A long time ago I was way into playing role-playing games. Then about 10 years ago, I took a programming class in BASIC. In my spare time I wrote the BattleTech rules into a BASIC program using the ASCII characters for drawing on the screen. It sure sucked when I ran out of memory and the documentation I had on BASIC (not QBASIC) didn''t tell me anything about expanding the memory capabilities of my BASIC program.

Then I got a job but programming was in my blood and game programming in particular. My friends and I were disgusted with the "unrealistic" combat of AD&D and I took it upon myself to write a new system since I didn''t have a computer and access to one was limited.

My system, particularly the combat-rules, evolved over 3 years of playing it before a good balance had been achieved.

My point is, if you think you''re a game designer. Put your game design on paper and then play it for awhile. You WILL find issues.

So now it''s 10 years later and I don''t write BASIC anymore. Give me my C++. My 100+ page game system sits in a three ring binder as I try to figure out the complexities of rendering. But it calls me. It beckons. It says, "Hurry up, my pages are turning yellow."

Game design is easy, game balance is hard.

Good luck.

I´ve been doing game design for over a year now, and I have to agree with stimarco - if you want to do some intermediary level write up a design doc or concept (which means 30+ pages for a pong game and 200+ for a moderately sized PC game). You will probably not be able to sell that either, but it might help you get a job in QA - and if not that it will help you get together an amateur team.

quote:
which means 30+ pages for a pong game and 200+ for a moderately sized PC game

30 pages for pong?!? The source code wouldn''t be much bigger than that.

Take care,
Bill

Yeah 30 pages does seem a bit much for Pong. My game is fairly big (for a small game) and the design is 50 pages. That doesn''t include the level descriptions, story, and some other stuff. The architecture design for the game itself (meaning not including graphics engine, sound, input etc) came out to about 30 pages. The architecture design was pretty painful to write

I''m always and have always been surprised when someone tells me they can''t draw. It''s so easy-- think of the shapes, the colors, the shades, and draw them. But, I am a very analytical person, so what may be hard for you may be easy/easier for me.

Art is in my blood, programming is on my brain, and game design is in that part of my brain that makes me laugh-- seriously. If you think game design is hard, you''re either doing something wrong or you''re on a tight schedule or budget and things are getting very... icy. I just have fun with it. Game balance is not hard-- it''s something that comes together as you progress. I guess my analytical eye can catch certain imbalances fairly quickly.


Hey, may I ask, who here has made a game by themselves? A one-person project? How long did it take you, and what did you make? Who has worked on a team of only a few inexperienced people?

I have a design going for a game that should take a matter of months to make with a few people-- but with gameplay that will last much longer. I''m keeping it simple, so I''ll have less and less work to do. Leave the work to the player, I say.

Is Shiny a decent publisher? I'm really interested right now, and I'd like to know what publishers are good/bad to smalltimers like me.

[edited by - Some Guy on April 29, 2002 10:19:09 PM]

Shiny are a developer, not a publisher. They are currently owned by Interplay but are being sold to Infogrames at the moment.

Dan Marchant
Obscure Productions

there are no good retail publishers, try internet publishing your self. Otherwise try to search using www.google.com and type in game publisher.