Advice on the next steps please Thread

Hi everybody

I have have been creating a story/game for well over a decade now, Anybody who hears of the story or plays the game quickly becomes fascinated and belive it would be a massive hit so i finally feel it is time to try get it out there. The story is quite solid spanning over three novels which i am in the process of writing at the moment. Along with the story i have constructed a unique dice based engine as i intend to make the game a turn based rpg. I have next to no knowledge about programming though i am dedicated to learning, Which is why i am asking for some advice now. What would be my best options for getting my engine off of paper and into a simple program? Any advice would be greatly appreciated thanks

There are lots of alternatives these days for people with no programming knowledge, but that doesn't mean that it's easy. You could, of course, learn a full programming language, but that's a huge investment of time, and current game design tools are capable of making decent games.

I use Multimedia Fusion 2, but there is also Construct, Unity, Game Maker and several more. This post will be biased toward Clickteam because that's what I know. However, since you're just starting out, you owe it to yourself to check out everything that you can.

I can only advise you on what I know. Clickteam, the makers of Multimedia Fusion 2, have a demo available. I'm sure that they all do. Try each demo, and go through a tutorial or two to see if you can understand their overall flow. Then, go through the features that they each offer. If one of them doesn't have a necessary feature, cross it off your list.

Speaking from experience, Clickteam (clickteam.com) is the oldest maker of these utilities. Their forums are very lively and helpful.

On that note, go to each of their sites and post in their forum asking for help on making your decision. Again, if the forum is dead, you might want to cross them off your list as well. You can learn this on your own, but it's great to have help.

I hope that you are successful. I look forward to seeing your project.

There's a few things you can do, don't think that because you have no knowledge about programming you'll be stuck. Here are my suggestions:

1) put an ad up on craigslist!!!. The local community is great when it comes to developing a game. For instance, the local university here where I live has no video game development program, the best we have is a very intensive Computer Science Program. The deal at our university is that most CS students became CS because they wanted to develop games, and most of them would die just to simply work at developing games (most of them for free). So if you're willing to wait for a small learning curve this should be your way to go.

2) Work with the tools offered to you by many sources out there. Why not prototype using GameMaker(https://www.yoyogames.com/studio) or the ever loving love engine(https://love2d.org/). These tools, while somewhat limiting, can help you get a good start at your first games. Use these tools to learn and become more acquainted with game development. Hell maybe even work with Unity and gain some real power and knowledge.

3) My last recommendation for you is to actually begin programming and build games from the ground up. This of course is the most time consuming and intensive option of the three but also the most rewarding. By developing your own tools (engine..etc) you can really shape exactly what your game comes out like and what it becomes. Where to start here is of course up to you. i would recommend staying away from C++ for a while until you become acquainted with what programming is and isn't. Maybe start off with something like the Java programming language (this is a good tutorial to begin Youtube.com) then work in a framework for game development like LibGDX (http://libgdx.badlogicgames.com/).

That's my 2 cents. But most importantly remember that whatever you do, do it!!! Do something with whatever the tools, but stick to it and release it. It doesn't matter if it's good, as long as you manage to finish something!!! Good luck man and kick some arse.

-Gabriel
Follow me @adventureco2
like us at facebook.com/prototypestudios18

Thank-you very much for the advice, I have just started to learn Python. I am finding it very easy to understand an pick up i would advise its use for anybody newb trying to get there head around programming. It is all good and well to put the ideas out there but what is stopping the programming and story from being well........ stolen.
Again thanks for the advice

Glad my advice on python from your other thread was taken! Take a look at PyGame ( Pygame.org ) when you are ready to make a real game in python, since it is a solid engine.

You need to license your work. I typically license mine under GPLv3 because I'm cool like that, but you can write or use any kind of license you like. Remember that at least in the USA that an unlicensed work is automatically copyrighted all rights reserved, so you can claim your copyright simply by stating "(c) 2014 yourname/studio all rights reserved".

If anyone tries to steal your work, you should politely inform them of that and ask they stop stealing it, informing them that it is copyrighted. If they do not, you would have to pursue legal action.

One way to keep it from being stolen is not to publish it until it is done, if you need version control you can use GitHub and pay a small fee for a private repository.

I am not a lawyer or attorney by the way. If you have any questions you can contact me and I'll give you my advice.

EDIT: Oh wait, you are Australian! Well I'm not sure about your laws on intellectual property. You should do some research and see what your rights exactly are.

Edited by: masternerdguy

Hi Gladian,

I don't really have much to contribute, I just wanted to stop by and wish you good luck

Just to echo everyone else, there are lots of tools out there to get you started. If you want to implement something like a custom dice-based rules engine, then you WILL need to learn to program to implement it. It sounds like I don't need to advise you to be patient - but stick at it.

If you are lucky enough to find a programmer and artist to collaborate with, it'll help you get off the ground quicker, and you can take advantage of the experience of both (er, assuming they have any).

Bear in mind that Gunpoint was written by a games journalist in Game Maker. He started with no experience whatsoever and built the game himself over several years: that sounds like the sort of model you'll be working to. I know a lot of people who swear by Unity - although PyGame sounds like a better starting point for you. It can be done, just have faith!

My advice would be: try to make something that isn't your dream game first, make something small, wrap it up, take the experience you got and reconsider if you are ready for the big project just yet. Start small, very small.

Good luck!