Sanchez - 11 Tips on How to Make Your Own Videogame: From 0 to game developer

11 tips on how to make your own videogame

From 0 to game dev

Jonathan Sanchez

Copyright 2015 by Jonathan Sanchez. All Rights Reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of very brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

You can also get the free report 5 free tools for Game Development for additional tips and info.

Usually when youre a gamer at some point of your life you asked yourself How is it like to make my own game? or said Im going to make my own game! It will have X amount of features and the player will have Y skills, and the story its going to be awesome. So you set your goal and start making all the cool features that your game will have, start planning the armor, the enemies, the weapons, the story, and a lot of things you think your game will have. But as you stop planning you get to your first bump in the road of making your own game: You know nothing of how to execute it.

Ive had the same problem 5 years ago when I started my game development career, and after learning a lot and have succeeded in some things (and failed in a lot, lot more) I compiled a list of what could really ease your way into game development.

When you had your encounter with videogames and then you considered doing one perhaps someone told you that in order to make them you need to study computer science and later on your career discovered that you could start earlier and that in college they didnt taught you to make games (unless you went to a game dev college of course). And even though coding is really helpful to make good games, it is certain that you can make games even if you are not a programmer. Now Im not going to tell you that its a walk in the park, but if you really have the passion for making games and you put to practice (I really want to put an emphasis on this) these tips, you will be making complete projects in no time (of course the time depends on the scope of the project that we will cover later).

Now I give you 11 tips on how to make your own videogame, which will help you to quickly overcome the hurdles that as a game developer I encountered in the past.

When making a videogame this is the first thing that you need to have sorted out, you can have an idea for a game, but that idea can fit into a different set of genres and you have to choose the best way to bring it to life.

When choosing your genre you will have to make it coherent to the game world you want to bring, you may not put a great narrative on a racing game (although its possible, but you can choose a better genre to do it). This is the easiest part of the game development process and maybe you may even have a genre selected beforehand, this decision is totally on what you prefer, so if you want to put a heartwarming story in a racing game or make an action packed game in the form of a point-and-click, go ahead! So in case that you are not very familiar with all the genres that are available right now I will give you a brief list:

- Action: This is the most basic of genres, and the games that are on this genre are the ones whose their main focus is the action (I know Im repetitive here) a good example of these action games include Devil May Cry, God of War, Grand Theft Auto, The Witcher series. But you shouldnt confuse them with fighting or combat.

- Adventure: Adventure games are the ones that take you on a journey with emphasis on the freedom of exploration. The most basic examples include point and click games, also Grand Theft Auto, Metroid, The Legend of Zelda, Mass Effect, Final Fantasy or The Witcher series.

- Arcade: This genre usually applies to older games. Those are the games that dont have an expansive storyline other than the essentials, but with an effective gameplay, where the main focus if to finish the game with the largest amount of points. Metal Slug Series, Galaga, Pinball and The Simpsons Arcade among many others.

- Beat Em Up: Is a sub-class of the platformer, where instead of going through the level you beat your way through it, with more than 4 opponents at once. Double Dragon, Golden Axe, Fist of Jesus and The Simpsons Arcade are examples of the genre.

- Shoot Em Up: This genre is exactly like the Beat Em Up but you shoot your way through the levels. Saviors, Raiden III, Retro/Grade, Steredenn, Hangeki and Cyberpunk 3776 are examples of this genre.

- Combat: This must not be confused with the Action or First Person Shooter (FPS) games, combat games are the ones that have direct military-like characteristics that create a hard-boiled experience. SOCOM and the Call of Duty Series are an example of this genre.

- Fighting: The fighting genre is the one where the player battles an opponent to obtain certain result, such as the depletion of health. Even when sometimes you can make a team, fighting games gameplay is usually a one versus one experience.

- Flight: Its main focus is on flying usually in a realistic/semi-realistic perspective. Pilotwings, Ace Combat, Skygunner, Star Fox are ones of the most notable examples.

- FPS: The First Person Shooter is literally a genre where you have a view in first person (that means that you dont see the model/character you are playing with) and shoot enemies with an arsenal of weapons. Wolfenstein, Halo, Doom, Call of Duty Series are a few examples of this genre.

- MMO: Massively Multiplayer Online games are the ones where the online gameplay is the main focus, and that players can interact with each other in a real-time space. World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XIV, Tibia, The Elder Scrolls Online, Day Z are some of the examples of this genre.

- MOBA: It stands for Massive Online Battle Arena, also known as real-time strategy, its a genre in which you control a single character in one of two teams (and as in the MMO, the online gameplay is the main focus). The objective is to destroy the opposing teams main structure. Dota 2, League of Legends, Smite, Dead Island Epidemic and Heroes of the Storm are examples of this genre.

- Platformer: This genre includes a moving character in a 2D or 3D environment to overcome impeding obstacles with physical movement. Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros., Sonic the Hedgehog, Little Big Plane are examples of this genre.

- RPG: The Role Playing Game genre is base around concepts of the early tabletop adventures. The player uses the application of mathematics to make their main character stronger and it has a turn based combat system. Fallout, The Elder Scrolls and Pokmon are examples of this genre.

There are a lot more of genres that I didnt mention in this list but still are worth mentioning and you also should consider when deciding the genre of your videogame such as: Roguelike, rhythm, racing, metroidvania, third person Shooter, puzzle, Run n gun, sports and stealth.

What I mean by this is that you take your game and think of the core mechanics, the things that will make your game fun and test them. For example, lets assume that you are going to make an awesome first person shooter with RPG elements that focus heavily on a mechanic that makes your characters suddenly change stats mid-play (Now that would be interesting!), so first make sure that the stat changing feature will be fun for the player, and now you ask yourself How can I test that? Well thats easy, put in pen and paper the mechanics and start to play, roll a dice to shuffle the stats and make the rules of your game, then you can do the same with all the other aspects of your game. Or if you are making a visual novel make sure that the role playing part of the game is fun, write the choices and test them, write the different scenarios and endings and start playing.