3 ms·
I'm entirely self-taught. My personal experience is this: - Try a bunch of free engines and platforms. Depending on your son's age, this might mean starting wi
by bananabat 5y ago
I'm entirely self-taught. My personal experience is this:
- Try a bunch of free engines and platforms. Depending on your son's age, this might mean starting with something like Scratch. I've played around with it myself and it's fun. It at least gives you a feel for game logic and how a game loop should feel.
- GDevelop has come a long way. My son prefers it when he's just doodling around.
- My husband prefers GameMaker Studio 2. But it's a paid program and the export modules (mobile, console, html5) are extra expenses that can add up. Also, GML is a nightmare (just my opinion).
- I use Godot Engine. It's free, lightweight, GDScript is Python-like so pretty easy to get a handle on. It's perfect for 2D development. And the teaching community is very rich.
- There's really no "x is better than y" as far as game engines, IMO...all depends on what you're trying to do and how far you are in expertise/experience. And it also comes down to what engine feels right to you.
- Start with 2D, cannot stress this enough. Make as simple a game as possible when you're starting. This also means staying away from Unity and Unreal because both are simply too much engine for a beginner.
- At some point, you're gonna have to learn how to code for real. Don't have to be a wiz...just enough to be competent.
- Be a generalist, if possible. Depending on what you want to do and/or whether you have collaborators or not...you might also need to have basic art skills. I'm a graphic designer by trade so this wasn't an issue. But I had to learn Blender because I wanted to incorporate 3D art in my games. My husband learned how to make music. I also learned video editing so I could make good trailers. Etc, etc.
- Love games. All kinds of games. I think this should've been first.
- I hope that helps.
- pbourke 5y agoDid you use Godot for this game? Are you working on a next game? Congratulations on getting it finished and out there!
- bananabat 5y agoUsed Godot for this game. I started my journey with Unity but my C# is, at the moment, utterly mediocre. Maintaining this game but also starting on next ideas. Thank you very much!
- lloeki 5y ago> Make as simple a game as possible when you're starting Back when I had enough spare time to do game jams, one critical thing I learned was, once you have some idea, make it simpler. Now make it even simpler. And then, make it simpler again. Repeat that about 20 times, possibly more. Now you have something that you can possibly build and actually release, and guess what, counterintuitively, it'll be fun as hell. Coz what makes a game fun is not the thousands of wonderful ideas you may have bolted on together, it's just a couple of things you distilled for the love of it, chiseling away, down to the core of the game mechanics, into some magical essence.
- bananabat 5y agoI've never been brave enough to do game jams. I dunno, I've always been afraid I'd break under the pressure. Was it fun for you?
- lloeki 5y agoTons of fun. It's been frightening alright but I learned so much, and not just about game dev: lots of takeaways that apply to day-to-day development, like finding the balance between quality and getting things done, keeping things ultra-simple, understanding the value in inlining or even repeating code, finding the minimal abstraction sweet spot... It's OK to be afraid! Turns out it also teaches that you can just let it go, go for it and enjoy the wild ride.
- bananabat 5y agoGuess my insecurity comes from not having any kind of programming or even math background. Esp in group game jams, I have a feeling I'd be the weakest link and everyone would yell at me.