This page is intended to point out a number of problems that most new game developers have and aren't aware that they have. Most people who try game development fool around for a while and then quit.
What happens is this: you post an incomplete idea. Someone says something about how your idea sucks. You tell them that their ideas suck too. Then a flame war breaks out. Eventually, you get frustrated and quit because you don't know how to move forward.
This article is intended to help solve that problem.
If you just say that you want to make a FPS where soldiers shoot zombies, that's not a game idea. An "FPS where soldiers shoot zombies" could mean anything. There's hundreds (if not thousands) of games that already fulfill that statement. You can't make a whole game based just on the phrase "FPS where soldiers shoot zombies".
Everything has to be completely planned out. Try creating a design document. I posted a free design doc template to make things easier. The templateīs far from perfect, but writing about all the things it mentions will bring you that much closer to bringing your game to completion.
Itīs in html, but you could write the same stuff in a text file if you don't know html.
One important part of a game that isn't mentioned much in my template is the storyline. You'll need to elaborate upon it. In fact, Itīs a good idea to have a complete script.
An idea isn't enough. You must be able to help bring that idea to life. A full design document is a good start, but you can't make a game without being able to do at least some of the work.
Everyone wants to be the person who has ideas that are made into games. Unless you're a veteran of the game development industry or incredibly rich, other people won't make your ideas into games for you. You need to be able to do some part of the work yourself.
There are 3 "main" game creation skills: programming, artwork, and music composition. Learn one of those 3 skills. Anyone can design a game or write a storyline. It's much more difficult to write a script that's actually good, so writing skills are important. Unfortunately, it's hard to convince someone that you're a good writer. No one's going to read 100 different stories written by 100 different people and determine who's a good writer and who isn't.
There are many tutorials on the Internet about acquiring these skills, but the main requirement is that you practice. Practice by making games - or at least the part you would be responsible for.
This isn't so much a rule as a guideline. You can make a game on your own, but it won't be as good as a game made by a team. Moreover, most games require art, music, programming, and scripting, as well as some other less dominant skills. To make a game yourself, you have to limit the game to whatever set of skills you have.
Even assuming that you have every possible game development skill, it would take forever to make one really great game if you had to do everything yourself.
There's so many people who have game ideas that it's hard for people to say "this person is the one who's actually going to complete their game". You can't expect people to sacrifice their time to work on your game unless they expect it to get finished eventually.
You need to have something that people can look at quickly and realize that you're serious about making games. This usually means a game demo, game artwork, or game music. Unless you can show people you know what you're doing, they'll just ignore you.
Look at what you have, and ask yourself "if someone else showed me this, would I want to work on their game?". If the answer is no, you need to get more done.
One big problem these days that everyone wants to lead a team, but no one wants to work on anyone else's team. By working on someone else's game, you can acquire many of the skills necessary to make your own game. Moreover, this is the only way to learn how to work with a team, which is important.
What you have to keep in mind is that creating games is a JOB. It is nothing like playing games. It's hard work, and it's not always fun.
People who work in the game development industry work like slaves to get the games made. If you're going to make games in your spare time, you're either going to need alot of free time, or you're going to need to make some concessions to get the games done.
don't expect to just create the next blockbuster game in your free time. Huge teams of people work for years to create your favorite games. You can still make games - you just have to be realistic about it. When people start talking about how their gameīs going to be the next big thing, that suggests that they grossly underestimate the difficulty of constructing a game.
But don't let that stop you. You have to create ok games before you can create awesome genre-busters.
If you don't plan to sell the games you make, you don't need to follow any rules. You can do whatever you want. However, you'll produce a much better game if you keep the information in this article in mind.
One thing you might consider is using programs that let you design your own games. You usually can't sell games you make with those programs, but you can make some fun stuff. You can find some free and cheap programs that do this with any Internet search engine.
Copyright (C) 2004-2006 Steven Fletcher. All rights reserved.
