How to begin from the very bottom. Step #1

I'm still a new guy myself. the only thing that I've released was an old HL mod (started about 8 years ago. released about 3 years ago) and I'm now working with a couple really great guys on an independent project using Ogre3D.

But I have learned a few things and I have made some tragic mistakes. Maybe I can impart some knowledge to even newer guys who want to make games for fun or profit.

I hope this helps someone.

Introduction: What can you, Mr. HINEW, expect?

I've seen a lot of new guys on a lot of game development forums ask this single question.

I'd like to make video games. Where do I start? How do I begin? What do I need to learn?

Those are great questions and I imagine the kid asking is someone who just played and beat some really fantastic game that inspired them emotionally and creatively. he's about 12 year old or so and knows absolutely nothing about anything.

But that isn't important. The important part is he sat down after that game and said...

WOW! That was really fucking cool! I wonder how they made that. I wonder if I can make something like that too!

So the 12 year old kid sits down and says to himself...

I really didn't like that one part in the dungeon. I would have done it differently. I would have had X,Y and Z. and that part in the fortress was a real let down. it would have been better if they had X,Y and Z.

Thats it right there. Thats the beginning of game design.

So now the kid gets online and does a search. he's bound to find a lot of resources. but like most kids on the interweb he doesn't do the searching and research. he finds a game development forum and he asks THE QUESTION.

Admittedly THE QUESTION is sometimes a drag for those of us who have seen it and responded to it a hundred times already. sometimes it even gets to me.

So if you're planning on asking THE QUESTION be forewarned. you'll get flamed. you'll be talked down to. you'll generally be treated like a POS by some of the guys who could have easily typed less and given you knowledge. instead they type way to much just to tell you that it's...

• hard work
• you know nothing
• you better leave this kind of thing to us
• everyone has ideas

Talk about demoralizing! that's like me telling my 3 year old daughter...

Hey, Look. I'm gonna die one day and so is Mom. In fact everyone around you
will eventually die. Oh, and life sucks, you'll hate your job and probably
end up getting at least one divorce.

But then there are those guys who try to help entirely to much. how can you help to much? easy. those guys say things like this...

the first thing you need to do is learn to program. here is a website of free compilers. buy this book and this book and these 3 other books. ok. good? great. see you in 4 years.

What the hell!? sure, learning to program is a great thing but what the guys who say this just did was totally demoralise the guy asking the question!

On the flip side there are those guys who belong to the game design communities who honestly try to help but they are truly drowned out by the BS "holier than thou" uber 3ll7 indie game developers.

Basically, if you have to ask THE QUESTION, be as specific as possible with it and do some research before hand. figure out what position of game development you think you'd enjoy the most and ask specific questions in regards to that.

The Answer to the Question.

(A) Like I've said I see this question a whole lot and I think I've developed a great answer. I have this answer saved in a word doc at home and I simply copy and past it where applicable.

You simply cant start with a run and jump into the big world of game development. You have to learn to walk first.

Assuming you have absolutely no skills right now the very best thing to do is track down others like you who may have just a tad more skill and the very best place to find those people are mod communities like those surrounding Half~Life2.

I personally feel the HL2 community is the best place to begin because the support is top notch, the documentation you'll need is right at your finger tips, the tools you'll need are already there and the best reason is that it's the most popular game to mod and there are hundreds of thousands of other people looking to do, or are already doing, what you want to do.

Buy the game first if you have not already. Then simply browse mod forums and read the documentation. It may seem hard at first but once you have things set up it's smooth sailing.

Assuming you have zero skills right now, and I am assuming you do, the easiest part of mod making is level design.

Level design is the act of making the maps you play in and is easy to grasp but very hard to master. For HL2 level design is tool is called Hammer and it comes with HL2 but you may need to update it.

Read all the documentation you can find as you do it and do not hesitate to ask questions on Hammer editor forums.

As long as that questions is not "How do I become a mapper?" or "Where do I begin?" or any variation on those two. Thats just as bad as asking "How do I make video games?"

Do a little bit of research first and then ask informed questions.

After that, practise. Show your work, offer your services as a mapper and you'll probably be asked to join a mod team.

Alternately if you have any other skills or level design isn't your cup of tea there is other work to be done.

• programming
• sound or audio engineering
• 3dArt
• 2dArt

Starting with a mod team and the mod community is the best place for a very new person to learn the ropes. Really, it's the only place unless you go to some game design school.

Also, read everything you can. There are missions of words out there on the interweb written by industry pros and successful indies. Read them all as you go along on your game development journey. There is some high level stuff out there that simply wont apply to you just yet but read it anyway because one day it will.

Thats where you begin but thats not where you end.

The Statement

As bad as THE QUESTION is there is one worse thing a new guy like you can say. I call it The Statement and it goes something like this...

Dudes, I have this really great idea for a video game and...

Just stop right there. Seriously. Stop right now. Hit yourself over the head with a large trout because what you're doing is committing online forum suicide. If you make The Statement in any game development community you may as well re register a new forum account and pretend that you never heard of yourself for a while.

Why? Simple. We all have ideas. We're all creative. Thats why we too want to make games.

It's possible that you'll be able to gather a solid core of guys around you who also find your game idea really great and would be willing to work on it but you have one big thing going against you.

You do not know anything about game development yet and no one will want to make your idea a reality.

And...

You first need some skills yourself so you can contribute. What are you bringing to the table? Being an ideas guy is not gonna happen.

Besides, if your the guy with the idea and you actually put together a team to help you that means your the guy in charge and thats a whole lot harder than it sounds. Managing a remote game development is a tricky work. Dont hit the ground running. Join another team first and see how it's done.

To be continued...