I AM going to create a game

[KillPixel]

I've been in love with PC games and computers (hardware, software, everything) since I was a nine year old boy playing Duke Nukem 3D on a Win95 machine.

I'm naturally talented, not to my credit of course. Since I was just a child I've been obsessed with art and technology.

By age 3 I was drawing and creating things that would impress anyone. By age 9 I conceived and finished an entire comic book. By age 12 I had made a number of small 'films' (James Cameron, George Romero, Rick Baker and Tom Savini were my IDOLS when I was child), I had written treatments, scripts, screenplays, storyboards, everything. By 14 I was creating life-like sculptures (hands, faces) and delved into puppetry. I was knee-deep in film and special effects. I was going to be the next James Cameron. By age 18 I had written a full-length symphonic, progressive metal album and wanted to start a career in film-scoring.

I'm now 24 years old. I have short films, short stories, sculptures, paintings, music, drawings, websites, game mods and technical knowledge and skills under my belt. What did I get from this? Joy, but no career. That's fine, I did all that because I loved it and it felt natural.

So, I have one more itch I need to scratch. I used to think film was the ultimate artistic expression (in terms of inclusiveness). IMO, video games hold that title. I need to make a game.

Unfortunately, real life is a bitch. I want to do this so bad, but I would have to spend another year or two just learning other skills I would need to even think about making this happen. Luckily, I learn quickly (how can you not in this age of information?)

I have a good story (no tangible designs yet) for a horror corridor crawl, similar in gameplay to doom3, just "better" and with a wider scope.

I started modding Doom 3 and Quake a couple years ago in order to get a feel of what is actually required to make a game. After that I decided I was going to do a TC for quake, began initial concept designs and drew out a few maps but had to scrap it.

I've messed with the UDK and ran away screaming. My plan now is to make a doom 3 TC. I know it can be done well, look at the Dark Mod.

I'm posting this because I know there are people on this forum with much more experience at this than I have. Is this really just a pipe dream?

here is my "practical approach" checklist:

What can I do?

Overall design (I can fully flesh out everything)
Story/Dialogue
All Sound (music, effects, dialogue)
Build Levels
Create textures, particles, etc.

What do I need to learn?

Modeling and Animating
Scripting


I'm not a programmer, and the idea of scripting makes me nervous. I taught myself xHTML/CSS in order to "move up" to C++. I stopped at PHP...yeah.

I have an eye for geometry and movement, I can model and animate. But to learn the tools soon enough and still create assets in a time-friendly manner may be too difficult. The extent of my modeling is messing around with Blender, Maya and QME for a week. I can do it, but I need to learn.

The project I have in mind relies quite a bit on scripting...which worries me.

If only there were 4 of me, next E3 I could be showing off the next big hit

On a side note, I began fixing the original quake maps a year ago. They have sat untouched on my HD for the past 10 months and they're 98% done. I wanted to complete them before I uploaded them. I think I'm going to put up a "v0.9" next week to be tested.

The maps, so far, address approximately 180 "bugs": all z-fighting, many misaligned textures, misplaced geometry and models, misplaced teleport destinations, solid skies (that was a freebie, but i'll take credit for it)...oh, and sounds.

I think my last play through I found 5 things I needed to address but lost the file I wrote them down in. Hopefully some people here can find them and I can fix em.

I'll also upload a few other mods I made for quake for my personal use.

wtf am I writing...

TL;DR

I want to make a game (a TC for Doom3), am I crazy? I will gladly except any advice anyone can give me.

[Syluxguy28O3]

my advice: don't give up. ive seen it too many times. no matter what other people say(some will say good things, and people will inevitably say bad), dont give up.

You're work is very good, and im sure a mod with you at the helm will be fantastic! good luck!

[R00k]

You could put together a portfolio and submit to some game companies.
or create an open-forum-game-design by tossing ideas around and letting people add to it.

[nahuel]

great

[diaper]

Inspiration?

Sui Generis by Bare Mettle Entertainment — Kickstarter

[gnounc]

My advice: get a good text editor if you're going to be coding anything.
I suggest sublime text. its...unbelievably good.
Don't start an engine from scratch.
If you intend to do a full and complete game don't use quakec.
If I cant dissuade you from using quakec, use fte, and fteqcc.

and learn blender, rigging and animating.

So...nothing impressively enlightening

edit:
oh, I just reread. You're going to be making a doom3 tc.
gb will tell you thats going to be tough times ahead, he recently made a doom3 map, and did not enjoy the experience at all. But I have no personal experience mapping at all, so I cant add to that.
Best of luck.

[MadGypsy]

If you made it as far as PHP (in any detail) then you will find QC to be a kinda sad little language. Javascript is more complex than QC. If QC is the language you intend to use, I would say that you can stop being apprehensive. The entire QC manual isn't even 100 pages long, bro. The PHP manual is longer than the bible (and far far more complex).

I think you are gonna hate and be frustrated with the procedural programming you are forced to use with QC, more than the learning curve. You might also become frustrated with QCs scope. Actually in the scope sense it is as annoying as Javascript.

@scope "What part of (this/self).var didn't you fucking understand!?"

[Phenom]

What do I need to learn?

Modeling and Animating
Scripting


I'm not a programmer

After pretty much doing the same exact thing (teaching myself html,css,php etc I moved on to programming basic using DarkBasic (It's a game engine)
which is a simplified version of the basic language geared towards 3D games.

A simple textured box for starters it's literally this easy to code in your came:

DO
LOAD IMAGE "/media/mytexture.jpg",#image_number
MAKE OBJECT BOX object_number#,width#,height#,length#
TEXTURE OBJECT object_number#,image_number
LOOP

To make the object move is only 1 more command (MOVE OBJECT #object_number,#mode_speed

It's really fun to learn and prototype some ideas/games... Dark Basic can make sully fledged games (Think HL2 with DirectX9 graphics if you had the skill).

It's not C++ or C or basic, it's darkbasic, very simple to learn still hard to master.

Just my $0.02.

[Amon26]

You are crazy. and god bless you for it! Have you ever made any kind of game/mod prior to this? I TLR'ed that so maybe you said.

I'm professional game developer who's contributed work on various platforms, I work for myself, I've been in the black for the most of my career, and it's a lot of fun. but I've learned some personal lessons I'll pass on. I'm not a genius, this isn't be-all-end-all perfect advice, its just what I've learned so far.

1. If this is your first game/mod. Keep it simple. Even if you're getting confident in being able to create all the assets/code needed it takes a _lot_ of time with lots of snares and mistakes to come down the pipe. You WILL burn out if you plan your magnum opus as your first project.

2. Fudge it. Sometimes you'll have a really cool idea for an event/scene/effect but you're struggling to learn how to do it right. Sometimes you'll just have to fake the effect using a very well animated sprite or animation instead of a robust particle script. That's okay. As long as you can make it look good that's the bottom line. (i had to do a blood effect that looks like lots of naturally flowing particles. its just a very well animated gif that rotates/transforms in size. nobody knows)

3. Don't rely on collaborators 100%. Even if you have a team, stuff comes up. The graphics guy's mom dies or the sound guy's computer gets ruined in a house fire, or they just wander off. Sometimes it's all you, sometimes you'll have people to give you a hand. Never hurts to ask, people are more willing to help a project if they see the creator's not afraid to get dirty and do stuff that isn't his forte' just to get content knocked out.

4. Have fun with it. Make mistakes. No game/mod has cured cancer/re-invented the wheel. See what happens when you spam particles or randomize the player speed or make rockets travel at warp-speed. If you take your goal too seriously it just becomes some kind of grinding toil with goals so lofty you'll get smished under them. Try stuff, even bad ideas.

Thats basically all I can think of. Good luck you crazy bastard!!!

[MadGypsy]

@ the entire post above me:

You sir, inspire like a pro.

Thank you!

You just gave me the juice I need to take my parse script to the next level, tonight. Some kind of recognized Object(), here I come.

[Mindf!3ldzX]

You are crazy. and god bless you for it! Have you ever made any kind of game/mod prior to this? I TLR'ed that so maybe you said.

I'm professional game developer who's contributed work on various platforms, I work for myself, I've been in the black for the most of my career, and it's a lot of fun. but I've learned some personal lessons I'll pass on. I'm not a genius, this isn't be-all-end-all perfect advice, its just what I've learned so far.

1. If this is your first game/mod. Keep it simple. Even if you're getting confident in being able to create all the assets/code needed it takes a _lot_ of time with lots of snares and mistakes to come down the pipe. You WILL burn out if you plan your magnum opus as your first project.

2. Fudge it. Sometimes you'll have a really cool idea for an event/scene/effect but you're struggling to learn how to do it right. Sometimes you'll just have to fake the effect using a very well animated sprite or animation instead of a robust particle script. That's okay. As long as you can make it look good that's the bottom line. (i had to do a blood effect that looks like lots of naturally flowing particles. its just a very well animated gif that rotates/transforms in size. nobody knows)

3. Don't rely on collaborators 100%. Even if you have a team, stuff comes up. The graphics guy's mom dies or the sound guy's computer gets ruined in a house fire, or they just wander off. Sometimes it's all you, sometimes you'll have people to give you a hand. Never hurts to ask, people are more willing to help a project if they see the creator's not afraid to get dirty and do stuff that isn't his forte' just to get content knocked out.

4. Have fun with it. Make mistakes. No game/mod has cured cancer/re-invented the wheel. See what happens when you spam particles or randomize the player speed or make rockets travel at warp-speed. If you take your goal too seriously it just becomes some kind of grinding toil with goals so lofty you'll get smished under them. Try stuff, even bad ideas.

Thats basically all I can think of. Good luck you crazy bastard!!!

"Rockets travel at warp-speed". holy shit brah. I like how that sounds lol

[Amon26]

I'm glad to have helped! Was worried I was sounding like some arrogant know-it-all lol. and rockets traveling at hitscan speed DO sound brutal don't they?

[golden_boy]

people are more willing to help a project if they see the creator's not afraid to get dirty and do stuff that isn't his forte' just to get content knocked out.

This is crucial. If you want to lead, and you'll have to, you must set an example. Game development, at least independent game development, is a meritocracy. He who gets stuff done, and has a vision to boot, usually attracts others.

Cue random snippets of advice:

For what you want to make, you must learn a modeling suite (Blender is actually pretty capable if you don't want to spend $$$$$ or pirate - learn everything about it, including baking ambient occlusion maps / normal maps and using it to create textures, as well as how to animate typical things such as a walk cycle), you must learn a graphics editor (with this I mean, everything about it, such as layer modes and how to use filters to achieve certain effects and so forth) like Photoshop (or again, as a non-$$$$ / non-pirating variant, GIMP), and for Doom 3 you'll have to learn darkradiant, netradiant and the built in D3 editor, probably all of them.

It will help if you have a sculpting software such as Zbrush or Mudbox and know how to use it.

For sound, you need basic home recording experience and access to sample libraries. Voice acting *will* be a problem. get familiar with microphones, preamps, Cubase plugins, LADSPA and multitrack recording and mixing and basic effects. Never overdo the effects. You'll need to create sound design for your levels, too, ie ambient sounds, and study other games to learn about this. Decide if you want a static soundtrack or a dynamic soundscape created by scripts and triggers.

Of course you must know how to program, in your case Doomscript and C++, and must do it relatively well (you can probably recruit coders but as stated earlier, you must lead by example - you can't sit there and just command people).

Get a graphics tablet and learn doing concept art.

Learn how to write a "game design document".

Last but not least, learn how to create a good single player level; study all kinds of games to find out what makes the levels great. It is usually something about setpieces, layout, routing/progression, and sense of place. Also learn about colour theory in level design and how to do functional lighting. Lighting is 90% of level design.

Finally, learn what your chosen tech can do well and what it can't do well. It is usually telling to study other projects made with that tech. Warning; for large, lush outdoor forests, you might want to use Cryengine, not idtech4 (just an example!). be aware that idtech4 is OLD and was made for a corridor shooter with only small outdoor areas. get familiar with the concept of visibility, portals, and all that jazz. In short, learn how your engine calculates visibility and/or does fog of war / level of detail. This is necessary to keep the performance up.

This will be a really hard road, because making a game like that (ie similar to Doom 3) is not easy and lots of stuff goes into it.

Make informed decisions, not impulsive ones.

Finally finally, make it clear from the get-go that you are in creative control of the project, even if you aren't naturally a "power person". It matters a whole lot, believe me. Don't do fishy trades just to recruit more people. If someone doesn't fit in the project, let them go.

Read online resources such as the Valve wiki and everything at worldofleveldesign, MapCore, polycount, and all these "inside" places. Don't be limited to one specific community or forum.

It can be extremely helpful if you do some test projects in other games/engines from time to time, just to see how things are done elsewhere. My Crysis and Doom 3 mapping/modding experience is invaluable for making my own game, for example. Look at everything.

... and remember that everybody only cooks with water.

Try developing a working prototype that has a little map (do testmaps if it suits you), and the basic gameplay elements in place. Tweak this before you build more.

Good luck.

[Amon26]

ive never made a game design document before for anything, but then up until this most recent project my games have been pretty ambiguous and just.. well.. freaking weird! More then one occasion someone who didn't like them has stamped me hard with the "pretentious fuck" stamp lol

The current one I'm doing has a plot, arc, characters. But I wrote it along with a friend and we've been able to roll with the punches and stay on track. A solid start and rewarding ending are good staples. Everything in between can change

[RawShark]

Go for it dude.