Getting Started
So, you want to create?
As any role playing game will tell you it is very difficult to have a character who has maxed out stats in all categories. A strong character will usually be slow, a fast character will usually be weak, and other balanced characters to make it all work out. This also applies to you, unless you are exceptionally talented, magic, or a unicorn. Cos unicorns are magic.
You may be a great artist but find programming difficult to get your head around. You may have the problem solving abilities of a supercomputer but you can’t actually draw a stick figure to save your life. You possibly have the ability to make the best tunes in the universe, but the idea of programming or creating assets freaks you out. It’s very rare to have the all in one package on any given day that can put it all together at an exceptional level.
The tools that you use are also not balanced and have limitations due to their strengths and weaknesses. So, we can’t win. Ever. But this is no excuse to give up. In fact, it makes us learn new skills and broaden our minds to new things and ways of thinking. Creation, at its heart, is problem solving. You don’t have to be great at any particular thing. The main thing you need to create experiences is a passion to do so and a certain level of determination and a significant amount of patience. With that you can power through the basics of what you need to learn and then practice with the resources and skills you have at hand.
Anyone can learn if they desire to put in the time. The plan is to cover the basic to intermediate levels of each part, the rest you can learn by using community forums, websites, other tutorials and above all practice!
Like, a lot.
To become good at anything it comes down to practice and applied learning, pure and simple. These tutorials will hopefully get the early stages down in all fields of game design, so all that is left for you to do is keep on practicing and learning on your own.
There are tools and applications that help make certain elements of game creation easier to work with, although they will usually be more limited in nature.
Say you are a designer who knows nothing about programming and finds it frustratingly difficult to make anything outside of an extremely simple ‘If...else’ statement (more on them much later!). There are many applications out there that would allow you to make a game without the need for serious programming. And that's great, but it usually limits the things you can do in comparison to a complete game engine experience. Examples include :
There is of course vice versa, where a programmer doesn’t really know how to make anything beyond a simple box in Blender, let alone a fantastic 3D character with a full skeletal rig for awesome animation. In this case you could always use downloadable content to use in your games.
Maybe you need sound FX or Music for your game?
Then of course if you do need something specific for your game and you have a bit of cash up your sleeve you could always outsource the assets or skills you do not have. This is certainly an option, and many games and apps have been completed using these resources, but this has its own pros and cons you need to consider.
Conclusion
Why you are learning is up to you, but personally if you want to do it you should do it for you.
Interactive media is a form of communication that is extremely powerful and should be used to extend your ideas and beliefs into the world at large….or it’s something you enjoy and you want to make it your job. It helps if you believe in it. The result will be better, and the learning curve will have a bigger payoff at the end. That passion or belief will be needed on the days things just aren't working for you, and there will be a lot of those. Have a good foundation in place to get you through all of it.
If you don’t feel you can create a masterpiece worthy of the masses, you can. There are fantastic productions with stick figures that communicate better stories than the biggest Hollywood blockbuster. Then again there are of course the huge AAA titles that show a huge immersive world to explore endlessly. Both ends of the spectrum are important to the other. But most importantly, they are important to you otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this! Designing to your strengths and weaknesses is what will allow you to create something people will want to experience, figuring them out will allow you to shape your idea to something worth peoples time.
Interactive media is all about the delivery, the story, and the art of interactive communication. In my opinion, the ‘art’ is not in the quality of the production but understanding your own strengths and weaknesses and delivering your experience using both. Hopefully through these tutorials, you will have the knowledge, the mental and physical endurance and the resources to make your ideas come alive.
But most of all, have fun! You have a difficult, yet extremely rewarding, journey ahead of you. I look forward to seeing what you create!
You have no excuses now. Go. Create. Now.
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