Doing a game

[Noodle Lizard]

Right, I'm someone with no experience whatsoever of gamemaking.  I don't know code, have never done modeling, have only a very cursory knowledge of Photoshop and struggle to build a decent house on The Sims.  Nevertheless, I want to make games and don't want to put any effort into it.  Figure it out!

In all seriousness, I'm willing to put some effort in.  But if someone with my limited skills wanted to make something relatively simple like Gone Home or summat, how long do you think it'd take to get my game(yeah?) up to par, technology-wise?  Where would I even start?  I know you can get the game engines and all that, but I wouldn't know where to start.  Tell me where I'm supposed to start.  How long will it take?  Who wants to play my game?

[syntaxerror]

I'm willing to bet you've given up already.

[Noodle Lizard]

Aye, I think you can spot the exact point in my post where I gave up.

[Consignia]

I'd say Gone Home would be pretty difficult for a beginner. It's 3D for a start, that's quite a big hurdle at the beginning.

You can try the Unity Engine, which I think is excellent and easy to get into, but you'll find the complexities add up pretty soon.

Does Klik and Play still exist? That was a pretty nice game creation tool. 2D only, but it made games really quick to develop. Probably bit arcahic, but anyone know any recent equivalents?

[brat-sampson]

[Noodle Lizard]

I wouldn't mind at least starting out with 2D.  I'M NOT MAKING A MARIO GAME THOUGH THAT'S FOR BABIES.  Mine's going to be dark and have social impact yeah?

[Consignia]

Well, I would suggest looking at some of the Unity tutorials; it does 2D as well. I'm not sure it's really a beginner's tool, but the tutorials will get you producing something within a couple of hours.

[Noodle Lizard]

Has anyone here done a game?  Is it shit?  Let's have a play.

[MojoJojo]

Relevant thread: http://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,43051.0.html

[Noodle Lizard]

Ahh I give up it's too hard.  You reckon it's possible to write a game then hand it off to a bunch of mentally-ill bald peons to actually do the hard stuff?  Brilliant.  That's what I'll do.  How do you write a game script?

Jesus Christ, why does anyone do this?!

[biggytitbo]

I used to make games in flash, that was relatively easy.


I made a FUCKING AWESOME horse racing game, with quite a sophisticated probability engine powering it.

[El Unicornio, mang]

I made a text adventure with AMOS (Amiga software) when I was a kid. Didn't get much further than a picture I made in Deluxe Paint III of the cityscape, introducing your character (a ninja in New York) and "You are in an alley. Do you go E W S or N" and the text for each of those choices, before I got bored and made one of the choices "You walk through a doorway and find yourself in the Blue Oyster. You are raped to death by puffs. THE END".

Realised that making games was really hard and time consuming, so I sent the software back and got it exchanged for Mortal Kombat on the Megadrive (back in the day when you had to put a handwritten note in with the parcel and a cheque for the difference).

[EFB]

Here's a few seconds of gameplay from a game i'm working on in my spare time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anWPGdhSZW0

[MojoJojo]

After CaB Game Jam didn't get many submissions, I did think about doing an Interactive Fiction one using something like Quest (http://textadventures.co.uk/quest) - it might fit the creative skills of CaB better. I haven't because I don't have any ideas, and it removes the one part I can do vaguely competently (programming).

[EFB]

After CaB Game Jam didn't get many submissions, I did think about doing an Interactive Fiction one using something like Quest (http://textadventures.co.uk/quest) - it might fit the creative skills of CaB better. I haven't because I don't have any ideas, and it removes the one part I can do vaguely competently (programming).

Sounds like a good idea! Apart from game in video up there ^^, I'm working on a text adventure engine for an idea I've had, but it's a 3D text adventure. Going to be... different.

[Rev]

If we're using Gone Home as an example then Unity really does seem like the best bet, with Blender for modelling what with it being free.  Obviously they're the sort of things that you'll always be learning more about, but you'll learn a lot by just knocking together something very simple.

So my suggestion of a place to start using that example is:  see if you can make a rudimentary model of a desk with a drawer in Blender, then whack that in Unity and get the drawer to open and close when you click on it.  Once you've done a little thing like that the whole business will make a lot more sense, and it should maybe take you a Sunday afternoon when you've got nothing else pressing.

[Eis Nein]

Tom Francis, who made Gunpoint and the imminent Heat Signature, made a youtube series about starting up with Game Maker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN6dZWXUEzA

Watch that or don't, I got places to be.

[hoverdonkey]

I'm teaching myself to make a game, but am starting with illustrating. Once I'm at a level I'm happy with, I'll start with the game bit. I suspect it will take me about 10 years.

[Noodle Lizard]

If we're using Gone Home as an example then Unity really does seem like the best bet, with Blender for modelling what with it being free.  Obviously they're the sort of things that you'll always be learning more about, but you'll learn a lot by just knocking together something very simple.

So my suggestion of a place to start using that example is:  see if you can make a rudimentary model of a desk with a drawer in Blender, then whack that in Unity and get the drawer to open and close when you click on it.  Once you've done a little thing like that the whole business will make a lot more sense, and it should maybe take you a Sunday afternoon when you've got nothing else pressing.

I got about three minutes into a tutorial before bellowing "FUCK OFF" at the screen and sulking like an infant.  It's really not for me, this sort of thing, I don't have the right mind for it.

All these ideas I have for the best game ever will just die in my brain, then.

[Hangthebuggers]

Try gamemaker or clickteam fusion 2.5 for 2d stuff. Unity can be a bit overwhelming.

I'm no expert mind you, I've just tinkered with some 2d stuff.

http://www.yoyogames.com/studio

http://www.clickteam.com/clickteam-fusion-2-5

--

For your sprites and graphics try:

http://www.humanbalance.net/gale/us/

http://www.piskelapp.com/

[Bored of Canada]

I MADE A TWINE GAME FOR CAB IN LIKE AN HOUR.

I can't remember why or where it is, but it's around.

[Noodle Lizard]

Right, I'm about three pages into a game script and it's really good guys who wants to make it for me.  I'm willing to go 20:80.