Question

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First, this is the wrong section.

But I personally program games on the side. Note that I said "program" - I do not make graphics, and I occasionally make music.

Also note when I say "game", I am not referring to the big scale stuff (like PS3 games), but rather the small stuff, like flash games, mobile games, etc.

Making a game requires a few things:

1. The idea. Anyone can have this.
2. Code. You need a programmer (or programmers) to do this.
3. Graphics. You need to hire a graphic designer. Most people who are good at coding, are bad at artistic stuff - in my experience, they seem to be inversely proportional.
4. Music. You need someone who can compose music and record it - preferably digitally, with the aid of VSTs.

And this, unfortunately, is also included:

5. Marketing. If you want to make money, you need to market your game well. This means invading social networking mediums, investing money into banner advertising, and whatnot. This generally is done a good few months before a game is released - you want people to anticipate your game!

And here's the sad fact - rarely can anyone do all of these functions. In fact, some people just have the idea, and they hire freelance workers to make the game.

Now here's where I'm confused - you said you have ideas, and you said you want to design characters, scenery, and whatnot. If this is the case, I would say you'd be fit to be a graphic designer. In that field, I cannot help much. I know some of the graphic designers that I have worked with swear by Adobe Illustrator - vector graphics are really flexible, so most graphic designers prefer to use them for 2D graphics.

Have you ever coded anything before? I would really suggest against learning coding through games - you should be able to code well before you start even thinking about coding games.

 

Thankyou for your feedback. Like I said, I know nothing to where to begin, that's more than likely why I posted in the wrong section.

1. The Idea - I have already written a story-lined game start to end (Just need to fill in more story lines along the mid section of it)
2. Code - This is the one which I've never understood which I've wanted to look into to, hopefully learn further Knowledge on the ins and outs with Programming. But like you said, rarely they're is every anyone who covers all aspects and works as a team to cover it all.
3. Graphics - I've designed the whole map on a basic level, I started with a rough layout then I've gone further into it designing more in depth on what the map consists of such as forests, castles, swamps and such, but it's all birds eye view, and even though it's just the start, what I wanted to do from there for now design it on such software to give it the 3D outlook and such (But I don't know where to begin on this part!) My girlfriends sister is also an artist, she's going to be doing the characters and such but I still get confused on how all the Graphics works like the 3D Modelling and such. This is where I want to look into
4. Music - This is my strong aspect, I've taken two years education in Music Technology, I know my way around Software Sequences, I mostly use Ableton and sometimes Logic Pro. I've already came across a couple of music scenarios certain parts of the game, I've just mostly closed my eyes and visualized as I haven't been able to really take it any further than the Idea

5. Marketing - This is not a worry, I can cover the Marketing side easily as I have quite a couple of connections who could help me out if I came anywhere to making this game.

I have never coded anything before, and the reason I posted this is because I want to know all my research before hand, I'm not planning on making this game by a certain due date, but I've put a lot of time into designing the game and such and what story-lines would be put into it.

I want to go into something as similar as a career as-well though as I am passionate about it, I don't know if college courses cover any such help in these areas, but I just wanted to know what direction I need to be going in if I wanted to achieve such an ambition as I have.

I'm completely creative and like to think of the box, I'm coming close to finishing my last few months in my Music Technology course and I want to cover the actual game making side, I'm pretty lost for decisions at the minute, but I don't want to go into Music Production and such as a full time career, instead, something like game making. As you said I'd fit being a graphic designer, would it be worth concentrating more in that field and keeping away from the Coding side?

I'm not going to lie, I worry that some of the things I'm saying might not even make complete sense, this is why I want a bit of advice, I am passionate about this and I see it a bit like a 'Dream;' as such to fulfill. But I don't expect knowing absolutely nothing to begin with that I will be able to go and learn and create a game just like that, this is why I want the knowledge and advice on what steps I'd haft to take and where to go in, I'm looking at the software's now and I'm trying to make a bit of sense out of it myself, I've never covered anything like this before so I have no knowledge about it.

Also, If this fits a different section, please could it be moved there as I am a bit clueless of where this should be.

Thankyou

 

It's nice to be a big dreamer. I said it's rare to find people who can do all those things, but definitely not impossible. You've already got music down. You seem to have that artistic nature - so perhaps learning graphic design won't even pose a problem for you.

What I suggest is trying to make your games on a simple level first, then reaching the big stuff. To be honest I cannot give advice on making stuff like 3D games, as I certainly have no expertise on the subject. I make mostly mobile games (and with a business mentality behind the entire process). But it seems you want to make an RPG of somewhat? Perhaps RPG Maker would be a good place to start - it's a way to kind of put your ideas into the real world, and also let you enjoy the satisfaction that is associated with making games. Sure, it won't teach you how to code much, but it will teach you how to manage your project and your ideas - something that is super important for making huge games, such as RPGs. Hopefully, it can also motivate you to strive for bigger projects.

I use Unity and Game Maker to make my games, so I'm not always writing pure code myself, but these are only really useful for making small scale games (although some may argue against that for Unity). Again, I've only ever made 2D games, so I cannot help you with 3D, although I wish I can. What I can tell you is that generally, 3D design and animation is something that is difficult to study on your own and may require the aid of a technical school, or even college.

But I personally do not like the idea of actually majoring in graphic design. I would rather you go into computer science/software engineering simply for the sake that if your dreams of making games never come true, you'd still be a programmer at the end of the day, and can work in numerous, profitable fields. Of course, the same can be said about graphic design, but I find computer science/software engineering to be more reliable.

However, this is what I would do - and I most likely am not as ambitious as you are. If this is really what you want, then all I can do is hope that you succeed!

 

just youtube it

 

I would start by learning basic language, like pascal/html than got to C#, that's how i learned in school, and than javascript etc..

 

You can even do game in pascal, basic games, it's really easy and you can learn so quickly! give it a try (sorry couldn't edit the above post)

 

you can start learning from making an easy flash game.

 

I know exactly what you mean, I don't want to just come up with some major populated game, I want to start from the very beginning, maybe one day being part of a team that makes it and just share my ideas and such. The graphic design is just a hobby type of the such part of the game idea, I'd rather sketch basic ideas and have a qualified graphic designer professionalize the ideas and add their own inputs. Two years ago before I taken music I wanted to go into programming, but I found it difficult because I wasn't knowledgeable at it and didn't know where to start, I was also impatient at that time and probably wanted to just know it all at once, where as now I want to learn how to do it, read about it, then slowly learn how to programme and such.

Could I possibly get your skype please or something? I'd much appreciate it if you or somebody could help me out with the starting points on how to start with programming and such.

I have done, but I don't know what would be best for beginner level and such

I will research and start from the bottom thanks

Going to give it all a try and start now

Thank you everybody for the feedback!

 

Moved to programming since the very basic foundation of any video game is a programming language of your choice.

 

Thankyou, was wanting it to be moved into right section