Hi All

Firstly, hope you all have a great Christmas.

With the holidays almost here, I have started thinking about writing my first platform game. I have been able to put together a small team of 3 (all off us are new to this).

As a team we want to brainstorm what we want to do. We have some issues.

1st - we don't want to think too big to start with. What is too big.

2nd - what do we do first. The game levels, the player, the graphics, etc.

We are looking at using Unity to write our game. I have many courses that I want to watch, that should help us get started.

How do we break down the testing. Do we do it as we add new content or when we complete a level.

So many questions.

I am very keen at the moment, but my issue is keeping keen. Any tips on how I could do this.

Thanks again in advance for your support.

Regards

Andy

"Too big" is likely smaller than you think. What seems simple at first sight typically has more details than you'd hope.

Don't try to build the entire final product in one go. Build a tiny tiny small version, and incrementally expand them with new functionality. That way you have something that runs, and you sort-of have seen everything that comes into play throughout the program. That avoids disasters like discovering 2 months before the end that some parts don't fit together at all.

Aim for a version that you feel can be done in 1/2 or 1/3rd of the time. At worst, you need much more time than you planned, in which case there is time. At best, you're done in the allocated time, and you can think about adding more.

Make a road-map. Plan what versions you will make, what functionality they will have (for example a list of "must", "should", "nice", and "wont" features, but other forms exist), and how much time you want to spend on each version. The initial plan will fail, but review progress regularly and fairly, and adjust the plan accordingly. In time, you'll get a better insight in how much time features need.

Hey Champ

Im new to this too!

I usually speak to game dev on twitch while they stream and usually i am told the following.......... Start with Breakout. breakout is a simple game to make and will give you the satisfaction of finishing a game and give you core skills for other games. after breakout maybe go to something like tetris and snake and pacman, frogger etc. then start your own project when comfortable.

I was like you and said to myself..I wanna make a game! now.. where to begin.. unity? unreal? godot? others? what game, platformer? defence game, roguelike? dungeon crawler?.. all i did was find myself just starting things and not finishing.

i decided on a tower defence game, i made artwork, chose the art style planned out the spells n powerups for it and then i saw a cool platformer and thought.. nah i wanna make a platformer.. then i started looking into that, then i decided i wanted to make a rogue like dungeon crawler then.. and then.. and then.... and NOW.. still nothing done.. i have the art for a defence game, half a a txt based adventure, layout and UI for a web based sandbox game.. a platformer that can jump and thats it.

I mean, Look at this, What is this?? i don't even know.. no planning ior anything i just started making and then stopped.

so now .. im starting Breakout and sticking to it.. once done, i'll try pacman or snake or something and after a few games i'll start.

Do you know how to program ? If it is not the case, you should start with Python (easier than C#), only to understand the basics of programming. You can find a tutorial based on game programming here.

Hi All

Thanks for your feed back.

Alberth Great Idea. This is something I would do when planning a server migration. At least then I would have a small steps to aim for with all the steps being the main goal.

NibzAU I agree with you as well. This is what I have been doing. I just need to focus on one project and see it through.

phylyp I have bought a lot of courses on how to use Unity and they all use C#. This is not a problem as I understand some programming as I have worked with Java in the past.

One issue I have is that I can never remember how to do things. I know if I do it long enough then it will get easier.

But once again, thanks for your comments.

Are you talking about game design (how the game works, no programming) or software design (programming)? About game software design, pattern design can help you better organize your program. Please don't run away - I know that they are frightening for many people because some teachers and developers created a "religion" around it. Ignore this, and just see them as good recipes. They will give you good ideas on how to split your program into independent components. It will also prevent from creating an unreadable mix of features.

In Python (again), there is the popular Game Programming Patterns. If you already know Java and you already have a good level you can have a look to Learn Design Patterns with Game Programming. In C# there are certainly good books, but I don't know any yet.

greatwolf2222 said:
Alberth Great Idea. This is something I would do when planning a server migration. At least then I would have a small steps to aim for with all the steps being the main goal.

Aiming only at the end goal without some intermediate points in-between makes life and development complicated to say the least.

Especially with more than one person, you need alignment between team members where to go, and what to do now and what to do in the future.

If you cannot create such intermediate points, perhaps you should spend more time on deciding about the internal structuring of the program. What is basic data and code, what data and code lies on that, and so on. Some sort of layering or splitting of “everything” into smaller, cooperating pieces so multiple people can work on different parts, and in the end it all fits (if everything is right).