Toying with the idea of making a game

[Cheraphy]

So, what initially got me into programming was wanting to make a video game out of a crap story I came up with while playing pretend as a kid. My dad picked me up a book on BASIC from the library and downloaded the free version of Dark Basic. As an 11 year old, it was far beyond my capabilities. I dropped programming shortly after and went back to writing. Several years later I had become very interested in Artificial Intelligence, naive as I was about what those words really implied. So I taught my self C++, using this forum in fact. I've been programming for about 8 years now, have quite a few languages in my toolbelt and have dabbled in all sorts of fields.


Well, in highschool a close friend and I came up with this rather large epic. We originally intended on turning it into a series of books, but we've both accepted that will probably never happen. Over the years we've altered details, fleshed out points of vagueness, closed plot holes, and all around made it less of a couple 14 year olds' malformed fantasy.

It's full enough now that we could probably turn it into a couple of books if either of us had the patience for writing that much. But, I'm strongly considering turning it into a game. I'm thinking top down isometric action rpg. I have friends that could supply voice work, art and music. That close friend would work with me on adapting the story and coming up with dialog. I have the skills to make this game, the only thing holding me back is fear of failure. See, I've never completed a non trivial project outside of academia. And that was 4 years ago. I guess the reason I'm making this thread is looking for encouragement and advice from anyone who've tackled a game before. I know of course the wisdom of making a game rather than an engine. And I know this may come across as a conceited fish for vindication.


So. tl;dr. I have a story and concept for a game. I have access to resources and the skills necessary to do so. I'm just afraid of failure and would like any advice anyone can give for game development.

[ModShop]

If you plan out the design ahead of time and stick to it there's no reason you couldn't make the game. Most people give up when trying to develop large games after they spend months working but don't have anything to show or they run into a design flaw further down the road that requires them to rewrite a good portion of the game. If you start with a fully thought out design and keep in mind that it will take you a good amount of time you'll already be a few steps ahead. It's really easy to lose motivation after a couple of months, your initial excitement and drive won't last that long. If you keep a schedule of when you plan on working on it and do your best to adhere to that then you should be fine. One or two days a week is good, anything more and you run the risk of burning yourself out. Organization is also crucial. Not only with the game's code and resources but with the planning as well. Keep a list of things that still need to be done, document your code and try and create a milestone goal path (a set of dates that you want to complete minor tasks by). Don't make the mistake of trying to accomplish large tasks by a specific date, there's too much room for unforeseen circumstances for that to really work.

As you are also working on a team of sorts it is important that you hold regular meetings. That way everyone knows the present state of the project and what is expected of them. Besides that, however, holding regular meetings is a good way to keep everyone motivated and on track.

[twiggystardust]

I'm currently coding an RPG, kind of like the old Final Fantasies. Everything in the game was created by me. I've never completed a game actually, I have mostly completed a few, but this is the reason I got into programming in the first place, to program RPGs. So this one I'm absolutely determined to finish. I've got most of the graphics working, it changes states how it should. At the moment I've been working on dialog and collision detection. A lot of the code is actually above my skill set but that's OK with me because my intention is to learn more while I work toward a full game. This one is just going to be a small one town, one quest game, but I wanted to have all of the underlying framework set up so I can use it on bigger games in the future. I would absolutely say go for it, what have you got to lose? I guess I mean other than the time you put into it. But if your programming skills are up to par it really should not be too hard or take an extensively long amount of time.

I did also find a RPG tutorial, I haven't read through it yet so I don't know the quality of it, but here's the URL: http://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/articles/how-to-build-a-jrpg-a-primer-for-game-developers--gamedev-6676

[Cheraphy]

Modshop, lack of or poor planning is a large reason as to why I've never completed anything non trivial. Another problem is getting burnt out. I'm not saying I knew to fix these things already. It's actually good that you pointed it out because otherwise I would have been likely to make the same mistake

twiigystardust, I'll check out that link in a bit. I'm going to run this idea past the coauthor of the story and see if I can get his OK on it. The answer will almost definitely be yes, but it'd be uncouth not to even bring it up.