Have you considered joining an existing team with a programmer instead of trying to get others to join your cause?

There are lots of teams crying out for someone to help and they don't necessarily need the next carmack.

Also to go back to the analogy of a sportsman, saying that playing games helps a lot with game development is more like saying going to the match on Saturday helps you play football better. It might help a little with strategy but it won't improve your fitness and other things you can't see from the stands.

Good luck in the road ahead!

If you want a graphical programming tool you have Clickteam Fusion 2.5, currently you can get the pro version for cheap at Humble Bundle : https://www.humblebundle.com/clickteam-fusion-bundle

Not true, I made lot's of board games with out code;

me too. but you can't make a VIDEO game without code.

there are also engines that the developer doesn't need to code

all engines need code and have code. some provide visual tools and/or other means by which you don't have to WRITE code, or at least as much of it.

with absolutely no additional coding of any type, all you're doing is replacing assets. IE you're not really making a game, you're just changing the graphics and sfx and music used by an existing game.

All the gaming experience, all the art skills, all the game making practice I have is worth a lot.

are you experienced in creating 2d textures with alpha transparency?

can you model a skinned mesh, with multiple outfits, and full animations?

THESE are the art skills required in (3D) games.

playing games is just R&D - but is very important. you can't design a good game if you don't know the difference between a good game and bad one.

making tabletop games can give you experience with design issues like game balance.

but neither making tabletop games nor playing video games will teach you jack about coding, making 2d and 3d graphics, or making music and sfx.

the coder seems to be the critical member of a team. with code, you can build something. it may not have a nice paint job, with no artist on the team, and the audio may just be PD stuff, with no musician or foley artist on the team, but you can still at least build SOMETHING. with no coder, you're limited to what can be done without code with existing engines. its quite common for artists or designers (or other non-coders) to want to make a game but not be able to due to lack of coding skills. if you can't get a coder, you'll have to learn to do it yourself, or limit yourself to what can be done without code using some engine or another.

also remember that not everyone is cut out to be a coder. same way not everyone is a born artist or musician. in fact, art and coding talents seem to be rather mutually exclusive. there are top notch artists, and top notch coders, but there are almost no people who are top notch at both.

you and i are actually in similar circumstances. i have a real talent for coding and music, but only a slight gift for artwork. so much of my time is spent on honing my artwork skills, as i can do the rest in my sleep.

yes building games sounds cool. but its a lot of work. once you get into it you may not enjoy it. its not everyone's cup of tea.

You say playing games is irrelevant? To be a professional football player, do you practice? To be a doctor, do you practice by going to school? I liked what you said. But I believe playing games helps in making games and isn't irrelevant. I bet many good games get their ideas from the players. That's why it's important to share ideas with people you trust. The idea is the key to success. Hard work makes the idea reality. But the idea is the very important.

Anyways. It comes down to a few things, idea, hard work and money. I'm going to continue my research on successful games. make sure my ideas are good and have the proper steps.

I still want to hook up with people that know what they are doing. I don't want them to work on any projects I have. I just want to get affiliated with them. I'm tired of being alone. I hoped this site can provide this but so far no success. I need money to get interested people. It's really just money.

PLAYING games and CREATING games are two fundamentally different things.

Just as VISITING A DOCTOR as a patient and WORKING AS A DOCTOR are two fundamentally different things. You don't need many years of schooling to visit a doctor. You don't need to know the exact specifics of your diagnosis, the doctor is there to explain to you in laymans terms what you need to do to get better, or at least to ease the pain.

The doctor on the other hand does not have to share your pain, or loss in case of mortal illnesses... it is in fact necessary for him to distance himself from it enough so he can keep working in his job without going insane.

Same with players and game devs.

A player doesn't need to be able to create 3D models, be able to draw, to program, or to design games in order to enjoy playing a game. A whole team (or maybe a single Indie) did all that work for them to be able to enjoy some hours of excitement.

The Dev on the other hand SHOULD have some expierience with games, but is NOT required to have mastered all of them as some players commonly think. Just because you are good a game doesn't mean you could reproduce the design of the game, or design a better one.

While it is true that being knowledgeable about games helps with designing a new one, and that playing and ANALYSING games is a common hint to wannabe game designers when they ask about the first step on the road to becoming a game designer... but then, the emphasis is on the ANALYSING part, not the PLAYING part. You need to play to be able to analyze. Getting better at playing a game helps you with your analysis.

Many seem to misunderstand that... Lets just forget the boring stuff and have some fun playing. No. That is not it. If you skip the boring part, you are not doing any work, and you will learn little in regards to designing games. Knowledge comes from a deep understanding of a topic. That deep understanding will involve boring analysis of something beyond just reaching a new high score.

As to your assesment that you need money to get access to good people. Yes, that is true in any industry. You want quality? You are better prepared to pay for it.

My question would be: Do your REALLY need that quality? Was the fact the inexpierienced programmers didn't work out down to their inexpierience, or yours? Did you ask too much of them, when you knew from the start they would struggle even completing simple programs? Did you treat them as valuable team members and tried to build a longterm relationship that would still be there by the time they become good programmers? Or did you try to squeeze some work out of them and treated them as a replacable resource?

Not saying you did any of that, just giving you some things to think about. Blaming others for project failures alone will not get you far. You cannot make others not make mistakes (other than with the leverage money gives you), but you can do a ton to prevent yourself from doing the same mistakes again.

I will not reiterate the whole "The idea is everything vs. the idea is a dime in a dozen" discussion again. There has been enough discussion about this on this forum.

Just note that this clinging to ideas as the most valuable thing in the world will ultimately hold you back...

"Never be afraid to change anything" is a common wisdom you hear from artists all over the world... and true enough, as soon as I started to erase and redo what didn't met my expectations even though "It looked good somehow and I don't know if my next try looks just as good", my final art started to look way better thanks to the additional iteration I did over problematic areas.

Just as many others have found over the years, I also had the expierience that all of my ideas where not working at all once I implemented the first prototype. There is only so much "testing" of an idea you can do in your head or on paper. At some point you need to stop thinking, designing, and worrying over the details, and just start implementing. Chances are good your ideas bomb during the prototyping phase. Then you should chuck out what makes no sense, and only keep what works. Which most probably means the final iteration of your prototype will look nothing like your idea.

So, is saying "ideas are a dime in a dozen and not worth a penny" an overstatement? Yes, of course. A good idea CAN be a good starting point for a good implementation, and shorten iteration time of your project a lot.

But on the other hand, its a good way to prevent yourself from getting to attached to your ideas. Never get too attached to them... its good wanting to produce that dream game of yours, and use that enthusiasm for putting in the hard work learning game dev and working on your game.

But some ideas just don't work. You need to be able to realize that and pivot in a different direction before you spend too much time on it. Putting your ideas on a golden pedestal will not help you with that.

So, here is the designer question. How do I get affiliated with good connections in the game
designing world?

The way most do it is by long experience working in games, developing trust over time by persistently earning it.

I can draw anything I see perfectly. I can write down all the game ideas. these are 2
major parts to game making, right?

The writing is one major part of designing games. Illustrating one's designs is a small part of designing games. Creating art for use by programmers is a major part of game making.

how do I pair up with a programmer for my designs? The only plan I have is to kick start
the ideas and pay the programmer. You have other ideas?

If you pay the programmer, you're the business owner. If you're the business owner, you're not merely the designer but someone with a lot more to deal beyond just designing a game (and this therefore would not be a Game Design question but rather a Business question, and should be asked in the Business forum). Attracting talent for your project is hard, and it's a lot harder in the indie world, and it's even harder if you don't have a track record of successful published games to point to.

Same with players and game devs

there's some empirical evidence that based on personality tests, the personality type one would expect to make the best designer is not the type that does tend to make the best designer.

the things you find online! <g>.

not sure where i ran across that tidbit of info.