Welcome to Game Dev!
Welcome to Game Dev!
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Game development is where logic and creativity meet. It's a place to bring the worlds that exist in your imagination to life.
Game development is where logic and creativity meet. It's a place to bring the worlds that exist in your imagination to life.
Where does Game Dev begin?
Where does Game Dev begin?
Like most things in life, a game begins with an idea. Making a video game is not about being the best programmer or artist, or choosing the best algorithm or most efficient way of rendering sprites. It is about executing an idea and seeing it through to completion. What software you use doesn't matter. The number of lines of code you have doesn't matter. The amount of art assets or how long it took you doesn't matter. What matters is that you had an idea and brought it to fruition and shared it with the world. That is what making video games is about: having an idea and completing it. This will be your biggest challenge in your entire development career.
Where do ideas come from?
Where do ideas come from?
Some games come from one powerful idea, but most are formed by combining many ideas to create a unique whole. It’s very possible that initial ideas will be (or should be) abandoned, and lots of new ideas will be considered during the process.
Novice game designers tend to mash together existing genres, mechanics, and themes. They envision new games as collages of an existing game component, or put a slight twist on an existing game: “Street Fighter…. with robots!”. As a result, they focus on the mechanics and theme rather than creating unique player experiences.
A more experienced game designer will shift their focus so that instead of having visions of a specific game, they will be interested in exploring broad or incomplete ideas. The ideas can be about theme, they can be about mechanics, they can be about player experiences… really, they can be about anything.
Now these ideas don’t come out of thin air. Game designers are influenced by personal interests and hobbies. However, sometimes it's just best to get started and not get stuck trying to come up with an idea. In this case you could use a random game idea generator like this one below:
http://ygd.bafta.org/resources/game-idea-generator
You can also start forming your game idea with this template:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/14PoNnczKHXYUwqX4mgwinkbyvPdL2OG9BQ_8RbRNfos/copy
Quickly list all of the different game ideas you came up with on this document NOW: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1R3vbmISr04FsiJj9gowMF1xa_x68r8Yr8-VodpINzJE/copy
The HARD truth
The HARD truth
Making a video game is not about waiting for someone to tell you what to do. Every person out there with a completed game under their belt (no matter how small) went out and they did something out of their own motivation and they picked a spot and they started on it. This is the most critical feature of people who finish video games, the self-motivation to go out and start before someone tells them what to do. No one can teach you how to make a video game but they can share the skills and resources needed to make a game. You cannot learn to make a game without making a game. Starting is the only choice you have, to actually learn to make a game. This is where Game Jams are really important, you should take part in as many of these as possible! Below is an introductory video on the topic.
The Game Design Process
The Game Design Process
Fortunately, once you have your idea there is a process for putting it down as a plan for making your game. The plan usually takes the form of a DESIGN BRIEF also known as a Game Design Document or GDD.
A GDD usually includes:
Executive summary (game concept, genre, target audience, project scope, etc.)
Gameplay (objectives, game progressions, in-game GUI, etc.)
Mechanics (rules, combat, physics, etc.)
Game elements (worldbuilding, story, characters, locations, level design, etc.)
Assets (music, sound effects, 2D/3D models, etc.)
You can view examples of GDDs used for completed games here:
What makes something a GAME?
What makes something a GAME?
A game is usually played for enjoyment. although it could be educational as well. The core components of games include:
goals
rules
challenge
interactivity
There are also optional features such as chance (randomness) and competition.
Look at space invaders alongside this text and identify the components of a game listed above.
Now try to recreate this scene from Space Invaders in Scratch
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