I was wondering where people like Jeff and Geoff learned where to code games and develop games. (Not even sure if I’m using the right terminology.)
See, my biggest dream is to make a game like Paladins or Overwatch someday. A lot of you might be familiar with the concepts I’ve shared, truth be told, the ones I share here are only a small part of what I’ve gotten written down.
I’ve been working on the story, characters, everything since 2016, and I know I may never have the skills for it to all come to fruition, but there’s never harm in trying.
That’s why I want to know where the devs of this game learned their craft, so I could follow in their footsteps someday.
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Well that was easier than I’d thought it’d be
There’s two ways - either you can look into university/courses for game development (or programming in general if you just primarily want to code stuff) or you can teach yourself. I’ve been working as a 3d artist in the industry for 7 years and I primarily taught myself game art through modding games like Fallout.
If you live somewhere like the US I would recommend self-teaching just because education is really expensive for what you get, and it’s nothing you can’t teach yourself with a little bit of discipline. You can download Unity or Unreal 4 for free and start prototyping simple projects with relative ease, but the #1 thing to keep in mind is to keep it simple and build the complexity of your projects up only once you know what you’re doing. One of the most common mistakes I see with people new to any facets of game dev is they want to make something as complex as an MMO when they can’t put a Pong clone or a simple 2d platformer together.
I would also recommend picking one of the major roles (programmer, designer or artist) and focusing on one of them rather than trying to learn it all as again you’ll likely overwhelm yourself and give up before you get off the ground if you try to do that. Good luck!
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In all honesty I’m a terrible artist. Im willing to learn how to code and program, and I already have a multitude of characters lined up.
Of course, I know attempting to make a game like that alone is like asking to bear he weight of the world on your shoulders, but I don’t know if I could ever make up a team for it
Yeah, the beauty of Unreal 4 especially is that you can achieve a lot with the visual node-based scripting system (Blueprint) without having to write a single line of code - especially when you’re just learning how to put the logic together it’s nice being able to prototype ideas without having to worry about correct syntax and the like. For serious projects you’d want to release I would recommend learning coding just so you can optimise the game a lot better, but it’s a great way to get started.
I can also heartily recommend modding games like Bethesda’s older games to get used to game design as they make it rather simple when you have a base game already set up you can tweak to your heart’s content.
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One of the most famous Game Dev Colleges is probably Full sail University.
https://www.fullsail.edu/
The entire college is focused toward Game design, as well as Movie and Music Production.
Also to be a developer you can’t simply learn programming at a college. You have to actually turn it into a hobby and start by learning how to mod games - start simple like Roblox, Starbound, Starcraft 2, Skyrim.
Then move to more complicated projects that don’t provide Development tools.
Avoid things like RPG maker which are drag and drop.
Don’t jump into the deep end such as Unity or Unreal without knowing the first thing about programming.
Read C for Dummies books.
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I’m not in the habit of explaining my jokes but this one needs it.
Please, DO NOT sign up for ITT Tech, if they’re even still a thing.
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I’d start by getting a degree from somewhere, while spending as much time as possible wiggling your way into related projects, then apply for jobs to get experience. You don’t just start out in the gaming industry as lead developer on a massive project like Overwatch.
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Oh, I know I can’t expect to just hit the ground running with this. I need to learn to walk, but before that I need to learn to crawl.
I appreciate the answers everyone has given to me so far. Like I said, maybe my whole idea was never meant to be, but I’m sure as all hell going to try
If you have starbound its an easy game to learn to mod.
It starts off simple with JSON then moves to complicated code with Lua.
https://community.playstarbound.com/resources/unofficial-modding-ebook-2-0.2930/
This book is the source where 90% of Starbound modders learn to mod their game from.
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Really everyone, thanks for giving me your insight and helping me oit
I see Youve already got good suggestions so far.
How old are you Jaku btw? Just curious
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Gonna be 19 on the 9th. Kind of an…over-zealous ambition huh?
You got some really good suggestions here, that’s for sure.
I went to a technical high school and spent the two years of my Career and Technical Education (CTE) in Game Design and Development.
We were only taught the most basics of Unreal Engine and 3ds Max before we were told to learn how to do things by trial and error.
There are great guides on learning the tools and how to be more and more detailed in your work as you familiarize yourself with the programs and such.
I plan and have more interest in the art part of development, like concept art and creating environments. Moddeling can be done even if you aren’t good at art.
I plan on going to college and focusing on programming, so that way I can do all roles to some degree and can work on things myself if I ever want to.
Most colleges offer some form of conputer science that teaches coding, but there are colleges out there that have literal Game Development/Design courses, so maybe look into those ![:slight_smile:](https://d74zh8edaijub.cloudfront.net/en/overwatch/images/emoji/twitter/slight_smile.png?v=6" ":slight_smile:")
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You wouldn’t even necessarily have to code it or anything, you could just be the guy in charge, provide ideas and a story so your devs and writers can integrate it into the game
If you mean code as in the code, -> any IT department, school etc.
But game is actually very not much of a code but everything - animation, design etc.
From what I can see from your comment, what you seeking for can be found in ‘Unreal Engine for Dummies’ kind of stuff. Im reading one too,very slowly.
From what I gather, game design is a very competitive industry, so you’ll need to stick to it.
I’ve always wanted my original horror stories to be turned into video games. But not first person, more like fatal frame or the old resident evil where the camera perspective is fixed based on the scene. Those are always scary, especially when you see your character standing in the hallway, and something is clearly standing behind you.
Learning to program in itself is not that hard. Go get a book and start today! You will be able to program well in 2-3 months if you put some energy into it.
To program is only part of software development though, and a degree may be a strategy in the longer run. But then again, you can really self-learn alot through books. You can also consider Coursera or similar free online courses.
But go learn to program immediately. Within a short time you can start up a Unity project and program it yourself.
If you choose Unity, you should aim for C#. Which is IMO the best Object-Oriented language out there at the moment.
The jump from C# to other OO-languages is not that big, if you will need to in the future - AFAIK Unreal still uses C++, which is close to C#.
I will highly recommend going with Unity as it is easier to get into. I trialled both Unity and Unreal before choosing Unity, despite at that point being an expert C++ programmer with no C# experience.
I am a self-taught game developer that has a formal software development degree. I have worked in the industry and currently I am working on my own game.
Good luck with it.