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Does anyone here make video games?

jononotbono

jononotbono

Luke Johnson
Afternoon all,

I'm not sure where this could be posted on VI-C so I am posting it here. I am wondering, does anyone here make videogames?

I'm doing an MFA in Videogame Music and Audio and I've got to a point where I am now starting to learn the game Engine Unity. The purpose is for a composer/sound designer to learn how to implement audio and music the best they can and by learning a bit about a game engine, it gives you a far better understanding of the process and what you should do etc.

Anyway, that's the purpose of touching on Unity for the MFA. The deeper I dig the more I am loving the whole thing of being able to create your own environments, assets, stories, characters, obviously the music and Sound Design etc. For someone completely inexperienced like myself, I am also loving that there is an asset store and you can either use free assets or buy them and use them in your games.

I think I want to embark on creating a video game. Probably going to take me years but it's never too late to start right?! I was just wondering if anyone here makes their own video games or has one up their sleeve they are working on? Would love to talk more about the process. I'm very aware of how much hard work goes into making a game but talking to people that do this would be great! I'm thinking about making an open world rpg sci-fi comedy adventure set in my world.

For fun I started making some terrain a couple of nights ago (pulled my back taking the rubbish out so I've been on painkillers and laying in bed so I thought this might be a good use of my time learning something new. Completely new. As in, I am a complete "noob". It's rough as hell and instead of doing something sensible like placing a bush on some grass I decided I would immediately make a mountain range. :laugh:

Forget WestWorld. This is the rough and humble beginnings of JonoWorld...

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Click to read more...
 
I don't literally make games, but as composer/sound designer for mainly games I do enjoy the production side of work quite a lot.
When you're working on 2-3 years long productions and you're close with your team, it's very nice to be part of design discussions and contributing to the creation of a game besides sound.

I've done the same thing you're doing right now in my "Music & Sound Design" degree, which was at a video game/animation/cinema school (ISART Digital Paris).
We had to create our first Unity level, and I made a big mountain peak, and implemented music & sounds — it's pretty fun and quite enthralling !

There are TONS of free ressources online to make games (youtube tutorials, humble bundle asset packs, forums...), so you can totally continue to create on your own
 
Also starting out with a 3D game is very very hard, I'd recommend doing a 2D game from a Unity template first, try and get a good feel for the engine, its logic. It's easier to conceive levels and narratives from a 2D standpoint too!

Doing very short/small games before taking on a big one is the best way to go too, you'll learn a lot everytime and it's always better to try and do multiple small steps than to go for one big jump.
A great way of doing that is also joining in game jams, where you and everybody else who's participating are given a theme and have a very short time to create a game (48/72h, or a week or so)
 
Brasart said:
I don't literally make games, but as composer/sound designer for mainly games I do enjoy the production side of work quite a lot.
When you're working on 2-3 years long productions and you're close with your team, it's very nice to be part of design discussions and contributing to the creation of a game besides sound.

I've done the same thing you're doing right now in my "Music & Sound Design" degree, which was at a video game/animation/cinema school (ISART Digital Paris).
We had to create our first Unity level, and I made a big mountain peak, and implemented music & sounds — it's pretty fun and quite enthralling !

There are TONS of free ressources online to make games (youtube tutorials, humble bundle asset packs, forums...), so you can totally continue to create on your own
Click to expand...

Yeah man, I love it. It must feel amazing being apart of the design discussions! I'm going to make an entire video game. Start small and keep building it and write a story. I'll use assets from the store as I'm not an animator or anything like that and figure things out along the way. There is Visual Scripting now so for people like me that don't know how to code (yet), you can use Visual Scripting to program logic in the video game. I found it to be so creative just building a landscape from scratch. Think I've found my first real hobby. Drinking booze, watching films/tv shows and playing video games being the only other ones :laugh:
 
jononotbono said:
Yeah man, I love it. It must feel amazing being apart of the design discussions! I'm going to make an entire video game. Start small and keep building it and write a story. I'll use assets from the store as I'm not an animator or anything like that and figure things out along the way. There is Visual Scripting now so for people like me that don't know how to code (yet), you can use Visual Scripting to program logic in the video game. I found it to be so creative just building a landscape from scratch. Think I've found my first real hobby. Drinking booze, watching films/tv shows and playing video games being the only other ones :laugh:
Click to expand...
the real question: do you need a composer? :rofl:
 
Check out FMOD, it'll likely be more useful later than learning the native audio functions of Unity.


Brasart said:
Also starting out with a 3D game is very very hard, I'd recommend doing a 2D game from a Unity template first, try and get a good feel for the engine, its logic. It's easier to conceive levels and narratives from a 2D standpoint too!
Click to expand...

Generally yes, but I find the 2D side of Unity to be unintuitive enough to mostly negate that. At least if you're comfortable thinking in a 3D coordinate space and can wrap your head around working with 3D vectors.



jononotbono said:
I'm thinking about making an open world rpg sci-fi comedy adventure set in my world.
Click to expand...

I recommend starting with cloning very very simple games. Like Pong or Flappy Birds. Then clone something slightly more complex, till you clone something that has systems that you can reuse and adapt for your own creation.
 
MartinH. said:
Check out FMOD, it'll likely be more useful later than learning the native audio functions of Unity.
Click to expand...

I've already learned FMOD. It was the first thing my MFA taught. I will learn Wwise as well but hey, there's only 24hrs in a day.

MartinH. said:
I recommend starting with cloning very very simple games. Like Pong or Flappy Birds. Then clone something slightly more complex, till you clone something that has systems that you can reuse and adapt for your own creation.
Click to expand...

I'm trying to use the free 3D Game Kit that is officially released by Unity. It gives all the tools, gameplay mechanics and systems to make your own game. Just trying to get it to work and that's where I will start!
 
I did a lot of amateur game development back in the 80's and 90's. Taught myself a half-dozen programming languages in the process.

Earlier this year I dipped back into it and got started with Godot working on a Frogger clone. It was mainly an excuse to start learning how to do pixel art (which is a lot more nuanced than people give it credit for).

 
MartinH. said:
I recommend starting with cloning very very simple games. Like Pong or Flappy Birds. Then clone something slightly more complex, till you clone something that has systems that you can reuse and adapt for your own creation.
Click to expand...

I'll second this advice. Most people getting into game development don't realize just how much work is involved, even for games that seem relatively simple.

It's much easier to learn on straightforward games, especially with a clear vision of what the output should look like. It also helps in learning how to manage scope, since scope-creep is the death of many a game project.
 
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shponglefan said:
I did a lot of amateur game development back in the 80's and 90's. Taught myself a half-dozen programming languages in the process.

Earlier this year I dipped back into it and got started with Godot working on a Frogger clone. It was mainly an excuse to start learning how to do pixel art (which is a lot more nuanced than people give it credit for).

Click to expand...


That's amazing man!
 
shponglefan said:
Perfect scope for a solo developer! :P

Just be prepared for that inevitable moment when you've designed yourself into a corner and realize you have to start everything over from scratch. ;)

(It happens to everyone.)
Click to expand...

Totally. It's like playing around building a mountain and then realising that it was full of compiler errors and having no idea how to even fix them. So, yeah, years off from something good but it's gonna be a fun journey. Just figuring out how to put Green screen footage in the game and then I can create a hologram Jono to appear as and when Main Jono needs in game advice, story development or company. :laugh:
 
If you're dead set on starting out with Unity, there are a ton of great tutorials out there and you'll probably be fine. But if you can spare 1 weekend to learn the fundamentals by programming a couple classic 2D games from scratch, I guarantee you'll finish JonoWorld™ sooner :)

If none of us in this thread can twist your arm, read this "Why I quit teaching Unity first" blurb:
https://get.how-to-program-games.com/launch-page-11595562194521
...written by a past colleague of mine Chris DeLeon (who I'm pretty sure has been living and breathing game development since birth + has since taught thousands of hobby game makers). His Hands-On Intro to Game Programming book is also excellent (and a steal for $5.60), and you really can crank through one or two of those games super fast.
 
I've been working on one with a buddy for a while, but it's still early days. Unfortunately I don't find the actual work of figuring out Unity/Blender nearly as fun as writing story, discussing gameplay, or experimenting with music direction. And any advantage I thought I might have had by being a software engineer turned out to feel pretty insignificant. But we put in time regularly (however little it may be), and we're making progress.

I hope at some point, we'll have laid down most of the groundwork and learned most of the things we need to learn, and then making the content will be a blast. It's gonna be a third person stealth game (we're big fans of Metal Gear Solid), and the music will partly attempt to channel an old-school John Carpenter feel.

We actually started out trying to make a 2d game, but enthusiasm ran out because we realized we don't even really play/enjoy 2d games these days. No point in having a passion project you're not passionate about.

I'm actually in a silent working meeting with said buddy right now, pretending to work on the game...time to stop procrastinating!
 
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