New Developer (In College) Thread

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New Developer (In College) (Forums : PC Gaming : New Developer (In College))	Locked
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GingerFried	Mar 16 2014 Anchor
Hello IndieDB! This is my first time here, found this site when looking for sandbox games from indie developers. I recently started college and am wanting to pursue game design as a profession. Since I am sure most of you are already making/starting projects, my question is: Where do I start? What is the absolute beginning start point for a one man team? I know it will take a long time and I already have some C++ coding experience but I just want to know where to start. Where does production begin? Does anyone have an idea?
eliasr	Mar 16 2014 Anchor
Well lucky you have some coding experience, which makes it possible for you to implement all the features. Then any crazy graphical 2d, or 3d can be outsourced to other developers. If you really insist on making it as a one-team, you should consider starting with 2D. Not saying that you can't do 3D, but it is an art of itself and more difficult to work with compared to 2d. It would also take longer to code a 3D game than a 2D game. So well, first decide if you want a 2D or 3D game. Then Decide what it is about. Story? art? simple fun ? First of all it need to be about something you can work with from a month to several years. So don't go working on a racing game if you really want to make a shooter. When you have an overall idea, you need to design the concept and set yourself some requirements for the game. Again size matters for how long this will take. There are 2 methodologies for working with software. Traditional and Agile (google it); Since you are new to this, I would suggest that you follow the traditional road of designing everything before producing it. Should you decide to make a larger team, the agile development would be good to get a more versatile design into the game, but it requires some experience to handle correctly. Production takes the most time. Clearly you will be programming some stuff, whether you do it from scratch in c++ using directx, opengl;Or you use some kind of game engine (I would recommend that) You might also be able to cover some things like 2d, sound, 3d modelling and animation; but if you don't have a lot of experience, you might want to find someone who does. ---- That is roughly how you get working, but there is a lot more to it that this. There are several tutorials on moddb explaining every step of the process.

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GingerFried

Mar 16 2014 Anchor

Hello IndieDB! This is my first time here, found this site when looking for sandbox games from indie developers. I recently started college and am wanting to pursue game design as a profession. Since I am sure most of you are already making/starting projects, my question is: Where do I start? What is the absolute beginning start point for a one man team? I know it will take a long time and I already have some C++ coding experience but I just want to know where to start. Where does production begin? Does anyone have an idea?

eliasr

Mar 16 2014 Anchor

Well lucky you have some coding experience, which makes it possible for you to implement all the features. Then any crazy graphical 2d, or 3d can be outsourced to other developers.
If you really insist on making it as a one-team, you should consider starting with 2D. Not saying that you can't do 3D, but it is an art of itself and more difficult to work with compared to 2d. It would also take longer to code a 3D game than a 2D game.

So well, first decide if you want a 2D or 3D game.

Then Decide what it is about. Story? art? simple fun ?
First of all it need to be about something you can work with from a month to several years. So don't go working on a racing game if you really want to make a shooter.

When you have an overall idea, you need to design the concept and set yourself some requirements for the game.
Again size matters for how long this will take.
There are 2 methodologies for working with software. Traditional and Agile (google it); Since you are new to this, I would suggest that you follow the traditional road of designing everything before producing it. Should you decide to make a larger team, the agile development would be good to get a more versatile design into the game, but it requires some experience to handle correctly.

Production takes the most time.
Clearly you will be programming some stuff, whether you do it from scratch in c++ using directx, opengl;Or you use some kind of game engine (I would recommend that)
You might also be able to cover some things like 2d, sound, 3d modelling and animation; but if you don't have a lot of experience, you might want to find someone who does.
----

That is roughly how you get working, but there is a lot more to it that this. There are several tutorials on moddb explaining every step of the process.