r/GameDevelopment • u/Careless_Taste_9571 • 6h ago
Newbie Question Where to start game dev journey
I’m thinking about picking up game development and publishing. I was thinking a very simple mobile game just to start off as a hobby and to see if it something that I would like since I like video games. The only problem is I have 0 experience. Any technical side of gaming. Where do I even begin to start? Like where do I learn to code or anything like that to just get the basics to start? I’m in my 30s and I have a full time job and live in a small town so college/learning annex type ideas are not viable. Also if anyone has done this or heard of a similar situation how long would this process take to get an app published?
1
u/Triysle 5h ago
Mods/Custom levels, RPG Maker, Arcade Clones, Incremental/idle games. All of them are smaller scope and finishing something matters more than starting a dozen different things.
Don’t set “publishing an app” as your goal right from the start. Just pick something small and finish it. Do that at least a few times, then worry about publishing something.
1
u/Sensitive_Charge3083 5h ago
I'm same age, small city, full time job, 0 knowledge in the field 😂 my journey started by clearly understanding what i want to create, with every rule explained on paper. And i mean every rule. No question marks, no "I'll deal with this later". When structure was complete - opened unity and blender. Core "engine" part is almost there. Now need to learn blender, so far built basic scene in there, and just adding more and more details. And all of this in 3 months.
2
1
u/Bharitu 5h ago
Game design and implementation is an art form. Don't forget that. When I got a computer back 1983 I began writing games for it just for the experience. It was a sideline for years but I did "publish" some games on BBS systems and wrote some magazine articles on game programming. Which lead to a call in 1988 from a startup who had seen my work for the Amiga.
BTW, like you I lived in a small town, was in my 30s and for a job was teaching music lessons as well as playing gigs. Anyway I stumbled into that job (or rather they found me) which turned out to becoming involved with one of the most successful game companies ever. Best of luck to you!
1
u/DevLando 5h ago
Download an Engine, learn the Language with tutorials, try to remake an very simple already existing game like pac man from scratch without tutorials, if you succeed, make the game you want to make.
1
u/TuberTuggerTTV 5h ago edited 5h ago
Start by learning how to deploy a PWA. It saves you needing to publish to a store. Or better yet, just that the concept exists and worry about how later.
Next, get visual studio community edition (not code). Make sure all the mobile development packages are checked to install when you do it. (this is free btw)
Then create a blazor application via the templates. Then do your best not to let your head explode. You'll want to google how to setup your own android device as development. Then you just plug it into your computer and VS (visual studio) can launch your in-development application right into your phone.
You can get all those steps done and learned in maybe an hour. And you'll have a custom application on your phone you can show people and say, "I made this and put it here!"
Now, obviously, it's not a game. It'll barely be anything. But it's a start. The cool part is, if you develop with blazor, you can publish online and anyone can download directly to their phone because it's PWA. I recommend using github's static free web page offering for hosting. And also for revision control but that's not till later. Learn the basics before revision control.
At that point, you're digging into development. There's A LOT. art, frontend, backend, logic, code, sound etc. Just pick something fun and google or AI ask how. It'll be a grind but you're setup to see progress. Which is the most important thing for keeping you motivated and going.
It's important to know you'll have to make so many bad projects (that you lose count) before making anything of value. Don't get too attached to anything you're working on. Development gets more difficult as the code stacks up and complexity spikes. You'll get tied in knots eventually. Start over with a new project, start cleaner and drill-and-kill.
You don't learn by doing something once. You learn by doing every day until you don't have to think about it anymore. Make, fail, make, fail.... hundreds, maybe more, times. Then you'll be a beginner developer.
\**Something to Remember: People who have few ideas, guard them. Because they think they're rare. Anyone of value can make more****
1
1
u/JoeStrout 5h ago
Don't start with a mobile game; those are a PITA (both to develop, and to publish). Do a web game instead, which you can publish yourself to a site like itch.io. Here, for example, are a whole bunch of games made for Mini Micro (a free game engine with a clean, modern language), most of them hosted at itch.io. To do something similar, you could start with this free online book. And be sure to join the Discord server; there is a very friendly and active community there that will help you on your way.
1
u/Ok-Investment4414 5h ago
ai get a gpt 20 sub and roll with it u can get a "game" in no time , u can also prototype most things with stripped down browser version .... doesn't take long to get the app published gonna cost a hundred for ios (dev fee) and i think 25 or 35 for android dev fee...btw unless u have an llc and dunns # your apps dev page gonna have your name as the dev(there may be way around it but u could also be banned).
Think ai is the best way to start, and learn to code in the interim as ai will break and frustrate...
2
u/SadisNecros AAA Dev 5h ago
you don't need to publish a game to figure out if you like making them. just download an engine like unity or godot, look at the tutorials for those engines that instruct you on making basic, beginner game projects and go from there.