So for all my life, I've loved games, and like many want to make my own. However, by looking into what that means, I get scared. Learning to create a game is just so... complicated(or at least that's the vibe I get from reading other posts) and I don't know where to begin, which makes my situation quite intimidating. Anyhow, me, big brother, and some friends debate about what would and wouldn't work for a game with given restriction and have fun sharing ideas, it's something we've done for many. many years.

I'm a 16 year old High school graduate. I have no exp. actually making games. Virtual games that is. I have made board and card games prior. Currently, I'm not attending any form of school.

To share my Problem, I'll start with my idea.

In a world that's growing ever more competitive, and ever more "social," I began to realize that video games are actually being reconized as a competitive sport, and I wondered: "How come nobody's capitalized on this yet?" And then I realized, we can't. to do that, more people need to reconize gaming as an actual career. I'm not saying it's not. It just isn't as accepted as it could be.

Setting that aside, I started the idea of a game that would capitalize on it anyway. My idea was as follows; To have a skill based game that allows players to exchange in game currency for IRL cash.(not a $1:$1 ratio of course, that would cause major inflation, but I'll get to that) The game capitalizes on 3 major things.

1) Social

Today, there are more and more people that would rather use an online, self created identity, than there own. The game intends to put players in situations will socialness is almost a must. With perma-death. Of coarse, there's safe zones, like towns and whatnot, and even quest held within safe zones for casual, non competitive gamers. Letting both casual and hardcore gamers enjoy the game. Anyway, by putting players in a situations where they need to be sociable, they wil, like many online gamers gain an identity, and place where they feel they belong, bringing players back.

2) Character creation

Again with the identity thing, but to further the idea i'll jot down some specifics. Upon creating a character, you are forced to play a human, but can change later. Instead of having players pick a class, or a set of skills to excel at, They are given Race Perk points. All players get a set number. Things to do with them would be like, what makes your character apart from the rest. For example, you could use a point to have an inherent speed boost for all actions, and even stack them to capitalize on speed. Or for more useful abilitys, One could use a couple points,(let's say... 3/5 points, just as a number) for something more useful, like paradigm shifts. Later on, by venturing to the edges of the world, players can find "Race stones" to modify their characters. This may mean giving up some of those prior perks, but be given more Race perks specific to their new race.

Also, letting players to configure their buttons however they please. Like letting them fill they're entire keyboard/controller with skill slots, or having buttons to modify stuff, like passive/aggressive modes to let them focus on specific things at a time.

3)Competition stuff

This was a given. In game tournaments where players may or may not need to be in a team. mostly tournaments that are Last man standing in large... VERY large, multi terrain battlefields. Kinda like surviving in the wild, but with players and people to be concerned about rather than animals. Also pubs, where any non particapent can view in on the action both in game an IRL. Lastly the skill sets are meant to massive and weapon specific, to keep pvp fresh at all times.

Well that's the Idea and my dream, and I would like feedback on it. On the matter of inflation, to start the economy, there can simply be a kickstarter to raise seperate funds from the games dev. Then controlling the inflation with in game events.

As for the Problem. I'm just a teenager. I don't know even where to begin. Of coarse I'll need a job and a team to get it done. But I have no exp. and don't know how to get it. I don't have the money to take classes to learn, and just jumping in by myself is both confusing and scary. Perhaps an internship would be nice for learning what I need to, but then again, there are no companies that can teach me the skills needed, in my state.(NH) So I'd like to ask for advice on what to do now that I've collaberated on this Idea.

This has been long, so thanks for taking the time to read it, and plz excuse my spelling mistakes.

Well that's the Idea and my dream, and I would like feedback on it.

For that part, you should be in the Game Design forum. But moving this whole thing there isn't the solution, because you also added:

As for the Problem. I'm just a teenager. I don't know even where to begin. Of coarse I'll need a job and a team to get it done. But I have no exp. and don't know how to get it. I don't have the money to take classes to learn, and just jumping in by myself is both confusing and scary. Perhaps an internship would be nice for learning what I need to, but then again, there are no companies that can teach me the skills needed, in my state.(NH) So I'd like to ask for advice on what to do now that I've collaberated on this Idea.

Here you've gone way beyond Game Design. You're mostly talking about getting a job, and learning before you form your own company to make your original game. For the job part, see the Game Industry Job Advice forum - read the FAQs there before you post. And as for forming your own company to make your original game, see the Business forum.

Moving this to “Breaking into the Industry”.

…that’s what I would say if I were a moderator.

I'm just a teenager.

That excuse doesn’t really fly around here.
I wanted to make games since I was 9 or 10, so by the age of 13, when I was “just a teenager”, I realized that if my ideas were going to get made I would have to make them myself. So I taught myself to program and started actually making my games.

I don't know even where to begin.

You begin by doing. Typically by learning to program if you ever want any of your designs to become a reality.
And you can begin programming anywhere. I started at late 13 or early 14 with TI-BASIC on my TI-81 calculator. How scary can it possibly be to write Pac-Man or Tetris or a space shooter on a calculator?

Of coarse I'll need a job and a team to get it done.

You aren’t in a position to hire anyone. You need to be proactive and start doing it yourself. Even if later you plan to start your own company, you need experience as a programmer. Trust me. It is essential for a competent boss in a game company.

But I have no exp. and don't know how to get it.

This really doesn’t make sense. Can you ride a bike? Was there a time when you couldn’t? And how did you go from unable to ride a bike to being able to ride a bike?
(By doing.)
You’ve literally just said, “I don’t know how to learn.” That is absurd. Of course you do. Your real problem is that you aren’t properly scoping this endeavor. You think you have to go from 0 to hero in 1 day. I don’t know how to learn to ride a bike…in 1 day. Likewise, if you really think that your first project is going to be your ultimate dream project, then my advice is to just quit, find a new profession, and never come back.

Why don’t you slow down, put things into perspective, and learn the same exact way you’ve learned everything else in your life? One step at a time, by doing.

and just jumping in by myself is both confusing and scary.

Again, how scary can it possibly be to write a little crap game in Q-BASIC or C# etc.?
Again, your problem is your lack of an ability to scope. It’s only scary because you think you have to start by being a pro and making your grand game right out of the gate.
If you could scope things properly you would be focusing right now on making a guess-the-number text game in any language, and I really doubt you would be confused or scared by that. Again, if you are, please become a plumber.

Perhaps an internship would be nice for learning what I need to, but then again, there are no companies that can teach me the skills needed

You wouldn’t be able to get one anyway. You haven’t even learned the very basics. Interns are people who either learned in school or learned on their own (and then more in school). Not people who ask how to get experience and are afraid and confused.

So I'd like to ask for advice on what to do now that I've collaberated on this Idea.

The fact that you have discussed an idea with others means nothing. Leave it out of the discussion.
It’s exactly the thing that is confusing you. Because you talked with others and everyone got excited about this idea, you’ve lost sight of the fact that you still have to start with training wheels with basic crap-ass projects such as number-guessing, Tetris, etc.

Ignore your idea, ignore the fact that others want to do it, and begin the process of actually learning to do. You can’t really decide what to do until you’ve learned how to do in the first place.


And you learn how to do by doing. Any language, any stupid little game.


L. Spiro

I think L.Spiro is a bit harsh. You have made board games and that already sets you apart from most aspiring game designers we see here.

But L.Spiro is right too. You have to be ready to invest several years of programming into making (or starting making) your dream game. So start learning a programming language/tool. And start by reading FAQs on Gamedev forums (For Beginners for example, but mostly all subforums have FAQs (pinned topics)). You will have language/tool/engine tips there, you can have a sense of the scope of making games too, and you will find why being a game designer only gives you the least chance to ever make that dream game.

I'll try to summarize that part up:

The reason it is mostly advised to do programming is that the chance that you, as a "mere" unprofessional designer, will find people to work on your game for years is next to zero. Because making games needs so much work that even the best idea ever will loose its motivational power after months of hard work. The bigger the game, to harder it is to keep everyone motivated (due the large distance of the goal). Plus no matter how good your idea is, you can be pretty sure that you are much more enthusiastic than others. So the only real way to motivate people is to pay them regularly. And for that you'll probably need a company to run.

Moving this to “Breaking into the Industry”.

…that’s what I would say if I were a moderator.

We don't have a forum by that name anymore. And the OP is first asking a game design question before asking his job advice question.

And where are all those FAQ topics?

Anyhoo:

http://www.gamedev.net/topic/623051-shiny-new-faq-round-n/

Everyone faces a career choice based on something they want to do. When I went into game development I taught myself at 16. Your real problem: You want to make a game, not learn what it takes to make a game. When I started my journey, I didn't start it to implement my "Super awesome game". I started because I wanted the skills to make some super awesome game at some point.

Internships are given to skilled people by the way (college grads that have actual skills developed). You will NOT get an internship without college.

Currently, I'm not attending any form of school.

I would hope you didn't drop out of high school. Unless you are motivated and are actually skilled at something in your life, video games are complete dedication. You have to want to learn a lot of problems.

Moving this to “Breaking into the Industry”.

…that’s what I would say if I were a moderator.

We don't have a forum by that name anymore. And the OP is first asking a game design question before asking his job advice question.

It really should be 2 posts. But as it is I consider the meat of the post being about how to get started, with a side-question about rating an idea for a game he has that takes more words of the overall post (but does not constitute the main point of the post).
Frankly I find everything about his game idea nothing but a distraction (for him) from getting started. As I said already, it’s just making him lose focus and should just be ignored (mainly by him, optionally by us).


L. Spiro

Mmm, Reading my two replies, I realize that, although what you're saying is true, I worded some things pretty badly for the point I wanted to get across. So I apologize for those misunderstandings

Of coarse I'll need a job and a team to get it done.
You aren’t in a position to hire anyone

I simply stated a long term goal that I'd like to one day reach. Of coarse I know to start at the bottom, like everyone else. I didn't intend for that to be part of the problem I posted about. just insight of my goal to help readers give a response. Extra information never hurts

“I don’t know how to learn.”

Resources. I can't strt from home, this pc is not of my own. So any projects on it are quite restricted. I also don't have my own pc, so just downloading a program and starting isn't as much available as it is a privalige. If I can't start and get exp. from home then where?

Again, how scary can it possibly be to write a little crap game in Q-BASIC or C# etc.?

I's not so scary to write a program, no. But what is scary is time/reward. Statistically speaking, chances for this career to set off are slim at best, and the time investment is something I can never get back

And because I'm a teenager, I'm subjugated to people always telling me that games and careers are two different things, and to give up, to people telling me it's not worth it even though it's my dream. It's stressful, you have to understand that.

Everyone faces a career choice based on something they want to do. When I went into game development I taught myself at 16. Your real problem: You want to make a game, not learn what it takes to make a game. When I started my journey, I didn't start it to implement my "Super awesome game". I started because I wanted the skills to make some super awesome game at some point.

Internships are given to skilled people by the way (college grads that have actual skills developed). You will NOT get an internship without college.

Currently, I'm not attending any form of school.

I would hope you didn't drop out of high school. Unless you are motivated and are actually skilled at something in your life, video games are complete dedication. You have to want to learn a lot of problems.

Oh no no no, you see the standard school system in america is just plain inefficient. After 5th grade I realized this and just stopped going. often in my free time, I would be bored, and that let to thinking of stories to tell and the ways to convey those stories, whihch later sparked passion for gaming. Realizing that I'd never be apart of that media though without atleast a basic education I started going back to school. and immediately after getting to high school I tested out.