[Exercise] Making Many Shitty Games Quickly to learn how to make games
As a mostly ArtOnlyPerson, I'm not very good at the practical game making parts of game making. No good at all actually.
In an attempt to correct this, at least a little, and because I suspect "learn by doing" is going to give me the most solid results; I'm attempting to create many small games as quickly as possible. This way, failures are inexpensive and achievements are easy to count.
Goals
To figure out what I don't even know I don't know.
To learn how to do the things I don't know how to do.
To learn how to apply my expanding "vocabulary " of moving parts.
Lean how to talk about the things I make and integrate feedback.
The starting Plan
At first, to use a basic, less programming heavy, tool to build basic games. These will be extremely shitty games; I apolagize in advance to anybody who actually plays them. Then progress to making less shitty games, maybe branching from games in the first batch Once I'm somewhat comfortable building things with all the safety nets that a tool like that offers, and start becoming frustrated with the limitations and forced paths of the basic tool, I intend to move to a more flexible and versatile tool like unity.
I tried starting with Gamemaker and didn't find it meeting me where I was at, so I tried Construct 2 next and in the last 8 days I've managed to make 5 Shitty Games(TM), which was exactly what I was looking for. I had intended to audition Stencyl and Scratch before making my decision, but feel that I really did find what I was looking for in C2.The fact that it automatically outputs html 5 was definitely a factor
What do you think about this exercise? Do you have any suggestions or pointed question that can help me make the most of this?
The Shitty Games(TM) so far:
FallingDodgEm01
OutwardShootEm01
DodgeNPickEm I MAED MY FIRST LERP!
CatchNSortEm01
PairingMatchem01 DONE AN ARRAY!
not looking for feedback on the games themselves yet, we're not there yet.
In an attempt to correct this, at least a little, and because I suspect "learn by doing" is going to give me the most solid results; I'm attempting to create many small games as quickly as possible. This way, failures are inexpensive and achievements are easy to count.
Goals
To figure out what I don't even know I don't know.
To learn how to do the things I don't know how to do.
To learn how to apply my expanding "vocabulary " of moving parts.
Lean how to talk about the things I make and integrate feedback.
The starting Plan
At first, to use a basic, less programming heavy, tool to build basic games. These will be extremely shitty games; I apolagize in advance to anybody who actually plays them. Then progress to making less shitty games, maybe branching from games in the first batch Once I'm somewhat comfortable building things with all the safety nets that a tool like that offers, and start becoming frustrated with the limitations and forced paths of the basic tool, I intend to move to a more flexible and versatile tool like unity.
I tried starting with Gamemaker and didn't find it meeting me where I was at, so I tried Construct 2 next and in the last 8 days I've managed to make 5 Shitty Games(TM), which was exactly what I was looking for. I had intended to audition Stencyl and Scratch before making my decision, but feel that I really did find what I was looking for in C2.The fact that it automatically outputs html 5 was definitely a factor
What do you think about this exercise? Do you have any suggestions or pointed question that can help me make the most of this?
The Shitty Games(TM) so far:
FallingDodgEm01
OutwardShootEm01
DodgeNPickEm I MAED MY FIRST LERP!
CatchNSortEm01
PairingMatchem01 DONE AN ARRAY!
not looking for feedback on the games themselves yet, we're not there yet.
Comments
I'm only about 20% into the course and have made two simple games, a number guessing game and a text adventure - but even though the games are relatively basic, they teach core fundamentals like making a game engine, and principles that you can expand and build upon.
At the next game jam I'm going to be peering over a lot of shoulders to watch the magic in action, and hopefully learn a few extra things as well.
I'm impressed by the games you've made in Construct! I see its Windows only... :-/ It looks like you can learn good game design skills using it.
If you're interested, here's the link to the Udemy course - it was on sale when I signed up (only $12) and has a lifetime warranty... perhaps wait till the next sale?
Simply put - write code every day "for fun", try new things - push your limits.. you will grasp it eventually. It all depends on your determination/motivation. Unity has alot of good resources for learning as well through their website. If you come to enjoy the boundless creativity of the programming world - you could grow to find this to be as much fun as gaming itself. Though i find that the everage person doesn't actually stick to the field very long - or they just to boring old Database development jobs for banks and stuff.... depends on you though.
Game Development can eiher be as easy as you want it - or super challenging.
I suggest you get a C# book (I am teaching through an Oreilly series C# 3.0 book), because regardless of how much you know unity - the programming language is really the part you should get covered first.
There is this thread from my first month as a lecturer.
I'm really happy with the feedback I've recieved so far, I think there's an immense amount of value in teaching early on because you're alongside your audience in understanding, not likely to use terms or assume knowledge.
I'll post the game I made for my workshop soon, a basic platformer, I just want to make it more presentable by creating better levels first, it's functionally in place but I want a better game.