Hey, I''m new here, but I''m an Computer Graphics major in college and I''m about to hit my senior year and what I would really like to do would be to creat a mock Real-Time Strategy game, or if I could actually find a group of programmers and other graphic artists out there, create a real one. But I could use some help on game creation, I''m not sure what steps I need to take, what setting, how many diff races, unit creation, balance issues, tech trees. Would anybody have some information or a URL that will help me ask the right questions I need? -Callan

Under the resources section at the top of this site, you can find a lot of information pertaining to what you are looking for.

quote: Original post by Callan
But I could use some help on game creation, I''m not sure what steps I need to take, what setting, how many diff races, unit creation, balance issues, tech trees. Would anybody have some information or a URL that will help me ask the right questions I need?

Probably the most important question you need to ask when making most of these design decisions is "Is this feasible for me and/or my team?"

You could design an rts with 278290 completely unique races each with 2000 completely different units and huge, complex tech trees, but if you lack the resources to create models for all of these races, the skills to implement them within the game, and the time and manpower to make sure they are all perfectly balanced, it isn''t worth designing.

Another essential question is "Does this add anything to the gameplay?" Even if you ever managed to develop it, the RTS described above would probably drown most players in it''s sheer complexity which does not necessarily make the game any more strategic or fun. There is relatively little point spending a lot of time on a feature which does not actually add anything to the game - designing content for 278290 different races is a bit of a waste of time if the game is just as much fun with only 5, for example.