No ones ever going to agree with my (somehow)radical idea that the easiest way to learn how to produce a game would be with a step by step tutorial. And that this single tutorial teaching me how to make a clone of a game from scratch would indeed teach me something.

Actually, most people will happily agree that you would learn from such a tutorial, but unfortunately for you such a thing doesn't exist except for much smaller games.

You can either put in the effort to learn the same way as everyone else who has ever successfully released a game has and successfully make your own game

OR

You can refuse to put in the effort and never successfully make a game.


Up to you. :)

If you would like to put in the effort and learn we're all very happy to help. :)

For the record there is an absolutely fantastic option that allows you to build on the existing work of previous titles without repeating all of the effort: you can use an engine such as Unreal, or perhaps Unity. You'll still have to start with the basics of using your chosen engine though, and you'll still have to piece things together.


Some games also provide an option for just adding your own art, storyline, etc. While keeping the existing gameplay. Look into "modding". Perhaps that might be closer to your ideal experience.

Actually, most people will happily agree that you would learn from such a tutorial, but unfortunately for you such a thing doesn't exist except for much smaller games.

I don't even think that exists for a small game. Most of the tutorials I've ever seen for say Pong, Breakout, or such teach you how to make a level, but I've never seen one teach you making it from beginning to end (title screen, high score, etc.). Lost track of how many people I've seen posting how to make those because all they have is the level itself.

This is where experimentation, self motivation, and the courage to ask question in fear of sounding dumb come in handy.

There is absolutely no substitute for my two ideas

1: A comprehensive tutorial teaching you how to make a game from start to finish. Including the placement of all assets and coupling with scripts.

2: A programmer designing a game based off of my idea. Implementing client/server applications, a database, a website, and the ability to update/expand my game with patches. Then teaching me how to update/expand.

And really, I'm just talking from a hypothetical standpoint. I'm not that interested. I'm happy enough with WoW, Mortal Online, Halo, and CoD.

Right, well:

#1 simply doesn't exist, and unless you pay someone to make it it's very unlikely it ever will; in the very unlikely event that someone does create such a tutorial it will almost certainly not be updated frequently and will quickly be out-of-date.

#2 will never happen unless you pay people to do it, and the sort of people capable of doing so aren't particularly cheap to hire.


Creating games is hard, and it involves sone work that can be tedious and boring. It isn't something that people do unless they're very interested, or unless they're being paid to do so.


That's the reality of the situation.


If this is all just hypothetical, then again: what are you hoping to gain from this topic?

Also another idea I had would be like modding I guess. Where you take an engine that's already written. You erase most of the assets. Then you import your own assets coupled with the scripts that you erased most of. And you go about expanding and modifying the game scripts. Until you have something similar to the game which engine you are using, only much larger. Something like that would really point out how much crap it is when the industry says that it takes millions of dollars to make a game.

awwwww look, some one without the knowledge of how to make games or the skills to make games is trying to teach people how to make games... how cute.
and stupid.

Also another idea I had would be like modding I guess. Where you take an engine that's already written. You erase most of the assets. Then you import your own assets coupled with the scripts that you erased most of. And you go about expanding and modifying the game scripts. Until you have something similar to the game which engine you are using, only much larger. Something like that would really point out how much crap it is when the industry says that it takes millions of dollars to make a game.

Just learn to use a tool like Unity.

Then you can skip step one (erasing assets and scripts) and jump straight to step two (importing your own assets and writing new scripts).

Using a game development suite like Unity, Unreal, with included WYSIWYG editors, sounds pretty much like what you want, and will be A LOT easier to work with then trying to reverse engineer someone else's game (even with a theoretical tutorial to go with it)

Except of course that even using things like Unity and Unreal requires a fair amount of learning and reading (many different) tutorials plus thousands of hours of actual work (to make something small)

Then you import your own assets coupled with the scripts

[...]

how much crap it is when the industry says that it takes millions of dollars to make a game.

How much do you think it will cost you to get "your own assets" and have all of the scripts written for a game of AAA quality? AAA games employ a lot of artists to create all of those assets at such a level of quality within a reasonable period of time, and depending what you need scripting may need a few people for quite some time as well. Unless you're outsourcing overseas there are minimum wages that need to be paid, employee benefits that must be provided, etc. Some of these still might apply to outsourcing. If you want quality talent on your team you may need to pay more than the legally required minimums.

//EDIT: Check Gamasutra's 2014 Salary Survey [pdf] for an idea of how much staff can cost.

Will you run the game through a quality control process similar to that typically used for AAA games? Q&A can be a lengthy process for AAA games, and you either need to employ quite a few people or pay to outsource this.

How about marketing? Those multi-million dollar budgets for AAA games include a large portion for marketing as well.

Are you planning to target consoles? It (usually) isn't free to become a licensed developer for consoles.

Will your game use any existing intellectual property? Unless it's all original, you'll need to pay licencing fees for the IP as well.

How about legal services? You'll need a lawyer to provide appropriate employment contracts, assignments of rights, etc. and to look over agreements with any closed platforms (such as consoles) you wish to distribute on.

Want to get your game physically boxed and in stores? This costs an absolute fortune, especially if you want decent placement in stores.

Don't forget the costs of running a business (business registration, copyright and trademark registration, rent, utilities, etc.) and taxes. You might need to hire another person or people to handle this stuff for you, and that's more staff to be paid on top of these costs.

You can absolutely make a game for significantly lower costs, but unless you're going to cut a lot of corners and take a lot of cost-cutting measures you probably can't produce a game of AAA quality with all of the same quality-control, marketing, distribution, etc.

I'm talking about a game with scripts as complex as the industry, but with graphics made by novices. I'm really hellbent on this notion that the game be built first, then me being taught how to expand it. I don't even think it would be difficult. The expert would be making most of the game. I'd just be adding items, abilities, (with some help) vehicles, structures, characters, containers, scenery. And all that stuff would already be coded, I would just be modifying code a little bit.

Also, I imagine that making all the art for a great game takes a long time... but I can't imagine scripting taking a long time. Its not like there aren't geniuses out there who can code a completely functional game in a week. The industry just wants you to think that its harder than it really is.

In my opinion games could be a lot different than they are today. Like for example... halo only has a handful of guns and vehicles. Theres no reason why they couldn't release a halo with 100 guns and 100 vehicles. They just don't. Its just the way the world is.

Game production is way easier than anything else. Way easier than how the world's infrastructure was created. Way easier than manufacturing. Way easier than it was to craft the computers themselves.

Its like this is a stupid cat and mouse game between me and the universe. I come and I complain that it should be a different. I complain that there should be more games. That the games should be more expansive. That the titles out right now are great but there just isn't that much content in them.

Unless I learn to produce games myself I can never prove how easy it is. So its never going anywhere.

Alls I know is that they're a combination of clients, servers, databases, websites, and software used to maintain/expand them. I think all games are easy to make. Its just what I believe.