Starting from scratch
Hello!
Im am a complete beginner I have never made a game before I have never made assets either :( but I love video games and I have always wanted to make them. when I think about making video games the first things that come to mind are mechanics and themes then story and so on. my greatest weakness is art and my second to last is coding although I have learn alot sence Iv conjured up this crazy idea to start making games. Im willing to learn and I am willing to put in effort, Im not looking for any hand outs either although any help is greatly appreciated. what I am looking for is some experiences that other people have had attempting to build there first game or how they went about doing so. Im just looking for a little advice I guess. any comments and help is greatly appreciated Thank you!
What is the game you're trying to make about? And what engine are you using?
If you're using GameMaker, I have lots of experience there.
My advice. Plan out as much as you can on paper first even it its just the framework.
You should choose an engine and language to build in next.
there are a lot of easy to use engines like GameMaker, Unity, or Godot.
If youre new to programming, pick Easy to understand languages like JavaScript and C# or GameMaker I beleive has a C++ based language thats very easy to understand and use.
OGA is a great place to get game free game art but its also a great place to learn how to make game art as well. Something you can do is sift through some of the assets here and download ones similar to the style you want and use them as a template to build your own. Soon enough youll be able to make custom assets without the help.
The last thing is to make sure your project isnt too ambitious for yourself. During the planning stage once you have it down on paper, try and estimate how much time and effort it might take for you to finish your project or reach a milestone. If you think youll lose interest or it seems too long or difficult for you, try cutting out some things or simplifying mechanics so it works out for you.
Your project should always be ambitious so you can push yourself to learn new things and create unique content, just dont over do it.
I agree that starting small is extremely important for actually getting sh** done lol. I recommend trying unity or gamemaker. Also I would focus on choosing the engine rather than the programming language if you dont actually know how to program. then learning how to program in the language that the engine uses. start with 2d, at least breifly and stick with either python, c++, java or c#. and google is your best friend. even googling something similair to your posted forum question would probably take you right where you needed to go.
thanks everyone for the advise, I think I'm going to go with Game maker studio, after reading up on it, it looks pretty understandable, and there are a lot of turtorials available. Im planning on going with a 2-d RPG I'm hoping that would be simple enough to tackle but im not sure how to make it small enough but still be a complete game hmm....
Are RPG's really what you want to go with for your first game? Even if they are mechanically simple, they are a huge time investment.
Ive been working on an RPG for over a year now. It is not as simple as it seems just a heads up. But if its something you want to attempt, then go for it. If you have any questions or need help with that, feel free to PM me.