Can a talentless shmoe like me make a game?

LewieP

Lot's of threads on G&T come up with people saying "I have a great idea for a game! How can I get a publisher/some guys to make it for me? All I want to do is come up with the gameplay mechanic/story" that's not really the idea of this thread.

I know pretty much nothing practical about programing, I know the basics of HTML, but that is the most I know about programming. I know a fair bit about the principals of programing, but it's all second hand stuff from people that know more about it. I would say I am at typical geek level IT literacy, and really up for learning new things.

I am feeling creative. I have played a bunch of cool freeware games (thanks to the awesome indie games thread) and was particularly struck by "Passage" (which I can't seem to find a link for right now). I would really like to make some kind of game myself, nothing big or particularly fancy - just something expressive and fun to make.

Can anybody suggest any ways of making a game that even a talentless shmoe like me can produce something enjoyable with. Any software that can used to produce full little games? I am open to a wide range of styles of games, if there is a simple engine for things like text-based games, that would be cool.

TLDR - I am unskilled at programing but would like to make a game, not like gang of daggars lol.

Gyral

You know when you said "all I know is HTML" I got to thinking about how you would make an HTML game. All I could think of was a Make Your Adventure with links to pages based on your decisions.

Sorry for the tangent. That is all.

drhazard

Gyral wrote: »

You know when you said "all I know is HTML" I got to thinking about how you would make an HTML game. All I could think of was a Make Your Adventure with links to pages based on your decisions.

Sorry for the tangent. That is all.

And yet, despite advances in other areas, this is essentially what most conversation-trees boil down to. It just goes to should that game mechanics can be seen just about anywhere.

Geod

When I was younger, I used programs like The Game Maker(http://www.yoyogames.com/) or Multimedia Fusion (http://www.clickteam.com/eng/index.php). Both made it possible to make games without any programming knowledge, but there was still a limit to what you could do. You could try those out, I believe that The Game Maker is free still.

Technicality

I would recommend flash, because its as quick and simple as you can get (from my experience) without sacrificing flexibility or learning an obscure syntax which you can't use anywhere else.

You can go all the way from simple branching animations with hardly any code at all, to messing about in 3d with papervision.

Lork

Construct is like The Game Maker or Multimedia Fusion, but free and open source. I only messed around with it for an hour or so before I realized that it wasn't suitable for the kind of game I wanted to make (looks like I'll have to suck it up and finish learning C++) so I don't know how good it is though.

Handkor

YES


As for useful advice: Start small. Flash is a good idea and look for a hello world style tutorial and build from there. Develop in layer by building upon things you know and have done.

Typhus733

I'd also recommend looking into Python if you find any interest in the actual programming side, having used C++ and Python I find the latter a far easier and more intuitive language, at least for getting started.

ElJeffe

If you mean "I would like to make a cute little game for fun, or perhaps as part of a portfolio that I can use to get a job," then yes.

If you mean, "I would like to make the next Halo single-handedly in my basement," then lololol.

Though you could potentially make a decent game either solo or with a buddy or two and offer it up as XBLA fare. Several of the games on there have been made by teams of two or three, though they presumably knew what they were doing.

Drool

You sound like you want to make a full game, but have you considered getting your hands on a toolset for an existing engine?

If your interested in an RPG the Aurora toolset is pretty powerful. You could make just about anything with UE3 if you spend enough time learning how to use it.

ElJeffe

UE3 is fantastic, but it's pretty daunting. And unless you have some 3D graphics software, your game is going to be populated with UT3 characters.

But man, their scripting and particle system tools are fucking faboo.

Defunker

Depends on just how wet you're willing to get those hands of yours.

Go check out the Torque engine. It's not required, but you can do A LOT with it if you're willing to learn some code. The company even offers up some generic models for sale. So if you're not the artsy type, and just want to prototype your ideas to see if they actually play out well, there you have it.

http://www.garagegames.com/products/torque/tge/
Free demos of the engine are available from there.

Though if you're trying to make a FPS-ery game, stay the hell away from torque - I've heard. You'd be better off making a mod with the Source Engine (HL2, Portal, TF2) if that's the sort of game you're looking for. I think the tools to mod COD4 are supposedly on the horizon for release as well.

Rook

I recon making a mod for some existing game would be a good first step. If you take your choose your own adventure idea but wrap it up in a module for Neverwinter Nights (2) say, then you could really show off some flair (sp?) there.

templewulf

Most of this has been discussed, but I'm going to illustrate a little spectrum of things you can do. Typically, the less experienced you are with programming, the higher (more abstract) solutions will be more appropriate.

1. Mod a game (e.g. Oblivion or NWN)
2. Use a specialized game maker (e.g. RPG maker)
3. Use GameMaker or equivalent (this requires more rudimentary programming knowledge to operate the scripting language)
4. Use a more generalized system that lends itself to making games (e.g. Flash)
5. Get into programming, but with a complete engine (e.g. Torque)
6. Get into programming, but with a good framework (e.g. XNA)
7. Do everything the hard way, and make it yourself in C++ (not recommended)

Since I'm a professional programmer, I've done the not recommended way, and even with my experience it was not fun times for all. XNA is pretty nifty once you've mired yourself in the depths of reinventing the wheel.

Basically, I recommend modding a game first, then trying other solutions when it can't meet your needs.

ElJeffe

Defunker wrote: »

Though if you're trying to make a FPS-ery game, stay the hell away from torque - I've heard. You'd be better off making a mod with the Source Engine (HL2, Portal, TF2) if that's the sort of game you're looking for. I think the tools to mod COD4 are supposedly on the horizon for release as well.

My ex-company tried to make a FPS using Torque. It was a great system for throwing in some art and getting something functional working within a short time. It sucks as a real FPS engine. But for someone just tooling around, it's not bad. Note that I say this as an artist, and not as a programmer, though the complaints from our coders suggest what I just said.

Zombiemambo

Not an experienced programmer? Check.

Wants to enjoy the gaming making process? Check.

Wants to make something simple and fun? Check.

I think Game Maker is the perfect match for you. It's easy to use, and you have the option of using code, but you're not forced to do so. If you want to make a game from start to finish with relative ease (relative ease in comparison to the alternatives, that is), and have fun doing it, I heartily recommend Game Maker.

Haxim

You may also want to check out Adventure Game Studio: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/ I believe it was used to make the recently released Art of Theft game, which I found to be pretty cool.

SirUltimos

I think Game Maker would be perfect. It's easy to learn and you can make some pretty cool stuff with it if you try. It also allows you to see results immediately, so it really helps you keep the motivation for your project which, trust me, will be a problem.

Zombiemambo

Another good choice would be the Scrolling Game Development Kit, an obscure game creation engine made by one of the users on the last forum I visited. It's come a long way since I last tried it, but I remember it being very easy and fun to use.

Click.

EDIT: Looks like SGDK2 came out, check it out here.

Xagarath

I also hear well of Game Maker.
Need to try it out myself.

MechMantis

Haxim wrote: »

You may also want to check out Adventure Game Studio: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/ I believe it was used to make the recently released Art of Theft game, which I found to be pretty cool.

EDIT: Durr, I cannot read the site before I open my mouth.

Xagarath

MechMantis wrote: »

Haxim wrote: »

You may also want to check out Adventure Game Studio: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/ I believe it was used to make the recently released Art of Theft game, which I found to be pretty cool.

No, Yahtzee wrote his own engine. Art of Theft is based on a highly modified 1213 engine, according to Mr. Croshaw.

And 1213 was written in AGS.

MechMantis

Was it now? This requires investigation.


EDIT: Fuck, you're right. Edit time!

AbsoluteZero

Of course talentless shmoes can make games.

MechMantis

AbsoluteZero wrote: »

Of course talentless shmoes can make games.

:^:


They were once good, but then they had a fall from grace. Viva Pinata was enjoyable though.

SinWithSebastian

Extremely niche, but if anyone was a fan of the proper Ultimas and to a lesser degree stuff like Magic Candle and such, there's always Adventure Creation Kit, although unfortunately the interface is about as friendly as in those old "make your own adventure" things they sold for the Gold Box series.

Willeth

Note that all of Yahtzee's games are made with AGS, but with HEAVY modifications - Trilby's Notes, my favourite of his, was coded in Adventure Game Studio, but is actually a side-scrolling 2.5D text parser game.

AGS also doesn't have the most friendly toolset.

Scalfin

I found something called The Croquet Project on Wikipedia, and it says it was designed for a learning curve.

Iriah

Why not try writing a text adventure? I plan to one of these days.

Wow that sounds stupid.

Willeth

nyarla, in the Text Adventures thread, wrote:

Inform 7

Look into this. Apparently it's a form of code that lets you write a text-based adventure game by using English-formatted commands.

LewieP

So I made this thread, but only just got around to reading it now, some really interesting suggestions guys, I am definately going to look into a bunch of them over the next few weeks. Thank you very much

Zombiemambo

To make things even easier for the 'talentless shmoe' that you are, I present to you: DrPetter's Sound Effect For All, the "MSPaint for sound effects." I've played around with it for a few minutes, and I have a feeling that I won't be making games without sound anymore.

Woodroez

So I imagine a few of you have UT3...does it have any of the sort of...introduction to UnrealEd that UT2k4 came with? If so, I would consider getting it and Gears just to see if I could make kind of a silly idea I had...

EDIT: for the uninformed, UT2k4 came with a DVD-ROM that I think could run as you ran UnrealED, and showed you the ropes of playing with pretty much anything...code, animation, art, other things.

Gears of War: the side-scrolling shoot/beat 'em up

Rook

I believe the UT3 collectors edition comes with 10 hours of tutorials.

Improvolone

Make a board game?

Smug Duckling

For any slightly less talentless shmoes who have messed around with programming a bit (especially Python), Pygame is a good place to start for making games from closer to scratch. They have quite a few useful tutorials on the site for making simple games.