How to make a game??

Hi! I'm more or less like all of you - I love gaming, but the problem is that I've been playing games for all my life? For like at least fifteen years. And I think it's time to do something more, and I even know what is it.

Since young, I always wanted to makes games, but I never knew how to start, Well I started coding in C#, and before I've also attempted coding in C. Both tries resulted in a fail, I didn't learn how to make games, in fact I didnt even learn coding properly, but the last time I attempted programming it was a bit more understandable than during the first time.

However I dont see how coding and learning about loops, if statements and the like will bring me closer to game creation - I think im moving in wrong direction. Does anyone of you have any experience in game programming? How to start? And which language is best? I'm mainly interested in singleplayer adventure games in either 2D or 3D, but maybe one day it would be good to make MMO as well! (after I learn)

@rahyluz: Well, I would go with Allegro 4. Yes I’ve got experience and I’ve made a small 2D fighting game.

Look, it’s not easy, however it’s doable. Once you get the concept it’s like walking downhill, and it’s easier than walking uphill.

The Allegro one is 2D, you can make Zelda like games or Mario like platformers.

Just put in the effort. I’m not the smartest guy, but through grinding, I got a “prototype” done.

Now, for 3D, I recommend irrlicht for programming. I haven’t experimented with it too much, but it’s also a fun program to experiment with.

You’re also gonna need drawing programs, as well as sound programs. You’ll also need to make your game unique, so as it will appeal to the masses.

Ok. Please ask me again if you have another q.

Try not to learn from Blizzard latest games ):

You try unity?

Udemy has some 10$ courses

I have only dabbled lightly in it and when i say lightly...i mean a pong clone lightly.

The big thing (The TL;DR) is to keep your expectations in check starting out. Remember that modern big games are made by 100s of people and cost 10s, if not 100s of millions of dollars to produce. Starting out, try just to focus on learning the basics.

remember that games are not just programming (well ok some can certainly be). its programming, art assets, sound, models, animations and so on.

If there a specific facet of making a game that interests you? the programming? the art? just putting it all together to make a game?

Focus on that facet first and look for an appropriate tool.

If you want to program but don't want to start from scratch (because game engine programming is a completely different animal) then look to engines/tools like Unity, Godot and unreal. All have tutorials online to get you started. I messed around with godot a bit and the basic tutorial assumes you know very little programming. The way it manages stuff can seem a bit odd at first though.

The loops, conditional statements, variables and so on are absolutely critical knowledge though for any programming....including games programming. Languages wise, C and C# are good places to look. c++ is the industry standard but tougher (though starting out it's not bad and there are tutorials galore). don't get too hung up on the language though: the most important thing is the underlying logic and understanding the building blocks of a program. if you use one of the above engines it will have its own scripting language too.

3D modeling: Blender. that's all i know about 3D modelling. it's free too.

Textures: The gimp. or paint. or paint.net. i don't dabble much in the asset area of games development admittedly (pong doesn't need textures :P).

if you just want to make some games fairly quick and play around with developing the gameplay itself then something like Game Maker may be up your alley. It's been an age since i used it but it does a lot to hide the tricker bits of games development if i remember correctly. you can go from 0 to 2D side scroller pretty quickly.

@rahyluz: Please don't make an MMO. While games are easier to make than everyone make it seem to be, they're still really huge tasks. It's not hard but it takes years to create anything great. And doing MMO would just make you hate game design and quit it, trust me. Also you would need players since first day.

The reason I said making games is easy is because of game engines - while they're often painfully to use, the best ones actually can make us create our game quite quickly, especially in later stages when you know what you're doing.

The best game engines are Unity, Godot, UE4, CryEngine and GameMaker but unfortunately many of them are best due to no better option around. Except Unity. Unity is absolutely great 2D 3D game engine and can be used to make any game. The thing about it is that its good for beginners but not limited for professionals like some tools are. Before you make your game you should learn C#, after that it will be easier to master Unity. And mastering Unity will require following tutorials so I dont know how much youre willing to pay BUT there are many great free tutorials for Unity.. Just whatever youre lookin for, always search for free alternative.

Free assets in Unity Asset Store are also great honestly.

Try Unity. It's free and has good tutorials for 2D and 3D games

That being said - the graphics are nothing but graphics. All those FOR loops etc are what's going on under the hood of any game, be a 2D arcade shooter or Skyrim. So you are learning to make games - you just haven't learned how to do the graphical elements yet.

A fun way to conceptualize this is to make a text adventure. You can do this in any programming language - code a description of a room, code a few possible interactions with the room that can be entered as text, and then some IF statements that will "move you" (describe) to a new room or "do something" depending on which of those interactions you type in. Voila - Skyrim text adventure. Once you do this, you'll see that the graphics are really just eye candy and offer graphical user interfaces instead of typing.

Hope this helps

That's a tough question I would say lol

@osan0: what @osan0 said is also true. It’s not recommended to go game development alone. Try working with a team. It makes much more sense that way. I know some indie developers are mostly a one man team, but that really is super rare.

I’m a game developer and I want to work with a team. I have a lot to learn in game development.

I am developing my own game. It is not as hard of a task as people assume. Start off with a good engine that has tutorials to work from and go from there. There are more great 2D engines out there than there are 3D but if you want to learn one that is pretty flexible there is Unity. Unreal Engine is even easier to use with virtually no coding experience required using its built in visual scripting language. A bit more of a challenge would be Godot since it's less documented, but has two of its own built in scripting languages to choose from and is starting to get more mature.

My advice would be to look at these engines, pick one that does what you want, and learn what you need as you go.