Working on my first game...where should I start?
Community Forums/General Help/Working on my first game...where should I start?
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| hey guys I'm starting to work on my first game with blitz3d and I was wondering where I should start? This is a one-man project, so i'm pretty much doing everything. Should I start by modelling and animating the characters, or creating the worlds, or just getting down to the programming or what? Some advice of where I should start would be helpful. |
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| Prototype the core gamplay -- it'll give you a chance to start sussing out how to implement what you want (or realise if it's too ambitious!) and whether it actually works as entertainment. |
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| By the sound of it, you want to forget about characters and animation and worlds, and do something much, much simpler. The fact that you're asking the question tells me you're out of your depth already. |
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| Working on my first game...where should I start? Small. I could elaborate, but past experience has told me that people don't always want to hear some answers, so I won't unless asked to. |
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| You need assets to test your code and gameplay, so start making assets first until you have just enough to start testing. Don't make assets for the entire game at once - through testing you'll realize if you are a little off with your textures, modelling, animations, audio etc. What fits properly with your gameplay. Make\gather assets -> implement them with code. EDIT: Design comes before you can actually produce anything, so in fact the order is: Design -> Make\Gather assets -> Implement in code. I imagine this to be true to whatever size of project you're tackling. I could elaborate, but past experience has told me that people don't always want to hear some answers, so I won't unless asked to. I agree. There are lots of people who just want to expose that "they're starting to make a game", but won't take any advice. I admit to being a bit like this sometimes. Last edited 2011 |
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| Kryzon I understand what your saying with make,gather and assets. I need to create the core of my game and build it up from there or else it will all just collapse. Another wise saying from king kryzon, thanks:) Gabriel I appreciate any kind of help. I wouldn't get angry at or simply not listen to someone whos trying to help me. Even with your very uh...straight forward advice I can tell what you mean by it. thanks:) GfK I don't understand what you mean by "out of depth already". Could you explain? sledge thanks for the advice:) Last edited 2011 Last edited 2011 |
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| What do you mean by "start"? Do you mean what kind of game, or how to go about developing an idea for a game that you've already had, which is what it sounds like from your post, with its assumption that the game must have characters and worlds. I would argue that you're "out of your depth" if you're trying to look for solutions to the problem of implementing your grand artistic vision for an epic piece of storytelling, rather than game design elements being present in an idea from the start. The only piece of advice I would offer to help with this is: throw away your story and characters, because they will hinder and constrain your game development without contributing anything (a story is not a game; a story is something you put on top of a game). While it's possible to decide to tell a story first and then build a game around it, it's extremely hard to pull off well and not a good choice for a beginner - you need to have some idea of the concepts involved in implementation before you can apply them to anything. |
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| Yasha What I meant with start was what I should make first. The 3d models and maps or the game's engine. I think I explained it badly the first time-_- |
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| In Blitz3D I would always start laying down the code and using basic primitive objects that come with Blitz3D to test with. Once the framework is finished you can start adding in textures, models, sound and whatnot. |
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| Well, it's hard to tell if you mean your first game generally or only your first game with Blitz3D. Given the question you're asking, I tend to assume it's the former. So if this is your first game, I would forget about 3D altogether, and maps and characters and models. I would find a pretty simple game that actually appeals to you. When I say simple, I don't mean "think Left For Dead 2" instead of "think World of Warcraft". I mean "think Asteroids" or "think Space Invaders". The advantage to this is you won't need any graphics or sounds because you'll find freely available assets good enough for the purpose. Then you forget about everything else and just get down to design and code. In this instance, design will be more about planning the code than actually designing the gameplay, since the gameplay will already be fairly well-defined. |
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| gabrial all right then. thanks:) |
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| It's a lot easier making the second game than making the first game. (The same is often said of writing a book, too, and it's very true.) Actually finishing the first game feels like such a hard mountain to climb that you really want it to be the easiest game imaginable or else it's just too high. You'll be amazed how much easier the second game feels when you've done it once. |
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| I don't understand what you mean by "out of depth already". Could you explain? "Out of your depth" means you're taking on a something that is much bigger than you're capable of completing. I came to that conclusion as you need to ask "where do I start?".I'm not saying it isn't possible to make a game all by yourself - because that's what I do. Just don't expect to do something enormous with your first go. Do a smaller project, learn from that, and build up. 2011 is my 25th year of programming and even after all that time I still paint myself into a proverbial corner sometimes. |
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| To second and further what Kryzon mentioned: the design of the game comes before absolutely positively irrefutably undeniably utterly and completely ANYTHING. I dunno if you have the whole idea for the game more or less mapped out already; if so, then you're doing fine. If not, stop whatever you ARE doing, turn off your computer, grab some paper and a pencil or pen, and start scribbling out ideas. XD The actual game design - more than simply the base concept for the game - is really essential, because without the proper ideas driving your development, you won't get anywhere good. How much you actually put down on paper is up to you; going it alone, you can afford the luxury of leaving the ideas in your head. However, I would strongly urge you to jot down or even sketch out any particularly good ideas that you have; it's preferable to forgetting them, believe me. Nothing's worse than having a blockbuster of an idea while sitting on the throne, then being unable to recall a single detail the following morning. The moral to all this is that you MUST have a clear idea of what you want from the game, before you even touch your computer. Now, I'm not saying you should plan the whole thing out start to finish and stick to it rigidly; the whole point of development is to affect changes and refine the original ideas. I've been working alone on a game on and off for some two and a half years now, and during that time I've ported the rendering engine from 2D to 3D, redone all the artwork twice, ripped out and replaced music and sound effects, and made countless other small additions, erasures and alterations. At its core, though, my game hasn't changed since day 1; it still follows the exact concepts that brought it into creation. So, once your design's all set and you know more or less where you want to go... The next step is up to you. Although I'm doing everything right now, I'm more of a programmer than anything else, so I start with some code and add/alter resources to suit. You, on the other hand, may prefer to start with some of the artwork or modelling, or perhaps compose (or find) some music and sound effects, using those for further development inspiration. There really is no specific order to do it in; ultimately it all ends up growing together. Plus, whatever you start with now - code, art, sound, etc - is liable to be edited and changed so much that by the time you're actually DONE, the game's parts don't look ANYTHING like the originals, even though the game itself is mostly unchanged. That's really the best advice I can provide; get your design mapped first, but the execution is up to you. I won't wish you luck; luck has absolutely nothing to do with anything here. But I WILL say, "have fun!" :D |
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