I know some gamers who have strong passion on games, and they continously provide suggestions. While they are not game devlopers, and have no idea of game design.
For instance, I want to shift my focus on horror games. I talked with one gamer who are expert gamer in horror game. He checked my demo, and said I need a writer. Then I asked a lot of questions like how to change my current scene etc… His reply sounds reasonable and experienced. He let me use hints intead of frankly speaking. How to design the basement if the enemy is a human, and the difference if the enemy is a ghost. He is a big fan of silence hill.
I have no budget for a writer, and he also has no confidence for wirting a plot and related gameplays for a game because he has no experience in game design. I can’t help him because I am also a beginner on game developing and I played few games.
I want to find a way, so I can get a horror story with related gameplays by talking with him. Is there a list or manual on how to achieve this by asking?
In before writing, beginner or not, you must have something you want to tell or a goal to achieve, it’s only when you can start applying rules to structure it. The only constant is that you want to make game, but you don’t seem to have a goal with what to do with games, not even a simple one, all your express goal are external (make money). You need to have an interest in the subject you tackle to get somewhere and not change goal everytime you meet a challenge.
Find a clear objective first. Or maybe your friend has some wish that can help you? what he would want from an horror game? what kind of experience? and is it specific enough (not like must have a story).
Maybe at this level, since you are so unsure, you should just do your own take on well known idea.
Write a story first, then figure out how to turn it into a game.
If you really think you can’t have ANY idea:
You can always fixed flawed generation, here is raw one
The Curse of the Stripy Knife A Horror Story by Mr Pseudonym
Whilst investigating the death of a local homemaker, an incredible navigator called Mike Blast uncovers a legend about a supernaturally-cursed, stripy knife circulating throughout Scotland. As soon as anyone uses the knife, he or she has exactly 45 days left to live.
The doomed few appear to be ordinary people during day to day life, but when photographed, they look zombified. A marked person feels like a splendid puppy to touch.
Mike gets hold of the knife, refusing to believe the superstition. A collage of images flash into his mind: a chilly cat balancing on a frantic homemaker, an old newspaper headline about a drunk driving accident, a hooded mouse ranting about elbows and a drinking well located in a magical place.
When Mike notices his spots have puppy-like properties, he realises that the curse of the stripy knife is true and calls in his grandfather, a nurse called Mathias Parker, to help.
Mathias examines the knife and willingly submits himself to the curse. He finds that the same visions flash before his eyes. He finds the chilly cat balancing on a frantic homemaker particularly chilling. He joins the queue for a supernatural death.
Mike and Mathias pursue a quest to uncover the meaning of the visions, starting with a search for the hooded mouse. Will they be able to stop the curse before their time is up?
Don’t forget the secret to be good is to start doing stuff and failing up until it’s a success, nobody start good.
Confidence is not what you need, what you need is to start doing stuff, it will not be good, then it will be good eventually down the line of many try.
Just make simple games man. Too much convoluted thinking. Let 80% of your work be done with the eyes only, and only use the brain when you can’t get by without it. Otherwise you get yourself into trouble.
The questions you should be asking right now are, “how can I make a game with cubes so fun that people will give me money to play it.”
And you answer that question by making games with cubes.
Yes but you don’t seem to have the skills yet, you need to build the skills up, and you would be surprise what an experienced clever dev can sell with just cube.
I am seriously considering making games for a retail market. I myself has no prequisite knowledge, but I like to find resources. I don’t want to reinvent wheels, and I found modular assets give me more power to make a game. I got one animation artist’s support two days ago, he will provide me custom animation with student-price. I want to make some glory kill animation, and he made one, and I made a demo below.
I also talked with some gamers for a story and gameplay design. They play games many years, and have a deep understanding. Now I am looking for a way to transfer their experience into a game plot and gameplays.
I know Tony Robbins’ s suggetsion maybe not work. But the way his thinking maybe has something useful.
I know I don’t have required skills. But others have. That’s why I watched every tutorial on Youtube and look interesting assets in asset store. I talk to gamers for advices. In fact, I got many suggestions about different demos. I didn’t stop to modify the demos, and I keep going. Maybe I made a mistake here, I should modify the demos first or at the same time.
If you can’t make a fun game with unity primitives, you can’t make a fun game with a hundred million dollars.
We aren’t talking about selling games. You aren’t anywhere close to that yet. You have to lay the foundation. Forget about the chandeliers and the wallpaper.
You won’t make a decent game until you’ve made a shit ton of lousy games first. You don’t need any money to make basic games to start gauging your audience with. If you want to be a programmer, or a designer, or both, you have to learn 1 : how to make games efficiently from a technical standpoint, and 2: how to guage your audience reaction to deliver better iterations of your products.
You can waste time theorizing about games all day and probably get nowhere. Or you can start making games, deliver them to actual humans, and watch quietly to see what happens. Then, that’s the time for thinking. After you have watched and listened. You take what you’ve seen, develop a new plan, and try again.
This is how you be successful at ANYTHING. You got to have perspective. The work is the boss. You are not the boss. You do not say what is what. The work is the boss. You watch and you listen to the boss. If you don’t respect the boss, the boss will hammer you hard. You cannot usurp the boss.
You are the tool. Learn about this tool – it is all that you have. Maximize it’s efficiency, and keep your mind focused on what the boss is demanding. You don’t got to be smart to know yourself and maximize your output. You just have to know where you stand in the big scheme of things.
Well if you are doing the job, you still need to have a clear vision with a great hooksyou don’t seems to be close to have any now. But expect failure, and expect to have to start over another project until you have enough success. A retail game take 3 to 7 years to make (design phase taken into account). You would also need original assets, especially visual, so maybe find someone to make the art AFTER you figure out the identity of what you are trying to make.
A common trick used by industry veteran is to make a lot of prototypes, and look at what works and what don’t, using primitive. Then once they find one they turn it into a polish game with great art and all. And to find teh visual, they don’t model right away, they do concept art to find the visual identity.
I think for the beginning indie wanna-be, this chart could be boiled down to :
single gameplay mechanic brainstorm idea > prototype with unity primitives > playtest with other humans > rinse and repeat until people are begging for your next cube game.
Then, you’ve got a wealth of experience under your belt, and making a big “complex” game is something you can feasibly do from your library of modular game mechanics. Best of all, you haven’t wasted any money, nor wasted time speculating and pipe-dreaming.
In traditional areas like engineering and drawing, I totally agree with you. For games, 50% agree.
Game engines evoluted so much, and in future maybe a beginner just click one button, and a new game is finished.
Even game engines stop improving. Games are not like engineer product, the more quantity you produce , the the quality you can make. Games are a litle like a mix of art, luck, fashion and all your work. I looked Steam carefully. First most developers only release one game. For others, the sequel games are not always better than the first. Games bring people feelings like a movie.
