A while ago Card Hunter was part of a Humble Bundle, and I carefully looked at all the other games in that bundle to decide if I wanted it. I eventually decided no, but it was interesting enough that I signed up for Humble's newsletter in case they offered any future games I wanted. But they haven't yet. Today they announced their latest bundle, and this time it's not a bunch of games, but game making software. It contains five game engines (and I have reason to believe the two secret products are also game engines), three programs for editing sprites, a ton of art and sounds for games, and handful of random games tossed in for some reason. And all this is tied into a game contest, where the cash prizes include a portion of the money from sales of the bundle. I should not be tempted by this. I've already made an impulse buy this summer, I've never made a game before, I've never used any of these programs before, and I don't have time this month to learn a bunch of software and use it to make a game. (The maps I make here are an anomaly; I've never done anything like that for any other game.) But I do have a directory full of ideas for game mechanics for all the games I've wanted to make over the last 20+ years, and one of those is a pretty good fit for the contest's theme of "Growth". Besides, I could probably get $12 of enjoyment out of RPG Maker alone without installing any of the other stuff (I suspect two of those game engines won't even run on my system). What I'll probably do is grab the free version of Stencyl and see how hard it is to get my basic game mechanics implemented before spending any money. Is anyone else tempted to enter this contest?
I don't have enough free time on my hands atm, sadly. If you're gonna do this, I'll share a fe tips: - Start small - Start small - Start small - Start small - Do not stress yourself about winning the contest, but rather having fun with the tools and the learning process - Start small - Start small - Start small - Start small Seriously though, I would pick one of your game-mechanics-ideas at a time, and experiment with only a single one at a time. Just put incredibly small prototypes (the simplest thing you can imagine) for some of those ideas, play around with your protos a bit, then pick the one you find the most fun/interesting. Once you identified a game-mechanic you really like (and it is important you know you like it cause you tried it out in an actual prototype, rathern than because you THINK it would be fun), then grow the prototype into a more functional thing. Do not start adding all sorts of crazy stuff. Less is more. Experiment with your mechanic of choice as much as possible. Refining/polishing the one core-mechanic until it feels just perfect is your number 1 priority at this stage. After your one core-mechanic of choice can't be improved anymore, then you start adding more stuff (but keep additional stuff to the bare minimum). A game will slowly emerge. One notable example of this process might be a great classic the kinf of Super Mario Bross, which at its core is a game about jumping. Anything else in SMB (power ups, underwater levels, etc) is the icing on the cake. The cake is the jump-mechanic. SMB works because they worked a lot of time to ensure jumping felt right. 90% of the stuff in SMB revolves around jumping (jumping on monsters to kill them, jumping over pits to avoid death, timed jumps to dodge bullets, jumping as high as possible at the end of a level to get a better score). One last (important, I feel) piece of advice: even if you have heaps of crazy ideas about mechanics, at least for your first game-making endeavor, I'd instead try and copy-cat a classic of old times (pacman, arcanoid, centipede, pong, whatever). Multiple reasons why doing that could be wiser: - Since you're gonna have to learn a new tool (the game-making software), having some game-formula which has already been tried and tested by somebody else will make the process much easier - Old classics tend to be very simple, making the whole process much easier - Copy-catting someone's else games will give you lots of insights about why they made certain game-design decisions Once you're done replicating an already existing game, you'll have a better understanding/knowledge of the specific software you're using to make your games + a lot of experience with it. You can then 1) take the game you just made and give it an interesting twist (pacman, but with an adventurer hunting for treasures in a labyrinth and fire-breathing dragons in place of the ghosts?); or 2) tackle your own game-ideas. Good luck with your game-making adventures! Keep us updated
Not me, but if you want to try it out, I'd definitely check out some free versions first. Building games can be entertaining for countless hours, if you're into that sort of thing. If it turns out you're not, the free versions are the least painful way to find out.
So you don't recommend that I start with Card Hunter on a hex grid with summoned minions and cards that level up through use? That was the first thing I thought of when I saw the theme (especially if I remove the option to de-level cards), and I'd really love to make it someday, but it's not going to happen in a month, and even if it did, the judges won't spend more than an hour on each entry which is really going to hurt most of my ideas. My simplest idea is for a turnbased platformer, but I don't know how to include the theme in that one.
Since you never had experience with game-making, I would really stop thinking about the contest, at least initially. Your first objective should be getting your hands dirt and learning to use the software available to you. Churn out as many (extremely simple!) prototypes as possible. No really, just get down with making something (anything) practical right now. After you have a better understanding of the software and the process of turning a very simple idea into an even simpler (and most likely horrible) game, you'll then be able to evaluate what you wanna try and put together for the contest.
PuzzleScript might be a good place to start for a turn based platformed. Definitely worth a look. Most game contest judges look at a game for about 3 minutes. Really. If your game isn't hooky by then you won't win anything.
This, along with all the other advice given is very good. But... one of my big issues is motivation, so actually being excited about making my ridiculously complicated game is necessary for me to even download the tools to get started. Okay, I figured out how to add the contest theme to my turnbased platformer (I even put the word in the title) and came up with a bunch of ideas for monsters and how everything works (particularly the turnbased jumping). Hard part done, now I just need to make my game. So I downloaded the free version of Stencyl, and went through the tutorial. Interesting, especially the drag&drop coding, but it seems like it's not intended to make turnbased games. It's possible someone has done so, but I can't tell because none of the games or resource kits on the website will compile or even open. It looks like the Stencyl devs have no understanding of how version numbers are supposed to work. This has been an entirely typical episode of Kalin Tries to Teach Himself Something. (Seriously, this wasn't the first time I've gotten fatal compile errors in examples that shipped with the compiler.) So, moving on... RPG Maker As someone who loves RPGs but hates spending money, I've played quite a few games made with this software. Some of them showed how much customization of game mechanics is possible using scripts, as well as the cost you'll pay in performance. The Humble Bundle includes RPG Maker VX Ace Deluxe (the latest version with what seems to just be a bunch of useful scripts). It also includes 90% off coupons for three older versions (2000, 2003, and XP). Wuh? Why would I want multiple versions? Well, I checked the product pages, and Wikipedia, and RPG Maker forums, and discovered that every version has unique features and bundled assets (I found two threads begging for the art from 2k and 2k3 to be reformatted and sold as a DLC for the latest version). So it might be worth it to buy them just as content packs and use Game Character Hub (also in the bundle) to reformat them for the other versions. So I've downloaded the free RPG Maker VX Ace Lite as well as a demo of someone's script for a TBS style battle system (which turns out to be 3D rather than the 2D I wanted, but still impressive and hopeful). That should give me an idea of what its strengths are vs what I want to do.
Spent a week looking at the RPG Maker forums and playing around with the 30-day free trials of XP and VX Ace versions. I was mainly getting a feel for the art style to see if I wanted multiple versions. Ace has a whole bunch of sample maps which helped a lot with this, though I wasn't too impressed with them (not very detailed and the cliff tiles are terrible). XP did not have sample maps and the demo game for it used completely custom tiles. Then I spent today looking closely at all the content packs in the bundle (as much as I could, the sites that normally sell these packs have completely non-functional search features). These at least included a whole bunch of tilesets, including at least one by the person who created the good cliff tiles used in the Ace tutorial (yes, even the official tutorial says the cliff tiles stink). And my final decision on whether to buy the bundle.... Spoiler I bought it. I'm not going to use half of the stuff, so I may be handing out a bunch of keys soon. Watch this thread if you might be interested. I'm keeping RPG Maker VX Ace and all related stuff.
Okay, it looks like I'm only allowed to give away Steam keys, not any of the downloadable items. (I've sent Humble support a half dozen questions to clarify things.) That's still a lot of things to give away. Stuff I have Steam keys for but don't want: Spoiler: Game Guru Game Guru Mega Pack 1 Mega Pack 2 Mega Pack 3 Buildings Pack Fantasy Pack Death Valley PackI'm not interested in 3D games. Spoiler: Axis Game Factory Axis Game Factory Pro v3.0 Premium DLC Voxelsulpt: (no longer available on Steam??) Drone Kombat Zombie Survival Pack Zombie FPSStill not interested in 3D, and I want nothing to do with Unity. Spoiler: Other Game Dev Stuff App Game Kit 2: I'm not interested in mobile games. Spriter Pro: Looks like this is for fancy animations, which is something I don't like in my games. Sprite Lamp: This is for 2D artists to make 3D maps for Unity; that's three reasons why I won't use it. Game Character Hub: This is only for use with RPG Maker, but seems to be mostly useless with VX Ace and its DLCs. Spoiler: Games Crimson Clover World Ignition: I like SHMUPs, but only the very easy ones. Aveyond Lord of Twilight: Sounds like a bad episode of a good series. Goats on a Bridge: Recommending I use a game controller is a good sign it's not my type of game. Labyrinthine Dreams: I've already played the free version; it's a fun little puzzle game. Whisper of a Rose: Even the positive reviews are full of complaints.
I'll gladly take Spriter Pro and Sprite Lamp (have a artsy friend, very close one, who might appreciate these two)
I so prefer hex grids for tactical games... Not sure if it is secretly a function of me wishing I was in fact able to be a mech pilot. Objectively it is just a much more meaningful facing as half of the spaces surrounding you are behind you and half in front instead of 75-25 split lie in CH. I wish I had read this 2 weeks ago I am not a techy person but I feel like could make an interesting enough game (potentially for the mobile market) to start a vacation fund.
Not sure if http://unity3d.com/ has been mentioned but it is a full 3d engine that is free, and can run on multiple platforms, including web browsers. All it requires is a working knowledge of C# or javascript as your scripting language. I started working on a hex board game for someone on another forums but then I dropped it due to lack of time due to my new job. (I also lost motivation since the game/forums that it is found is dying) Please note that it won't work in chrome: (Firefox should work) http://www.mattmtang.net/projects/unity/Behemoths/Web/Web.html Do note that Unity is a resource hog, and I really hate how all many new publishers are using Unity for simple games, causing them to lag heavily on my computer. Notable games that use Unity that I can think of ontop of my head: Wasteland 2, Endless Legend Also many games such as Tyrant Unleashed use Unity to release on multiple platforms. It runs so slowly on my old android device... and even the browser lags.
I need to get back into that. I bought RPG Maker VX Ace and Game Maker Studio a while back and I liked RPG Maker best of the two. I started making a game but got sidetracked. Fortunately, my progress is still on my computer, waiting for me to come back with a fresh perspective. Game Guru looks nice. If you're still giving it away, I'll take it and the corresponding packs off your hands.
Also... For those interested in 3D gaming, I just discovered that Unreal is now free. Back in the day, I learned to make maps with the Deus Ex SDK, which used Unreal. When I was looking into game making software last year, and bought RPG Maker and Game Maker Studio, Unreal was on my list of possibilities. However, at the time, they were charging a $19/month subscription to use the software with a 5% royalty on anything you sold after a set level of profit. I was researching Game Guru and found out that earlier this year, Unreal dropped the $19/month sub plan and is now available for free. The royalty is still the same, though, I believe. But at least now, you're not having to pay anything out of pocket while you learn the engine.
