12 hours ago, Michael Aganier said:

If you want to do it alone, you can't make a full fledged 3d dark souls, but you could very well make a 2d souls-like in a year. The engines today make it easy to work with 3d, that's not the problem. The problem with 3d is creating the assets and good looking ones. It's a lot easier for a non-artist to make a bunch of good 2d art than to make good 3d art. I've seen other more complex games be replicated by single developers in 2d so it's very possible. 

its not like i want to do it alone its just that finding people to help is hard and usually doesn't end up well

also 2d to me at least seems to be harder than 3d

do you think i can at least do a 3d tower defense game?

11 minutes ago, ObjectivityGuy said:

do you think i can at least do a 3d tower defense game?

Yes, of course. It depends on how fleshed out you want the game to be. You can make a barebones 3d tower defense in one week or you can make it ridiculously fleshed out and spend 2 years on it. Likewise, you can make a simpler version of a 3d dark souls. I didn't mean that you can't make a 3d game, I meant that you can't make a 3d game on the level of Dark Souls 3 alone, but it doesn't mean that you can't make a simpler version of it.

25 minutes ago, Michael Aganier said:

Yes, of course. It depends on how fleshed out you want the game to be. You can make a barebones 3d tower defense in one week or you can make it ridiculously fleshed out and spend 2 years on it. Likewise, you can make a simpler version of a 3d dark souls. I didn't mean that you can't make a 3d game, I meant that you can't make a 3d game on the level of Dark Souls 3 alone, but it doesn't mean that you can't make a simpler version of it.

about the guy who was speaking earlier about artists and programmers getting promoted to game designer

suppose i wanted to enter from software with the objective of directing a game would i have a better chance learning to draw and becoming a concept artist then getting promoted or studying to become a game designer and trying to get hired as one?

It's true. A game designer is a bit like a foreman in construction. The foreman makes sure the workers build what the plan says. In the hierarchy, the worker is inferior to the foreman. The game designer creates the plan and is also responsible for making sure the workers are making the game like in the plan. It's difficult for people to hire designers because it's a natural position of leadership. It's easier to climb the ladder from the bottom than try to jump to the top even if you'll never go back to the lower steps.

21 minutes ago, Michael Aganier said:

It's true. A game designer is a bit like a foreman in construction. The foreman makes sure the workers build what the plan says. In the hierarchy, the worker is inferior to the foreman. The game designer creates the plan and is also responsible for making sure the workers are making the game like in the plan. It's difficult for people to hire designers because it's a natural position of leadership. It's easier to climb the ladder from the bottom than try to jump to the top even if you'll never go back to the lower steps.

i wanted to do games as an indie developer but the more i read about it the more i lean towards concept artist or book writer

do you think there is any chance of a book writer to participate in the production of a game if the book becomes a best seller and they make a game from it? or is the idea of a book turning into game already too far-fetched?

That's unlikely. I don't know of any author that took part in the making of games made from his book.

If you want the odds on your side, learn skills that are directly related to game making like programming, sound design, visual art. Game design will come when you will be involved in the creation process of a game. Also, you don't have to pick a skill and be stuck with it. Most indie devs are jacks of all trades. If you realise that you don't like doing a specific task, just avoid it and keep getting better at the other things.

2 hours ago, Michael Aganier said:

That's unlikely. I don't know of any author that took part in the making of games made from his book.

If you want the odds on your side, learn skills that are directly related to game making like programming, sound design, visual art. Game design will come when you will be involved in the creation process of a game. Also, you don't have to pick a skill and be stuck with it. Most indie devs are jacks of all trades. If you realise that you don't like doing a specific task, just avoid it and keep getting better at the other things.

thanks, that is kinda of sad, i hope i don't end up writing a book just so people go around breaking my canon like they did to Tolkien with Shelob in shadows of war

So, at this point, If I were you, it sounds like your next steps are:

Download Unity

Do basic familiarization of Unity. 

Find a Tower Defense tutorial.  There's a ton out there, they're all shittily coded, but that's unavoidable really.

Follow the tutorial

Tweak the tutorial to make your game.

Finish the game.

Like actually finish the game.

Those last two bullet points will take you the longest.  

You can also download/buy complete projects that can be customized here:

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/search/page=1/sortby=popularity/query=category:1

"Just finish reading everything.

I don't want to destroy your dream but look at this game: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust:_An_Elysian_Tail

made by one man in 2012 for almost 4 years of work. I think as someone told you before you will need at least 10 to 20 years to do DarkSouls alone.

In the meantime, there is hope. Just forget about Dark Souls for a while and make something that exists better for 2017. How? just go on youtube find those old Atari game and remake them, then modify it, make it better. With my level, I will make space invader clone in a day (using, of course, some codes I used before), so in a month I could make something totally different but still based on it. I can give you an example of my own game based on Pacman with now a totally different gameplay.

My advise if you don't know where to start is to participate in"2018 New Year Challenge: Missile Command" from this site. do your best, winning is not really necessary. try to finish your ideas within the 2 months of the challenge. Do it alone, you will get more experience from it than any of us can give you by our pieces of advice. 

Here is the link for the challenge :

If you are not able to do it or think it is a waste of time or any reason ... Then I tell you cash "Look somewhere else, Video games are not made for you". Remember, winning is not important, spend 2 months of your time in this project and see what you can do will be important and will teach you what to do to achieve your dream of a better DarkSouls game.