Hello everyone! I have been working on all sorts of projects and of course school itself, so I have been away for a while from the forums. I decided today to make a topic about inde game developers and how to become like one. My experience with game development ranges from 8-9 years with multiple languages and understand the idea on how to design/manage games.
FIRST OFF... do you love games? do you concentrate on your projects? do you have dedication? do you want to work hard on making a game?... if so then you are on the right path for becoming a game developer :). Mark my words, making games is a very hard and frustrating thing to do! There have been times I have worked on games for months with thousands of lines of code and end up scrapping it from it's lack of quality or difficulty. Don't forget game development is with 3D modeling, textures, human interface, story telling, artificial intelligence, sounds, video's, music, voices, physics, light, landscape and much more.
SECOND... once you think you can handle all the hard ships of making a game and feel very dedicated! well then there is the second step :)... figuring out a plan! A plan is about what game will we make? what story line? what platform? what language? or game engine? will I work with more people? who does what? how will we test this? how do we distribute this? whats our profit?... Well there are many options for languages/game engines like either want to use java, C++, C#, python, C, unreal, cry engine, unity or even dark basic.
pro's/cons of languages and game engines:
-----------------------------------------------------------
-programming languages give you more control, more flexibility, and in most cases more capabilities!
-programming languages are harder to use sometimes and you have to do things by scratch.
-game engines can give you the option of barely doing any code and allow you to see where you place your assets
-game engines have thousands of options for each little thing in the game and while they are useful... they are a huge pain to learn.
pro's and cons on different languages
---------------------------------------------------
-C++ is 70% (I think) used for game development and C++ is maily the programming language used to create languages like C#, java, visual basic, dark basic and python
-C++ is hard to use, uses pointers a lot and you are responsible for deleting unused objects
-java is easier then C++, it manages it's own object deletion and is more friendly to use with multi-platform
-java is much slower then C++ and some other languages, if minecraft was made in c++ if would have about X2 less lag.
-C# is similiar to java but more of a hybrid of C++ and java... making it easy to use, it supports xbox360 and I think PS3 games. It also links to XNA
-C# is overall a ok language, but C++ is still the leader in performance in all the programming languages.
-python is easier then java, but the only game I know that uses python are the civilization game series.
-python is built off of java making it's performance slower then java, also 90% of the time python is used as a scripting language to a game.
SECOND CONTINUED... Now that you have some idea about langues and game engine (of course out of order, lol) you may start thinking about platforms and performance for that platform! Of course assuming you have a basic idea of how your game will work and what it is about. There are many different platforms like... iOs, android, blackberry (-_-), windows phone, PC, MAC, linux, HTML5, XBOX360, PS3, etc. With those platforms you want to know the dynamics of your graphics (like render distance... or polygon count per object) to fit the need of each platform. For an iphone you would have lower resolution textures, lower polygon count in objects, more fog, lower render distance, less features and so on. For a High performance PC you would want the opposite! You would want a lot of shaders, good detailed objects and higher res textures. We will cover this in my next post of this topic with TRICKS OF THE DEVELOPER MIND!
Now you may be thinking how do I have other people work with me or how do I get my app/game to be tested? Well it is simple! just get some friends and give them a beta that has no code and get results! If you are programming with a friend do divide and conquer, let your friend handle AI while you do the HUD and another person does the menu's. It is important to leave comments in each function you create (or method) in you code and fully explain stuff. If you are programming in java, javadocs comments are great to use for producing html files of your methods for others to see. Make sure you have a due date! make sure you have a main person in charge! and try your best to have fun :).
HOW DO I DISTRIBUTE?!?!? well there are less ways on doing it since steam is taking control of the game community and selling games. There is of course green light! that is a program for developers to submit games into it for people to rate and then be sold on steam (if it makes it). You can do what notch did and have your paypal account ready and sell it on your website, which can be alot harder and a lot of legal stuff will have to take in place to protect it (not my field). If you are doing an app you have no choice but to submit it to the app store of that device or try to sell it on your own (not always a good idea).
PROFIT? this is straight forward! make a deadline, get some talented good friends, make a plan, work hard and beta test the game and advertise it. To advertise a game, you need to put it on steam or the app store! try to get a good youtuber to promote your game (hint hint...) or make your own youtube channel for your game. You should go on twitter, facebook, tumbler, google+, etc. to further expand your gamers to your game.
FURTHER TIPS:
-start early!!!!! and keep at it! it can be anything to drawing a circle or reinventing skyrim be proud about it and never give up!
-learn from others, read books or online posts about inde game dev
-play some games and study things and you would make it work... but learn how to program first.
-learn C++ and how to use libraries like app game kit to make it waaaaay more easy!
-work on something you love so if no one likes it you will love it
-write down ideas and save them, even if you don't know how to make them into games yet.
-learn proper programming style and syntax... it will save you!
my vid on the game engines and programming languages: click here!
well I hope this has helped or somewhat inspired you to make computer games or apps! *brofist* fellow bro's
P.S. I will do a couple more posts on explaining how everyday things can be done in game dev like water, tree's, etc.
FIRST OFF... do you love games? do you concentrate on your projects? do you have dedication? do you want to work hard on making a game?... if so then you are on the right path for becoming a game developer :). Mark my words, making games is a very hard and frustrating thing to do! There have been times I have worked on games for months with thousands of lines of code and end up scrapping it from it's lack of quality or difficulty. Don't forget game development is with 3D modeling, textures, human interface, story telling, artificial intelligence, sounds, video's, music, voices, physics, light, landscape and much more.
SECOND... once you think you can handle all the hard ships of making a game and feel very dedicated! well then there is the second step :)... figuring out a plan! A plan is about what game will we make? what story line? what platform? what language? or game engine? will I work with more people? who does what? how will we test this? how do we distribute this? whats our profit?... Well there are many options for languages/game engines like either want to use java, C++, C#, python, C, unreal, cry engine, unity or even dark basic.
pro's/cons of languages and game engines:
-----------------------------------------------------------
-programming languages give you more control, more flexibility, and in most cases more capabilities!
-programming languages are harder to use sometimes and you have to do things by scratch.
-game engines can give you the option of barely doing any code and allow you to see where you place your assets
-game engines have thousands of options for each little thing in the game and while they are useful... they are a huge pain to learn.
pro's and cons on different languages
---------------------------------------------------
-C++ is 70% (I think) used for game development and C++ is maily the programming language used to create languages like C#, java, visual basic, dark basic and python
-C++ is hard to use, uses pointers a lot and you are responsible for deleting unused objects
-java is easier then C++, it manages it's own object deletion and is more friendly to use with multi-platform
-java is much slower then C++ and some other languages, if minecraft was made in c++ if would have about X2 less lag.
-C# is similiar to java but more of a hybrid of C++ and java... making it easy to use, it supports xbox360 and I think PS3 games. It also links to XNA
-C# is overall a ok language, but C++ is still the leader in performance in all the programming languages.
-python is easier then java, but the only game I know that uses python are the civilization game series.
-python is built off of java making it's performance slower then java, also 90% of the time python is used as a scripting language to a game.
SECOND CONTINUED... Now that you have some idea about langues and game engine (of course out of order, lol) you may start thinking about platforms and performance for that platform! Of course assuming you have a basic idea of how your game will work and what it is about. There are many different platforms like... iOs, android, blackberry (-_-), windows phone, PC, MAC, linux, HTML5, XBOX360, PS3, etc. With those platforms you want to know the dynamics of your graphics (like render distance... or polygon count per object) to fit the need of each platform. For an iphone you would have lower resolution textures, lower polygon count in objects, more fog, lower render distance, less features and so on. For a High performance PC you would want the opposite! You would want a lot of shaders, good detailed objects and higher res textures. We will cover this in my next post of this topic with TRICKS OF THE DEVELOPER MIND!
Now you may be thinking how do I have other people work with me or how do I get my app/game to be tested? Well it is simple! just get some friends and give them a beta that has no code and get results! If you are programming with a friend do divide and conquer, let your friend handle AI while you do the HUD and another person does the menu's. It is important to leave comments in each function you create (or method) in you code and fully explain stuff. If you are programming in java, javadocs comments are great to use for producing html files of your methods for others to see. Make sure you have a due date! make sure you have a main person in charge! and try your best to have fun :).
HOW DO I DISTRIBUTE?!?!? well there are less ways on doing it since steam is taking control of the game community and selling games. There is of course green light! that is a program for developers to submit games into it for people to rate and then be sold on steam (if it makes it). You can do what notch did and have your paypal account ready and sell it on your website, which can be alot harder and a lot of legal stuff will have to take in place to protect it (not my field). If you are doing an app you have no choice but to submit it to the app store of that device or try to sell it on your own (not always a good idea).
PROFIT? this is straight forward! make a deadline, get some talented good friends, make a plan, work hard and beta test the game and advertise it. To advertise a game, you need to put it on steam or the app store! try to get a good youtuber to promote your game (hint hint...) or make your own youtube channel for your game. You should go on twitter, facebook, tumbler, google+, etc. to further expand your gamers to your game.
FURTHER TIPS:
-start early!!!!! and keep at it! it can be anything to drawing a circle or reinventing skyrim be proud about it and never give up!
-learn from others, read books or online posts about inde game dev
-play some games and study things and you would make it work... but learn how to program first.
-learn C++ and how to use libraries like app game kit to make it waaaaay more easy!
-work on something you love so if no one likes it you will love it
-write down ideas and save them, even if you don't know how to make them into games yet.
-learn proper programming style and syntax... it will save you!
my vid on the game engines and programming languages: click here!
well I hope this has helped or somewhat inspired you to make computer games or apps! *brofist* fellow bro's
P.S. I will do a couple more posts on explaining how everyday things can be done in game dev like water, tree's, etc.