Complete beginner. Where to start?

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Hi,

As stated, I am a complete beginner. I am hoping to pursue a career in the gaming industry in the future, hopefully as a game designer, but as you can probably tell I have little experience.

Anyway, I was wondering if it was possible for someone to give me some guidelines to go by as to where to start with game design and development, such as everything I will need to learn, and where I will be able to learn it. I plan on using Unity to create games, and Blender to create some 3D graphics (unless someone suggests otherwise).

I also intend on studying some form of game design at university, so any information on ideal courses to take (if any) would be appreciated too.

I originally posted this in the “answers” section of the site, only to quickly have it closed. Plain example of my extreme inexperience and my straight up newbie-ness :stuck_out_tongue:

Anyway, thanks in advance

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Where to start? Simple. To be honest, for your first few months/weeks/days, you’ll be doing very little designing. By that I mean you’ll be making clones/extremely simple games. If I could do it again, rather than leaping into a full-on FPS, I’d start by making a really simple game, such as pong, or space invaders. Just to get familiar with scripting, and the Unity work flow. Then, start working on a SLIGHTLY bigger game. Once you do get up to bigger projects, you’ll be able to do them with far less effort, more efficiently, and it would probably be at around the same time you would have gotten to that point had you started on the big project at the beginning.

Anyways, learn some coding, this is a great resource if you plan on using javascript:
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/34015-Newbie-guide-to-Unity-Javascript-(long)

And C#, being a language used outside of unity has lots of documentation as well. Regardless of which you choose, make sure you pin the Unity Script reference to your desktop, as you will use it ALOT.

This is a great site for blender:
http://cgcookie.com/blender/

Basically, 3D modelling in blender comes down to starting with a cube, and then extruding(‘E’)/loop cutting(‘Ctrl-R’)/scaling(‘S’)/rotating(‘R’)/Moving(‘G’)/Multiselecting(hold shift while selecting stuff) until it looks good.

You’ll also need a program for textures (I use GIMP as a free alternative to Photoshop). Here’s a nice guide for hard-surface textures (metal, guns, vehicles), but, obviously, you’ll need to learn GIMP/Photoshop’s interface first.

Most people tend to focus on either programming or art (I’m a programmer), but most can do at least a bit of the other (although it’s rare to do both WELL). Dedicated designers really only show up on bigger teams, but you’ll need lots of skill/experience to get there.

Do you have any prior programming experience?

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Yes, start wirh small games. even if they feel boing to do, make em anyway. I started my first project as an underwater metroidvania game, but we quickly realized…this gonna take ALOT longer thna we hoped, so its iced for now, not dead,ICED!

Im just an artist, i dont know code, but that doesnt stop me form making games. Edmund Mcmillen doesnt know code either, and his game got him a house and a cat with no hair, thats something.

find a bestfriend developer like i ahve been lucky to do, and start small. 3d games is not a one man thing, except a few ppl on these forums that are just demigods, but the reason is they probably have alot of experience.

U say career, that means money, dont even think about it yet,because thats years away unless u join a team and u perform well enough to get a share. making games for money isnt gonna get u nowhere untill u have a solid idea, a solid team and the personal time to make this happen. Im making a small game now, its been 1 week and we already have the player moving as he should, a working day and night cycle, mana and health works, and my level textures are almost complete for the demo. Why? we’ve done it before, laods of times. I LOVE to paint, the loves to code, if u dont love what ur doing, then dont do it, making a game can easily take 1-10 years.

Ive been like this “ok im gonna amke a game, im ready”, 2 weeks later “never making a game again, i hate this stuff”, but i realized i dont hate it, i hated the problem it was for me to find the right people to work with. they didnt motivate me enough due to bad feedback or less to no work done on their end.

If u dont wanna code, then dont, simple. I dont, and i can still make games because i know there ar eprogrammers out there who shares my passion, and they dont require me to kno code because they know they cant paint like i do, so we both win.

go through all the tutorials to learn how to work Unity, atleast for ur role. then design a game on paper and in ur head, watch simular games urs will probably end up looking and playing like, and work form that. U cant make the NEW genre, its impossible now, but u can certainly give it its own personality.

Oh and…people will be mean, no matter how good u think ur game is. They can badmouth ur game because its simply not the genre they like, ignore those ppl. If they find the time to ruin other devs experiences, they CERTAINLY arent happy with their own dev position, so u can take it with a HUGE smile and keep on devving.

Form a 3d game, dont worry about highpoly models, amke simple ugly ones, slap a texture on them and call it done. get the game working either its a jumper or a shooter, call it a day and good practice, then u start a new game implementing whatever cool ideas u had for the previous one. Its amazing how many "coolC ideas pops into ur head while ur on a mission to make a small game, but do urself a favor, write em down and forget about them until the simple little game is done. the next one is always better.

2d games, make a platformer or an isometric viewed game. Keep the artwork simple unless u are a good artist, get things moving and interacting, amke enemies die while hitting or shooting them, call it done.

conclusion is, dont start off thinking this game will go on steam because it wont. Ur 20th game isnt automatically going on steam just because u spent years learning how to make it. sit down, design a game based on ur fav genre and be realistic.

oh and did i mention beeing an inide dev requires everyday sacrifices? because they do. If u ahve a girlfriend, she will see ur back more than ur front, she mioght not like that. U have LOADS of friends? well, about half of those has to go, or will probably stop calling u, because weekends is no longer partytime, its starring at a monitor for hours time.If not, forget it, even the smallest game requires a steady workflow and attention, or else it will end up in ur desktop bin.

Ive been in 5 devteams now that i didnt start, LOADs of people on some of them, lowest were 3. no one finished, one raced off to play diablo 3 and we never heard form him again, the other one wanted to makea cool game, but didnt even have the slighest idea what that game would be. a team of 20 shouldnt tempt u more than a team of 2, size doesnt matter, determination does. 20 unexperienced developers is nothing compared to 1 mans brain that has completed smaller games simply because he as already built confidence on doing this and the selfdiscipline it take to finish one.

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Thank you.

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Thanks a lot man, really informative. I have no programming experience whatsoever at the moment haha!

Anyway, I’ll start learning some coding now, and then move on to little projects.

I was planning on jumping right in at the deep end, trying to make a full blown amazing game haha :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks again, to all that replied

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No problem. :slight_smile:

One more thing- plan everything out. With pencil and paper if you have to have a sketchbook lying on my desk right now, and it’s probably the best Idea I’ve had since I started to create games. Otherwise you end up with either a discombobulated mess, or you get infected with feature creep. Take an FPS:

Oh! Now I want to add grenades! adds grenades Oh! Now I want to add jet packs adds Jet packs Oh! Now I want to add assassinations! And so on and so forth, and you never actually release the game.

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this. u will not belive how much info u can get out of a pen and paper game idea. U can basicly play it in ur mind wich is very helpful. Dont do liek me, jump into ur perfect game because even if u CAN do it, most likely ur partners wont since ppl who work for free have limited time due to dayjobs, and the other half needs payment.

pen and paper man…pen and paper.