Game Creation: What to do?

[1080bitgamer]

Me and a few friends are starting to put together what could potentially be a video game in the near future, but we have a long way to go. I'm the designer and writer (very text heavy game) and was wondering if anyone had an idea of programs, sites that teach coding skills, and the like. I already own Adobe CS5 and GameSalad, but any suggestions would be helpful. Thank you.

 

[WorkerMurphey]

Watch the new Extra Credits movie! It might help a little. Other than that best of luck.

 

[Whitenail]

Depends on what kind of game you're going for, is it 2D, 3D? Is it side-on, third-person, non-fixed camera, first-person, text-adventure, top-down?

 

[1080bitgamer]

3d, third person, descision based like Fable so branching dialouge trees, that's all we've got so far.

 

[Whitenail]

3d, third person, descision based like Fable so branching dialouge trees, that's all we've got so far.

Hmmm, I see. I'm heading into a class for game design next year and In the introductory sessions I've attended most of the teachers recommended Maya as a tool, but that's entirely for the creation of 3D environments and objects.

When it comes to the programming side of things I'm a nub and frankly I'd prefer it to stay that way, but if living with my programmer father for all these years has taught me anything it's that you really need to decide on a good engine and work with it. The Source engine and unreal engines have proven pretty user-friendly for both custom-content and wholesale games, with tools like SDK for source you've got pretty much everything right there in front of you so that's another thing to consider (plus it's free on Steam).

From the sound of things it sounds like a fairly big project, again I'm probably not the best person to be contributing to this thread but is this just a thing amongst friends or are you all truly serious with experience in game design?

 

[1080bitgamer]

In true honesty, we're trying to each get into artistic fields (me game design, another liberal arts, etc.) but only one of us so far has had major experience making textures for a game character. It will be a big project, but even putting out a 5 hour alpha after two years will be a big achievement for me. We are serious, and even if it drops, it would be good to have some references for the future.

 

[zen5887]

Start small.

Don't dive into ocean if you don't know how to swim.

 

[1080bitgamer]

Like I said, it will probably drop at some point, but I'm the only true blue noob to this in the group. A programmer and artist have been found, but I want to at the least learn some of the skills required for making any game

 

[1080bitgamer]

And no offense to GameSalad, but I'm talking about programs that allow fiddling with the code. Unless GameSalad has yet to reveal that to me?

 

[Jfswift]

If you have a presentation ready you could try to get a sponser/publisher interested. I'm not sure how you would contact one though (would recommend a form of nondisclosure also).

I found this link earlier that covers the basic process of designing a game. http://www.digra.org/dl/db/09287.25072.pdf

 

[Zyphonee]

By Adobe CS5 you mean Adobe Flash CS5? If you do, then you're pretty much set to go. What you'll need in order to start making the game would be a solid grasp at ActionScript 3.0 or 2.0 and a fundamental understandment of your game concept. Start off small if you haven't made any field work before, then evolve your scope and develop larger projects until you feel comfortable enough with the idea of making a full game.

 

[1080bitgamer]

I have Indesign cs5 will that work?

 

[1080bitgamer]

Can XML code be used as part of video game programming?

 

[1080bitgamer]

Never mind the Adobe INdesign, it doesn't appear to do much for gaming.