I need some help, Game DevGAF.
I have no experience with anything game dev related. I know some basic stuff, but I don't know how to program anything, or make textures, or design levels or anything. But I really want to learn, because I just had an idea for a game that I really want to try to make. It will probably end up being not very good (especially because my idea is a bit too big for a first project), but I really want to try it. Can someone with no experience, like me, make a game? Is it something I can learn without taking classes or anything? I already have quite a few ideas written down for the game, mostly for the story and the basic gameplay concept.
Oh, and I'm actually taking a digital media course at my college right now, so I'll be learning the basics of audio and some stuff that may help.
It's daunting certainly, but if you're excited about the concept, go for it. There are a number of popular tools with great tutorials and resources available for anyone to start making something if they have the inspiration and dedication to a project.
I started an ambitious game myself late last summer. Two seasons later, the game is advancing faster than ever, although it's all still taken longer than I first pictured in my head, quite notably so.
Put walls around your design idea. Make sure you lay out the scope and focus of the game from the beginning. Sketch out the order in which you're going to do things (proof of concept -> character control / movement etc -> level / gameplay design -> prettifying -> sound design -> polishing. Something vaguely like that.
Commit to a schedule. It doesn't have to be crazy, but you aren't going to get far if you don't regularly work on the project. When you do, you're going to have a quickly building amount of work already done, which will really help you deal with the vast mountain of work left.
For me it's as simple as aiming to get something done every day. If I can get a puzzle done for my game, or if I can make good headway on a more detailed real world environment, then I'm feeling good about what I got done. Sometimes that's and hour. Sometimes that's my whole evening. I make sure I stop to eat, and I make sure I spend some time with my wife every day too, whether that's going out to the cinema, or helping with some chores or what have you.
After I'd built the first two levels of the game, I hit a bit of a wall building the first 'environment'. A theatre at the end of the second level. It's just something you walk through and look at, but the amount of work required compared to the abstract puzzle spaces my game is mostly made up from increased a lot, and I was putting in a lot of time without making much headway.
I was still working on it, but not particularly much. A tweak here. Creating an Android build there. Then a few months back I really started pushing forwards again. As I learnt more of the tools, I saw more possibility in what I could pull off, new puzzle ideas started flowing. After a month or two of hard work, I shared what I'd built with some people who'd seen the earlier stuff, and they all commented on being surprised at how much I'd gotten done.
In my head, this game has always been something about the size of the first Portal. Far from the longest game, but a game none the less. It's been a long journey so far and I'm not even halfway done with the puzzle design / environment building... but it's been incredibly rewarding. Learning a new system and putting it to use to bring something I've had in my imagination for months to life, its a wonderful feeling.
Seeing an idea that's been floating around in here for nearly half a year come to life, and *work*. Those are magical moments. Developing for the Oculus is constantly surprising as until you step in there, you really can't tell how something is going to feel or work, especially with a game like mine which is about limiting visual information.
And I've learnt so much already. Hell I don't think I learnt this much stuff this quickly at school.
Making a game seemed like something completely beyond me... seeing this start to come together... I'm proud of the dumbest stuff. That one block you can push that then opens a door felt like such a triumph for example, and I'd never even considered the game logic that went into something so simple.
Whether you make some free to release freebie like me, or whether you turn this into a career like many of the other posters in this thread, everyone starts somewhere, and I genuinely think now is a good time to start. An engine like Unity may be hard to get started with, but the number of platforms you can relatively easily target with it, and the fact you can start working for free is wonderful. If you want something higher end, its only $19 to try UE4 for a month.
For me, spending even $19 a month helps keep a fire under my ass. A month with little work done is a month where I wasted my money.
Kickstarter, Greenlight, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony indie developer programs... there's a lot of paper work and careful reading of contracts involved, etc, but they're all still great tools that indie gaming is better off for, which numerous people here on GAF have had great success with.
Sure, there are no guarantees in anything, but over the last few years it feels like the bedroom game designer, which used to be so common decades ago has made an impressive come back thanks to improving tools, the continued health of the PC platform and tablet and mobile gaming.
Go for it. I'm so glad I did, and I say that as I look at my game that's not even half finished. It
will be finished. Hopefully before the end of the year. And from there... I haven't really thought much about it. Hopefully people like it. Maybe I look into turning it into a product I'd be happy to put a price on. Maybe I look into porting it to the current gen consoles. Maybe I won't.
But I had an idea for a game I thought would be fun. Someone should make a game like this! That was my first thought. Proving to myself that I could be that someone has been as rewarding to me as proving to myself that I could write a novel was. Again, however the end result is received, it's been an enriching experience and I wouldn't trade in the end result of my work so far to get back the time I spent on it.
