Skills needed to create your own game?

6621 Views 7 Replies 6 Participants Last post by -WOLF-, May 19, 2009

galvinclaw

Discussion Starter · May 12, 2009

I am fond of creating my own games, but I don't know how. I would like to start create my own game and submit it to legitimate platforms for reviewing and rating it. What are the exact skills needed in order for me to start? And also if you know about softwares that creates games, I would be appreciated. Thanks!

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-WOLF-

· #2 · May 12, 2009

Well, to start, you are going to need a large team of dedicated and expereinced people.

Programs you can use are Game Maker and RPG Maker, Visual Studio and various SDK kits.

Skills are, extensive knowledge in languages like C, C++, C# and Python.
Also, you are going to need resourses for sound and music, sprites or icons.
And if are making your own, a talented musician and artist.

Keep in mind that you are going to need at least 3 people for every task to be efficient and effective.

I'd strongly suggest, if this is a career you want, take Computer Science in High School and other programming couses, and then you will have the knowlege to do something, and get friends in those classes that may be interested in doing the same thing.

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Indoril Nerevar

· #3 · May 12, 2009 (Edited)

Creating a game is not something you can just jump into. A small enough game can be made by one person, but it would never be sold for money. That one person would have to have:

- Good design skills (ability to plan properly, organise time and resources, etc).
- Good programming knowledge (for a small game, pretty much any language can be used).
- Good drawing skills (artwork).
- Sound creation skills (music, sound effects).
- Good imagination and story ideas.

There's a great deal more work than people realise, and even a small game can take many months to build.

If you're really serious about making your own game, I recommend taking a Games Development course at university or college. It'll be a 2-year or longer degree, and will involve a lot of hard work, but it will be worth it if you're serious.

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Jason09

· #4 · May 13, 2009

If you've never done anything with programming before, I recommend MS Small Basic. I've used it before, and it shows you how create lines and even draw objects and paste images from a computer location. It is obvisouly nothing compared to creating games, but it is a start with programming. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/devlabs/cc950528.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Small_Basic

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Aus_Karlos

· #5 · May 13, 2009

To get your self started, making a mod for a game is a great way to learn how to write game code, make maps, create models as you have the contents to base your own game from.

Valve (Half-Life 2) enable users to use all there game contents (code, textures, models) in creating their very own mod. There are hundreds of HL2 mods where makers have added their own contents to create a completely different game.

If you have got Steam and own a Half-Life 2 game you can download the Source SDK and start learning.

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-WOLF-

· #6 · May 13, 2009

Aus_Karlos said:
To get your self started, making a mod for a game is a great way to learn how to write game code, make maps, create models as you have the contents to base your own game from.

Valve (Half-Life 2) enable users to use all there game contents (code, textures, models) in creating their very own mod. There are hundreds of HL2 mods where makers have added their own contents to create a completely different game.

If you have got Steam and own a Half-Life 2 game you can download the Source SDK and start learning.

Yeah that's kind of what I said, using some sort of Software Development Kit (SDK) like Vavle's will help, also getting familiar with other construction sets like FarCry's CryEngine or even the old StarCraft Campaign Editor.

If you've even got the money, then you can buy a license for a whole engine, Cry Engine, Source, Unreal, there are many engines too experiment with.

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darksteel88

· #7 · May 16, 2009

Trust me my friend, everyone at some point in their life thinks it would be cool to make their own game. It isn't as easy as it sounds. Even some of the programs that are made to make games (RPG Maker 2 for example), are complex enough. To make your own game, you need extensive knowledge in programming languages. That alone will take you a few years, and then, you're only on the programming part.

To be fair, some games are made with minimal staff (Pokemon Red/Green were made with about 10-20 people, World of Goo with 2/3). However, the average game by a leading company (Square-Enix for example), has like a hundred or more people involved.

I currently take a computer science course in HS and I'm the top student in the class, but heck, making games with these programs is hard. Trust me, and whomever else has suggested it, to go to school and learn this stuff if you really are truly dedicated to this.

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-WOLF-

· #8 · May 19, 2009

oh, don't think about trying to go to a big-name company (or any for that matter) with ideas because they all won't accept solicit game ideas, and I am talking from experience.

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