Creating a new game, I'd love some help/tips! Thread

Hey everyone, my name is Jordan! (: Nice to meet you!
First, let me start with myself: I'm a 14 year old kid from Herning, Denmark that currently live in Spokane, Washington, USA! I've redesigned smaller games, such as mario, older Sonic games, and also modded games such as Grant Theft Auto (IV), Call of Duty (Back in World at War), Minecraft (2009-10), and rebuilt a few other smaller games, one in which was HD.
I know Some C# and a lot of C++, and am quite alright with Python and Notepad++.

So I'm planning to create my own game, despite my age, I really hope I can come through with it! I have a lot of programs such as: Adobe After Affects, Adobe Elements 11, Adobe CS6, AdobeAPI, Black Ink, Source Dev kit and Unreal development kit, also Notepad++ and Python, and Blender, etc. etc. etc.

Pretty much, I need help. 1: I'm not a very good modeller!, especially/even with blender, and I'm hoping to create a 3d game, please msg/reply if you're interested <3! 2: Engines? I want to create a real time strategy game based on live military airborne. You will be looking from 3d person, conducting airborne missions on a kind of "World War 3 / Modern Day War battlefield", where you take cities and huge locations with airborne. From lots of countries such as America, England, Poland, Serbia, Denmark, France, etc. etc. But I need a good engine to do so with, and hopefully NOT an extremely complicated one (I hate those ones ;P)

Please, for the love of god, tell me if you're interested!! AND, if you want to help/completely join the process of development, I would love that!! D

Thank you so much =D

I want to create a real time strategy game based on live military airborne. You will be looking from 3d person, conducting airborne missions on a kind of "World War 3 / Modern Day War battlefield", where you take cities and huge locations with airborne.

Doesn't matter what list of tools you have downloaded, even if you started learning when you were born, 14 years would barely be enough to get the skills you need to be making such a game.

At this point I recommend you look for other people's projects and ask if you can contribute to them in some way.

If you definitely want to make something on your own you should start with something simple such as Source mapping that gives you some insight into the extent of things related to 3D game development.

I'm not so sure that 14 is too young. At that age I could put for more time into stuff than I can do now, with no family etc to get in the way.

However, Shadowflar is right that you should start small. Get involved with a team. Get something under your belt to make people take you seriously. I know that you have the enthusiasm that only a 14 year old can have. However, you can't make that perfect game you REALLY want to start work on just yet.

By helping people with THEIR project, you can network, make contact with people who will be in a position to help you once you have helped them. If your idea is good enough, they will want to work on it, and let you know that. Not only that, you will have people that can help you when you get stuck, help you to learn. Getting a finished product on your "CV" is the most important thing.

I know it's not what you wanted to hear, but this is the best way to get to where you want to be. Not the shortest route, just the best.

Good luck.

+1 to the join a team comments . It's the best way to learn a workflow and network with others, and learn how other disciplines fit into the scheme of things.

Also, don't be afraid to start small and do little games. A lot of people have a habit of jumping into one big project and clinging to it, instead of doing smaller prototypes to see what works and then running with those that do. That has a habit of burning people out sadly :/. Look up talks from devs that discuss their processes (Vlambeer's talk about Luftrausers and rapid prototyping at Rezzed is worth a watch: Youtube.com). You can never know everything or enough. Raid the free GDC talks for stuff you find interesting as well.

Engine wise: UDK or Unity are probably worth a look. Can't comment on Source personally as I've never used it myself. But again, look up videos, tutorials and the like and work out what one you like the best then go for it .

But yeah, good luck!

All the advice on here is pretty much what I would have given too. Especially the bit about starting small! A plane-based modern combat strategy game where you conquer territory is feasible for just one coder (and an artist if you can recruit them) as long as you're willing to strip it down to its basics. I suggest looking to see what other single-coder indies have done in this genre for an idea of how ambitious you can get.

The other main thing to suggest is: don't keep it to yourself for months on end, that spells the kiss of death for most games. Get a bare prototype working as soon as possile and show that to people, then use their feedback and suggestions to iterate. Keep repeating this process until you have a polished gem. If you don't believe you can get a prototype of the game made in a couple of days, you may be looking at too ambitious a title.

Even the professionals keep making this mistake. Often because of hubris, or not getting round to it, or no-one having time to organise proper tissue testing and it's a pain to get folks to sign NDA forms. It's usually a very costly error.

Edited by: kevinnolan5