Hi, I am seeking some beginner’s advice, as I am relevantly new to game design perhaps it might be a good idea if someone could point me in the right direction. Is there anything I will need to know before getting into game design and what are my preparations? Thanks. Tom

This all depends on what your interested in doing, are you only interested in the design side? or are you interested in the art of it, or the programming. Pick something you would like to do, and then search the forums for it, and if you still have questions, respond with another post and im sure many people would be glad to help you along.

-Synt4x





(if this was helpful, feel free to let me know but giving me a good rating :))

Of course, thanks for pointing that out. Maybe I should have explained a bit more about what I hope to achieve. I am more interested in the design process and using my imagination to develop original ideas for a game. Whilst I have been told to start off with a very simple game idea like Pacman or Space Invaders, I would rather be more creative and really use my imagination to create an original and yet impressive game. And of course I understand that I am no limited to what ideas I can come up with, but I am limited when it comes to the creation process. So overall I am aiming to really take my imagination to the wildest places and see what ideas I am able to come up with. Yet I still think that I will need some opinions on this. Thanks.

Tom

Not quite sure what you are asking so I give some random points

1) You are trying to become a games designer
Note that a lot of jobs for game designers also require level editing, creation and scripting skills.

2) Looking for material/articles about game design
Look at some of the Gamasutra Articles on Game Design. Ernest Adams "The Designer's Notebook: Bad Game Designer, No Twinkie!" series is pretty good. There are also some articles on Postmortom of games which should give you some insight.

3) Trying to make your ideas into flesh as quickly as possible
You can try the Game Creation programs such as Game Maker or Games Factory or if you feel like a little programming then Pygame is a good bet.

Interesting Article on building a game in a week with Pygame