How hard is it to make a game? REALLY hard, if you want to actually Complete it. Even pong is hard if you want to actually Complete it.

Consider what Completing a game actually means (besides the obvious graphics/input/game logic stuff):

- Completing means having some little sound effects, which means learning a sound API of some sort.

- Completing means writing code to be able to show a start-up screen and possibly an options menu.

- Completing means writing an installer (or learning to use an existing installer) to add and remove the game from a user''s machine.

- Completing means having to save game states from one game to the next (at least high scores).

- Completing means writing an instruction file (or readme.txt) to explain things to your audience that are blindingly obvious to you, but confusing to others.

- Completing means spending many hours trying to "break" your game to ensure a minimum of bugs.

There are many other things that aren''t obvious when one thinks about making a Complete game, but have to be done if you really want to Complete it.


After having said all of that, my heartfelt suggestion is to set out in an attempt to write a quasi-game and NOT complete it. Just get your feet wet and play with some graphics and input code and make a soundless, instructionless, buggy game! Even better, make a "choose your own adventure" text-game =D Don''t wory about creating an entire game, just make little incomplete games and get a feel for what its like a little bit at a time.