How Can I Create a Game? I’m a Complete Beginner

[Lyndon0]

Hello everyone,

I’m interested in creating a game similar to "Apocalyptic World," but I’m not sure where to start. I don’t have any knowledge about programming or game development, and I’m unfamiliar with all the technical terms. I’m really starting from scratch.

My main question is: Does creating a game like this require learning programming? If it doesn’t, is there any guide or tutorial that I can follow to make a game similar to "Apocalyptic World"?

If it does require programming, I would like to know what specific programming skills I need to learn, from the very beginning to the end. I have no experience at all, and I don’t even know what programming is or what the terms mean, so I would appreciate it if anyone could explain it in the simplest way possible.

Thank you so much for any help or guidance!

 

[Gagagoug]

I'm also a total beginner, but I guess trying to look at Daz for 3D characters, and Ren'Py for how the software works could help? I'm sure you can find a youtube tutorial or two on these.

 

[Kuviragames]

Just go step by step. You want to create a game like "Apocalyptic World"? Find out what engine it is. HTML+CSS and Java? in that case. Start using google and youtube what HTML is. From here follow tutorials like "HTML Basics" and "How to XXXXXX".

I would suggest to start smaller. Use renpy and create a small game. Renpy uses python and the basics are very easy.
Starting with something like "Apocalyptic World" without any knowledge will maybe lead to a lot of errors and mistakes. And if you don't know how to fix them you won't have much fun creating it.

 

[defm64]

This type of game is usually made using Twine/SugarCube. You can follow the documentation

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and try to learn things along the way, but the journey will be much easier if you have some knowledge of web development.

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Other useful links:

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[aereton]

Everyone posting good resources, however I would like to give you some general advice for starting out.

As you are a complete beginner in everything software development, I'd implore you to store your big game idea for later and start with simpler, smaller and more manageable projects. Try creating a small, linear story in RenPy (if you want to learn developing VNs), or simple games like Tetris, Snake, etc in whatever engine/framework/language you want to learn.

This has the benefit of smaller scopes, smaller goals and less motivational loss. Everyone who first gets into software (and especially game) development has this big, grandiose million dollar idea. Jumping straight into that while not only learning a new programming language or a framework or an engine but also basic software dev concepts will make you want to pull your hair out sooner rather than later.
People who keep making games over a longer period of time are those who either heeded advice like mine, or are the 'one-in-a-million' type of guys who can manage anyway (which, by definition, you most likely are not). It's just simple survival bias, really.

You can use this time to flesh out your 'real' game idea with an exhaustive design document, or at least with some idea collection in a Google drive document or whatever.

A good, concrete, roadmap could look like this (it's just a suggestion ofc):

• Pump out 5 different game projects over the course of this year
• Make sure that each next project builds upon what you learned in the previous one
• Make sure that each next project pushes you to learn something new, gets a little more complex
• If you want, you can try your hands at documenting your learning process in a dev blog or something, this can help to strengthen your understanding of what you are learning

After doing that, you will be in a much better place skills-wise and you will start to see all the flaws in your previous works. This is completely normal and a good indicator of how much you learned.
And as a little bonus, you just built yourself a nice little portfolio without realising, if you ever want to work together on something with other people.

 

[osanaiko]

I definitely agree with "start small" philosophy.

Even a small game is 100s of hours of effort.

There's a lot to learn, and there is way way more required that you would imagine at first.

However there is some good news:
- there are a lot of resources to learn from
- there are supportive communities
- in the end, making a small porn game under a pseudonym is a very low stakes endeavor, so you don't need to worry about embarrassing yourself or disappointing anyone.

Some other advice:
- perfectionism is your enemy: just get to 90% good and move to the next task. there's only so much time can be spent as a solo dev otherwise you will never finish. (The exception to this is you must be 100% tested. graphics minor quality issues doesn't stop the game from being playable. but obvious bugs are death)
- be very very organized with your assets. naming conventions, consistent image sizes. Use backups!
- don't be afraid to rework stuff if it is wrong. yes, it feels like throwing away previous effort... but in the long run, working around problems rather than fixing them just leaves you with a big mess. Eventually it's possible to find you've painted yourself into a corner.
- you don't need to "program" very much if you are making a basic VN. But once you start adding stats / inventory / shops / game-time-loops / quests or events, then it can get trickier. Ask for advice, don't go burrowing too deep down the rabbit hole - there's often simple ways to do stuff that are non obvious when your mental model is not fully developed.