Creating my own game

[Luca72]

I'm sure many of you can relate to the feeling of wanting to create a video game. Well, I'm pretty sure I have a stable enough design to make the leap. Problem is, I don't know anything about programming. I've never majored in computer science or studied it. If I can scrounge up enough money I was thinking about hiring someone to do the programming work, but I think I should at least give it a shot myself to see how much I can accomplish, and at the very least improve my ability to communicate what I'm looking for.

I have an idea that I think is quite unique, but is also very simple. The core mechanics for movement and interaction are in the format of a basic turn-based strategy RPG. I've already worked out all the mechanics into a functioning board game, so I know how all the stats and objects will work in the game. Are there any programs made to specifically make SRPGs? I'd likely be using sprite models.

I can do all the necessary art, music, and writing myself - the writing and art is almost done anyway. All I need to do now is the heavy lifting - the programming. Do any of you have experience with something like this, or can point me in a good direction? Is it feasible to just hire a programmer for something like this?

 

[Beautiful Tragedy]

I'm sure many of you can relate to the feeling of wanting to create a video game. Well, I'm pretty sure I have a stable enough design to make the leap. Problem is, I don't know anything about programming. I've never majored in computer science or studied it. If I can scrounge up enough money I was thinking about hiring someone to do the programming work, but I think I should at least give it a shot myself to see how much I can accomplish, and at the very least improve my ability to communicate what I'm looking for.

I have an idea that I think is quite unique, but is also very simple. The core mechanics for movement and interaction are in the format of a basic turn-based strategy RPG. I've already worked out all the mechanics into a functioning board game, so I know how all the stats and objects will work in the game. Are there any programs made to specifically make SRPGs? I'd likely be using sprite models.

I can do all the necessary art, music, and writing myself - the writing and art is almost done anyway. All I need to do now is the heavy lifting - the programming. Do any of you have experience with something like this, or can point me in a good direction? Is it feasible to just hire a programmer for something like this?

I'm not a programmer, but just know hiring ONE programmer to do the whole job will take a LONG time, or you can hire a team, but that would be VERY expensive. Even the simplest of games can take years to program. I have been following a wrestling game that's been in production for 10 years, and the version they plan on releasing in the next year or so s basically a demo- one location/venue, a handful of playable characters, and no special matches, etc. He has a team, actually two teams.

You might be better off trying to find somewhere to submit it to a established studio (indy preferably), but it would have to have a finished demo (playable for most if not all studios to even look at it.

 

[number2301]

I'm sure there's a thing called RPGMaker, I've never used that personally but it may be worth a look. If you can't do the leg work yourself, you're not going to get into the industry.

 

[burningdragoon]

What the above 2 have said. Basically, if you can't build a working prototype of some kind yourself, you're not going to find someone (outside of a friend) who will be willing to work with/for you.

 

[thebakedpotato]

You should kidnap some game development graduates. Lock them in a room. Have a puppet say they need to saw off their foot in order to- oh wait.

Honestly... Get a team. Fire off a kickstarter. See where it goes.

 

[ThriKreen]

I'll just copy/paste a section from an earlier post of mine:

[snip]
Baby steps - Pick up Unity3D, NWN, UDK, and start learning how to make it yourself.

Ideally, you'd want to make some smaller scale design that's a throwaway, with the goal being to gain valuable experience of not just using the toolset, but also game design. Iterate over your small idea, refine it, see what works and what doesn't, then go back to your magnus opus and incorporate what you've learned, reworking the idea as needed (and trust me, you will).

"But I'm not an artist, I don't know how to make 3D models!" - if you're just focusing on the game design, then what's the problem? You can get away with just slapping some coloured cubes to represent your actors, the important part is the design and how everything meshes together.

"But I don't know how to code!" - Well, start learning! Game design involves a lot of rules and logic, and that's what programming is all about. I'm not saying you should pick up on how to code a 3D engine, but even basic logic for "if creature A attacks creature B, what happens?" is within the realm of possibility. If you jot down the behaviour in pseudo-code, it's not that hard to convert it into an actual language.
[/snip]

If you have the rules laid out already in a board game style, you're already part of the way there, it's just converting the logic into game code and maybe adapting for real time instead of turn based.

I could suggest getting UDK as it has a graphical language called Kismet which is very reminiscent of flowcharts, which would help a great deal, however I'm not sure how to apply it and set it up into a test game.

Unity might be a better approach as it takes all of 5 minutes to make a flat ground and some game objects to represent your playing pieces that you can start interacting with, but code wise you'd have to pick up JavaScript, Python or C#.

I haven't used RPGMaker so I can't really say much about it.

Good luck!