So I’m another one of those new people… I’m starting to learn 3D art using Blender and all that jazz. I do want to be able to create a video game and maybe someday a bigger project. I want to be useful and diverse so I’d like to practice coding and making games on my own at the moment.
I know what sort of games I’d like to make. Animal-themed Games… Whether that be a farming game or a game where you’re trying to survive as a gazelle in Africa. Maybe an MMO one day but I know that takes a lot of skill, sweat and blood so its out of the question for a long time.
So my question is if I want to head towards sim micro-managing games, platforms, RPGs or Survival games where’s a good place to start? I heard a few people suggest aiming toward a simple FPS but I wasn’t sure that would give me the skills I need to make more steps forward. Is it more difficult to make a third-person camera game where you can run around and explore, maybe put NPCs that don’t do much other than walk here and there? Or is that too ambitious to start with?
I’m all ears and any advice is golden 
Thank you for reading!
Oh boy, i remember when i just started learning 3d graphics, miss the old days.
“I heard a few people suggest aiming toward a simple FPS”.
Then those people will not ever achieve anything. You are forgetting why are you interested about this, you have most likely your own game idea which you would like to create. Then why waste time on creating a project that you aren’t interested in from beginning.
Here is formula I suggest doing in your game development journey. (I wish anyone would tell me this when i just started).
- Write your ideas on paper, this sounds not that important, but it is. Draw possible maps, interesting aspects, story, features… You can do this wherever you want: buss, study break, free time.
- Start with something, in every project there are those little things, which you can do for the start, and are very good for practice and overall learning.
- If you are up to visual 3d graphics for now, then start with 3d modelling, if you want to create the game core, its programming. Personally i started with 3d modelling, because it is the most satisfying part :).
- For modelling, pick a software which you prefer (by this i mean try many of them), and stick to it.
- Start with simple props modelling, boxes, tables, chairs, any game props you will need in the future (if you have your ideas on paper, it will be much easier).
- Don’t start with advanced meshes, like characters or guns. Pick the most simplistic things.
- With time many questions will appear for you, about: polygon count, quads or triangles, smoothing groups… and many other
- Learn to uv unwrap models, see how pros do it…helps a lot
- For overall 3d modelling, again, check out how professionals do it, personally in that time i was playing wow, so i used model viewer and could see any 3d model (with textures) in World of Warcraft, then exported to 3d max, and just looked at it how they did it.
- Learn to bake normal maps, this is optional, but necessary if you want to create good quality product. But main 3d modelling and uv unwrap skills are the most important.
- For first months, just models simple props, texture them, with that you will learn how to use Photoshop or other software (not advertising adobe ).
- With time, question will appear, should i really use unity3d ? Well, mostly its up to you, but! Beauty of Unity, is that you can create a very good quality product being a solo developer or even with small team. For UDK or Cryengine, without a team with at least 5 members, you will get hysterically lost eventually, because amount of features and interface complexity will just drive you crazy, if you are alone.
Here is a video of a project two guys are working on: [Unity3D RPG] Ninelives 2013 - YouTube 
And another one created by bigger team, but mostly only one: [DLG] [ Unity 3D ] No Heroes - Update #42 - GREENLIT - YouTube
- Get used to unity3d interface, experiment, import your models see how they look in engine, and other fun things!
- Programming, most nerdiest thing if you are just starting and know nothing about it. There is nothing really i can suggest, i guess dedication, and “practice makes perfect”.
- There are a lot of tutorials in YouTube of how to program (and model), the only thing you should decide is JavaScript (Unityscript) or C#. Personally i use C#, because at University, basic programming language they learn us was and is C++.
- Programmists way of thinking is completely different from “normal” persons thinking and way of sorting problems, here… yes, i said it.
- Start with basic things, variables (variables types), functions, classes, structures, what return means, and all those things.
- Don’t copy or use other people work! This is critical part if you just learning, you wont learning anything at all, just confuse yourself and will get you nowhere.
Fuff… I hope i made some clear point right there for you to start, and it will be useful for you and other starters- readers.
If you have more questions, just ask. Good luck!
Well, first of all the most important thing is that you want to start small, try to work on a project that you know for sure you can finish, you can leave the ambitious ideas like MMOs for the future once you are more experienced.
Second, if you want to learn I would advice you to check Brackey’s youtube channel here: Brackeys - YouTube
It’s awesome and I’ve been using it a lot for my personal project (which is nothing like what Brackey’s doing, but it’s still full of useful info).
Try to follow the tutorials from the start and once you are more familiar with how stuff works start messing around with the scripts changing them so they do what you want.
Unity comes with a third person controller already so if you follow Brackey’s tutorial when he adds the first person controller select the third person instead.
You might hit a wall and have to start over (I had to start my project from scratch 3 times to get it working the way I want, but now that it’s working it was totally worth it).
So yeah, the best advice I can give you is: start with something simple and never give up