Game Design Starters

[MinatoArisato]

I've got a few months on my hands to learn, draw, and program. My biggest problem with all of these is I often have trouble keeping motivated since I never achieve results. I did however finally draw something the other day and watching old flashes and playing things like 'an untitled story' has me inspired again on the design front.

So help me out here, What's the easiest tool I can use to create some straightforward games, Platforming or RPGs besides RPGmaker. I've delved into gamemaker a bit, but in order to make something finished, something visual I can be happy with to start. Maybe even Gamemmaker is a little too complex. With all the game jams going on where they put together a game in a couple of days, (I'm sure these are experienced programmers and artists) There must be some quick tools out there for less experienced people like me. I think Flixel was one of them?

Anyway help me out, I want to make some progress and finish some small projects so I have something to be look back on.

[Gimmick]

well game making does take a lot of time. some tools make it quicker but it looks like you've already tried some of them (gamemaker is one for ex.)

maybe even gamemaker is a bit too complex

uhh

[GeoKureli]

At 7/11/16 12:20 AM, MinatoArisato wrote: So help me out here, What's the easiest tool I can use to create some straightforward games, Platforming or RPGs besides RPGmaker.

Any particular reason you want to avoid RPGMaker? If a topdown rpg with cutaway battle sequences is your cup of tea, RPGMaker is right up your alley.

With all the game jams going on where they put together a game in a couple of days, (I'm sure these are experienced programmers and artists) There must be some quick tools out there for less experienced people like me.

a steady churn of game output typically comes from experience, and a lot of front-work to create an engine or pipeline that streamlines your typical type of game content.

I think Flixel was one of them?

I highly recommend Flixel, very easy to dive into, tons of examples, lots of compatible level editors. Another option is unity, for all the same reasons, except the level editor is built in.

[MinatoArisato]

At 7/11/16 12:44 PM, GeoKureli wrote:

At 7/11/16 12:20 AM, MinatoArisato wrote: So help me out here, What's the easiest tool I can use to create some straightforward games, Platforming or RPGs besides RPGmaker.

Any particular reason you want to avoid RPGMaker? If a topdown rpg with cutaway battle sequences is your cup of tea, RPGMaker is right up your alley.

With all the game jams going on where they put together a game in a couple of days, (I'm sure these are experienced programmers and artists) There must be some quick tools out there for less experienced people like me.

a steady churn of game output typically comes from experience, and a lot of front-work to create an engine or pipeline that streamlines your typical type of game content.

I think Flixel was one of them?

I highly recommend Flixel, very easy to dive into, tons of examples, lots of compatible level editors. Another option is unity, for all the same reasons, except the level editor is built in.

Well the reason I'm against RPGmaker is I literally spent hundreds of hours with RM 2000 and 2003 when I was younger, and had friends who regularly used XP. I found the events kind of clunky and they would screw up sometimes with too much movement. (I tried to make some sort of Card battle game where each side of the room would play out the attacks and you'd have to move around to dodge them, think like a big spinning windmill of fire.) There's also the fact that I can recognize an RM game right away unless its undergone a lot of complex changes. So I'd like to try something new if possible.

Unity and Gamemaker are what everyone recommend, but the tutorials for either never seem to teach me much as a beginner, Unity especially is a very in depth program, and getting started without having a teacher to walk me through it is really difficult, if you can recommend some good tutorials I'll give them a go in the future for sure.

Flixel does look promising though, I think there was a game I liked built in it, called level up or somethingg?

[MinatoArisato]

As an update, I've been going through some flixel tutorials. It's even less visual than Gamemaker so far and had a lot of prerequisites.

So I had a bit of a question for you, When I do these tutorials and read through a mountain of text string()void; commandName = GetStateanything whatever. I always make a point of typing them all out manually even if I don't understand them. Thinking this will all be very important later and must be drilled into my brain. But as the terms stack up, it becomes harder and harder to imagine any real world where I'll be able to remember and use all of this. Does it become easier with time? or is the general design approach to copy paste your way to victory while only researching the parts specific to your game mechanic?

[GeoKureli]

At 7/11/16 07:06 PM, MinatoArisato wrote: As an update, I've been going through some flixel tutorials. It's even less visual than Gamemaker so far and had a lot of prerequisites.

So I had a bit of a question for you, When I do these tutorials and read through a mountain of text string()void; commandName = GetStateanything whatever. I always make a point of typing them all out manually even if I don't understand them. Thinking this will all be very important later and must be drilled into my brain. But as the terms stack up, it becomes harder and harder to imagine any real world where I'll be able to remember and use all of this. Does it become easier with time? or is the general design approach to copy paste your way to victory while only researching the parts specific to your game mechanic?

I started modding existing code, focusing on the differences I wanted, shortly after I was writing from scratch. hand typing everything might help you learn more quickly, and in time you'll be amazed how much you remember, and believe me it's no where near as much memorization as it seems at first. Even now, though, I find myself looking up something in google every other day, because i can't remember it.

Just keep at it.

TUTORIAL DUMP:
http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/39714/unity-3d-tutorial-lerpz.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK_NzdVSxaQ
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=game+maker+tutorial
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=flixel+tutorials
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=2d+unity+tutorials
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=3d+unity+tutorials

[MinatoArisato]

At 7/11/16 07:28 PM, GeoKureli wrote:

Just keep at it.

Thanks for the links and advice friend, I really appreciate it.