Making games?

[Guest Abner]

Does anyone else here enjoy making games? That is, game programming, game artwork, or game music?

I'd like to try making a game or two myself, and I have very basic experience in programming (loops and objects...) along with some art skills. Would anyone else be interested, if I can get my butt in gear?

[Guest Risu]

Not sure what all would be involved, but I am a decent if not somewhat slow artist and a decent creative writer. I also have friends who are pretty good at writing and one who colors beautifully digitally. Sadly none of us know anything about programming and the like for games. If you'd like to talk about it more feel free to PM me

[Guest Maia42]

Oh, god. I've always wanted to design a game. But I cant program at all, and I have no drawing/sketching skills........ so i cant help you much. :/

lol, i was pretty good at making little big planet levels, they were really well put together, but ugly as sin....

[Guest Robin Winter]

I don't create games, but I do occasionally create game content. I've been modding Torchlight most recently, and I've made mods for Morrowind, Oblivion and Fable:TLC.

I've done some scripting, but no actual programming.

[Guest Abner]

Oh, god. I've always wanted to design a game. But I cant program at all, and I have no drawing/sketching skills........ so i cant help you much. :/

What kind of game do you want to design? Do you have any ideas as to what would happen in it, or how it would work?

[Guest Jo-I-Dunno]

I dream of being a game developer off and on. I even made a successful mod for Unreal Tournament when I was 16 (Google-search UT2D). It's a lot of hard work. Basic programming experience doesn't generally cut it. Keep in-mind it takes dozens if not hundreds of people to make most commercial-quality games nowadays.

That's changing with more casual games, though. Look at the thousands of 99-cent games for iOS devices. Hobbyists have a better chance at pulling off something like that, especially if you use middleware like Unity or cocos2d. Actually, if you REALLY REALLY want to make a game, I recommend learning how to use one of those two.

I'd be making a game myself if I didn't have a mere 2 hours of free time a day on average.

Oh, and one last piece of advice. Self-imposed obligations are the worst because if you don't fulfill them, you're the one punishing yourself. Keep it light and your goals realistic, and don't feel bad if you don't meet those goals or, what happens with me mor soften than not, give up.

[Guest Abner]

Yeah, I suppose it would be a lot of work. But that's okay, I like things that are a lot of work with a lot of attention to so-tiny details.

I made a game before, actually, though just a text-based thing with no real plot of any kind. It was something I did for an English class to explore the habit of decisiveness or indecisiveness. I had my friends test it and everything. It was a pretty cool micro-project, but I'd rather do something a little more "playable". Something with graphics and maybe even sound. And actual characters.

[Guest Cynthia Of Creation]

herse teh breakdown to make a ps3/xbox/wii kinda game

would cost about a quite a bit 500000+ to make coppies/distributation/copyright/etc

thats assuming your not paying your emplyess

if so 30000*100 thats 3million

but takes a lot of work too mind you many hours, Ive had many ideas to but sadly none probably will ever see life. but i do have ideas maybe ill turn afew like my female fourhorsemen into costumes! although at the current rate they probably will develop something like rpg maker, for ps2, hopefully it will be soon, It will be wonderful but it all takes a lot of work maybe when im in my 60's ill star making ky own games if im retired in my free time. who knows. i want to make it similar to gunz onlinestyle too.

games are expensive but if you make it for pc, Set up a paypall account, get a printer, photopaper, and disc you can print on/printer 1000 dollars, +50dollars will be +300random other stuff cost for production and distributation, but eventually someone could hack and distribute killing sales, but there is still time it takes for you to make it, and you still need money coming in. so you work in off time, and it could take up to what would be 4 to 5 years even for a ps2 quality due to lack of man power. and availbe work time.

and you still need the school for it, and it is quite a bit. even moding a current game takes a while let alone modding the hole game.

I''ve despratly tried making agame on my own. its time consuming. especailly when you need to tweak (cringes do I)

thats my own personal expierience, best of luck with you though,,, there are programs out to help make flashbase/and or/ 2d/non3d games

[Guest Abner]

Really? I thought I could probably make a game for very low cost as long as I registered any income with the government and distributed it through the internet, along with using tools on my computer to program it. Of course, it would still take a long time to make, but it would cost very little aside from my own living expenses.

[Guest CattalieChan]

Yeah, I am in to programming and game plotting and game music composing. The only problem I have is making good enough sprite files. That and I learned on visual basic, which is a good sttarter, but doesn't get you too far. I am in the process of learning xcode, and hopefully will get my own mac for graduation. It is best to be a mac programmer, because you only need to pay 100 a year to get published, as well as be a part of a helpful community.

[Guest Edu]

What kind of game are you aiming for?

If you want to create a 3D experience with a vast environment and the like, that will take a huge amount of manpower to pull off (aside from programming and design, thousands of 3D meshes need to be put together, and the amount of testing required goes sky high).

If you are aiming for something simple, take a look to some game engines available out there. From the top of my head:

- Ren'py: mostly aimed at visual novels, the engine provides an interface to most of SDL's features (except 3D stuff). It takes away the burden of coding an engine and interfacing into the hardware, so you can focus on the actual meat and flesh of the game. The main drawback is that it's limited to 2D; the strong points are that the engine is free and there is a big community out there providing support on the forums.

- Starcraft II's Editor: just take a look on youtube to get an idea of what can be achieved. The good thing is that you get a bunch of 3D stuff (models and sprites) ready to use; the bad things is that you need to buy SC2 and you can't sell your mods (part of the SC2 license agreement).

- RPG Maker: I don't even know if this is still under active development. It's a non-free tool, it's rather limited on terms of programming-logics, but it comes with a vast collection of ready-to-use artwork (and it also allows you to include your own). If your aim is a top-view RPG with FF-style combats, then this tool will work wonders. However, if you are trying anything else, it will be a pain to build it with RPGM.

Of course, if you are in for the tough approach, you can grab a C++ compiler (there are plenty to choose from), the OpenGL header files, and go all the way from there. The main advantage from this approach is that you can code anything you want. The main drawback is that you will have to code everything you want.

HTH,

Ethain

[Guest composercookie]

Hmm... I want to make a game too, and I'm 14.

I am experienced with vb6, and can work with c++. I am currently a programmer on eclipse touch of death production, which is a forum for the popular 2d mmorpg maker eclipse origin. I have no interest in 3d game, and enjoy 2d games more than anything. I have some pixel art work, as u can see, my profile picture is an example of my pixel art. I can compose music and write, I'm just a game developer in general.

[Guest Lani]

Yes, I do!!