Have you ever tried to make a game?

[Squid Division]

I've been looking at getting into Unity. All I've done so far is watch a few tutorials and download the editor. They apparently offer online classes as intros, but they're always on weekdays when I'm at work. Damn timezones.

[I_smell]

This really helped me and is a great first lesson to Unity and C#.

[Lu]

http://walkerboystudio.com/html/unity_course_syllabus.html video tutorials

[Squid Division]

Thanks I_Smell and Poo for those tutorials. I watched most of the first two WUUG videos and I'm going through the Walker tutorial now. It's very thorough and I'm feeling pretty good about my chances of being able to pick it up. Problem is, it's not going to make me a better 2D or 3D artist.

[Donk]

Thanks I_Smell and Poo for those tutorials. I watched most of the first two WUUG videos and I'm going through the Walker tutorial now. It's very thorough and I'm feeling pretty good about my chances of being able to pick it up. Problem is, it's not going to make me a better 2D or 3D artist.

Don't get sucked in to making art and assets, it can be a huge time sink while developing and it will not further the games progress at all. It's fun to play with it but I really have to force myself to stick with placeholders to be able to get anywhere. I always tell myself I'll get some help with assets if the game turns out to be something I'd like to see through.

[Razor]

Again and again over more than 2 decades now. Started with the c64 like so many. I've started a lot of little projects, often I stopped when I had the basics down though - I was always more interested in the inner workings and mechanics than the actual game. Usually once I felt the game had the right feeling and the gameplay was what I wanted and then "only" had to start creating content (more than the minimum that I did while creating the framework of the game) I lost interest and moved on. I even did this with Neverwinter Nights. I mean I completed a couple modules in NWN but most the things I did where create a different type of gameplay within the limits of the game (while trying to extend those limits). For example I made a mod which played like thief (I think I spent 2 days trying to figure out how to make LOS work for npcs without making the CPU go kill itself) and one which was a persistent world with a skill based system - I hear there where a lot of those later on but I never played those, no idea how they worked. In my version you had a certificate like item in your inventory which the game used to determine your level of a given skill like fishing or chopping wood or whatever. Both mods only had two maps where I played around and tested everything. I also tried to reenact the original Diablo where the interesting part to me was random loot (which wasn't in NWN). Making my own loot tables was incredibly fun I thought, really cool to be able to balance that kind of thing in a game and see it work it's magic. I can't remember though how many of the original 16 levels I then implemented. I did a slideshow intro with Terminator 2 music for the game though which was pretty horrible but it was one thing I never did before (making a video) so I had to try.

The last game I completed to finish was a vertical scrolling 2d shooter with an upgrade system (although I never really played it I think r-type had a similar one). It had 2 levels with an endboss and ran on windows & 360 (and I made an effort to make both control schemes feel good.)

Here is a lame screenshot where you can almost see nothing going on at the moment: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/28489/screenshot.jpg

It's not the last game I worked on, that one is in limbo now for a couple years now - it's a combination of asteroids and bomberman for up to 4 players. I had some real trouble with the physics since I didn't use any existing frameworks. Maybe I should have just left drifting out of the game for now, it was already in a pretty playable phase last time I worked on it.

The most important things if I want to complete a game have been, use existing stuff (programming frameworks, engines or even just mod an existing game, existing assets like graphics / music / sound from legal free sources on the net) and set realistic goals. I did this in my free time and when I knew I could do this or that in 2 weeks of working on it every night it meant in reality I would need 2 months. Also important in the realistic deparment to me was to have a list of the important things for a finished game - over the course of each development I come up with a million things I could or should do and so I started to make a feature list for the 1.0 and the 1.1 version with everything not vital going to 1.1. It is so good a feeling when you reach that 1.0, I really would recommend doing it that way.

[I_smell]

Oh- yeah if you wanna make a game, make like a one level scrolling shooter or a breakout clone or something.

Accept going in that your first game is gonna suck, because everyone's does*, and just make it for the sake of learning how to do things. Then when you start Game #2 it'll be a way more painless experience setting things up and you can have fun adding things and free-styling stuff ontop of it.

Trying to make something that even resembles your favourite SNES or arcade game out of your first, or second, or third try is a bad road. It won't get finished and you'll just get frustrated and won't have fun.

ONCE YOU'VE MADE A COUPLE games, it's a good idea to always make something different aswel. I've never made a sequel to anything, and it's helped me so much to always make something I'm not 100% good at yet. I know one guy who made a bunch of adventure games, and then made like 7 sequels to one of em. They're popular, but that guy can't find any work now cos all he can do is this one game type. It so bugs me to see people starting out making sequels to their first game.

*(unless you are that guy who made Dust: An Elysian Tale, or the guy who made Fez)

[stewmull]

A friend and I have been thinking about making a game as he is studying game desgin and I work as a mechanical engineer at an Oil company. I have been using 3D tools for 6 years so I would help him assets, themes etc. But we have never had any good ideas, the closest we game to getting started was a spaceship strategy game that worked like Starwars Empire at war's real time sapce battles.

[toblix]

Every time I like a game I imagine making something like it. The most fleeting and useless of all video game motivations, I know. Separately from those, my most frequently actually started and restarted game project is a Super Cars type top-down 2D racer. Obviously I start the wrong way by attacking the core physics of it, and after a short while (half an hour to a week) I lose motivation because I know that, hey, I'm not actually going to make a game, so why waste my time, right? Then I go to reddit and see if something new has come up.

I've had some adventure game ideas too, but they're mostly based around environments and maybe some abstract puzzle ideas I would like, but even then I give up half-way through some awful Fate of Atlantis style background or grid-paper schematic. If I had the endurance and determination of a real indie game developer, I could probably make a fun little game in Flash or Unity or on a canvas element. Alas, the world will never play my games.

[Jaraknarn]

But we have never had any good ideas, the closest we game to getting started was a spaceship strategy game that worked like Starwars Empire at war's real time sapce battles.

When you get that built, let me know. Maybe merge it ever so sllightly with Sins of a Solar empire? Which essentially Empire at War 2 but with worse ship combat.

[stewmull]

When you get that built, let me know. Maybe merge it ever so sllightly with Sins of a Solar empire? Which essentially Empire at War 2 but with worse ship combat.

I never tried sins, i might check it out before we get started

[Ben X]

I've had some adventure game ideas too, but they're mostly based around environments and maybe some abstract puzzle ideas I would like, but even then I give up half-way through some awful Fate of Atlantis style background or grid-paper schematic.

Not sure if this is what you mean, but if you have a good AG idea that you want to make but can't bring yourself to do the legwork on, you could always post on the AGS forums and see if any programmers and artists want to make it with you.