Considering this Major

[Adrir]

If you don't have any technical skills, then start with non-technical games. To work within the video games industry, it is very likely you will need some technical skills in order to be able to communicate effectively with technical people.

I went to a talk today by Google and they claim they won't hire anyone who can't code - even for management and administrative positions - for this reason.

[Retro]

Originally Posted by Siberianhusky89

How would I make these "small games"? I'm no programmer and I suck at drawing.

Nobody said your games have to be digital. Make card games. Make Board games. Make physical 'playground' games. Start thinking "Game Designer" and not "Videogame Designer."

Also, programming and drawing are not god-given talents. You can learn both. If you don't know where to start, search the internet. If such a concept seems unfathomable, you might want to consider a career flipping burgers, because researching is a pretty important skill you'll want to have too.

Or you can drop some cash and buy some books. Just be wary of anything that looks like it's aimed at teens or promises you can Make Games Now. As far as drawing books go, "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" is usually the book I suggest to people just starting out (and who insist they suck at drawing).

Originally Posted by Siberianhusky89

The only thing I have is a design document, however, even then... The project isn't very small, is it possible? I'm sure it is... However, it kind of somewhat has a deep system. It's a fighting game that has what one of my friends called "An innovative idea".

I'm sure Tom will be in here any minute to link you to his articles, namely the ones about having only ideas, expecting other people to pay you for the ideas, and I think (but am not sure) he had an article in there about not putting all of your effort into a single dream project. Might be wrong on that last one.

Your friends are also not game designers, and ideas alone do not make games.

.... starting to understand the seething anger in Sloperama now. I take back the comment I made about him being a Tyrannosaur, he deserves a medal for not slipping into head-banging profanity.

[tsloper]

Originally Posted by Retro

I take back the comment I made about him being a Tyrannosaur, he deserves a medal for not slipping into head-banging profanity.

Don't take that back - Tyrannosaur is a good nickname. (But I never saw the original comment.) And I'll accept a medal anytime.

[Retro]

Originally Posted by tsloper

Don't take that back - Tyrannosaur is a good nickname. (But I never saw the original comment.) And I'll accept a medal anytime.

Original comment is here; http://www.gamecareerguide.com/forum...90&postcount=3

To be fair, and I am not discounting the value of hard truths (or that some people absolutely need them), pointing new people directly to Tom Sloper without a little explanation is pretty harsh. I mean, he's honest, but he's also slightly abrasive in that "your-tears-and-shattered-dreams-sustain-me" kind of way.

There really needs to be a middle ground between helpful information (which he provides) and joyously dream-crushing bile (which he wraps all of that information in like a thin candy shell).

I'm not saying we need to sugarcoat the realities of the game development world, but we could also be a little more welcoming with a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down. Until educational professionals are educated by the IGDA on how to direct students toward game development careers, the green recruits will continue to imagine the fantasy land of 'selling your big idea' exists. Stopping them at the door and stabbing them in the soul effectively keeps the 'useless dreamers' from getting in, but it also discourages more than it should.

We don't need Sloper, hunched over the freshly-killed carcass of an amateur designer's dream like some kind of advice-slinging Tyrannosaur, to bellow menacingly at newcomers. Even though what he's saying is true, he's doing it with all the charm of a sandpaper condom.

Heh, it sounds a bit mean in retrospect, but I really wasn't trying to be insulting. I actually value your contributions, I just think you're also scary.

[tsloper]

Originally Posted by Retro

I really wasn't trying to be insulting. I actually value your contributions, I just think you're also scary.

Cool! (^_^)

[SmithJ]

"We don't need Sloper, hunched over the freshly-killed carcass of an amateur designer's dream like some kind of advice-slinging Tyrannosaur, to bellow menacingly at newcomers. Even though what he's saying is true, he's doing it with all the charm of a sandpaper condom."

You could turn this into a Mr. Grinch song

I love the way that song is so insulting yet not one word of profanity.

[Siberianhusky89]

No worries... I read quite a bit of it... *Sigh* Yeah, I remember the statements about ideas getting rejected. Not too many companies are willing to take risks nowadays. Anyhow, I read about the rejection and such... Maybe I'll get lucky and find indy game developers to help me and such. The thing is, I'm not just one of those people who thinks that I'll tell programmers or artists what I want and them doing it, I'm actually going to make documents giving a CLEAR description of what should be, describe every small detail, trying to fill in all the wholes, make crappily drawn pictures of how things should possibly look and such, etc..


Example: I've already finished some of the more basic stuff I want in the fighting game. When I do the characters, I'm not going to say something like "Make sure this character is a fast one that can pressure!" I'm going to be like "Alright, I want this to be an overhead. I want this to have invincibility frames on startup, however, the recovery should take about two seconds on the move to make it punishable. If he lands the move, I want him to be able to cancel out of it and continue into a combo." Even when the actual product is being finished and we need to "fine tune" the game, I'd consider alot of other stuff like "Is the game balanced?" and "Does every character have a chance at winning?" and "Should we redo the damage scaling system?" etc... But in all honesty, I guess it comes down to whether I can get lucky enough to find someone who can help me do this.

[Adrir]

After reading that...

Wouldn't it be cool if we had some kind of rule-based expert system that analysed the first post of each user posts and automatically replies with a list of relevent resources to read...it could be called the SloperBot...or the FriendlyNeighbourhoodSloperBot...

Alas, if only that was more fun than experimenting with evolutionary methods to see if they can improve the design of my next continuous collision pipeline! I can't wait to implement this to see if it actually works or merely burns to the ground!

[Ezion]

@Adrir: I thought about that after lurking here long enough to see Sloper posting the same articles over and over. You could devise it pretty easily if you went through and tagged all of Sloper's articles with a few relevant keywords, then searched the user's posts for it.

You'd also want it to ascertain if the OP was asking for help though to prevent the Sloper bot from posting on every thread. Should be easy enough though...a list of words with relevant weights could be used by just scanning the OP for said words and posting if the sum is high enough.

@Siberian: You seem to be ignoring something obvious; you can do it yourself. And you'll also increase your chances of getting a game dev job drastically if you do.

I was programming when I was a year older than you. Albiet more simplistic stuff than a real time fighting game engine, I can guarentee you have the mental capabilities for it.

[Retro]

Originally Posted by Adrir

...it could be called the SloperBot...or the FriendlyNeighbourhoodSloperBot...

..... Mecha-Slopersaurus Rex! And give him an avatar of one of those insane used-art dinosaurs that breathes fire and crushes cars at state fairs! Except the car is an amateur game designer, and he shoots lasers from his eyes. And crappy design document-seeking missiles from his fingers and toes!

I miss Godzilla movies.