Making my own video game: Where to start?

[DragonXVI]

C to C++ is a good jump, but since working with C# I've realised how incredibly chaotic C++ is :p

Reguards to another aspect of game programming, there's often a lot of maths/geometry involved for things like Movement/Collision Detection.  Granted Clickteam hides all this away but if you're interested it's worth brushing up on your Vector Math (Metanet's N has some good tutorials bit they may be a tad advanced, failing that there's sure to be plenty of that on the web)

http://oos.moxiecode.com/ also links to some decent tutorials on tile based flash games if you know a little actionscript

http://www.clickteam.com/eng/tgf2.php For the Games Factory 2. Not too dissimilar to Torque's 2D Game Engine, but possibly a little easier to use (Never used Toque myself, but I'd recommend downloading as many demos of these things as you can and trying each out)

[wwarnick]

I started with QBasic, text-only.  My first graphic was a hardcoded smiley face (each pixel with its own PSET call) that you could move around with the arrow keys.  I had tried to pick up C++ and DirectX since, but I wasn't quite ready for it yet.  Since then, I've learned VB, Java, and C#.  A year and a half ago I discovered XNA, which is what I'm using today.  The first app I made with it was a boat race screensaver (a line of boats race around the screen).  I've since learned a ton of what goes into a video game.  XNA allows you to pass over some of the nitty-gritty details and get straight to the game without sacrificing too much capability.  And it's great for sprite-based 2D.

XNA is C#-only (I believe).  C++ is best performance-wise, but in my mind performance isn't a worry for newb indie devs like you and me, so C# is plenty good.  C# trades performance for convenience (less coding) and increased stability (less user-errors on the dev's part).  It's easier, but that doesn't mean it's a toy.  Unless you're a mainstream game developer, the tradeoffs are small (aside from OS portability).

If you're looking to dive a little deeper than flash or Clickteam, but not straight into C++ and DX or GL, I'd highly recommend C# and XNA.  Note, however, that XNA (and C# for that matter) is Windows-only.  Nevertheless, I find that a small price to pay for such a great tool, especially for an amateur like myself.  Anyway, good luck with your efforts.

wwarnick

[StephenAnthony]

Well, I started making my own game about 8 or 9 months ago... The first thing you're going to want to do to get started is decide what game you're making. Each type of game requires different things, so it's best to know that first. Are you making a game like Aquaria, Breath of Fire or F-Zero? How ambitious are you willing to be? Do you have experience with this kind of thing already?

What are you good at? What do you enjoy?

Try to come up with a solid concept with a lot of details. Make yourself look like a pro. The more planning you have under your belt when you first get started, the less likely you'll get halfway through something before you realize it can't be done the way you're trying it.

Then you'll need to think about team members. Are you able to solo it? If not, what sort of resources do you need? Will you have to pay for them? Can you program, draw, make music? If not, who can you find to help you with those things and how much will it cost?

For me, I knew right away I would need a LOT of artwork, programming and music that I wasn't able to make myself. I picked up some extra hours at work so I could afford what I needed, then I started asking every person who seemed talented that I could. Be warned, it could take you DOZENS of tries before you pick up a full team you're happy with. It took me almost 7 months to get my team together. Just try and be patient and don't get discouraged if it's more difficult than you might have anticipated.

The creators of Aquaria were lucky they fit so well together and, between just the two of them, they could do everything they needed. That's rare and it's why games that come out as well as Aquaria are rare. My team is 7 people, including myself.

That's how you get started, I think. Decide what you want to do, figure out how to make it happen and then do everything in your power to get the ball rolling. The first few months are some of the hardest when you're starting out from scratch. ANTICIPATE that so you don't lose hope right at the beginning.

Patience is the name of the game here. Don't rush ANYTHING. One of the wisest things I've ever heard is "More speed, less haste." Remember that when you're getting started. Impatience will kill you ever time.

[Altercator]

Hi there!

I'm thinking of recreating that arcade feel of shoot-em-ups like Raiden. Is there an engine or program that I can find?

The best I can do for now is drawing. Is it enough, or are there any more I should learn?

[Toom]

You can't make a dang game just by drawing! There's plenty of sound advice in this thread already, but I'll reiterate my personal preference for Clickteam's stuff, which is intuitive, easy to get into, and pretty much perfect for arcade shooters if you just wanna make a fun little game without learning an asston of code.

[bloodrain]

I hate to barge in butttttttttttttttttttttt.... I'm interested in making a mmorpg similar to runescape me and about 5 or 6 of my friends have been working on storylines and art the last few months but none of us can script and i need a nice program that'll do it for me because....well frankly i don't have the time/patients to learn to use c++. So can you help me out any at all?
 

[Alec]

I hate to barge in butttttttttttttttttttttt.... I'm interested in making a mmorpg similar to runescape me and about 5 or 6 of my friends have been working on storylines and art the last few months but none of us can script and i need a nice program that'll do it for me because....well frankly i don't have the time/patients to learn to use c++. So can you help me out any at all?
 

My first tip: Don't make an MMORPG.

It'd be way better for you and your friends to do something you can finish in say a few months, rather than a few years. (if even) Especially if you don't want to learn programming.

FYI Its become kind of a running joke on game development forums to see people coming in wanting to make an MMORPG and generally having no idea how to do it. Here's an example of such a thread.

[Alphasoldier]

*wipes spit of face*

Try making another awesome game, and I wonder why you come here in all with a 3D MMORPG while this is a 2d game, not online, not massive multiplayer and has a total of NOTHING to do with Aquaria.

[Alec]

Well I guess its because we're independent developers and we've been there in a sense.

I tried to make a console style RPG for the longest time. Even that takes an incredible amount of time and dedication. I never managed to finish making it. So imagine how much more work it would be to do an MMORPG.

[ancestral]

You should really focus more on the tools (guides, tutorials, references, real world examples, development environments, libraries, debuggers, etc.) rather than knowing the language. There's a reason why programmers have instruction books for their programming languages. They're really not just there for decoration or for sentimental value.

For kicks, this is the progression I learned languages in:


        HyperTalk (and essentially AppleScript)  •  BASIC (many varities)  •  Visual Basic  •  Java  •  C++  •  C  •  Perl  •  PHP


Yeah, I grew up on HyperCard. It was great. You could actually make some decent stack-based games. Hell, MYST was made in HyperCard!

If you can't tell, I love scripting languages. They are much win. (But, for making games, they are much fail.) Yeah, I should learn some Python. I'm so lazy. I guess that's next for me.

C and C++ are probably the best to know from a knowledge standpoint, as people have said before me, but ...


When creating games, I believe it's actually less about the languages you know and use and more about applying the tools for creating your work. What libraries do I need? What engine am I going to have? And, how do I use them? These are probably things best thought about even before choosing a language. And in some cases you may be programming in multiple languages, too.