Getting into Creating Video Games

How do I start making games then?

First off you need a passion for video games!  It doesn't matter what kind of games you enjoy or what platform you play them on - Get stuck in and enjoying a good game is the key to understanding what people like, how games play, what looks cool and what works.

So play a lot of games, and try not to pirate/copy the games you enjoy if you can afford to purchase them.  Also try not to fall for media hype - a lot of games that sell a lot are not very good to play for a long time, or may feel exactly like the last game you played.  Talk about games with friends, read online and look at game play footage - I trust user reviews over .

The latest number one hit on steam is an Indy game "Darkest Dungeon" - a mixture of Dark Souls and turn-based RPGs

Don't just look at games though!  You have to try and draw inspiration from everything that interests you, and look into art history to discover great images.  A typical source of inspiration is TV and films.  Many film and TV directors have strong roots in classical art, recreating work that has been tried and tested though-out thousands of years of history.

Build up inspiration, and develop yourself as an artist & game creator

Here is a wall of cool images to inspire, grabbed from Art Station

You have already started just by imagining new ideas and ways to improve and change what you have already played.  The next step is to write and draw down ideas... You want to make a role-playing-game from the perspective of the baddies/evil side?  Write down your main influences and look for more reference and stuff to create more ideas.  Take photos of cool looking textures - maybe a wall which is decaying with loads of moss might look nice for your castle.  Maybe a funny looking person you see in town might become a villain.  Maybe you love the way the shadows are cast across the path and you think it would look great for an entrance to a location in a game?

A lovely scene by an old artist - John-Atkinson Grimshaw - Would be nice in a game?

These notes may not always become a project, but by thinking about it you can drop things you got bored of and keep themes you like, and the ideas evolve into a better game/project later down the road.  These ideas, photos, drawings and things all start to pile up, and soon enough you are becoming a game maker and a better artist.

Getting into games

So we have all these awesome ideas, but how do we put them to use?  The simple answer is just do it!  Look online, do searches, chat with people online and just do something.  In the start you have to learn new software, and there is a lot of different software out there so it can be hard to pick.

Game Maker Studio - making a 2D platform game

Essential tools I would say include a gaming PC, not only to find and play current games but also to use programs such as ZBrush, Blender, and Photoshop efficiently.  You may have to access someone else's PC or maybe go to an internet cafe, or if you are lucky at school or college.

A character created in ZBrush by Danial Spivak

In game development for major AAA titles like Call of Duty or Dragon Age Origins it takes hundreds or thousands of professions a long time (six months upwards) to create a game.  So for most of us these kind of games are impossible.

But this doesn't mean we can't make smaller, and in some ways even better stuff.  For example many games encourage players to make their own content or "mods" - This can be from making hats for your favourite character in DoTA2, possibly making a bit of money while enjoying the game.

A recent sword design for DOTA2 by nate Hallinan - From polycount

Some games are made by a single person or a small team.  These are typically independent developers, and create "Indy" games.  A great success story of an Indy game is Mine Craft, which was sold for two billion dollars in 2014.  These games I must say are my favourite, normally smaller, but with a lot of character, interesting concepts and are really fun and interesting to play & learn.

First projects - Start Small

The secret to learning and getting better is lots of small projects.  Give yourself a day, a week, or a month to accomplish and finish something.  This can be your first character in Brush, making a treasure chest that opens when the player stands next to it in UE4, or even a simple chair.

Start small, and always try to "finish" a project, even if you get bored, or think of something else you would rather do.  To finish a project you should have something you can show others, maybe someone can run around a landscape you created, or maybe it's a picture of a monster.

It doesn't matter how good or bad you believe it to be - Post images of your work and ask for critique and comments (C&C).  Sometimes people won’t say anything and don't seem to care, other times people will tell you why they think your work sucks.  Sometimes people will say "wow, that's great".  

Try and get as much information and feedback as possible, and work out why your work sucks.  This is what makes you better quicker.  Some great places to post are on forums and social networks.

Here is a way to start making your own game from scratch in 2D.  The guy that teaches in the videos is Tom Francis, who made a game called Gunpoint on his own.  Gunpoint is a great little game and he obviously knows what he is on about.  The program used is a free game maker called Game Maker Studio.  If you are following the tutorials give yourself a week to go through them, then the rest of the month to finish a small sample area.  This is a nice project as the software & tutorial is totally free and designed for beginners.

Project Planning

While project planning sounds very boring it is very simple and essential to creating strong work.  Keep in mind you always learn from every project and the next project will be easier, quicker and a little more painless.  Eventually you will realise that you have learned a lot and are actually pretty good!

1) Goals - what is the final outcome?  Set a deadline date (a week/month maybe).

2) Inspiration and reference - Grab images of anything you want to incorporate, games and films to rip off characters and assets from.

3) Planning - Before you dive straight in look for holes in your knowledge - If you are making a whole level maybe consider starting with a sample area like a small room.  At this point look for good tutorials to help you out.  If you get stuck on on something try your best to overcome it, ask questions online and look for solutions or ways to avoid repeating difficult processes.

 

For a picture I drew this week I got inspired by the game Banner Saga.  I collected images like this for reference

4) White boxing or outlining.  This is a major area of a project.  This is when you block out the rough outlines - maybe it's a loose character, or a dungeon or street scene in a game engine, At this point don't worry about textures and other details, just make sure it feels good.  If it’s a level have a walk around, if it’s an asset try looking at it from different angles and get feedback from others.  At the end of this stage you are about half way through.

 

For my example here I started drawing a rough outline - Similar to using a pencil

5) Detailing and tweaking.  This is when you make stuff look as good as possible and try to make sure everything works.  It may involve a lot of long & boring processes like rigging a character, creating shaders in your chosen game engine, playing with AI or whatever.  I would say this is the hardest part and is the most likely place to encounter problems - Stick at it and learn as you go.  If something is totally flustering you move onto something else for a little bit then come back to the problem and research solutions online.

 

I spent a lot of time cleaning up the image and outlining image and picking a palette of muted colours

6) Finishing.  Possibly the most important part of a project.  In short this is where you try your best to show off your work, hide the bad bits and highlight the strong bits.  Not everyone will know as much as you and may not have an idea that you have took shortcuts or cheated in any way.  A typical thing with character artists is to skip the technical processes (like unwrapping/texturing, re-topology rigging) but they will still have a great looking picture that they have touched up in Photoshop.  This is not cheating, and is almost expected.  Try and think of who you are showing it to and consider your goals - Did you hit all of your targets in the planning stage?

 

Before finishing this picture I spent time tweaking it, and adding/changing colours so it felt better.  I also added some simple effects and tweaks to the image.  To finish it I posted it online

The Spear Maiden picture for me was a one day project.  In the end it took a lot longer than I expected, but I put in some extra time and stuck with it.  In the end I learned quite a bit about line-art and the outcome feels alright.  For this picture I "cheated" by using pinterest to find some pictures of hands to help me get okay looking hands and fingers.  I could have stuck with bad looking hands, but that little bit of extra effort and care made a big difference.  Personally I could never of drawn this a year ago so quickly, but by doing a lot of little "projects" all the time I am learning the process & getting better.