I’m a 26 year old who has always enjoyed playing video games, have some great concepts and a wonderful sense of ambition… But unfornatly I have no experience with code, developing, or any of that jazz when determined I can teach myself anything, so my question still stands as the title sates. For someone with 0 knowledge about these things I’m asking the Community to please be as honest and helpful as possible. If this isn’t the program to use for a starting point if someone could please point me toward any sites or helpful material that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you and hope to get some replies.
Unity is fine to start out with. I would go to the learn section and start working through the sample projects and scripting section.
Note that art assets are normally created outside of Unity and imported in.
Thank you Mormon, I’ll keep that in mind. Also if anyone know if I need a super computer to run unity at peak performance or would a generic pc or laptop to the job?
Just about any system is capable of running Unity itself. Actual performance is completely dependent on the game you develop and there isn’t any real answer for that.
Don’t worry too much, use that time to learn Unity. I started at same age and I’m very glad I did. For starters there is Learn (or click on Learn on top of the page). The least you can do is have a look at it and try some of the tutorials, they are very easy to follow.
Thank all of you for the input, it is really appreciated. I’m looking forward to learning this tool and hopefully having more interactions with the community. Great welcome so far
Basically, Unity is like learning Assembly Code to write your games…
…Except like, a billion times easier, and with video tutorials.
Basically, it’s nothing like learning Assembly code to write your games.
If you don’t mind me asking, could you explain that further?
You’re welcome. Also, if you open a thread because you need help, don’t get discouraged when there aren’t any replies. You can still either rephrase the question you have, or try to find an answer in other places. I tend to prefer the latter because most problems are already solved by others, and it’s usually just a matter of using the right keywords to find solutions. The experience comes as long as you don’t give up. Good luck.
Well…erm…it was a joke…
Assembly Code is how old games for stuff like the NES and Sega Genesis were written. It’s very what we call “close to the metal” in that it’s almost directly giving instructions to the processor itself.
Today we use high level languages like C# in Unity, which are comparatively much more user friendly and pretty much allow you to do much more complex stuff much more easily, while being quite a bit more “human readable”, and in addition Unity allows you to do things like manipulate your scene directly through the editor, something the game designers of old could have only dreamed of.
Basically I’m saying it ain’t as bad as it used to be.
This. If you are developing a massive open world game with high fidelity graphics you will need a system capable of running the game and then some. However as a beginner on your own any machine will be able to run what you can produce.
Awesome, once again thank you to everyone for pointing me in the right direction.
Thank you for clarifying that, yeah I’ve watched videos on YouTube on how NES games were made… I don’t think I’d have the intestinal fortitude to deal with all that xP
@McRibblit
You’ll find out after about a month, at least for me, that generally you’re using the same things over and over and over again, so things because memorized fairly quickly.
Once you get a grasp of Data Structures, there’s really nothing you can’t accomplish. The biggest thing, at least for me, is okay I have an idea I want to do… Knowing the steps involved to accomplish something is harder than actually doing it. Otherwise you’ll be fighting it forever not understanding it…
Knowing things like (Do I need to put a timer, a co-routine, a new thread, or whatever could make a big difference between poor game-play experience and amazing experience.).
Or Object Pooling, would depend on your game, would spawning 300 (disabled) enemies at the start, enabling them when you need them and disabling them when you (“kill”) them, so you don’t destroy and create causing more garbage collection. Or would spawning enemies and destroying them when you kill them be better… Well ultimately, your game depends on which case is better.
Generally these things can be quite easy to figure out once you know how to grasp performance limitations. And when to use something and not to use something. All comes with experience.
Yeah, it seems like getting into the program itself, starting to create, and problem solving is the way to learn. It’s frustrating at the moment as I don’t have a computer or laptop to start using Uni Personal, but I have begun watching videos on C# code and different terminology used. For example, you using co-routine and Object Pooling, I usually have to take a look at those terms and their definitions. A good comparison is I feel like a kid whose never played sports in his life, trying to keep up with sports talk hosts lol
You don’t have a computer?
Then I think super step 1 would be get a computer
Jeez, when you said you were starting from square 1, you weren’t kidding
Yeah, lol, I know I’m quite a few steps behind, but I’m not gonna fret just yet. But agreed super duper step numero uno would be getting a computer. Anyone recommend a PC over laptop? Or vise versa?
Thats a good additude. Everyone has to start somewhere
There are advantages to each.
Laptops are more mobile, so you can work anywhere, so they are great for if you want to work with other people or go to Game Jams, or even to have with you if you need to test in the field and tweak your game on the spot. Their disadvantage is price and limited upgradability.
Home built PCs are less expensive, and have more potential for expansion and upgrades, but you have to build it yourself, and are harder to move around than a laptop (But not impossible, the year I went to the Global Game Jam, a few people brought in their full size tower PCs with 2 monitors and gaming keyboards)
What you start with depends on priorities. If you want something light and mobile, and are willing to pay a little bit more, a laptop wins. If you want a little more horsepower and the ability to customize and have the time to build yourself, the PC might be a better choice. Personally I think the best approach is to evenually have one of each, so you can have the advantages of both in different situations. I like to compare it to a mechanic, every mechanic I know has a small toolbox in his car/truck, and a big toolbox in his shed at home.
But having neither, you gotta start with one or the other. Unless you are mega rich, in which case while you are buying yourself 2 computers at the same time, can you throw one in there for me too?
@OP:
When you decide to make your first game remember to start small. Make a game which conceptually/on paper looks almost primitive. Then try to make it very fun and polished. Many newbies are told to clone Flappy Bird, Asteroids or Tetris. These advices are generally very good. Even making such a small game can take A LOT of time and can teach you a lot as well. When you complete a small game and release it you will gain a better perspective of what it takes to make something like a “WoW/Skyrim killer”.
@ToshoDaimos
Yeah I’m gonna stick to the old K.I.S.S method (Keep It Simple Stupid) approach for my 1st project. Even from what I’ve watched and seen, games like Boarderlands and Dark Souls must have so much going on… You don’t realize it until you see what it takes to create a BASIC game, let alone an FPS or RPG.