Things to know when making your first game?

[skychain]

Sorry if there's a thread like this somewhere else and i missed it.

i've been looking for like a "how to ren'py starter kit" type tutorial and really, to no concise avail.
So let me ask: what are some things I should know in beginning my adventure into creating my first game? Any best method to go about how to start? What things should I draw first, code first, plan first? Things you wish you would have known or done your first time around? Anything would be super helpful.. and once again, sorry if this isn't the proper place to post this. ^_^

[octacon100]

I guess a lot of it would be based on how complicated you want your first game to be?

Usually people say start small, so I'd recommend that as well. Also, try and play to your strengths, if you are great at art, make a game with characters you can draw well and can make lots of poses for. If you're more of a programmer, look at ATL and screen language to see what you can do. There's lots of open source images and such out there that can help you out.

Try using the search function on this website as well, there's lots of help for new people here, and the Ren'Py documentation will be your best friend. Just about everything is covered there. Usually I google "Renpy [whatever it is I want to do]" and it's in there.

[SundownKid]

Well the tutorials are located here: http://www.renpy.org/wiki/renpy/doc/tutorials/Tutorials

Otherwise... definitely make a good plan first and write out everything. Like, general story outline and whatever assets you need. You should always know exactly how things will turn out, don't just go in without a plan. Before you start writing the story you should already know all the scenes, characters and how the story will end. If you are hiring someone to make assets it should be 100% set in stone what you need.

Things I wish I knew before I started? Well, always make an outline is one of them... the next is that you should never try to get someone to help for free because it's more trouble than it's worth unless you are really and truly making a collaboration. Finally, start small and work your way up.

[skychain]

oh wow thanks for the info! it's definitely useful. fleshing it out seems super important so i will be doing that before anything and making it short is good advice. i tend to get a bit excited and drown myself in things lol.

i have a hard time knowing what i need to look for before i come to it, but i also have a hard time starting any task before i have a clear idea of what to do first. so i'll be definitely utilizing the tutorials and search ability once i come to the hurdle at hand. first glance at the forums are a bit daunting, everything is in coding jargon and i don't know what a lot of it means. ^^;

i have one question, is it recommended to start your first game at 800x600? that just seems so small, but i have a feeling making things bigger is probably a bit more advanced, seeing as ren'py's default is 800x600.

[mjshi]

800x600 was the golden resolution that could fit on any computer way back when computers still shipped with 800x anything screen resolution options, otherwise, making things bigger shouldn't be that hard- RenPy's default screens are aligned based on float numbers so they should still work, and if you can mix in a few custom GUI it should look fine.

If you don't want to spend more time customizing the UI, I'd recommend for a first game to be at default resolution, 'cause those save screens at higher resolutions just look weird. Try setting the windows res differently in the options.rpy and you'll know what I mean.

Here's a pretty good tut on UI customization- http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 51&t=14237

[skychain]

Oooh, thanks that's exactly what I wanted to know, and pretty helpful! thanks!

[philat]

http://www.otome-games.com/index.php/ma ... otome-game

It doesn't cover any advanced concepts, but in terms of just handholding someone through their first scripting process, I've found this one to be pretty good.

[Akai85]

Don't make a hugely long game with 15 paths and 36 endings. Start small. That's all I can tell you being a renpy noob myself but don't overdo it lol. My personality is such that a two person story easily changes into a five easily changes into a... I have 27 side characters in one idea. Don't be me. My advice is don't be like me

(You can also go and read entire forums if that helps. I've read pretty much the entire writing forum lol)

[ishify]

Hi. I'm a student under the course Game Design and Development. I don't have much to show but so far this video has always been my mantra. [link]

It's a video that tackles about failing faster and moving on to the next project. Positively ofcourse.

When it comes to process....

Start with the concept. The concept can start from anywhere, the characters? The world? The conflict?
I usually start with the conflict / goal of the game. This helps me mold the other elements around it.

Then the mechanics of the game. In visual novels this isn't much of a problem, but if you want to
incorporate deeper game mechanics then you might want to have it fleshed out before delving into the art.

I only do art when I'm confident that I've done most of the conceptualization. I realized that drawing takes so much
energy from me that I find it a bother to go back to conceptualization if I knew that I left such a big gap on it.

Sound is the last thing I touch. Usually because I am not very well versed with it.

But yeah. Here's my game making creative process. Hope it help even a tiny bit.

[ishify]

Oh and scripting happens in in between art sessions. I'm more of an artist than a programmer so I rarely do anything complicated with the scripts.