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The Different Types of Tools You Can Use to Make Games • the Various Media and Skills Needed • Resources That Will Help You Start Your Game Development Journey

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The Different Types of Tools You Can Use to Make Games • the Various Media and Skills Needed • Resources That Will Help You Start Your Game Development Journey This free e-book is an introduction to the art of video game creation. Learn about: • The different types of tools you can use to make games • The various media and skills needed • Resources that will help you start your game development journey TheGameCreators CEO, Lee Bamber, introduces you to this e-book. With over 25 years of game making experience he has some great nuggets of information to share with you to help you on your way. How to start making video games - TheGameCreators – www.thegamecreators.com Page 1 Introduction Lee Bamber – CEO of TheGameCreators I published my first game maker a great many years ago, and to this day the question I’ve answered countless times has been “How do I make a game?”. As you can imagine the answer has changed over the years as the landscape of games technology evolved; from tiny efforts knocked up in a few weeks to games so epic they need hundreds of people and millions of dollars to produce. Today, my answer is to provide you with this little starter guide, introducing a range of game makers that meet a range of needs from non-coding game creation to professional games programming. The first time I heard the above question was in my own ten-year-old head, coinciding with the arrival of my first computer, and only Christmas present that year, the VIC-20. This hugely underpowered 8- bit brick had just over 3Kb of programmable memory, but it had several games and a book on how to code - naturally I was hooked for life. Back then, of course, there was no game making tool, largely due to the lack of memory available to store the editor and game at the same time, so the early tools were graph paper, printouts to debug code and boxes of tapes to store the efforts of my labours. These days we don’t think twice about opening a paint package or tablet app and drawing a doodle, but in the early years each pixel needed to be plotted to a piece of graph paper, and their respective values totted up to produce the 8-bit integer value required to provide a single slice of the final graphic. This was state of the art at the time, and represented the cumulative efforts of some amazing pioneers in the development of the personal computer. Over the next three decades, games technology evolved at an alarming rate, and for those hooked on the stuff, we were ruthlessly dragged along for the ride, and what a ride! My journey into the craft of professional games developer took a roundabout route, with my first six years self-learning BASIC and Assembly language to create a mixture of games and tools, some published, then onto college and university for five years where I continued developing games but adding industrial proficiencies to my programming toolbox, then employment at a developer/publisher for 5 years to gain practical real-world experience in creating software for large scale publication and finally a chance opportunity to work from home and work with LEGO on their very first Mindstorms product, creating programmable robotic LEGO. This burst of freedom gave me the confidence to start my own company with a view to selling my first game maker called DarkBASIC, quickly joined by many fine fellows to give birth to The 3D Gamemaker, DarkBASIC Pro, FPS Creator and a myriad of software, apps and innovations that would ultimately give rise to our present collection of game making tools. The good news is that you don’t have to spend the next three decades following in my footsteps, you can have your first game up and running within a day. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the choices available, and if you want to create the next top-ten hit, you have reason to be nervous, and a lot to learn. If instead, you want to focus on making a game solo or in a small team then you have come to the right place. How to start making video games - TheGameCreators – www.thegamecreators.com Page 2 Having spent years making games the hard way, I wanted to create products designed to take the heavy lifting out of game creation and make the process easy, fun and rewarding. I knew some users would not want to create art and code, so I provide lots of assets. I also wanted to make the products affordable so everyone has the chance to try their hand at game making without the traditional barriers of developing and publishing their game. If you have never made a game before, you can easily be discouraged by choosing the wrong tool for the job, perhaps never to try again. By choosing a game maker based on whether you want to code (AppGameKit), create and customise (GameGuru) or simply throw things together for fun (MyWorld), the next step is to surround yourself with helpful people who can offer you advice and encouragement. Fortunately, TheGameCreators are notorious for hosting friendly game-making forums populated with enthusiastic and talented indie developers and hobbyists, and remains one of the most valuable resources we can offer. In this getting started guide you will learn a little bit more about our flagship products, which will help you choose your starting point on your journey to becoming a game author. In addition to providing the software to speed you along, and a safe environment for you to learn and grow, I’m also happy to impart some words of wisdom that may be useful as you embark on your first game making projects: • Save your progress early, save often and save under different filenames - you will be surprised how many new users accidently wipe out their code or level design they’ve been working on for three hours. This is one habit where paranoia is your friend. • Advice is best obtained with a specific question - when dealing with a problem or attempting to understand something, break it down into smaller parts until you have a close-ended question. The answer will be a key that gets you moving again. • Critique can be harsh, but respect it - when you are first starting out, expect most of your games and early efforts to lack the polish of a published work. Use feedback to make your games stronger, and know with time that your skill as a game author will grow. Naturally, I could fill a treasure chest with the nuggets I’ve collected over the years, but the above three should help you avoid frustration as you discover your own path towards the joy and fulfilment of making your own games. Lee Bamber How to start making video games - TheGameCreators – www.thegamecreators.com Page 3 What are games made of? Games consist of three main elements: • Source Code • Data • Media Once you understand that all games contain these three things in one form or another, you'll be well on your way to understanding what it takes to make a game. Let's look at each of these game-making elements………. What is source code? Source code is nearly always a series of typed commands which are interpreted by the computer in such a way as to control the game. There are different types of code and you can break this down into a few categories. Coding Languages There are a lot of coding languages, many are very similar, and all have varying learning curves. Some are pretty simple, using common English expressions to make things happen, and have built in commands to ease development, such as pre-programmed sprite commands and 3D object manipulation, while others provide a very basic set of commands which involve a higher level of development skill. Some like the languages supported by AppGameKit, provide a good mix of both, i.e. Simple to use commands and a clear structure supported by very powerful pre-programmed functions. Let's take a look at some of these: • BASIC - This language is called BASIC which means Beginner's All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code), is an easy to learn English language based coding language and as the name suggests is ideal for beginners. First developed in 1964, BASIC has evolved to become the ideal development language for users who are starting to dip their toes into the world of game making. Our own AppGameKit uses a version of BASIC which is very easy to pick up, and it features many pre-programmed commands to help code games, such as 3D objects and physics control, 2D sprite manipulation, shaders for visual effects and terrains for 3D landscapes. • C++ - This is a very powerful computer language, which while not originally created for game development, has become the industry standard for programming professionals. It’s not as easy to learn as BASIC but it has a lot of similarities. Our AppGameKit product can be combined with the raw speed of C++ with some very powerful pre-programmed commands to access virtually all of AppGameKit’s sprite, music, 3D and other commands, making for a flexible mix of power and ease of use. • ObjectiveC - This is a general purpose programming language influenced by C. It is the main programming language used by Apple for OSX and iOS. Objective C developers tend to use How to start making video games - TheGameCreators – www.thegamecreators.com Page 4 Xcode, which is an integrated development environment for MacOS containing a suite of software development tools created by Apple. AppGameKit fully supports Xcode for those who wish to develop games for a wide range of Apple Systems.
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