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Underground > Games & Gameplay >

How does one create a video game?

XXII:X:II = XXX

06:23 / 13.10.05

For most of my life I've been an extremely casual video gamer, and after the early '90's I lost interest in keeping up with the tech beyond what I could copy for my Macs (which you can imagine isn't alot). For a long time I had a half-joke that I wasn't going to buy a game-specific piece of hardware until true virtual reality became a reality, after which I'd plug myself into the Matrix in full surrender to the new reality.

After moving a couple months ago I was able to have regular access to my new roommates' Xbox. I've seen games over the years, but I'd not really played them. Now I see what I've been missing. I'm knee deep in Max Payne, wading into HALO and screwing around with both Simpsons: Road Rage and Batman: Vengeance. And as usual, the ideas have come foaming to the surface (ewwww...).

Now I'm dusting off some of my old, shelved comics ideas and wondering just how good they might be for video game concepts. Which leads me to the next logical question: how does one go about trying to get a gig writing scripts and/or designing characters for video games? Is it necessary to take courses in this sort of thing? Hell, if Warren Ellis is moonlighting as a game scripter it can't be brain surgery. Can anyone help me break this down into layman's terms? Thanks.

ONLY NICE THINGS

07:30 / 13.10.05

Thread discussing pitching video games, or rather the impossibility of pitching video games, here. Pure scripting presumably is a job like any other, but you would be scripting other people's great game ideas, not your own. Some proof of ability or form in writing might come in handy. Alternatively, make your game, get it coded, release it as freeware, become famous, get a job with a games company.

12:04 / 13.10.05

Alternatively, you could try modding an existing engine- that's how Counterstrike got started, as a fan-made mod that got picked up by a distributor. There's a few good engines that let you script interactive plots and events, more like immersion in a movie or book, which one you use would depend on the property.
The simplest way to build a game from the ground up is probably Flash programming, originally designed as an animation tool, now you can create whole movies and games. It can't be that hard if the 13-year-old Dragonball Z fans at Newgrounds can keep churning out their shitty Matrix/Final Fantasy 7/stick figure turds with the Linkin Park soundtracks...
I'll link the same PDF on game design I found for Cyberchimp...
The Art of Computer Game Design
I know a couple of folk from the 90's Oz comics scene have gone into game design-
Halloween Harry
Heh, they also created the fake games "Monica Sellers Tennis" and "Day Trip" (Night Trap) for the Late Show...

08:43 / 14.10.05

Another way to start could be the games designed to be written by the user, like Dink Smallwood, RPG Maker 2000, Adventure Game Studio (the last lets you create Lucasarts-style point-and-click adventures).

rising and revolving

13:21 / 14.10.05

As someone who actually does do this for a living, can I point out just how condescending it sounds when someone waltzes in and says "I've never really played games, but I've seen them, and now I've played three or four in the last month, and I reckon I could do this! How do I get a job?"

Yeah.

It's like wandering up to a Doctor and saying "I never really thought about medicine, but then I watched some episodes of ER, and figured I'd give it a crack. Can I open a practice tomorrow?"

Well, maybe not. Takes some years to get mecical certification. However, most of the people in this industry have been analysing games and gameplay for tens of years. Now, some people are good at that, and some aren't. But experience really is worth its weight in gold - and with a whole two months worth, you're not even close to being ready to apply anywhere.

Other suggestions in this thread have been good. I'd have more, but I'm so pissed off at the presumption in the initial post I'm not especially keen in going into it.

14:18 / 14.10.05

Other suggestions in this thread have been good. I'd have more, but I'm so pissed off at the presumption in the initial post I'm not especially keen in going into it.

Is it really worth getting so pissed off about? I mean, ze has only asked how you go about getting into the industry. I don't see what the problem is.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

15:08 / 14.10.05

Even from the scripting end of things I'd imagine there's a lot more to actually getting in there than simply being able to string a story together. Marc Laidlaw (cos, let's face it, when people talk about games these days the spectre of Half-Life/Half-Life 2's always hovering around somewhere) was a fairly respected skiffy author before his games-writing days- (slightly off-topic, but if anyone hasn't read it, and can find a copy, I highly recommend his novel "Dad's Nuke").

And yes, if Warren Ellis is moonlighting as a game scripter it can't be brain surgery. But Warren Ellis is a NAME. A BRAND, if you will (and I'd rather you didn't, really- the word "brand" always brings me out in hives).

Maybe take someone like Intorversion as an example- "Uplink" (which was an ace game) was developed pretty much by the guys themselves, independently, but its modest success got them the backing they needed for "Darwinia". (AFAIK, anyway... I'm sure this has been somewhat romanticised by the games mags, for a start).

Otherwise, everone I know irl who's working in the games industry is doing (or has already done) a long slog through playtesting, or business paperwork, or PR, or sales. Unfortunately, the "starting at the ground floor" business model seems to hold true for pretty much any large company.

I'd be really pleased if you proved everyone wrong, though.

16:20 / 14.10.05

Hell, if Warren Ellis is moonlighting as a game scripter it can't be brain surgery.

Ahhh, the penny drops. Maybe that's what got you pissed off. I can understand a little more now. Sorry, I missed that the first time around.

That'll teach me for not to reading through the thread properly.

rising and revolving

17:03 / 14.10.05

Oh, it's that and the whole implicit "This game designing thing is a lark! I could do that!" which inherently devalues my trade.

I have spent years learning the ins and outs of this industry. I lecture on various game development related subjects, write articles for professional journals and have, for better or worse, committed ten-odd years of my life to being very, very, good at what I do.

However, I'm constantly beset by people who have a "great idea for a game" - without realising that ideas are cheap. Really cheap. Free, in fact. It's execution that's hard.

Writing for games isn't like writing for comics, just like writing for comics isn't like poetry.

And it's not the person writing the script who designs the game, generally. Except in rare, rare, cases. Course, I've done it, but I'm super

Like I say, it's not just 22:10:2 who annoys me, it's a phenomenon I encounter every time I tell people what I do. They all think they could do it, and the short answer is that, for the most part, they couldn't.

ONLY NICE THINGS

17:13 / 14.10.05

Maybe not medicine or brain surgery - perhaps a better comparison might be film or journalism? Where the average career might involve quite a long period of doing very junior and/or very badly-paid jobs, having to work very hard and possibly not get a lot of credit, and/or work for very small concerns either contributing small amounts to large projects or creating and releasing small projects which do not create large profits or great public awareness, which might eventually lead to a lucky break or being noticed or a steady progression in experience and respect to the point where you are offered a noticeable role in the creation of a Hollywood blockbuster/national newspaper/first-tier computer game...

rising and revolving

17:50 / 14.10.05

Yeah, Film and Journalism are probably better comparisons. I imagine people who've been through the whole rigmarole get much the same crap too. Everyone thinks they could be a journalist, or director, or writer. A lot of them could be, possibly. I doubt most of them could be without experience, though. That's one of the things you get from doing all those crap jobs - some idea of what actually goes on in the process of creating films, or journalism.

But yeah, I suspect that those fields suffer the same general perception. Lots of artists, too.

Unconditional Love

10:05 / 15.10.05

Rising on the over thread linked to above you mentioned independent art house games and a small community, could you possibly post links please, id be intrested to see what doesnt end up in shops and games that are produced with a non industry focus (or less).

I looked at the game programs offered by lord morgue, and one things stands out to me, they arent very appealing visually to me, is it possible to find creation engines that are similar to the games i play, mostly third or first person shooter/adventures, that i would find more intresting and probably bewildering, but none the less id like to see whats possibly coming from an area of programming illiteracy.

The advantage of film/tv is that its a medium many of us have consumed most of our lives, so we know the language unconsciously, with gaming, although i grew up with the zx81 etc etc i may know the outer language of game play well, but the technicalities that actually go into a game are at this point way beyond me.

Unconditional Love

11:23 / 15.10.05

Game creation resources

Some very good links from this site centred around differing game formats.

excuse my spelling today, all my words have freaked out on me.

04:36 / 16.10.05

Games produced outside the big studio system.

My favourite
Totally Screwed Software
Totally Screwed have hit on the magic formula of punks, skins and vampires beating the living christ out of zombies, ninjas and pteradactyls. MAGIC!

Looks like Skeleton Games have gone under. Pity.

Newgrounds is still the best Flash site out there, if you wade through the 13-year-old 1337-sp33ker5 and their oceans unmoving of Dragonball Z stick figure hentai LOLOMGROXXORXIPWNZJOO!!!1!!! you can find some pretty jawdropping stuff. And a lot of crap.

Mugen no longer has an official site, or official support, but like Street Fighter IBM, it's a completely customisable 2d fighter with a dedicated community making mods and characters. Only not as retarded as SFIBM.

23:18 / 16.10.05

Blender is a 3d modeller/renderer/game engine. I haven't gotten very far with it, but it seems to have promise.

Pros:
Free.
Multi-platform.
Wide user base.
Extensible.
Uses Python scripting language.
Did I mention free?

Cons
Non-standard interface.
Weird interface.
Confusing interface.

As to cutting your teeth quickly, I've heard that simple Flash games are the kidie pool, the training wheels, of game development.

XXII:X:II = XXX

08:42 / 18.10.05

To firstly answer rising & revolving's gripe, no, I did not mean to devalue your chosen trade, and certainly not to lump you in with distressingly lucky hacks, nor to suppose that in the modern era of gaming it was something you could fart out in a long weekend. As I said from the get-go, I'm more or less an outsider to this scene, so cut me a little slack since I admit I'm pretty much ignorant of the process.

So, let's try this again: what must one have under one's belt in terms of credentials to position oneself as a source of creative inspiration for video games? I take for granted they're larger affairs than are any comic, but perhaps still smaller than all but your utter shoestring movie productions. So barring a sudden reversal of my stunning incapacity with anything higher than high school level math, what would distinguish me as someone who'd be sought after to write a game's script and/or design its characters? R&R and anyone else in the industry, if you can share some of your insight into this aspect, I would be grateful.

ONLY NICE THINGS

09:04 / 18.10.05

So, let's try this again: what must one have under one's belt in terms of credentials to position oneself as a source of creative inspiration for video games?

I think R&R did answer this, Vladimir - years of experience in analysing games and what makes them work. Stoatie has added:

Otherwise, everone I know irl who's working in the games industry is doing (or has already done) a long slog through playtesting, or business paperwork, or PR, or sales. Unfortunately, the "starting at the ground floor" business model seems to hold true for pretty much any large company.

The Warren Ellis/Marc Laidlaw/R A Salvatore model is presumably another way - make a name for yourself in another form of genre writing (comics, sci-fi and fantasy, respectively), with the result that video game people wanting to add some respectability or kudos to their game hire you, either to provide concepts (Ellis) or scripts.

Bear in mind, though, that many skilled programmers are coming out of India these days, so you might want to be careful about that sense of humour of yours.

rising and revolving

14:53 / 18.10.05

So, let's try this again: what must one have under one's belt in terms of credentials to position oneself as a source of creative inspiration for video games?

You should own a videogame development company AND be able to persuade people to give you millions of dollars.

Seriously. That's where the decision making at that level happens. The average commercial game is a 3 Million USD+ enterprise. People only get to be in charge of setting the direction for that through many, many, years of experience or by being a strong brand.

And while Warren has done some writing, as did Laidlaw for Half-Life 2 they were still mostly writing what they were told. Ie, stories that serviced the game concepts and level break out.

Now, people present that differently (see the recent discussion about how Spielberg is getting involved with EA) but ultimately those big names are rarely the creative forces pushing the game ahead.

There's an article here that I wrote many moons ago which outlines why this is so. And also that ideas are really cheap. Really.

rising and revolving

20:59 / 18.10.05

And an interview here that may prove interesting.

Although, let me point out, that's he's not really in the industry. He's in localisation, which is basically translation - he's in the industry in the same sense that the translator of "Neuromancer" is a Cyberpunk author.

Of course, he sees things differently ... regardless, some of what he says is relevant to the discussion in hand.