I recently have decided to get into trying to make my own game. having never worked with a game company or related project in my life I bought what I felt like I would need to get started. education wise I have been so far teaching myself 3Ds Max using youtube and other online tutorial sources. I have had photoshop CS for many years (just upgraded to CS6) but not doing much with it other than to clean up images and making funny pictures on occasion. originally I got a “really cool idea” for a fanboy made game trailer but then realized that I was overwhelming myself with tasks across the board with no real experience so I thought I would try making a very simple game for the Ouya and since it runs on Unite (4.1.2) I thought I would come here with a few questions:
can any one recommend a good site that gives information on new game makers such as how to make low poly characters, keeping texture file sizes low etc.?
for some one that is definitively NOT mathematically inclined, is there low cost (preferably free) programing software out there similar to web page builders? I used game maker a little bit many years ago which made me think of this. or would it be simply better to find some one to do it for me?
what kind of game would you recommend I try making for getting my feet wet in making my first game?
these are all the software I own at home:
Autodesk- (2013 ver)
Maya
3Ds Max
Mudbox
Composite
Match Mover
Motion Builder
Sketch Book Designer
Softimage
Adobe-
Photoshop CS6
Illustrator CS
Sony-
Acid 5
Sound Studio 7
Is there any low cost or free software that would be better than what I have? I am not very good with a pencil any more due to a disability and am used to using a mouse for photoshop but am interested in getting a bamboo at some point.
thanks in advance for pointing me in the right direction and getting started.
Its really hard to tell you a course of study in such a short space. What I’d recommend is looking at game modelling and animation schools in your region and see their course of study. Usually there is some traditional drawing and painting to go with the 3D artwork. Alot of the 3D studio stuff is expensive if you’re not a professional. The best tutorials are usually paid, if you can afford the Adobe CS6 suite, I’d recommend Digital Tutors, they seem to have good reviews. You can try going to GameJams in your area and working on free projects for credit, that way you’d get good practice, exposure, reviews, and attention. Nothing can replace interacting with peers in the game industry. If you cannot find games already made, you can try making 3D assets for content marketplaces like IMVU or Second Life.
The problem with online resources is the quality of the tutorials vary, and I feel like some are designed to be bad, and teaching you the wrong way to do things, and teach you bad habits.
You need a bit of every 3D software because developers may ask for the art assets in different formats. I know from experience that importing anything that isn’t 3DS is a pain in the butt in unity. The worst part of the import process is badly formatted art can crash unity.
The easiest game to make is a clone of an existing one.
Space shooters and are incredibly easy, a first milestone for beginners.
I would consider building the gameplay before you get too deep into 3D modeling, unwrapping, texturing, music, etc. In Unity you can build an entire game just with the built-in primitive shapes. Make sure you can create the interaction, gameplay systems, physics/collision, game saving, AI, user interface, etc first. For your first game, think SMALL, or you run the risk of biting off more than you can chew and getting frustrated. Even a small game takes a lot more effort than most people realize.
Once you have the gameplay solid, you can then replace the primitive shapes with final models, add final music, etc. That tends to work better. For one thing, your design may evolve over time, so you won’t necessarily know exactly which assets you’ll end up needing until the game is fairly solid.
unfortunately school is not an option for me at all and the software I acquired is the only resources I will be able to work on due to extremely limited income. this is the reason I am looking to switch careers, but without a school I am finding the only way to get my foot into the door is to make a simple game. either that or pack up and move to Cali in hopes of getting a job as a game tester which would be an increasingly risky proposition.
ok seriously guys, were here to help each other, dont be jerks just because I saw an opportunity to get some software that I would not have been able to get any other way. not every one has the resources you guys have. I am on disability and only get to live on $700 a month so when I found I could get all that software for $300 using a student loan, I took it.
Trust me,web page builder thing won’t help you a bit. You need to learn some computer programming language. javascript or C# would be ok. Actually what you need to learn one by one,depends upon various thing. You can visit my marathon replay to a newcomer in HERE
I see you are a lucky person of having a gorgeous collection of art packages. I had also a similar luck when a friend of mine gifted me a copy of maya in my birthday after seeing my dedication to 3D. I might not manage to work on maya if it didn’t happened! Such a ridiculous high price!! And what I do with it?
Make some base mesh,some rigging and uving that blender can also do,and animation(not sure how good blender do it) and thats all! I don’t do rendering on it,don’t do dyanmics(and exactly why should I,timelineFX is much better!) on it,rarely use MEL on it.Hell,I don’t sculpt on it either.A 700 dollar nice pixologic software does much more things than a 3675 dollar titan autodesk’s stuff does. Isn’t it a utter non sense! I am single on my team now so I can very well cope with single maya license for some 3D stuffs. When it goes bigger, I think I will go to blender fully.Currently I am trying to learn it. Of course monetary situation could influence.However, say I understand the point of price of maya. How could that be even correct in case of mudbox??? One of my friend uses it,I tried it a while. I was shocked to find that zbrush can do much more than mudbox can do. Yet see the price difference!! Sorry if the above rant hurt any of you. I was just trying to match thing with reality you know!
Back on topic,steel77,you really need one art package. As you own all of them(sad that you do not own zbrush,get it,it is nice!),you can use all of them!
Sorry if you took it the wrong way; to get all that software for $300 is the deal of the century. Note though that if its labeled as a student version it can’t be used for commercial work.
Actually I haven’t brought any student type license from any of those,so I did not know. However I have heard it as buzzword before,never knew the details of it.
We used autocad for civil engineering drawing purpose back in university lab,now I can guess things behind the scene .Leave it,however.
Also, some software does allow you to use the student versions commercially (I know you’re talking specifically about Autodesk, but I’ll expand). Adobe allows you to use all original Adobe* software commercially, even if it is the student version.
I just checked. It’s only the Macromedia software that can’t be use commercially. Adobe student software not only can be used commercially, but you can continue to use it commercially even when you are no longer eligible for educational licensing.
Clearly, there is a market for simplified (streamlined, marketing would say) image 3d modelling and animation tools built with a similar user interface like 3ds max and Photoshop for game developers. Or maybe they’ve patented the ui, don’t know. I could even live with 3ds max 7 and Photoshop 5.5 maybe (before CS) , but obviously it’s not in the interests of these big companies to make older versions available.
.Leave it,however.