Where does an indie developer start?

[IrritatingSquirrel]

I'm sort of considering coding/game developing/whatever in my spare time, either as a hobby or a more serious pursuit, depending whether or not I turn out any good at it.
The catch - I'ma total noob at it. I have no idea what to do, where to start, where to learn what I need to know.

 

[aba1]

I would say start by learning to animate in flash that should take you a few years come back when you have gotten a 4 on newgrounds with somthing well animated not funny then well continue

 

[Zorak the Mantis]

Take some classes either at school or a local community college if you have the funds. If not try looking around online, there are plenty of forums dedicated to learning the basics of programming and animation.

 

[Zantos]

There's a program called Game Maker 8 which lets you design games without having to know that much about coding. Download it, start simple and work your way up to more complex things.

 

[geK0]

Learn Java and/or C++, if you don't want to pay for college to learn it, you can probably find some resources by simply googling it.

make a lot of simple games to test certain ideas and game mechanics.

when you feel you're ready, use what you have learned in those smaller games to take on a larger project.

name it minecraft (You'll make millions! ^_^)

 

[NotSoLoneWanderer]

I would say start by learning to animate in flash that should take you a few years come back when you have gotten a 4 on newgrounds with somthing well animated not funny then well continue

I was gonna say newgrounds too. Alien hominid? Castle crashers? it would be more impressive with at least 5 things i could cite but the games speak for themselves. simple concepts and fun gameplay.

 

[aba1]

I would say start by learning to animate in flash that should take you a few years come back when you have gotten a 4 on newgrounds with somthing well animated not funny then well continue

I was gonna say newgrounds too. Alien hominid? Castle crashers? it would be more impressive with at least 5 things i could cite but the games speak for themselves. simple concepts and fun gameplay.

Ya I have been going there for years its basically the place to go for flash tons of artists tutorials even ideas not to mention a art, music, flash movies and games portal.

 

[Chaos James]

Zantos has the right idea, go to http://www.yoyogames.com/ and try out Game Maker 8.1 (the current version, though lots of people still use v8, v7, even v6). It has a simple Drag+Drop interface for making simple games with the ability to learn the more advanced GML (Game Maker Language) which is more akin to other programming languages.

The program is really simple, is great for beginners and hobbyists, and can produce some high-quality stuff. The Game Maker Community ( http://gmc.yoyogames.com/ ) has tons of helpful people and lots of tutorials to help you out when you get stuck, with tons of great stuff to go through when your not sure where you want to go with your games.

No matter what road you take, good luck in your adventure in learning to make games.

 

[Erana]

What genre are you interested in? Flash is good for a lot of things, but there are engines and programs for most genres.