Hi everyone,

I will cut to the chase on this one. I've made great mods for first person shooters before and want to make my own independent third person shooter (third person is easier to develop for). I've made excellent maps, models, textures, etc. downloaded tens of thousands of times, and have a group of hard working and dependable people to join me on this venture (some of them have even more impressive resumes than I do, with hundreds of thousands of downloads and smash Call of Duty maps).

We've chosen Unity as the game engine since it's the most affordable/easily licensed.To top it all off, our game reaches an untapped niche right now. I have absolute confidence the content for this game can be top-notch, the game would be tons of fun, etc.

However, none of us are coders. And frankly, I don't have much interest in learning it beyond what is needed for level design. I'm a solid game designer, great level designer, good at textures and models, etc. - programming just isn't my strong suit.

Is making a game in Unity feasible? Menu screens, net code... there's just so, so much programming to do. I'm wondering if there are mod tools for Unity that could do most of this for us, or if our best bet is to have a swath of incredible content and a portfolio there to encourage a programmer to come on board with us and give them a cut of the profits (I know what good programmers charge hourly and how many hours this game could take - I know I don't have anywhere close to enough money to cut it).

I'm realistic but ambitious. Do I need to take my ambition elsewhere, or is this project doable? Thanks.

(edited for grammar)

Probably not feasible without a programmer.

Unity gives you many features out of the box, but there is still much that needs to be written. You get some things like simple physics and FPS movement controllers, but it doesn't give things like damage systems, inventories, menus and UI hookups, network synchronization, and so on. Those still need to be written and customized to your rules. Exactly how much work is needed depends on your designs.

Good news! If you have the people with those credentials, recruiting a programmer or two won't be too difficult.

I agree with the above person, but I wonder if the UDK wouldn't be better for the project. The reason I say this is because you are talking about a 3rd person shooter, and for 1st and 3rd person shooters, the UDK is pretty specialized and so it may be faster to create than in Unity. I wouldn't say it about any other genre of game, but in this case, it may be better. But....in any case, you are going to need a programmer, unless you go with something like FPSCreator, which will limit you in many ways, and I don't think you want that.

I'd offer my own services, but frankly I'm not good enough to tackle such a project just yet. Good luck though. And yes, I think you will be able to find a competent programmer, even like this, mainly because you say you actually have some things to show. At a minimum, you have art assets, which is exactly what most programmers don't have. I'd think you might be good enough to figure out at least how to load up the UDK or Unity and simply import the assets and create a very simple flythrough mode to "preview" the assets as they would look in engine. It isn't gameplay, but it is enough to show the assets off, which is likely enough to get a good programmer on board, and could also come in handy, for example if you wanted to try a kickstarter(or similar) campaign.

I actually run a small service that helps people get their game concept up and running, but as a rule, I don't do anything that requires "net code", because even single player games are hard enough.

Most of the shooters that you play (on console, or pc) are products of industry; It's rarely something that can be done on the same level, with only a small independent team.

If you focus on something relatively simple, you're more likely to find someone who can A) actually make it happen, and B) willing to do it.

It's been said already, but it cannot be stressed enough. If you want to make a game, you need to know programming and you need to think simple. A small indie team is small, and with no coding skills you're going to experience legendary suffering. Even in hell. Today's game engines are powerful, but they are not that powerful. Unless you're talking about GameSalad and RPG Maker, but then we're suddenly talking veeery simple games and not even close to CoD or any other AAA title for that matter.

There's a reason why there aren't a billion games made per year, so you're better off just biting the sour apple. You wanna make a serious game and you don't have the money to hire anyone? Then code!

(Besides, it's always nice to know more about your own game than what a hired help does.)

It's been said already, but it cannot be stressed enough. If you want to make a game, you need to know programming and you need to think simple. A small indie team is small, and with no coding skills you're going to experience legendary suffering. Even in hell. Today's game engines are powerful, but they are not that powerful. Unless you're talking about GameSalad and RPG Maker, but then we're suddenly talking veeery simple games and not even close to CoD or any other AAA title for that matter.

There's a reason why there aren't a billion games made per year, so you're better off just biting the sour apple. You wanna make a serious game and you don't have the money to hire anyone? Then code!

(Besides, it's always nice to know more about your own game than what a hired help does.)

I know a bit of programming - but it's not my forte and not something I'm interested in, as I've tried learning it before and I just don't think like a programmer. We all have strengths and weaknesses; programming is the latter for me. I'm sure this project will have mediocre programming if I look back on it years from its release, but as long as it does what I need it to do...

Fortunately, I have a very simple game idea by today's standards.

Thanks guys.