My experience with this site. I have no connections to the gaming world. I first wanted to build a game like Game of War, wrote down 2 designs, had no success in getting a team and a lot of negative feedback. So I decided to try and come up with small easy games. I have a few ideas and asked for programmers to help and the programmers I got had little experience so those projects couldn't get finished. All the good programmers want money. I understand this. So I started to learn how to use Unity and C#. But it was hard so I gave up. I keep thinking to myself, why must I be the only person to do the design, art and programming myself? People do it but I don't want to.
So, here is the designer question. How do I get affiliated with good connections in the game designing world? I can't program but I can draw anything I see perfectly. I can write down all the game ideas. these are 2 major parts to game making, right?
A bit about myself. I make about 4K a month working less than 15 hours a week. People ask me how I do it and they want what I have. But I always wanted to make games. Not do the job I have. I'm sure people can familiarize with this. I have time on my hands so I play a lot of games. I'm trying to play less and work on building, Zero success on publishing a game. I built a card game and a few board games with paper and played these. But I want to build a real online game.
So I did a bunch of research on game development. What makes a game a success. Studying up on other successful games. How did they become successful. How did others not become successful. How Google play works. What to do to optimize the game. I don't know everything but I know one thing. All the gaming experience, all the art skills, all the game making practice I have is worth a lot. same with programming. So how do I pair up with a programmer for my designs? The only plan I have is to kick start the ideas and pay the programmer. You have other ideas?
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I am alone
Firstly, take a read through Chris DeLeon's Frank Look at Making Videogames Professionally. In short, making games is hard and involves a lot of work that isn't necessarily fun or exciting, especially if you're working independently and have to do your own sales and marketing. It's nothing like playing games, and although it's likely that most game developers have (or had) at least some interest in playing games, all your years of playing are completely irrelevant.
Writing down all the game ideas is not a major part of game making -- that's just a small part of designing a game, and a good game designer does a lot more than this.
Producing art is absolutely a valuable skill, but can you just draw (useful for concept art, but not necessarily directly usable in a game) or can you translate that to creation of digital artwork?
If you don't already have a programmer on board a Kickstarter campaign is extremely unlikely to be successful -- even then it's far from a sure thing -- a lot of teams with a proven track record and a working demo of their game don't manage to raise funds successfully, so your chances of succeeding without those things are very low.
Perhaps you could use your art skills to join an existing project or partner with a programmer to get some experience, or look into a job in the industry?
Have you tried attending industry events to make contacts? See if the IGDA has a chapter in your local area that does meetups. Consider events such as GDC.
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You say playing games is irrelevant? To be a professional football player, do you practice? To be a doctor, do you practice by going to school? I liked what you said. But I believe playing games helps in making games and isn't irrelevant. I bet many good games get their ideas from the players. That's why it's important to share ideas with people you trust. The idea is the key to success. Hard work makes the idea reality. But the idea is the very important.
Anyways. It comes down to a few things, idea, hard work and money. I'm going to continue my research on successful games. make sure my ideas are good and have the proper steps.
I still want to hook up with people that know what they are doing. I don't want them to work on any projects I have. I just want to get affiliated with them. I'm tired of being alone. I hoped this site can provide this but so far no success. I need money to get interested people. It's really just money.
Anyways. It comes down to a few things, idea, hard work and money. I'm going to continue my research on successful games. make sure my ideas are good and have the proper steps.
I still want to hook up with people that know what they are doing. I don't want them to work on any projects I have. I just want to get affiliated with them. I'm tired of being alone. I hoped this site can provide this but so far no success. I need money to get interested people. It's really just money.
I overstated for emphasis. Obviously playing games has some relevance to design in that it gives you an idea of some of the things that are good or bad. But it's not some marketable experience that's worth mentioning because a) everyone who goes in to the field has it, and b) it gives you a general idea but no actual useful skills and does not equate to practice.
Consider your analogy to a sports player; of course they have to practice, and they're doing the exact things they will do on the field when they practice. Playing games is not doing the exact things as designing games, so it doesn't make good practice. A more fair comparison would be that playing games is like watching sport - it gives you some general ideas about what does and doesn't work, but no practical experience to put it to use.
Consider your analogy to a sports player; of course they have to practice, and they're doing the exact things they will do on the field when they practice. Playing games is not doing the exact things as designing games, so it doesn't make good practice. A more fair comparison would be that playing games is like watching sport - it gives you some general ideas about what does and doesn't work, but no practical experience to put it to use.
Hey,
I think it really comes down to motivation and your commitment to the cause. I've tried to work with a few artists over the internet, we set up a slack account to organize the things necessary for development and the pipeline but after a while, you just fail to achieve the desired output. The artist wouldn't deliver the required assets after the prototype was completed and the project was simply scratched. I believe it was the lack of motivation on his part. This is just one of the many reasons that you face.
Ultimately, if you believe in your work and have the means to play your part perfectly then you mustn't hesitate to be a little assertive. I've seen that when you have a proper project lead, everything else falls into place.
I dunno if this would help but, documenting your ideas is a really important step. Prepare a GDD, CD, Profiles, etc. while also maintaining a log of your activities while working for the game. I learned this the hard way.
I have about 4 projects that I once started but now because of work, I find very little time to address these. I've completed the programming part and I needed an artist to come up with a few color concepts (it's a text game, so I basically needed a good font and a color scheme) but I couldn't find one. I think that's what happens when you are not working in a proper gaming company and even then you'd end up working for their ideas and concepts so maybe it doesn't help at all.
As far as making connection goes, what jbadams said is correct. You should attend as many gaming seminars, workshops, etc. that you can. Unity organizes roadshows, and I've made plenty of connections. Heck, I even got offered a job at one of these.
Working alone is not a bad thing. You don't know programming so what? There are MANY engines that require zero to basic knowledge of programming! (Construct 2, Game Maker, Cocos, Scratch, etc.) You can look into those.
You make 4K a month? Cool, invest in KickStarter projects. :D
Games, in the end, are made by programmers. Or skilled designers with the right tool, but let's face the truth. No code, no game.
But games need art too, and programmer art usually sucks. So if you consider yourself an artist, I'm sure you'll have no trouble joining a team as an artist, but there's a big difference between a "hi guys, I've got a game idea, anyone who wants to code for me?" and "hi guys, who needs help with art? I can help".
If you really want to do your own game, you have to learn some programming or to use the right tool, like Unity. Or both. Or pay someone to do it for you.
Or make the game (or a prototype of it) yourself using Unreal Engine 4 using Blueprints - it's much easier than textual programming. "If you build it they will come".
It's not easy to find free programmers because, even if programming is fun when you work on your projects, it becomes hard, slow and not as rewarding when you work on other's projects, especially when people aren't grateful and don't understand the amount of work needed for what they think are "easy" things.
I can't program but I can draw anything I see perfectly. I can write down all the game ideas. these are 2 major parts to game making, right?
wrong.
the basic components are:
code, 2d bitmaps / textures, and music and sfx files.
for 3d add: meshes, skinned meshes, and / or rigid body models.
a game with no graphics would be a "text based graphics" game. a game with no audio is just a game with no audio. but you can't do any type of game with no code.
if you can't code yourself, you'll need to use an engine of some sort, or hire a coder, or learn to code, or find a volunteer coder (good luck!).
even if you use an engine, most require some sort of scripting at least.
your best bet is a game engine that supports visual programming (sometimes referred to as drag-and-drop programming), such as blueprints in the newer versions of the unreal engine. they tend to provide the ability to do at least basic "coding" by simply visually linking components together. but its not uncommon to have to resort to scripting / coding to get all the desired behaviors for a given game.
So I started to learn how to use Unity and C#. But it was hard so I gave up.
Developing games is all about failing, if you give up you will never get anywhere.
Maybe you should try a simpler engine like GameMaker or a simple code language like Python and start from there.
Making games is hard and still over a thousand games is made in a year and even kids make them, if you allow something like difficulty to get in the way you will never finish a game.
Also most game developer enjoy coding and making games, it helps making it feel less like work.
why must I be the only person to do the design, art and programming myself? People do it but I don't want to.
If you had huge amount of money you could pay others to do it, however the less money you are willing to spend the more work you will have to do; after all work is worth money.
All the gaming experience, all the art skills, all the game making practice I have is worth a lot. same with programming.
In game development it's only worth something when you know how to make a game with it, to show people it's worth you should make a game.
You say playing games is irrelevant? To be a professional football player, do you practice?
If you consider playing games practice for making games then it's your first mistake, at best playing games can be considered research.
Players and developers approach games from different ends, Pacman is a good example. For the players the AI appears to be smart, attempting to trap them and to the coder the AI follows a set of rules and can be easily avoided.
A game developer needs to understand both views even if they aren't players or coders.
Hard work makes the idea reality. But the idea is the very important.
Yea, but there are more game ideas than there are people on earth, so a game idea on it's own has no worth; except to it's creator.
Games, in the end, are made by programmers. Or skilled designers with the right tool, but let's face the truth. No code, no game. But games need art too, and programmer art usually sucks. So if you consider yourself an artist, I'm sure you'll have no trouble joining a team as an artist
As I artist I want to point out this isn't the path for everyone, it's hard to accept being only a part of the development and not getting the credit for what you do.
Being a part of making a games is a great thing, working with people who know and understand art, learning how your art effects the game and it's design is a large part of it. However you will be doing a lot of grunt work and get blamed for things you had no control over.
a game with no graphics would be a "text based graphics" game. a game with no audio is just a game with no audio. but you can't do any type of game with no code.
Not true, I made lot's of board games with out code; there are also engines that the developer doesn't need to code. :D
I get your point, coding is the major part of most electronic games.
So, here is the designer question. How do I get affiliated with good connections in the game designing world?
You can start here on gamedev as many of us do work in the gaming industry
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