Where do I get started -- Game Development?

[monster]

So hopefully I don't get laughed off the stage here.

I've been wanting to post here for a few weeks but decided to take my questions to google. Well I'm here due to information overload and was hoping someone could help me out. I'm very interested in game development. I had an interest back in High school, and it was re-kindled, honestly, when I saw this game being revived. I was, and still am, utterly fascinated by the know-how of the devs, to even be able to start a project like this, and I hope, someday to be able to understand as well.

Now the question is. How, and where do I get started? I took a few coding classes in college and really enjoyed them, but, I wouldn't have the slightest idea how to integrate any of this into a video game environment. (If you need me to make you a kill calculator in VB HMU. HAHA.) I took a development class, but it was mostly screwing around with map making, we eventually got to event handlers and stuff.

It's a little embarrassing having a passion for something you don't really understand . But I would love some input.
(I'm using this server as a hypothetical, but where would I start, if say, my end goal, was to be able to work on a broken PQ in WAR? or even identify it as something too complex for me?) I see the devs talking on here a lot and it's usually way over my head. lol

I appreciate your time, guys.

Thank you.

[Londo]

There are few routes you can take to do game development. Traditional approach is you learn programming first then focus on simple games and up. But you can also go another route. Many modern game engine environments make it very easy to create games with little programming experience. Take a look at Unity and Unreal

https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials
https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Videos/

If you want to learn programming first, there many sources for that information online.

[Collateral]

I also have that aspiration. I'm learning coding in college now, which will definitely help me out. I've seen plenty of tutorials online, especialy youtube (quill18 comes to mind). I guess you just have to stick to it and not give up

[Thayli]

Disclaimer: I am a network engineer with a background in software development, not a game developer, but I know many people that are.

I have seen many people who took an interest in game development and wanted to pursue a career in it. My first advice would be, please realize fully what this really entails. What I'll post here are generalizations, of course, but sadly these are more often the rule than the exception:

1) Low pay
Unless you manage to net a job in a big studio under a big publisher, your pay will be nothing to write home about. You earn less on average than software developers in other industries besides videogames, system administrators, network engineers, web developers, etc...

2) Long hours
Crunch time! This is a thing in normal software development also, but gaming development is notorious for working long hours to the point of almost inhumane.

3) Tough deadlines
Similar to 2, deadlines can decide if your or your company's game makes it or not and delays are bad. This can add a lot of stress to your job.

4) Job instability
For every indie studio that makes a successful indie game and manages to break even financially, there are 20 that don't and go under. Anything but a big studio can't guarantee you will actually get paid at the end of the month.

5) Corporate bullshit
True for mostly bigger studios, creativity both on an artistic and technical level often gets stifled because corporate policy and managers who do not know what they are talking about yet have to make the decisions. While this is potentially true in every company, I've seen quite a few people get absolutely disgusted by the industry because of this.

If you are absolutely sure that your passion will carry you through these issues that come with this particular industry, then by all means, go for it. The point that you should take from all of this is that you NEED this passion, or you will not be able to make it through all of these typical problems.

As to where to begin, I'd recommend starting with learning how to program (notice how I said learning to program, not learning to program in language X. There is a difference. You want to be able to take the concepts of programming and writing "good" code to any language, not just one). There are many good guides and beginner courses online for any programming language. Secondly, I would recommend familiarizing yourself with the development process. Look up dev blogs of your favorite games. Start checking out some podcasts or news feeds that go into detail about this. Once you managed all this, the next step would be building a portfolio. You want to be able to show future employers what you worked on, your personal projects. Participating in game jams such as Ludum Dare is a very good way to achieve this.

[Osred]

I wrote a big post, but it contained too much info about me so i'll summarise. I work in game dev, I wont say what role.

- Universities, particularly ones located near big studios. These help you to learn, work with others and most importantly, network. Where I work its very important you know how to talk to people. The UK and Canada are very good for this. For e.g Ubisoft pick alot of talent from Montreal, Vancouver etc. I cant stress enough how much help University will give you.

- Reverse engineer everything, learn from other things and people. Pick up free engines like Unity, Unreal, Cryengine. Download project files, see how they work. Use what you learn and try something new. Sites like Digital Tutors, CMI, Youtube are very good for this.

- The programmers I work with love reading Siggraph papers and GDC presentations.

-Specialise! Dont be a generalist. Game studios look for people who fit niche roles now. This is particularly the case in art roles.

[windlust]

Thayli, you've forgotten 6) tough competition. Since there're so many people at the moment wanting to become game developers, the actual working conditions are only going to get worse.

[Thayli]

Thayli, you've forgotten 6) tough competition. Since there're so many people at the moment wanting to become game developers, the actual working conditions are only going to get worse.

Heh, I hadn't even considered this, but yeah, you're right. You can fix this by specializing properly and learning a unique set of skills, though.

[zabis]

I just finished a class in game development, try this: http://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker

It even has a For Dummies book: https://www.amazon.com/GameMaker-Studio ... 1118851773

[Acidic]

One thing to think about regarding your approach to the route to being a game developer is to understand which part of the game design process you are most interested in.
From my perspective there is
Game implementation : nitty gritty code
Game design : what to implement
Game lore: why to implement

Depending on the choice above which is more interesting to you should steer you to the tool set most appropriate.
Such as if you are more interested in game design and want to one man band a game then the tools London suggested would be good as the framework spares you a lot of nitty gritty stuff.

[zulnam]

In today's world, picking up game development as a hobby is pretty easy. I suggest first figuring out if you want to be a Game Dev professionally or a hobbyist and then finding out what exactly you would like to do (code, graphics, design) and then start reading up some articles on that. Most likely you'll be doing a mix of all 3 since that's how us Sunday Devs roll.

There are 3 major IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) for gaming at the moment.

Game Maker Studios (uses it's own scripting language; GML)
Unity (uses C# and/or Javascript)
Unreal Development Kit (uses C++)

All of them have their own pros and cons; personally, i prefer GMS for it's ease of use and also the reason why I would recommend it to you (it has a Drag & Drop functionality meaning you can create a simple game concept very quickly without virtually any code), however it does have some drawbacks:
- Almost exclusive for 2D games (creating 3D is WAY to much of a challenge in it, compared to the other platforms);
- GML's use is a custom scripting language and thus restricted to GMS only, whereas with Unity or UDK you learn widespread languages which can then help you professionally

My biggest advice is to do your own research since you will need to get the hang of it. No matter what you choose, searching for solutions or ways to do something will always be one of your main tasks. Also use Youtube a lot of tutorials and comparison videos between the aforementioned IDEs.

Pro-Tip:
Here's a lovely book on game coding that is useful to any would-be game dev that teaches you game coding best practices: http://gameprogrammingpatterns.com/
It's not a beginner book, however once you know some coding, it will vastly increase your skills by adding best practices to your code design.

Good luck!