Please lend us your knowledge

[Eagi]

Hi everyone, me and two of my friends find ourself at the start of the long road that is game development. we are a small but fairly well balanced team. (One Artist, one Programmer, and one Sound and Music developer). Our first project is planed in epics UDK but the biggest problem to tackle is our own inexperience... We have all worked in our above listed fields but not in the context of gaming. So now I turn to you for tips and pitfalls to avoid at the start of development. I'm happy for any advice we can get, Sincerely // Ed

 

[oplinger]

Major pitfall: Time.

Be sure you have lots of it.

Also communication. The bigger your team gets, the more essential that is.

The rest is common sense, I'm sure you'll do fine

 

[Sacman]

Actually I would like to see where this thread goes, me and my friend want to start developing a game...<.<

 

[oplinger]

Actually I would like to see where this thread goes, me and my friend want to start developing a game...<.<

My first response will be "No you don't"


Followed up by "...Well I guess if you've never done it before.."

 

[Kurokami]

Get more programmers imo.

And good luck!
(tell us/me how it goes)

 

[Sacman]

Actually I would like to see where this thread goes, me and my friend want to start developing a game...<.<

My first response will be "No you don't"


Followed up by "...Well I guess if you've never done it before.."

This comment has confused me greatly...

 

[TerribleAssassin]

Practice with UDK, so you get to grips with it.

Release trailers, demos and ask for feedback to know where you got it worng, improvement areas.

Rest should be common sense.

 

[tharglet]

Don't get too ambitious for your first release (or prereleases). Seen many projects fail, game and non-game, because too much was planned/expected.

And, to that extent, have a plan! Decide in what order you will do things in, and how many features constitute a release. If you're anything like a normal project, you'll have more ideas than time.

(backup plans can also assist ¬¬)

 

[Dectomax]

Make sure you set yourself sensible deadlines. I know alot of people said about giving yourself time, but you also want to make sure it get's done!

Another point, look at the genre of your game, then do some research into it. See what visual styles and other mechanics are used to make a successful game. Then you'll want to start taking ideas and develop them.

As stated before, you might want to look onto a few more programmers. I've used VB.net and C++ before, it's a nightmare and leaving it to one guy? Probably not a good idea. For whichever chosen language your going to script the game in, join it's community. Find forums on the internet and embed yourself into them, you'll gain alot of advice and it's also a way to get your work out their.

The game development road is a long and difficult one, but if you stick too it and work with each other. You'll be fine!

 

[Eagi]

Yes at the moment our programmer is burying himself in UDK trying to sort out what he needs to study up on, he is quite a workhorse when he get his target set on something so I just need to keep him focused But yes we do realise that 3 is a very small number to make anything that would be worth shipping, but now we are mostly stretching our wings to see if we can make something small. If we get the ball rolling then maybe more people will be introduced...