Who Wants To Make Games / Learn Game Development Skills?

[ashes999]

As-salaamu 'alikum wa rahmatullah,

So, I've noticed that many of the gamers here on the MG forums have toyed with the idea of making a game. But none seriously.

I'm curious to know: how many of you are interested in learning real, usable game development skills? Or maybe even make a game with a tool. (Please reply with: looking to learn skills, OR tools, OR both.)

Some skills that game development actually takes:

- Programming (obviously ...)
- Art (2D and 3D) and animation
- Creating/mixing sound effects
- Story generation
- Writing (press releases, blog, ...)
- The ability to demo what you've done and explain it to someone
- Marketing
- Networking (with humans)
- Being able to give step by step instructions (for reproducing bugs and such)
- Playing boring games again and again (breaking them)
- And more!

I'm also curious to know which of these you're interested in. Depending on the interest and skills wanted, maybe we can have a workshop or something where we all make the same game, step by step, with some tool. Or something fun like that.

It'll be fun guys. Honestly. Just don't think it's easy, it's hard work :P

[AhmadSA]

MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
but you already know that

[thulfiqaar]

Me of course as well. I have done a course in game design at Open University and enjoyed it but it felt lacking somehow. I always wanted to delve in to 3D studio max and maya etc. I've got the training material but never really made time for it.

I also took a course in Visual basic and I discovered something as I was taking the course..... I hate programming! lol I would much rather stick to graphics.

I have recently started playing around with Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro and loved it. So if you want some promo's adverts and maybe even trailers, I will happily take on the job.
I am however still pretty much a noob and as noob as it gets, but I am genuinely enjoying it.

Having said that, yes a workshop sounds great if it involves art (2d and 3d) animation. i will even make time for that :D It sounds like a lot of fun.

[ashes999]

Okay, I'll keep that into account inshaAllah. As much as programming is time intensive (btw, VB sucks as far as languages go), art is equally time intensive; so we'll see how it goes.

Great, so we have two down. BTW Thulfiqaar, did you get the free version of Unity 3.50 when it was available? Unity uses scripting heavily, but is focused around assets like arts.

For you (someone not interested in programming), you could do well with a tool that visually/easily lets you write up events and stuff. That, or team up with a programmer :)

[saqib7]

Very Interesting, count me in!

[ashes999]

saqib7 what parts are you interested in? What skill sdo you find interesting?

[saqib7]

animations, but its to time consuming

[Rizwan1]

ashes999 : i would love to participate in anything that you set up.

IDEA: As a community we create a game, with each user contributing in a way (coding/graphics/storyline/sound/marketing etc)

At school i am currently coming to the end of a visual basic course so i know the basics of it. I did a lot of scratch a while back but we should aim for something a little higher than that IMO.

If anything was to be setup i'd only participate if was late june/july because of exams and stuff.

thulfiqaar : YOU KNOW VISUAL BASIC, do you know of any resources/websites which maybe useful to me?

[thulfiqaar]

lol nope i dont know it. I did the course years ago and I gave up halfway through because of how boring i found it.

[ashes999]

Rizwan1 learn C#, it's better. Easier syntax, more common with other languages (so easier to learn other languages later).

Your idea is excellent as Phase Two of the project. For Phase One, we will all make the same game inshaAllah, by ourselves. This will be fun, because we can help each other ("how do you make him run instead of walk" "oh I did it like this"), and also, you will see different people's strengths in different areas. (Like my version will be crappy MSPaint graphics, but more complicated code.)

Wallahu a'lam. It's just an idea dudes.

[Rizwan1]

Rizwan1 learn C#, it's better. Easier syntax, more common with other languages (so easier to learn other languages later).

Your idea is excellent as Phase Two of the project. For Phase One, we will all make the same game inshaAllah, by ourselves. This will be fun, because we can help each other ("how do you make him run instead of walk" "oh I did it like this"), and also, you will see different people's strengths in different areas. (Like my version will be crappy MSPaint graphics, but more complicated code.)

Wallahu a'lam. It's just an idea dudes.

I didn't learn Visual Basic by choice but rather i learnt it because the school said i had so. I would much rather have learn C#, C++ or Java. I think that your idea of creating the same game at the same time is a good idea, it will allow us to see which members have strengths and weaknesses in different area. When we come to building a community game inshallah we will have a clear idea of who should do the various tasks.

[ashes999]

Building a game is very hard, and coordinating multiple people is very hard. InshaAllah I hope to create small teams of Muslim game developers, and then move to competitions like "$1000 prize for best game on hadith, you have one month, NOW GO~!"

One step at a time :) stay away from Java/C++ for gamedev; C# owns all. Unless you want to be a professional game dev, then C++ owns all, and C# owns all tools.

[thulfiqaar]

I don't know about you guys but I'm excited!

*EDIT*
I have one request though. Can we please not use game maker pro. I used it for my game design course and man it's soooo boring! I really prefer to use source or unity or some other proper piece of software. I hear unreal engine rules all

[ashes999]

Thulfiqaar nothing is for sure right now. We'll take it step by step inshaAllah. Lets see how this thread goes.

For sure we won't use Game Maker. I'd rather use something more specific like Adventure Game Studio (for adventure games) or RPG Maker XP (for RPGs) or something else less codesy. Unity rocks all, and Unreal is great if you're a 20-year seasoned C++ developer. If not, it's probably too steep a learning curve.

[Rizwan1]

Building a game is very hard, and coordinating multiple people is very hard. InshaAllah I hope to create small teams of Muslim game developers, and then move to competitions like "$1000 prize for best game on hadith, you have one month, NOW GO~!"

One step at a time :) stay away from Java/C++ for gamedev; C# owns all. Unless you want to be a professional game dev, then C++ owns all, and C# owns all tools.

I don't intend on making regular games, just one or two kick ass games will do me fine!