Young Mind, wanting to follow in creator's footsteps

[Moddiepon]

Hello, I'm Moddiepon and ever since I've started playing Skullgirls, I've wanted to make a game of my own. I wrote out everything from characters, to which story I want each of them to have, to the game play. I don't have pictures of any of the product because I lack the skills of doing so.

Is there anyway I can advance into making my game into a reality just like the creator of Skullgirls did?

 

[Ninja]

well first things first. you gotta make a list of the skills you already have. then make a list of the skills you need to help make this game a reality. Then pick out which skills you want to get really good at. [it's okay to pick out a bunch of them, just remember it's going to take you longer to master each skill.] from there build up your skills while also planning out the development of your game, like mechanics, characters, story, ect. Then it's on to making a prototype of the core game. IE: make it have all the core basic functions that you want the game to have.[it should not have finalized graphics, this is bare bones use two differently colour squares or other basic shapes to represent stuff.] From there you work with some other people with other assets like art, music, additional programming, ect. to help build up the game from a prototype to a Alpha stage. Then build the game more on features and balancing during the beta phase, and after everything is said and done and everyone is finished the game will go gold, aka it's being sold in the public.

 

[skull person]

You cannot make a game without programming / some form of code.
If you cannot program you can't make a game unfortunately.

There's no shortcuts.

Mike Z spent many years developing his engine from scratch before he was able to start designing Skullgirls.

If you'd like to skip engine design and get into some form of 2D / 3D game creation, look into Game Maker Studio or Unity.

But again, just having a bunch of ideas isn't going to make a game, and nobody wants to start a project with "the idea guy who has ideas."
You need to have some skills to bring to the table for creating the project. (Art/Code/Music/Sounds/UI..)

If you want to get something started but cannot write code, look into partnering with someone who can and offering your skill set or hiring help.

 

[Magma442]

first thing i learned with game design is getting into the right mentality. Learn that your game wont be made right off the bat (hell SG took 10 years I think). you need to craft skills and take time.

Make short term goals for yourself to improve your skillset, it makes the workload seem less big and actually somewhat enjoyable if you enjoy learning it.

Also begin learning art however as a learning artist myself I have to warn you that learning it can be very frustrating at times because its a lifelong skill.

 

[North888]

this is the same pitfall I ran into (just look at my Invocation thread to see how much of a dumbass I was at the time). Not only do you need skills, but you also need friends. Find a team. Even if you can't code, having someone who can program and has the same drive as you is important and can help you get things moving. A lot of people are willing to work on something for free if its a passion project, just start small and don't jump right to something big like I did. It was a big mistake and I feel embarrassed about it myself. Don't be like me in that regard.

EDIT: When I say free I mean if you're all just doing it as some sort of group effort, not as in trying to make a commercial profit.

 

[Squire Grooktook]

I am currently making a game as a hobby (role: programmer, designer, and writer), so I'll answer based on what I know:

As has been stated before, you need to be able to do something.

Programming, art, music, etc. something. If you can't do one thing, you can always hire somebody else who can, and that essential thing you have will be the foothold for directing the project if game design is really what you want to do.

"Game Design" as a skill, alone, doesn't count. The people who actually have other skills can do design without you, and they'll probably end up better at it by virtue of spending time hands-on with the game. Almost every nerd on the internet is an armchair game philosopher these days who will run their mouth off for pages if you ask them about anything (I'm guilty of this, I admit), but don't actually have any true experience or understanding of what it's like to design a game (not guilty of this anymore!). Quite frankly, the real game design experience is the 2000 hours you'll spend meticulously tweaking and balancing your game, and you can't do that in no armchair. I've spent 1800 (this is a real number and I'm cutting it short!!!) hours on my game and I'm only now just finishing up the first stage.

So yeah, learn to program, learn to draw, or learn to compose music or sound fx. Learn to do something that'll make you useful to a team or it won't happen. And remember that whatever you choose to do, it won't be fun. You need to be operating out of passion. A drive that keeps you going with sheer unshakable determination even when you really fucking hate it and feel utterly crushed with depression and anxiety. Otherwise you'll get burned out and won't finish.

If it's any consolation though, there will also be moments of intense fulfillment, excitement and joy in accomplishing goals and realizing your creativity.

Also keep in mind that finding other people to work with you probably won't be free. When I first started out, I was under the illusion "I'm willing to make a game for free, so surely I can find artists and musicans who share such a passion and will do the same!!!" Ha ha ha ha, how naive. No. There are a few people like that but they're rare. You're most likely going to need to commission peeps. Though depending on what type of game it is, that might not be too bad. Decent sized sprites tend to go for about 30$. Not too bad for a shmup or platformer if you're judicious. Though if you're doing a fighting game and need 300+ sprites per character....yeah...

Oh and unless you're game is a visual novel, writing doesn't count either.

 

[Thenterr]

I found so many useful information here. thanks a lot for everything!
i'm not able to do much research myself as I am getting extremely tired because of some health issues (lack of GH which is why I take cycrin now...)