So I dont know all that much about making games. In fact, I dont even know THAT much about programming, just html and beginner javascript.

I would like to try making a game (eventually). First game wouldnt be all that visually appealing, in fact, I dont care if I have any images or graphics at all. I know text based games are dying out, but Id still like to have a go at it haha. When i say text based, I also dont mean like, where you type in stuff and it happens, like walk left, pick up, open, etc. Rather, more like tribalwars, travian, etc. Even those are a little graphic heavy for my first time, but maybe some day. Anyways, I hope you know what I mean as far as what type of game, basically a point and click type (in ten years of playing those games I never figured out the name for them).

Anyways, I want to practice coding (Obviously not up to par on what would be needed for a whole game) but I really dont know what to practice, so kind of just want to jump right in and try something relatively simple and learn as I go.

Before you all go on about how Ill never get anything done without knowing much about coding and programming, thats not really the question I have here.

What I really want to know are some other fundamental questions here.

For instance, if Im going to be practicing as I go, messing around and seeing what works, Id like to be able to try it. How do I do that? would I need to pay for a website, and is it a specific type of website one needs to run a game on?

The programming is easy enough to learn online over time, but some of these other questions Ive been having a difficult time finding online - seems its one of those things you just know before you try jumping into it haha

Assuming you want to make a simple game using HTML and Javascript, is there any reason you can't do it locally on your own computer, instead of going out and buying a domain name and setting up a website?

For a basic game, you probably won't need much more than a browser to run it.

Right, it would just be browser based - but multiplayer, someday. Is that something one would be able to run from their own computer? And you if so, you would need a website correct?

Someday is the key word here.

Right now, which is what matter, especially if, as you said, have zero experience. Start small. Multiplayer games over the internet, via a website, isn't typically a beginner project, it implies managing player accounts, cookies, some basic security, database handling (maybe, depending on the game) and some networking, not to mention people to actually play the game. That's a lot in top of making a game.

That said, you don't need to pay for a website. Google free web host and you'll find plenty. I wouldn't recommend them to people actually hosting a real site as they are garbage in terms of quality of service, reliability and other things that are of no concern to you if you're using them as a test environment.

But as said willpowered, making this locally is probably way better, it will also make debugging and editing files much much easier for you (as you don't have to constantly upload files you just modified).

Right, it would just be browser based - but multiplayer, someday. Is that something one would be able to run from their own computer? And you if so, you would need a website correct?

No, with just HTML5 CSS3 JS you can create a game that runs in any browser without needing to be hosted on a webserver.

You can use LocalStorage to save and load game stuff.

http://www.html5gamedevelopment.com/

EDIT:

What? I didn't catch that 'multiplayer' word which is generally something I don't like to see in the beginners board. :D

Listen to the guy above.

For multiplayer you will need a server, yes. http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/websockets/basics/

No, with just HTML5 CSS3 JS you can create a game that runs in any browser without needing to be hosted on a webserver.

You can use LocalStorage to save and load game stuff.



http://www.html5gamedevelopment.com/

Since these questions are getting answered, without repeating them I'll step in and say...

I recommend the Chrome web browser for testing. It seems to have the best performance, the best support of WebGL shaders, etc. Second is Firefox. Last is Internet Explorer.

Ideally, you want your game to be able to run on all browsers, though.

But I assume the OP is asking, "Will I need to buy a website for testing my game?" Short answer: No. You can test in the browser or use a free website. However, multiplayer is a whole different story, though.

Thanks for the answers guys :)

And yeah, like I said, Im not expecting anyone to actually play this, but allowing it to be multiplayer so I can see how that works would be important. Ive never cared for solo games.

But yeah, for now its just to mess around, test how things work, and hopefully get better over time, learn a few things, and then maybe some day, take what Ive learned and make a crappy text based game that will appeal to a few hundred people :P

If what you want to do is a game like travian, it's actually more about learning how to implement a web server. If you don't care about the graphic side and you already know a bit of HTML and javascript is totally doable by a beginner.

What you would need is a bunch of html forms for user actions. For instance, I would have a home page with a link to 'train soldiers' that shows a page with an input where the user can specify the number of soldiers, then another link to 'attack' that shows a page with a select with all the other users the user can attack, and so on.

Then, you'd need some kind of server that processes the requests. It only needs to handle the requests that the html pages will send. For instance, you'd need a handler for 'training soldiers'. It would receive a request with the parameter of the number of soldiers and add that number of soldiers to the user's militia (and perhaps substract some resources like gold). For the server you can use whatever you want, javascript with node.js, php, java, python, ruby... just pick one and google a tutorial for a basic webserver, it should provide all the knowledge you need to start. If you want a persistend state for your game you should also use a database, but for starting you could skip that part, the only thing will be that the game will restart everytime you shutdown the server (any half decent web server tutorial should cover database persistence, though).

And for testing the game, you can run the server on your computer and play the game inside your LAN, no need for webhosting.

Im not actually interested in making one like travian, other than the fact that it was the type of game I was trying to describe, no real graphics or movement, more text based (but not straight text based adventure, where you essentially walk around and do stuff, just without the graphics)

So, is it like CyberNations?

In any case, the answers above me are spot on. You can set up a local server in your own PC, and develop from there. Or if you feel like you REALLY need an actual web server, most major PaaS have a free tier. Google have one, and RedHat too. I think Amazon also have a free tier, but you still need to provide your credit card info.

If you need to learn web development, may I suggest Udacity's Web Dev course? It's a good starter, though you'll eventually have to grow out of it if you're serious about web development.