less considering the amateur stuff you can find on newgrounds it seems like an accessible starting point. Do you know where I could get a copy?

 

[Mr. GameBrain]

Hmmm...

I would suggest a lot of things here, but to be honest I don't follow my own advice when it comes to making games!

(I haven't made anything close to a game in years!)

I will suggest trying to find a nice Game Design book, something to make you aware of the fundamentals.

And get yourself a nice paper pad to put down your ideas.

Infact, I had a massive post on the GOG forum recently detailing all of that so I might post it later.

As for software, there is Game Maker and Construct, (for the basic stuff (good if you are not a very good coder like me! XD)). You've got Unity, Java, Flash and Python as well as good starting points.

If you specifically want to make Adventure games Adventure Game Studio (AGS) and the Wintermute engine are great starting points.


Make sure whatever you are doing is SMART, or else its probably not worth doing, (or at least until later on).


And try to keep it as simple as possible, (at least to start with). Avoid the Feature Creep.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well if you actually want to make a game happen then I suggest you go for an existing engine, building things from scratch is admirable but on your own it will take you years to make something usable, meanwhile other people already figured all that shit out so rely on their work.

You get Unity, Unreal, Source, and Cryengine development kits for free (and probably many others), then when your work is ready to be sold you pay for the distribution license (~$100)

 

[Tallim]

Game art

Gimp is a great, free program almost identical to Photoshop used for textures of all kinds.
http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

Maya is used for a modeling and animating 3d objects characters, environments, vehicles anything you want to create. Used a ton for game art.
http://usa.autodesk.com/maya/

If you are a student Autodesk lets you use Maya unrestricted for 3 years along with other 3D programs like 3DS Max.

Thanks for the references, however since I'm incredibly new to this I was thinking that 2 dimensional gameplay would be far more accessible for the time being. I also have a copy of gimp already that I make [sub]terrible looking[/sub]gif.s with. Do you know any other programs that might be more my speed?

Tile Studio is quite useful as is Paint .NET if Gimp gives you headaches. Although if you are thinking about the graphics before you get a reasonably good base game you are doing it wrong.

http://tilestudio.sourceforge.net/ - Tilestudio
http://www.getpaint.net/ - Paint .NET

I use Blender for my 3D design, it's free and quite powerful. But expect a long learning period. It has a massive user base and there are tutorials for almost everything out there.

http://www.blender.org/

and for texturing I use MapZone, also free but it can be used to make some incredibly good procedural textures but it has little in the way of documentation or tutorials. It has some examples bundled with it that let you look at how they were set up.
It can also be used to produce normal maps and such.

http://www.mapzoneeditor.com/


Programming language is really up to you but Java or C# are pretty solid choices. Whichever language you pick you *must* learn the basics correctly. It took me years to learn to code from scratch because I tried to jump into "fun" stuff quickly and that is a frustrating path to take I can tell you.

Once you do get onto game programming though I suggest SFML. SFML is a library for OpenGL rendering that is designed specifically with 2D games in mind. It's simple to setup and handles a lot of the complex stuff behind the scenes but you can also mix and match with proper OpenGL calls if you need more control.


As someone has previously mentioned Unity3D is pretty fantastic if you are doing something 3D. I've recently started using it and I'm quite impressed with it.


Overall the best advice is to just get started, realise you aren't going to churn out a masterpiece for a while and try to have fun with it.

 

[Ljs1121]

Actually, I just got a haircut. Thanks for noticing!

I don't actually have any advice, I just wanted to say that.

Um... follow your dreams and don't let anybody tell you you can't do it. Also, when and if you come up with a rough draft, listen to constructive criticism and try to improve upon noticeable flaws. Who knows? One day we all might be playing Call of Duty: Alien Warfare 37X with guest designer him over there.

 

[aattss]

Start with Flash. AS2 is super easy to learn, and most importantly, is easy as can be to distribute and show off, and has a massive established community.

It should be noted that Flash functions very differently from most programming languages (i.e. Java, C#).

Well if you actually want to make a game happen then I suggest you go for an existing engine, building things from scratch is admirable but on your own it will take you years to make something usable, meanwhile other people already figured all that shit out so rely on their work.

You get Unity, Unreal, Source, and Cryengine development kits for free (and probably many others), then when your work is ready to be sold you pay for the distribution license (~$100)

It is not wise to make a game from scratch. Still, the language itself should be learned first in order to get the hang of it. Also, 3D is not something you should aim to achieve without a 3D artist.

 

[vyarthrot]

Hey everybody. Nice to see you, you all look great. Have you lost weight? New shoes?

Anyway on to the topic at hand. I'm sure many of us have wanted to make a game before, if not simply for the fact that we want to get involved in the medium we love. I was wondering what kind of tools are out there that I could use to pursue this little pipe dream I have.

Now I know there are programs like game maker and game salad that are a sort of drag and drop pre package program but I'd like to go beyond that. A programming language like C++ or Java. I have nearly no experience with programming but I've got the internet at my fingertips so I could figure something out.

What I'd like to know is what kind of programming language is most easily accessible to newcomers? Where can I acquire a copy of it? If anybody who does work with this would be willing to help I'd be very grateful.

Most game companies use C++, maybe with python scripts or other languages running in the background. Moreso because the bindings for OpenGL and DirectX are aimed at C++ (altho Im pretty sure you can do just as much Direct3d stuff in C#) but ya for game programming, C++ is the MAIN language.

With C# http://csharp.net-informations.com you can develop for quite a bit more these days, and there are some amazingly great engines out there programmed in it for sure. Both of these are good languages for game programming, if you are targeting only Windows/Xbox platforms then you will especially have reason to lean toward C#.

Throt.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Before you ever start considering programming languages, you need to consider what game you want to make. What language, or engine, or whatever you will be using will be dictated in part by the scale and requirement of your project. For example, a game like Bejeweled and a game like Unreal Tournament require vastly different scales and begin points. Once you have some idea of how big your game is and what kinds of features (graphics, multiplayer, physical input (controller, keypad, etc.), etc.) you want then you can start considering what sort of resources you need to gather. In a simple game your resources could be as small as yourself, an internet article and a few hours, in a big project it could millions of dollars and hundreds of designers. I'd suggest yo go look up what a game design document is and how it is written as it will give you an idea of what things you need to consider. Once that's done, and probably after you have written down some notes on things, I think everyone here will be able to help you a little bit better as its difficult for us to say anything without knowing what you want to do.

 

[lechat]

if you want to make some epic big budget thing your only choice is gonna be c++

Whichever language you pick you *must* learn the basics correctly. It took me years to learn to code from scratch because I tried to jump into "fun" stuff quickly and that is a frustrating path to take I can tell you.

take note of this. i done the same thing and trust me learning to script complex events before you even know how to write "hello world" is just gonna end up setting you back in the long term

if you want to get your feet wet then unity is a great choice. it's really starting to take off in the casual game scene and in a few years time i'd bet money it's gonna do to flash what flash done to shockwave and java, that is to say make it near non-existant