Advice for a Beginner

Kepola · 10-10-2012, 06:16 PM

Hey my name is Caleb and I was hoping for some advice. I am currently in my senior year of high school and am very interested in a career in game design. I have no experience at all though.

I took a short introductory class in programming at a local technical college and I don't think that's my niche, but I do realize I will need some basic skills if I want to go to college for game design.

I would love to one day design the storyboards and be able to get real creative. What I would like is some advice on how to start out at rock bottom to build skills necessary to create a game. I'd like to know what languages(C#, Java, etc.) to learn first in order to create simple games to start out with possibly. I think making old school 16bit games would be really cool to learn how to do.

Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!

EvilLlama · 10-10-2012, 06:26 PM

Check out:
RPGMaker XP (best for jrpgs), GameMaker, Flixel, Unity or Blender.

RPGMaker XP and GameMaker are mostly drag and drop, so they make it easy to make games with minimal programming experience.

Flixel is an Actionscript library that makes it easy to program games. There's actually a tutorial for making a retro style platformer you can check out: http://www.photonstorm.com/archives/...-flixel-part-1

Unity or Blender are both good for 3d games.

If you want to do storyboards, learn how to draw. Become masterclass at drawing. Spend more time drawing than playing games and sleeping combined.

tsloper · 10-10-2012, 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kepola

I am very interested in a career in game design....
I took a short introductory class in programming...
I would love to one day design the storyboards ... What I would like is some advice on how to start out at rock bottom to build skills necessary to create a game... I'd like to know what languages(C#, Java, etc.) to learn first

You say you want to design, and be a programmer, and be an artist. Excelling at all those is going to be a challenge. Most people pick one to focus on.
You should read up on the different jobs in games, then decide on a focus.
Start by reading this: http://sloperama.com/advice/lesson7.htm

Kepola · 10-10-2012, 07:34 PM

Thank you so much! I guess I need to do more research before posting but both answers were really helpfull. I did not realize game design could be narrowed down so much. I just assumed a designer would have to know how to program.

Destin Bales · 10-12-2012, 09:46 PM

Hi Kepola,

Here's my step by step guide to help someone in your position figure out what they want to do and how to realistically achieve it.

www.ineedtomakegames.com

I think it's fantastic that you've found a career that you are excited about in your Senior Year of high school. I wish I got started that early!

Best,

Destin