Advanced Game Developers, I call for your help !

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Hi everyone,

Introduction:
My name is CJ, I’m 24 years old and I’m from the Netherlands. I’m very passionate about gaming and always wanted to make them ( from when I was 8 years old ). So I started with RPG Maker 2000 and when time progressed to newer versions. In the time doing this, I taught myself the basics of some computer languages like HTML, Phyton and Ruby.

Now I’m older and really want to make my hobby (and knowledge) bigger and eventually make this my paid job.

The First Chapter:
Like many of you (probably), I too want to make a game, and in the process learn more about game development. I still struggle with the very first BASIC question everyone is asking; “Where do I start?“
I made a little plan on what things I should learn, what programs I should need, and where to get the resources.

Some of you already know that it’s impossible to just say on a sunny Tuesday afternoon; “Let’s create Farcry 3”. It’s made by very smart brains, in a very talented and rich company with many, many hours of work. But then again, If you would give it time, and your devotion to learn, you could come pretty near this vision.

I’m a totally beginner, And I want to ask everyone here nicely, if they could help me out. Please tell me how you started, what you used to build your first real game. I really am devoted to learn. Now I already know what some of you are going to tell me, and yes Google is my best friend too, but I’m asking in a personal level…

The Plan:
I’m pretty good in drawing stuff, I also know how to use Photoshop to make beautiful things and I was planning to focus myself first on Modeling + Texturing + Animation. But that’s not all I need and want. My first priority comes to learning a powerful programming language like C++ / C#. So you probably already guessed it, I’m a TOTAL beginner in this and want to ask you programmers out here if you can tell me some books, ebooks or videos that will teach a beginner how to program for games step by step. I know it will also involve some Library and OpenGL coding, but I really want to learn this.

I’m going to Use Unity3D for my engine, and I’m thinking about Blender and Zbrush for modeling and Texture. And I need to start learning this also, but I’m going to do this one at a time ( for a very long time ) to learn it. But my third question is very simple. Before I’m far enough in programming my own scripts for Unity3D I wanted to ask people, If they could help me making some scripts in the meantime.

I’m trying to create a very small and very simple RPG game. Just to get the basics of game development.

Please help me:
So if you have any information about how you started on this journey, what you learned so far, and where you learned it from, I would be very grateful.

Also if you have some information about where to get good models or scripts and other resources
( maybe something you made yourself ) Could you let me know?

Please help out a starting whelp…:frowning:

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I am in a similar circumstance as you. I haven’t yet started with Unity3D, but I have spent the last 3 months learning 3D models and programs like Daz Studio, Carrara, and Photoshop. I decided to make graphics first, but now I’m just about done with that! And once I buy truebones animations, I’ll be able to go straight to developing the game, as I’ll be nearly complete with the graphics.

I’m starting using

But the thread at the top of this forum has a lot of video tutorials as well. I’m going to go through those too.

After awhile though, I think I will just start to read the documentation and figure things out on my own. I know that sounds like the hard way, but I feel like after I break through the initial learning curve, it’s better/faster for me to just do things myself from then on out.
But I think I’ll finish both the thread at the top of this forum, and the hac-slash-rpg tutorials first.

For the past 3 months, I have learned keyframing animations, but ended up deciding to buy truebones animations since it’s much more simple and saves me a lot of time, plus it’s over 4000 animations. I also purchased some 3D models cheaply by licensing them only to be used as 2D images. I’ll be making a 2D game.

I have played MMORPG’s for over a decade, so I get a lot of my inspiration from those games, such as Ultima Online’s dye tubs, which gave me the ingenius idea to render some images as grayscale, so that I can overlay colors on thwm, allowing me to dye clothes or hair any hue I want, but with a single image!

I also take a lot from strategy games I’ve played throughout my life, as well as recent innovation such as games like Left 4 Dead which broke the stereotype of what a FPS could be.

Innovation is important to me, but really no idea is ever new. I also go back through games with similar features as mine, to look at them at an entirely new level-- as a game designer. To see how they do it, how smooth their animations are, what their worlds are made of, how the players perform actions, etc.

But to be honest, I really just want to get 1 or 2 characters with some basic animations done, and go STRAIGHT into learning Unity3D.

Sorry I’m not much help, but I figured I’d at least tell you I’ve been at it (from knowing next to nothing) for 3 months and already have learned enough to make my own graphics and begin learning to program the actual game.

I learned from:

Unity3D Community- just asking questions (Just started that though)
DAZ3D Community- asking tons and tons of questions, and asking them to critique my artwork, as well as “How do I…?”

They may not be game developers, but they are artists, 3D modelers, and experienced in the programs I use. So even if they have no idea WHY I need pixel perfect renders of models, they still know the answer to HOW to do it!

For game design, I ran my ideas across tons of forums, and I’ve received hundreds of replies over the months, which I’m sure helped me out a lot. I just found the most popular forum based on my game’s genre, and submitted the ideas in a professional (and detailed) manner, while stating I am making the game.

gamedev.net is also a place I’ve been to before to get advice for BOTH programming AND graphics work, as well as the business aspect of being an artist.

Unity3D
DAZ3D
Gamedev.net
Popular Game Forums across the Internet

And lastly, before deciding to go with Unity, I read an extensive book on Java SE2, “The Complete Reference” which had nearly everything in it, with thousands of pages.
Of course, I only read a few hundred of the pages, giving up leanring Java to instead spend my time learning Unity3D, which I didn’t do because learning 3D modeling, texturing, and animation took over, lol…

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@Emergence,

Thank you for your info,

It’s nice to read about how you have developed the last couple of months, it gives me more the feeling that the energy I’m putting into it will pay off :smile:

Like you told me, you were beginning to look around, ask around where the Pros are and that’s exactly the thing I’m trying to do. On other forums, like Gamedev.net you mentioned, there will pop-up some treads created by me. Just to get more information on how to start, and things that I have to keep in mind when I’m learning/developing

Like I told in the first message, I’m also thinking of starting with modeling and animations… But to be honest, I think I have a lot to learn when it comes to animation…:frowning: I will tell you my vision on how I want to learn everything;

  1. I will look at all the programs that are available on the web… get as much information possible. (Unity3D, Torgue3D, Shiva3D, Maya, Blender, Zbrush, Houdini etc. )

  2. I will choose the programs I’m comfortable with, and start collecting all the information about it. Learn to use the programs, and just work a bit with it. The more we learn by doing it ourselves, the more it will stuck in our heads…

  3. After I have the BASICS of the programs I’ll start with my biggest challenge, Learning a programming language… I’ve chosen for C# coding. It’s new, its powerful and Unity3D (what im going to use) can handle C# scripting… This challenge will take the longest time ( about 1 to 2 years ) but in the meanwhile I’ll try some stuff out with Unity3D and Blender/Maya.

  4. After that I’m going to focus myself into Modeling + Texture and just make some stuff I need for the game… Trying to perfect it every way I can until I’m satisfied. The more models I will make, the more everything will go better and faster. I just need to build up the feeling for this type of work.

  5. After I’ve done the Coding, the models, the textures, I’ll begin with animating the models I made. How I’m going to do this isn’t clear yet, but eventually it needs to be done.

  6. My last step (for now anyway) will be putting it all together inside Unity3D and work out the bugs.

I already wrote a very VERY large storyline… It’s unique because I never seen something like it… But it’s a mix of different styles and a very catchy unpredictable storyline :wink: (don’t mind my English please). So yeah,

You gave me something to go on, and I want to thank you for this… I hope others will follow and bring us, their story. When I’m far enough in my project I’ll make videos about it… Telling and teaching everyone how I, as a beginner started out and what I’ve done so far…

I’ll teach basic Programming, Learn them how to use different engines, Teach them where to look at when modeling ect. But I’m not there yet !!! It will take a lot of time and work !

I hope that every beginning game developer gets to the point they want to go, on this field of work…