Hello everyone. I am but a humble beginner of making games.

I have not "made" a game yet, but I have experience in coding and design from games such as Roblox, Minecraft, brick-force, etc.

I have also coded in VB.NET to make applications.

I am not sure if I have been confused on the basis of an engine versus a game. Because the game I want to make is a building game. Would that mean it would be easier to make the engine? Or does it even count as an engine if its a building game? I heard many things. First off, if you make an engine first, you will take probably years making it, and when you finish, you will not have a game done. I heard the best way to accomplish this is to just make games first off, and take attributes from those to make an engine. But if I were to make this building game, does that apply?

Anyway, Here is my idea. I made some images to help explain how I want it:

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I am also not sure how to implicate scripting as an actual part of the game. If so, I would either want to import python or Lua. But if I am not skilled enough to do this, I has an idea for a trigger system that will have labeled triggers such as "Touch" "Proximity" "Click" "ChangeProperty" and these triggers would cause an output of set properties in which other blocks can pick up. For example if a user "Clicked" a block, and another block was open to the input tag "Clicked1" then it will transfer set changes to be made to that block, thus having chain reactions without much coding. I think that is how happy wheels works?

Anyway, I know coding, And I know constructs of coding and how it works. I want to call myself a beginner because I have not made a game of my own, except probably a flash game I made in middle school. I just need some guidance on how to enter the field. I have great ideas i wish to express, but no team to back me up. So I have come here asking for just that.

I really want help on this project. Another question I wish to ask, is what programs could help me create this? I have thought the Blender Game Engine could help, but I am also told that if I want this game to be multiplayer, which I do, I should look into other resources. I am sure many of you have made games, some of which connect to other players. I ask for help.

For a better visual of a finished product, a recent game that came out called "7 Days" and indie horror, actually looked like what I was going for, pixel art in a 3D environment, and drawer animations etc.

TL;DR:

-Heres my idea

-I have experience, just not in making games that are not part of another game

-Engines vs games? This is a building game, so...

-Advice, please?

-I know how to just about code fully in LUA, which is very similar to Python, and I know VB.NET, and some Action Script 2.0.

-I have many great ideas to share.

-Guidance, please?

Thanks for reading if you did.

I would say that since you haven't made an actual game yet, this project is definitely far too ambitious to achieve for a first game. It's a great idea, but trust me; I've been programming games for years, and still haven't even learned how to make my own engine from scratch. It takes a lot of knowledge, a lot of time and patience, and to implement scripting would be pretty hard as well (though not as hard as making an engine).

If you want to start a game project, I would recommend something a bit simpler than this. That's just my advice from personal experience. My first game I tried to make was super complicated and I ended up not wanting to program for a whole two years after I realized I couldn't do it. That being said, I would definitely return to this idea someday after you get some more experience under your belt!

EDIT: Also, you may have great luck with either GameMaker or Unity3D for making games. You can do just about anything you could with code inside of these prebuilt engines, and have a good game up and running quickly. It's a good way to learn about game development!

I would say that since you haven't made an actual game yet, this project is definitely far too ambitious to achieve for a first game. It's a great idea, but trust me; I've been programming games for years, and still haven't even learned how to make my own engine from scratch. It takes a lot of knowledge, a lot of time and patience, and to implement scripting would be pretty hard as well (though not as hard as making an engine).

If you want to start a game project, I would recommend something a bit simpler than this. That's just my advice from personal experience. My first game I tried to make was super complicated and I ended up not wanting to program for a whole two years after I realized I couldn't do it. That being said, I would definitely return to this idea someday after you get some more experience under your belt!

EDIT: Also, you may have great luck with either GameMaker or Unity3D for making games. You can do just about anything you could with code inside of these prebuilt engines, and have a good game up and running quickly. It's a good way to learn about game development!

But I hear Unity3D has its limits, unless you pay a hefty price for the full version. And I have heard GameMaker is great for 2D games but craps out on 3D games. What are your thoughts?

The free version of Unity3D does have its limits, but you can still make some epic, epic stuff with it. Really, when you break it down, all you're missing from the Pro version are realtime shadows, the ability to make games for PS3/360/Wii, and the more in-depth animation tools. Sure, it'd be nice to have those things, but for a lot of games they're not really required. I'm sure there are more things, but really, the free version would be more than enough for any beginning game. :)

GameMaker has much more limitations than Unity, not the least of which are its rather horrid scripting features. With Unity, you can literally customize EVERYTHING with scripts, while GameMaker only allows you to do certain things with scripts. GM also has terrible 3D capabilities. Don't even try it, it's pretty bad. :P

Over the two, I would highly recommend Unity. There's a ton of tutorials for the engine, and you can do so much more with it! Also, in the newest free version, you can build your games for Linux, Mac, Windows, Android and iOS, all for free! :D

Go for Unity3D, with your set of skills/requirements it looks like an obvious choice. Yes, it will cost $1500 but you can develop it on the free version and then switch to pro near the end of dev cycle (when you get the money from preorders).

I'm more worried/curious about the game design part (because there are dozens of free block engines available, so the technical part is not a problem nowadays). What would you make to make me play this game? What Minecraft lacks that your game will have that would make me want to buy it even though I already bought Minecraft?

You will also get tons "a lame Minecraft clone, you lamer" hate along the way, be prepared for it :)