Did it take you guys to learn basics to make a very cheap but working (maybe at least addicting) game?
I tried awhile back and learned a little but lost motiv which sucks, I really want to create a game but idk, I want to learn thank you(:
I just wanted to know your guys history and how long it took for the real simple (to you guys at least) basics. Like a 2D platform easy but addicting game. Like what markus (minecraft dev) created in like 3 nights lol
First game, first time out, maybe expect about three months, as long as the scope is not much larger than pong. Some people make a point of whipping out small games once a month, but you have to be pretty adept and have very smalll scope games for that.
Yeah, so making a platform game thats real cheap but addicting isn’t that easy for you guys? I understand it’s real hard for me but it just seems like most of you can just breath out a simple game in a couple hours cause it’s that natural.
I just want to create a simple simple addictive game. As simple as “The Hardest Game Ever” game with circles and squares, but the way they made it addictive is why it’s famous and good.
My scope isn’t going to a whole RPG and stuff, just something like that for now I guess? How would the coding be for something like that?
And if you never played that game then google it lol
2 weeks - it was also the first thing I ever programmed.
It was on my older brother’s TI-83 graphing calculator. I borrowed it and looked at the source of another game, and eventually made my own. It was a text RPG of sorts… basically you were a guy fighting in a tournament, you beat up progressively more and more difficult guys until you get to battle guess who, “Electric Eli.” Each person’s name was some sort of alliteration, if I recall. There was also training to increase your stats and all that.
In the end, though, it was just a typical stats-based text game. You had random chances to hit depending on where you chose to aim, you could strategically dodge, etc. In college I later made a game like it in Assembly. Also, the first version of the game was done in like 2 weeks, but I worked on it for months.
The key thing is that your first game should be simple in terms of programming, and then you’ll be fine. Having an example game to look at helps too.
How long? Well, I’ve been programming computers in one form or another since I was 12, didn’t even have one back then, just a book (no internet). Wrote my programs on paper and simulated them. I’m 39 now. So yeah, 27 years.
You seem to be focusing on “addicting” games. Those aren’t that hard to program necessarily, they just need a really good idea which is the hardest part. Also, I pretty much lived in front of a computer screen every waking moment for the last 7 years and it’s only now that I can say I am able to breath programs. Even so, those programs aren’t very detailed or polished.
I hope one day to write and finish something good. 28 years for me.
Kev
I’d pretty much give up on doing something genuinely good first time out. Well, maybe not give up on it - try, but expect to fail.
To use a Dwarf Fortress analogy, losing is fun.
I started by doing (shortered) clone game of other game (on a Amstrad CPC464): prohibition,targan, etc… also shoot them up is a good target, one thing I found very funny and instructive was to redo exacly the same game (but shorter) with a surprising stuff and ask my friends to try it : like redo a minesweeper (exactly the same) and add something fun after a certain level
EDIT:
starting by copying a game is a lot easier, no surprise. Pretty easy in comparaisnon of starting a game with a new idea
Hm I guess I didn’t answer the whole question.
I’ve been making games for 14 years, at a professional level for 3. I started on the TI-83 like I said with mostly text games, then I moved to an adventure game maker program on Mac called WorldBuilder (this program had code in it that was pretty simple and easy to understand). From there I started making Flash games, and then I learned Java. Since then I’ve learned all sorts of languages and technologies but I still enjoy using Java the most for my hobby games.
So for me it went text adventures -> programs with code attached to objects in a visual editor -> real game programming from scratch.
Pretty much (:
I don’t need to like dream about creating a full on game taking my life to make it, I just want to do simple simple but addicting BECAUSE of the creativity. I am very creative with ideas thats why I want to try and make a probably graphically impaired game but is shrouded by the gameplay. Perfect example as I stated is TheHardestGameEver. Please play some of it if you haven’t already and kind of know what I’m trying to say.
But it can be that type of game or a simple platform type, just something to put out and share with friends and get compliments and gain knowledge. I feel like putting out your own stuff and sharing with friends and family can feel good personally (: