Not sure if this goes here or not? but ive dabbled a little here and there with different things but i lack like every skill to make a game. Im wondering what aspect or skill is worth getting better at, for gamedev?
I cant code, i cant draw/3d art, i cant make music, im bad with ideas, etc.
Where do i even begin or what would you advise?
Make a card game or board game. Start with an idea, then play test it until it’s fun.
The fundamentals of game design are:
- there needs to be a goal or way to win
- all elements of the game either help the player reach the goal or hinder them
- a theme like vampires, soldiers, fishing, abstract can help drive the above.
Something to consider is how players and the game interact. Do the players interact directly or only with the game. So they play against each other or cooperate to beat the game itself.
- Design a game
- Make it
- play test it
- add or remove elements to increase fun
- repeat
I recommend starting with a card game. Take a piece of paper, scissors, and a pen.
i cant draw/3d art
- Take a cuboid, place 4 cylinders on the sides, you have a car.
- Place it on a large horizontal plane and put a light somewhere on the top and you have a scene
- start small and simple. Even if you don’t end up making games, you will at least be able to make animations over time. I never took an animation job, but little animations were useful in the industry to show ideas.
- Blender, while hard to initially grasp due to the UI (as compared to stuff like 3dsMAX, which felt kinda intuitive to me), is still a much better option. If you are using it regularly, it won’t make a difference. Also, it is FOSS and cheap to install.
I cant code
- learn to program. It will be useful in general, because it lets you develop the mental pathways required for most engineering
- Difference between programming and coding: programming is defining the software, coding is understanding and using the language
i cant make music
- if you have a microphone, yes you can. Start anywhere really.
im bad with ideas
Game creation doesn’t need to be a 1 man show. Get some friends on. Ask around on Lemmy, what people would like to see and choose something that clicks.
join a game company as a junior. Hate every bit of it and then realize you’re better off doing something else.
Or skip all of that and pick something you are somewhat familiar with today.
If you’re still reading that means you want to continue on this treacherous path. Fine, fastest way to start i guess is playtesting but with companies asking customers to do that for them… the role is kind of lacking at the moment.
best you can do in your free time is start with trying out every aspect of game design upto a beginner level: learn basic coding in a specific language like python. learn to make simple text based adventures and fill-in-the-blank puzzles.
I cant code, i cant draw/3d art, i cant make music, im bad with ideas, etc.
So you have nothing to contribute. Why do you even want to make games then? What’s the part of it that inspires you? For me, it’s programming. For others, it’s art, design, music, etc. If you have no interest in any of that, then gamedev is a terrible career move.
My life would be much bleaker if I didn’t believe I can learn/practice doing things that sound nice, but that I can’t do, such that I can eventually do them.
Pick a game engine. Godot is pretty sweet. Get started and follow a tutorial.
Choose whether you want to do 2D games or 3D. If 2D, start learning pixel art. If 3D. Learn 3d modelling software like blender. There is plenty to learn, but you can do it, so just start. Maybe pick a ridiculously small scope project to start and learn.
Consider what you want to do mechanics- and UI-wise. Read up on existing engines like Unity, Godot, RPGmaker. If none fits, read up on popular UI-frameworks and tooling for creating games from scratch.
I would suggest just downloading Godot and following a few tutorials. That’s how I got started anyways (well, with Unity but Godot wasn’t half as good back then as it is today).
I would suggest watching the Godot Tutorials from Brackeys, because they are excellent: You could start with this one. If you want some more tutorials, maybey have a look at Gdquest (they also have a YouTube channel linked on their website, which is really good).
And most important of all, just try to not take it too seriously. Have some fun! Your games won’t be good for a while, and that’s OK, because everyone starts out this way. But if you really enjoy the process and stick to it, I am certain that you will create amazing things! And if you find out, that you don’t like it, that’s totally OK too, then you can just keep looking for other hobbies, because there are so many cool things to do in the world.
Don’t hesitate or overthink it. Just dive headfirst into it. The day you start is the best moment. The thing you chose to do, is the best.
Learn by playing around. Play to your strengths. Dabble with coding, sound, graphics, mechanics, and figure out what gets the fire going. Feed that fire.
When you’ve had a bit of taste, try to complete a small simple project. This is surprisingly difficult! Learn to remove features and complexity, simplifying until you can actually finish the game.
Careful with that advice. The wrong tooling can make you twice as much work, the project half as fun and the result a slow, buggy mess.
I don’t think this is a good answer but a funny anecdote. I was pretty obsessed with video games starting with the NES. I got really good with computers, programming, etc and more than 10 years into being a professional software developer, I figured it was time to actually look at making a game, arguably the reason I got into coding to begin with. Turns out that so little about game development is actually coding these days, been that way for decades now.
There are so many parts to making a video game, as you mentioned. If you want to do everything yourself and from scratch, yeah you will need to understand code and physics/math formulas, etc. Maybe some graphic design for the world you’re creating, maybe some music and audio effects knowledge. But there are also game engines out there that will do virtually or literally all of this for you.
I guess my real point is, figure out what you enjoy doing, and how you can contribute that to making games. It doesn’t matter if you’re good at it or don’t even know where to start, the important part is that you do start and stick with it.
Did you actually end up doing game dev?
Little bit by myself, mainly some puzzle stuff in the browser. Turns out I really enjoy writing code than making games.
Two options:
Mod games until you get better at those. Start small, replacing textures with minor changes.
Help manage a mod project and fill soft skills gaps that the team has. Don’t push the actual people working on the game too hard, help organise
Instead of learning skills individually, learn them as you go! Just pick an engine - I’d recommend Godot - and get to work.
Here’s a nice challange about building increasingly difficult games: The 20 games challange.
You start with Pong, which is super easy to get the hang of. You could even follow a tutorial for that one and then try to use less and less tutorials as you go down the list.
Just get going instead of watching endless how-to videos, which is an easy trap for beginners. You’ll quickly learn which parts come naturally to you and which ones you need to focus on.
As for creativity, once you’re done with each game, try to think of a twist to spice it up and add it to the game. I can be a simple thing, like e.g. with Pong using multiple balls or maybe adding obstacles - you see what’s fun and what’s not!
I second this! Even if you study game dev at college (if that’s an option for you), you won’t get around that part in the end. Picking your tools and iteratively learning how to use them is the way to go. The Internet is full of tutorials.
At best set yourself achievable goals (like cloning simple games) and keep your expectations low. Don’t try to do too many things at once and take your time learning.
Agree with this! It’s one of those things where if you want yo learn to do it, just start doing. (Which it sounds like op is, so keep at that.) You find where the gaps are then focus on learning just enough to get past your roadblock.
Look up the pros and cons of the different editors (Unreal, Unity, Godot). Pick one and start making the simplest of games. There’s some good tutorials that can walk you through things.
As you learn, you will probably find a specific aspect that you like a lot and you can concentrate on building your expertise for that. Might be coding, animation, shading, 3d modeling. Who knows.
The important part is to start using the software, but really aim for simple stuff for now and use good quality tutorials and courses. I used mostly YouTube and some Udemy.
Depending on your age/savings, this can give you a good idea in what to study if this is an option.
The tools don’t matter much when starting out. Unreal and Unity are terrible recommendations for beginners. Even installing them is a challenge to a noob.
They are both one click installs basically. In any case, that would only leave Godot which has a lot less tutorials. I’d love to know the percentage of games that do not use either of these three. He wants to learn how to make games, what would you tell him to do? I literally started on unity and didnt know any of it, I learned to code with it lol.
Have you actually tried using them? Installing the right version for whatever other libraries you’re using is everything but easy.
Installing is the easiest part anyway.
I told him to first make a card or boardgame from paper.
I learned to code from nothing with it so obviously I more than tried them. It’s not difficult enough to warrant your comment. He wants to learn clearly.
This is a programming sub and you told him to make a boardgame.
It’s great that you’ve had success.
They want to make games. I told him a way to learn about game design without using a computer.
Programming is just one tool and I would say not the most important one to make a good game.
Learning to code is difficult.
You can learn to do anything. You’ll have an easier time learning if you like doing it. So what do you like? Or: what would you want to try and see if you like?
Also: why do you want to make a game? What interests you about that?
Join a game jam.. You might not get far, but joining and trying will get you started down the road. A theme will be provided which can help get your ideas flowing, and you can use existing assets to pull stuff together along with tutorials.
For your first jam, you can even just make a physical game using cards or tokens from other sets to explore different ideas.
From there, pick a game engine and try a bunch of tutorials then pick something you want to make and use tutorials and documentation not as guides, but as references to achieve the thing you want to build.
Also, start small, like really small. Smaller than you think you need to. Pong and Snake are significantly easier than Battleship or Risk.
+1 for game jams, they’re great!
I second that. Many jams are meant to have participants team up. There’s nothing to win, so you can use it as a learning opportunity and let more experienced participants teach you a bit.
Global Game Jam might be the best bet here, as the site organizers often offer workshops in preparation for newbies. Unfortunately the last one was just a few weeks ago, so you would have to wait for almost a year for the next.
That Brackeys one I linked doesn’t have the same kinda workshop, but they do have a number of tutorials on their YT channel and it starts this Sunday.
