Making small games for poo's and giggles?

[SuperDuperMe]

Heya guys, is there any easy way to make little games that even a noob like me could get my head around.

I know nothing of programming or anything like that but did mess around quite a bit with scripting in arma 2. That said i wasnt amazing at it so experiance with anything like that is limited.

Is there anything i can try out to make something simple.



If there is, does any know wether it would be possible to make a simple game akin to the old, old Final fantasy games. As in FF3 or something


Am i just dreaming or is this out there lol.

 

[mrjack]

There are a lot of different game engines that have licenses that allow you to use them to make freeware games. Naturally there is always the challenge of learning a new scripting language.

Wikipedia has a nice article listing a bunch of open source and proprietary (free and commercial) game engines. Might want to have a look at that.

Naturally the list doesn't contain every game engine in existence. For example Novashell has been left out.

 

[SuperDuperMe]

Which would you suggest for a budding noob with lots of time on his hands?

And which would be the easiest scripting language to start with for an old school rpg or side scroller shooter. Either or really ?

 

[mrjack]

Before even thinking about the scripting language I'd recommend thinking about the following things:
- Do you want to make a 3D or 2D game?
- Top-down, side scroller or isometric?
- Are you more comfortable working with 3D models or sprites?
- Is there a game engine made for games like the one you intend to make?

 

[SuperDuperMe]

Im totally new to this. So ill only be able to answer a couple of them questions.

If its possible to make a rpg like old school ffs id want it to be 2d, not sure what the PoV would be.

If its easier to make a side scroller, obviously 2d.

Iv never done any work with models or sprites so its new territory.

And im not sure if theres already an engine for the rpg 2d, style games but i would presume there is for sidescroller. I just dont know what it is.

Thanks for the help btw

 

[mrjack]

If its possible to make a rpg like old school ffs id want it to be 2d, not sure what the PoV would be.

If its easier to make a side scroller, obviously 2d.

Creating visual assets is easier for a side scroller or top-down than for a 3D or 2.5D game.

Iv never done any work with models or sprites so its new territory.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches.

3D models require that you create models, create UV maps, create textures, rig the models for animation purposes and animate. This means quite a bit of work and especially animation is tricky when trying to create natural motions for creatures (when starting out the animations tend to be jerky or rigid). Among the advantages are that animations can be used by multiple models, if they use a common skeleton for rigging. Textures can easily be modified as well.

Sprites are basically just still images (frames in animations). I know of at least two ways of going about creating sprites. One is to use 3D models (can be significantly lower in detail compared to the option above) and the other is drawn. The latter means that you use image editing software (Photoshop, GIMP etc.) to draw the characters. Animation requires a lot of work since each frame has to be created and the amount of frames affects how fluid the animation is. This approach also means that the animations have to be drawn for each character (unless the characters only differ in the color of their outfit, in which case it can be simplified). Using 3D models has the advantage of being able to speed up animation of characters with the same skeleton and retexturing of characters.

A game called Liero uses sprites for, among other things, the characters. While it is easy to modify sprites used in such games, it is tedious work.

And im not sure if theres already an engine for the rpg 2d, style games but i would presume there is for sidescroller. I just dont know what it is.

There are without a doubt quite a few out there. With the proper scripting 3D engines can also be used to make side scrollers. I even found an in-depth tutorial for creating a side scroller game with Epic Games' UDK.

Here are two engines I've come across and found to be interesting.

Novashell is a 2D engine developed with RPG and adventure games in mind.

Flexible Isometric Free Engine is for 2D and 2.5D games.

Thanks for the help btw

No problem.

EDIT: Forgot to mention PyGame, which might peak your interest. There are quite a few tools and games ready to use or modify.

 

[SuperDuperMe]

Dude your awesome ill get looking at these

In regards to models which would you say im best off going with in terms of my non existent experiance ?


SO my nooby side is about to come out

Where do i start. I cant even work out what i need to download. Its all very confusing.

Also could you link me to the tut for the epic games udk (or do you think that engine will be too much for me?)

 

[mrjack]

In regards to models which would you say im best off going with in terms of my non existent experiance ?

It depends on what the art style will be. Of course it also depends on what the game engine supports.

Remember that you don't have to create complex models in order to start making your game. You can start with very simple placeholder assets (a simple piece of geometry or a simplified version of a humanoid etc.) or use assets that may be provided with the engine (quite a few engines do this).

Here's a video by Almost Human Games, the Finnish developer that made Legend Of Grimrock. It shows exactly what I mean.

You might want to look into making a 2D game with sprite graphics. The threshold to making one is lower and should be a nice introduction to making games.

Where do i start. I cant even work out what i need to download. Its all very confusing.

Have you chosen an engine already? If not, then take a look at some engines. If you find an engine or several that interest you, then start looking through their documentation. See what kind of workflow and tools they have. Work your way through tutorials for some basic stuff like creating maps and scripting things. Once you think you have a good enough grasp for how to script things, then you should start trying to implement some ideas of your own.

One way to learn the general aspects of scripting is by modding games. While the scripting language may differ from the one in the engine you'd like to create your game in, it will teach you how to think when programming.

I'm currently in the process of learning Papyrus (scripting language in Skyrim's Creation Kit) in order to implement some ideas on making the player character's past influence his/her skills to varying degrees. Skills and perks are affected by the chosen profession and age. Age also affects health and stamina. So while a character may be more skilled when old, he/she is also physically more vulnerable. Might even look into implementing disease resistance based on age. I've been annoyed by the fact that the player starts out with skills and stats that are only affected by race.

Some engines won't have been around for long enough for lots of tutorials to have been made. Some won't have many tutorials despite being in development for years (I'm looking at you FIFE). For fairly obvious reasons engines like UDK, Unity and CryEngine 2/3 have loads of tutorials.

Also could you link me to the tut for the epic games udk (or do you think that engine will be too much for me?)

Here's the tutorial.


You might also want to take a look at Game Editor as well.

EDIT: GameMaker Lite is also an option. There are some restrictions, but you might be able to get the results you want.

 

[SuperDuperMe]

Ok so i got game editor and game maker. On editor, there only one actor character thingy. Do i need another programme to make more?

 

[mrjack]

Ok so i got game editor and game maker. On editor, there only one actor character thingy. Do i need another programme to make more?

I'm afraid I don't follow. Care to elaborate?

Have you read through some of the tutorials and tried out for example the First Steps tutorial?

EDIT: There seems to be quite a bit of documentation included in Game Editor if you go run the software and go to the Help section in the toolbar.

 

[SuperDuperMe]

Iv not tried anything with it really yet I intend to tonight though. But i did start it up and went through the instructions but noticed i could only select one animation (not actor my bad)

I was just wondering how do i make/get more.

 

[mrjack]

You probably have to create your own assets for that. Might want to try and figure out how to do that. Once you're familiar with the process you can use placeholder assets and concentrate on the gameplay before making more assets.

There's probably a tutorial or several on the animation part, but based on the extensions of supported files for animations it would seem like it can be done with just about any image editing software.

 

[SuperDuperMe]

Iv just downloaded gimp to do it.

Just playing about with it at the moment

 

[mrjack]

Just did a quick test. I made a 32x32 px image with a white background and a small black square. I made 2 frames, one where the black square is aligned with the edges of the image and one where it is rotated by 45 degrees. Saved these two frames as bmp files and imported them as an animation of multiple files. Works perfectly with the result being a rotating square inside a white box. Still have to figure out how to do transparency for such images (to get rid of the white background) but it is a good start.

 

[Troncoso]

If it's game maker you guys are working with, the color in the bottom left pixel is the transparency color (It's a corner, though I pretty sure it's the bottom left).

If you are using something else, I'm afraid I'm of no use.

 

[SuperDuperMe]

So how do i make it an animation of multiple files. i can make the single file animation. But cant do the multiple one.

Also i could be wrong but maybe try using a black background to get rid of transparency issue as i dont seem to have a background at all by using black.

 

[mrjack]

So how do i make it an animation of multiple files. i can make the single file animation. But cant do the multiple one.

When creating an animation there should be a drop-down box under the "File" section that says "Single file" by default. Just change that to "Multiple files". Put the individual frames for the animation in a folder of its own and open the first frame in the "File" section. Game Editor should take care of the rest and you should see the animation repeat in the small preview window. The animation won't run in the editor unless you go into game mode.

Also i could be wrong but maybe try using a black background to get rid of transparency issue as i dont seem to have a background at all by using black.

Luckily Game Editor supports alpha channels so there is no need to use a certain color for transparency. I tested using PNG files with a transparent background and rotating white square.

 

[SuperDuperMe]

Ahh kk thanks, ill have a try of that

 

[SuperDuperMe]

Sorted Got animations working . Now to start reading up

Thanks for all your help mate

 

[mrjack]

Sorted Got animations working . Now to start reading up

Thanks for all your help mate

No problem, glad to be of help. Might want to take a look around the engine's official forums for any technical limitations and bugs to keep in mind. For example I learned from the CryEngine forums that CryEngine 3 has some issues when making maps that are larger than 10km x 10km.