If I wanted to start an Indie Game, what should I do?
Yeah, I sound like a idiot asking this for way too many reasons to count, but this is the question. Let's say I want to make an Indie Videogame, what should I do? I know enough about writing, and some about art and music, but nothing about programming or animation. I have a pretty clear idea of what I want already. I know most games start with a mechanic and then the writer thinks "What story does this mechanic tell?" (see: Life Is Strange). I already have this mechanic (typical Chose your Ow Adventure game, but taking it a step further, and making not only the story depend of the choices, but also the character arc. If it a negative arc? A possitive arc? What does the character learn through the story? Thank kind of things), the message and the basic story. It needs work, though, and I haven't even started with the architecture of the story, not to say the plot's and the goddamn actual script. It will probably take a year or two to be finished and I don't want to start anything before I get the script done, but I do want to know what I will have to do. Should I get a programmer? Could I learn to use an engine? Could I work with people from other countries with Internet? I don't want to do anything right now, i just want to know what steps await me (and possibly get some advice).
An user from this very forum asked me to write a scrip for their game a few months ago and I accepted, only to leave it when things got harder. If you're reading this, I'm sorry I left like that. I don't regret leaving, since I just could not work forcing my imagination, but I'm sorry I pulled and pushed like I did. Shit, writing this whole thig makes me feel guilty. Now I know what I want to do. I mean, Someday. Somehow.
Comments
I think it’s great that you have a plan already. I know very little of programming and animation, but like you, I know a fair bit in writing,art, and music.
I’ll let you in on a little secret that goes around my creative little lot. Don’t think too much about the future. It won’t hurt to plan a little ahead, but don’t lose yourself in future plans.
Getting a programmer is a good idea, as well as an animator. However, you’re going to want to finish that script first. You’re going to want it to be nearly flawless and check it over three or four times (I personally think two isn’t nearly enough. But then again, I also never proofread my own writing until I reach the end, fairly evident.) Anyways, you also want to finish the script first so you can be available to help with what your colleagues are going to need and for said colleagues to also use as resource material.
If you think something is getting to be too much of a burden, ask for help. I have never actually seen people who can be helpful while remaining really silly at the same time until I met more people from the forums. That being said, I’ve seen your posts in other threads and I love your ambition and willpower, so I’d be happy to help.
You can definitely learn to program yourself, but I honestly wouldn’t recommend it. Writing alone is a lot to do, programming is probably the biggest job and I’ll tell you exactly why I don’t think you should take it on. If you do your bit and then attempt to take on another or do them both at the same time, you have a higher chance of wearing yourself out and abandoning the project. Now, working with people from other countries. It really depends on how legitimate they are. It’s possible that you find a hard working programmer from anywhere in the world, but it’s also possible that you get a scammer who’s after the money and not the project.
Sorry if it sounds like I’m rambling, but I hope it helps.
If you're old enough, study the gaming industry. It sounds like you should look into what they call a 'Creative director.' You could jump straight into becoming a director, but experience is always a good thing. Look into that. Making a (good) game isn't easy and it requires a lot of people. The writing is arguably the easiest part of the whole process.
Even if you don't think you'll be able to make the game soon, keep that script somewhere safe. You may have the opportunity to turn it into a game one day! Good luck my man.
First you must choose your Engine.
For 2D Games you must choose Unity ane GoDot engine.
Godot has a special programming language but Unity is C#
Learn programming skill.
I made a game just by myself in a country in Asia(I don't want to tell the country)
It is for Android \ios.the game is 41148 (4 episodes)
First of all, there is no reason for you to feel stupid. Stupid people doesnt try to learn new things on their life and make themselves better. You are the opposite. Its very good for you to want to work on this market.
As a Computer Engineer student, I can definitely say that its not so hard. You can use Unity or Unreal Engine. You have to learn C# for Unity and C++ for Unreal Engine. C# may seem hard because there are many concepts in object oriented programming languages but you can fix this problem since there are many channels on youtube that tells you how you can write successful codes. There are some people who made some real progress in 1-2 month. You have to pay attention do at least 2 hour practices per day. Also you can check professional projects and try to write familiar ones to them.
C++ is one of the programming languages that very old but it is so popular on game programming. Unreal Engine used on Batman Arkham series, Bioshock Infinite, Mass Effect franchise, Mirrors Edge and many other games.
For animation, 3D Max is popular on animation but Maya started to get popular as well but Maya usually can come in handy on modelling. Blender is also another animation program that used on market. There are useful educations on Udemy that clearly can help you. Few are free and others are bit of expensive but discounts usually appears so try to follow them.
If you have any problem, you can ask me and I will help you as best as I can.
No, Unity uses only C# and Javascript. Last I checked, it wont allow you to use that language.
Unreal Engine uses C++.
My mistake.sorry i was going to write C#
First you finish school.
that's no fun
@imighthavebrokenit, @cleminist, @LeeEverret1377, @MrJava thank you guys
You make it seems even kind of easy. There are so many things to think about... i love you!
not @papai46 tho. @papai46 is trying to destroy my dreams. no fun @papai46
It's no problem and differing from what I said earlier with the same idea, my PMs are always open if you need assistance
Good luck!
YouTube is a pretty great way to learn some of the basics. After watching a Unity tutorial series I managed to learn some simple stuff (mostly with game environments). But that was a few years ago so I've pretty much forgotten all of it :P
I've heard Choice Script is a good and easy choose your own adventure game program to learn. It doesn't use any images though as far as I can see so whatever adventure game you make would rely solely on the writing.
Now is kind of an interesting time to get into the indie game development scene, as several engines/game development tools such as Unity and Unreal Engine 4 are now free to download and use (instead, they charge money or take a cut of sales once you actually publish the game, but the tools are free to download for the sake of learning, testing things out, etc).
Of course, one thing to keep in mind is that some people might romanticize the process of game development; keep in mind that developing games is a whole different can of worms from being a consumer of them!
Well the first thing you do is come up with the game's concept. You will not attract any help if there are no notions as to what the end product could look like. So a design document is needed. This is your story over view....game mechanics and artwork to get everyone on the same page.
Oh and get this program called Twine. It's a multi-choice game creator and its pretty easy to use. It's all text, but it'll help you improve your dialogue and writing in general.
Exams ain't fun, you know ?
You are welcome, I am always encouraging the people who wants to produce things like that. Dont forget to check Udemy, I learned many things from there.
Oh, and by the way, Unity is a bit of helpful for indie games as I heard. Idk about Unreal Engine, tho.
Np mate.
You're welcome.
You are my favorite person in the community.
what do you mean? Exams are fun!
Thank you! I will totally check it later!
Really? Thank you! You're awsome, too!
I am joining the exams that made by assholes, so...
Isn't Unity royalty-free though?
Yes, its free. Only thing you need is a licensed Windows. You can download Visual Studio with full Unity.
You're place is Always in my heart.
You're welcome.
Depends on what you want to do, I'm an indie developer myself. If you want to do artwork you can start learning by going to polycount.com. If you want to be a director you should study some form of traditional directing - like writing or film direction school. For graphical artwork traditional art school is a +. You will not be able to make a game alone, seek partners, I would suggest joining an idie project first and get experiance and then star your own game.
wow, you're an indie developer! That's so awsome! What games have you made?
Thank you, and yeah, it's a good idea to join another indie proyect... do you know about one?
I have the same problem as you but if your planning to work with a company DONT DO IT They will change your story a lot and probley make it worse than your creative one If you need help ask good programers and animaters and if you need voice actor Go to Voice.com you can hire voice actors just ask them to do a line then they will send you the recoreding there are a lot of good voice actors on that site you gonna need some money ready casue programers and animaters don't work for free.
You might want to try modding an existing videogame, like Skyrim or Fallout 4 (both can be modded using the Creation Kit software, which is free if you own either game).
Since you don't know much about programming, you can still learn a lot about how a game is composed of objects that connect & interact in different ways. Using the assets from either of those games, you could fill your own world with whatever you want, including custom NPCs, quests, buildings, etc.
Modding is fun because you get to learn how to affect small things in a game (for example, you might start by learning how to create one of the small messages that appears in the top-left of the screen when certain effects occur-- sort of like when Telltale games remind you that someone will remember something!), and the more things you learn how to work with, the more expansive your mod can become.
Plus, with places to upload/share mods both online and in the games themselves (Fallout 4 does this now), you'll quickly reach a wide audience which can provide feedback.
You should sit down and make the game! I know that sounds obvious, but that is really all there is to it.
While you absolutely can get people from the internet to help, I wouldn't count on it. Getting volunteers is hard - most people have their own ideas, or don't have time, or both. Paying people helps, but then you'll find yourself managing people rather than making the game. The best thing to do is to do all you can yourself, either by learning how to do all the things you don't already know how to do, or by scoping your idea down to the things you know you can already do.
Luckily, it seems that your vision already matches your skills. Creating an adventure game, even a robust one, is easy to do these days. There are several powerful, well documented, and easy to use tools out there that would be perfect.
First up, Twine. It's primarily text (though you can also use images) and primarily uses markup rather than actual programing, making it very easy to use. There are several different looks to it out of the box, and it's easily customizable with CSS. I would highly recommend Twine as either a way to prototype your game before going to a visual engine or even as a final product.
There is also Inform7. Inform is more of an exploration engine - it creates "maps" that the player explores to experience the story. Again, it is primarily text based, but it allows the player more input as to how to find the solution, since it is up to them to type in their own answers rather than clicking author-provided hyperlinks.
Finally, if you want to jump in with graphics right away, Ren'py will be of interest. It's a visual novel engine that's easy to get started in but also written in Python, which means that if you learn to program (or get a programer) you can make it do very complex things.
Of course, you can also use Unity, Unreal, Lumberyard, or any number of other free or cheap engines out there that'll make your game look AAA. However, I don't think that it's worth it for what you want to do. You want to tell a story, not create hyperrealistic water physics. Having to learn (or hire people who know) programing, 3D modeling, animation, level design, tech art, and all the other disciplines it takes to make an AAA-looking game is just going to detract from and delay your main goal: telling a kickass story with interesting characters.