How'd you get into it?

[Deleted member 133647]

Get into learning how to create your own games? I'm interested in it.

 

[Kraken1]

I originally started by making table top wargames after I found I didn't like alot of the existing ones. I literally just started trying different ideas and years later it's become something that I think is quite good. However, I assume you mean computer games? For that I decided to do a degree in game development.

 

[TotallyHuman]

Well, my cultists don't know how to have fun. And normal stuff gets too mid after a while.
So one day I just pulled a bunch of sacrifices and went "do you want to play a game?"
It was a resounding success. People would kill to play them.

 

[DannyTheDaikon]

If you mean computer games then pick an engine and start following tutorials on YT.
Your options are:

1. Unreal Engine - you will need a powerful PC for that, but also the easiest to get into if you have no prior knowledge about programming.
2. Unity - personally, I'd advise against it. It is popular, so you will likely find a lot of recourses for that one.
3. Godot - my personal preference. It's lightweight, easy to get into, and has very nice community. Recently it got a big influx of people switching from Unity, so there's a lot of recourses to learn from.

There are others, of course, but these 3 are the most common, so there's the most stuff to learn from on the internet.
Everything depends on what types of games you want to make.

 

[Kraken1]

If you mean computer games then pick an engine and start following tutorials on YT.
Your options are:

1. Unreal Engine - you will need a powerful PC for that, but also the easiest to get into if you have no prior knowledge about programming.
2. Unity - personally, I'd advise against it. It is popular, so you will likely find a lot of recourses for that one.
3. Godot - my personal preference. It's lightweight, easy to get into, and has very nice community. Recently it got a big influx of people switching from Unity, so there's a lot of recourses to learn from.

There are others, of course, but these 3 are the most common, so there's the most stuff to learn from on the internet.
Everything depends on what types of games you want to make.

To add to this if you use unity I recommend learning the basics of c++ first then c#.

 

[melchi]

I took some programming classes in university. I started with modding existing stuff.

A free online game gave me a chance to apprentice under someone else and the going was very slow at first but after learning enough and seeing many examples in the game already I got good at it.

 

[LilRora]

I didn't do much in that regard, my brother did quite a bit.

One thing I can tell you for sure is, don't try to aim big right from the start. Do you know how many games Scott Cawthon, the creator of Five Nights at Freddy's, made before that game? Well over fifty. You can look him up even on google if you want. He might not be the best example out there, but the point is, once you know the basics, start with small projects that teach you things and gradually move higher up. Can be games, can be mechanics, can be whatever, just be careful you don't get stuck for two months trying and failing to do something large all at once, instead do small things you can like, put on that 'completed' mental shelf.

If you don't have the very basics yet, like you don't know how to code, then the same thing applies. Start by learning and, this is important, using the basics, for example in some small projects like a calculator, and once you've got it move on to something you don't know how to do yet. Many people compare it to building stairs to some larger project you want to achieve in the future.

Also you can watch PirateSoftware (he's definitely on YT and Twitch, not sure where else), he's got some great videos and shorts about programming and game development.

 

[2wordsperminute]

Game development class in high school. Before that, I used scratch for a couple years in middle school.

 

[Shrimp_eater]

Its better to start with basic programming. You can begin working directly with game engines and learn the programming stuff along the way, but that's the path that leads you to unnoptimized and buggy games as well as inefficient workflows that get you stuck into dev hell.

 

[J_Chemist]

Started with programming Cisco network servers in high school. I played games and realized they're similar.

That developed into me learning programming, then figuring out that I can actually make games using my creativity and my programming bullshit. Ended up making Snake by accident, then a text adventure.

Then I went to college for it.

Then I realized I really, really hated people in a certain region of the world because of something they did and now I help my friends with their games instead.

 

[Deleted member 133647]

Started with programming Cisco network servers in high school. I played games and realized they're similar.

That developed into me learning programming, then figuring out that I can actually make games using my creativity and my programming bullshit. Ended up making Snake by accident, then a text adventure.

Then I went to college for it.

Then I realized I really, really hated people in a certain region of the world because of something they did and now I help my friends with their games instead.

wot

 

[l8rose]

Took Pascal in High School, and one of my classmates suggested making Tetris with it. I eventually moved on to PHP and MySQL as I wanted to make a pet simulation game similar to Neopets and Furry Paws but based around dragons. Gave that up with the changes to both PHP and MySQL as well as Google Chrome requiring a lot more checks that were too advanced for my knowledge (and someone had made a popular dragon sim so it seemed a little pointless at the time). After that I coded and designed my own hand-held Simon Says game (you press colored buttons following a light pattern and get the Mission Impossible theme music for completing 10 levels).

Decided to try my hand at making a visual novel instead which led to Ren'Py which is pretty straightforward with its coding. That did lead to the RPGMaker series where I made some 2D games for family members (the monsters on my art thread are from an uncompleted game). As RPGMaker pretty much only requires some basic level of coding knowledge and switches which makes it pretty easy for me to knock stuff out in that.

My Visual Novel phase also led me to interactive fiction and Choice of Games which is where I have been working on one for the last year (just in mild development hell while I focus on college). While their engine/code is pretty much reserved for being on their site (if you want to monetize your IF), it is fairly easy to learn and rather fun to play with. But I do have knowledge from a few different coding languages so I might be a little biased.

 

[HungrySheep]

I started with Ren.py! Visual novels are the easiest games to make IMO.