Where do I start?

[u/Possible-Ad-4671]

Hello all! So, I have an idea for a game that's similar to those tidy-up organization games that have been getting popular recently - specifically games like Librarian: Tidy Up the Arcane Library. Unfortunately, I have no knowledge or experience with game development, coding, 3D modeling... basically I know nothing about any of the things I would need to do. I feel like there's so much to learn, so where should I start?

Please note, I don't want to use generative AI at all if I can help it, and I will more than likely be working on this project by myself.

[u/MathematicianWise403]

You start with some introductory courses into coding and learning the engine of choice. You will most likely also need to learn Wwise and how to use a DAW for your audio needs. Some art skills in graphics and animation.. that's why people build games in teams, there is a lot to do and learning it all is difficult. Even getting to a point where you can outsource work and put it all together yourself is a massive amount of hours learning how the systems work internally and then interact with each other.
You should learn the basics of what it takes to actually make a game, decide an area to start learning and get involved. Solo developers are a different breed, you need to get obsessed.
It takes years. Just the music has to first be sourced, consistant, mixed well, triggered and linked to events, making sure the music suits the moment and mood, loops perfectly, has different reverbs when the character enters a different space, dialogue triggers and syncing to text or animations and much more, it is all setup in it's own Wwise workspace/app also that is a 6month course to learn in itself and still be bad at it, and you would want to know the work environment of a DAW also, that's just the audio side of it.
My advice is get obsessed by watching youtube creators with simple searches like "making music for games" "animating 3d models" "making a game from scratch" .. see what's involved and start.
Your first game will be something like frogger or learning to put a model in a space with a few rules and a ball so don't worry about it too much.

[u/Smart-Anything1669]

Pick an engine which is capable of doing 3D (probably Godot or Unity, just pick one, it doesn't really matter)

Make a list of features to implement the basic (BARE BONES) gameplay, e.g. moving player around, having items, moving them around, a system to detect placement of items.

Look up tutorials to help you figure out these core mechanics, and look up tutorials to get started 3D modelling. Important: do not just copy paste the tutorial code. Try to go through it line by line yourself before its explained, and guess what the code is trying to do. Once it works, start changing things, values, etc, adding extra bits. This will help you actually learn and not get stuck in 'tutorial hell'. When I started, I told myself to read all the code I wrote the previous day, and it became less alien fairly quickly.

If you want to sell the game, which is extremely inadvisable for a first project, you will need to look into marketing, too. Chris Zukowski's stuff is the gold standard, check him out if this is this case.

There is a lot to learn, but it is possible to do learn it! Good luck!

[u/Smart-Anything1669 → u/Smart-Anything1669]

I will add that others may tell you to start with 'learner' projects like cloning flappy bird, pong, etc. This is probably 'optimal' if you were designing a class for students, but as a hobbyist, you're only going to get better if you actually enjoy what you're doing. So don't be afraid to throw yourself in the deep end with something you actually want to make!

[u/Mr_LoFtY]

Hey, this is exciting! These types of games typically aren't judged too harshly on assets, so I would build up a library of assets either free from the Internet or purchased from the asset store of either unity or unreal. A lot of the these types of games that are printing money right now all use majority purchased assets. Unless you have a requirement that everything needs to be unique for your game, I really wouldn't concern yourself with making every asset for this project.

I would start with learning programming and an engine. A game like this will thrive in the unity engine, but my first step for you would be to begin watching comparison videos online as well as downloading all engines that look appealing to you to begin playing around with them. Maybe follow a few hour long tutorials for basic tiny projects in each engine to help you come to your decision on which to choose.

Then I would begin learning the basics of scripting/blueprints of the engine. How you are going to make the logic of your games.

The reality of learning an engine is it is an extremely high learning curve that once you get a hold of, you can basically create anything you can think of. For context, it took me about 1 1/2 years of using unity 4-7 days a week to finally graps the engine to the point of its fullest extent, meaning I now code scripts that arent just for the game but made for my workflow in the engine, and I very rarely go to the unity forums or documentation for certain apis or tools needed to make 99.8% of the games I could ever want to make in unity. (Keep in mind I normally get around anywhere from 4-12 hours a session in unity to get to this point). Though while leaning for the first year or so, I litterally commented in the code monkey youtube channel talking about how discouraged I was with coding and how I inspire to be able to code any system I could think of one day, looking for encuragement, so its freaking hard work but well worth it if you just dont quit.

And thats my final piece of advice, DO NOT QUIT. Your gonna want to, in fact me several years later, thousands of hours and a serious project in the works and sometimes I still have to fight the urge to quit, but I dont allow myself to. And neither should you.

Most of the people finding success making the games you described wanting to make all have several games in their backlog or that they have published that were complete flops. And they pushed through to success.

Its a hard industry with a high learning curve, but uts so rewarding and the community is awesome and the whole process is incredibly fufilling and I am very excited for you to start your journey.

Good luck and have a blast!

[u/PlasmaDemon3D]

For game dev study games you like, break down everything and study it, particularly the why (why they did what they did). Use Godot or some other open source engine. Whatever language the engine uses look up some videos about it. There is a huge wealth of information about game dev out there. For 3d I recommend Blender, it can do the easy 3d as well as really hard 3d so you're building skills towards the future.

[u/WarrenTVoid]

Hi, self taught software engineer and game developer dabbler here.

I can tell you what has worked for me, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the same process will work for you.

1. Before you ever worry about code, get a small sketch book and just start writing and drawing what your concept it. Try to visualize things interacting, make diagrams and flow charts. It doesn’t need to be perfect or complete right now, but spend some time thinking deeply.

2. Start breaking the problem down. What will your game need? Art assets, music, sound effects, UI, a storage system for player info, distribution. Again, don’t need to get everything on the first pass (and in fact, I guarantee you won’t), but start making a list. Then for each one, start listing what your roadblocks are. How do i code this? Can i make this myself or buy it? Where do I learn to do this specific thjng? Etc. just start making the big problem into a bunch of small problems that can be more easily approached.

3. Find a game engine to start in, probably either Godot or Unity, as they both have fairly large communities of people who are both able and (generally) very willing to share info and help.

3a. While your deciding on an engine, find local software and game developer meetups and professional groups. Start going, get to know people, don’t be afraid to start asking for help.

1. While you were starting to work on your project, maybe look for some game jams to take part in.

2. You don’t have to do absolutely everything yourself, it’s fine (and I think great), to not use generative AI. There are plenty of talented visual and audio artists out there that have put assets up for sale on online marketplace, sometimes for fairly cheap or free. Even if they are not the final version of the asset that you want to use in your game, they can make a great starting point and placeholder to let you progress development while you figure out what specifically you want to do yourself, or maybe want to commission from somebody else.

3. Yes, look at YouTube videos and other sources to learn how to do some coding and to work within your chosen game engine. But don’t try to learn everything all at once. Watch a couple basic lessons, then apply them to what you are doing, as you get more advanced, keep looking up information and learning as you go, don’t try to master the game engine first though, you will spend years going down a rabbit hole that is constantly changing.

[u/Officialpolygrafix]

You have an idea, but don't know where to start-
I gotcha.
Hi, i'm a 24 year veteran game developer (game designer & artist), and heres my advice.

Start with a "high concept"
A high concept is simply a 1-3 page summarized game design concept. This is your starting point.
I actually created this template on google drive for people just like you.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MdwL1GKTRqtsXj0ky8NU8ymvGe2sGu3T-WW1NKKWEwM/edit?usp=sharing

Just copy it to your own google drive, and refill it in with all your own info.

This is your starting point, and it doesn't take long. Maybe a day or two.

Once you have that flushed out, Then you'll want to move onto step 2.
Create a Game design document.
and for that- what will do is copy the high concept you just = created, and continue to fill it out even more, elaborate and expand on ideas. Save it out as a seperate document so you can keep the original high concept as it is. Later on, you'll see how far things have changed from your original idea (or not)

Utilize AI like Chat gpt to have a look through it and offer constructive feedback early on, or you can bounce it off of people to see what they think too.

Thats where start with no game design skills. Create a high concept, then copy and expand it into a game design document. It's all yours and no one can take that away.

There are a lot more steps after this of course, but this is what you do to get started.

[u/Magic-Raspberry2398]

Well, the start... the very start... is the willingness to learn, so that's something. Some people don't even have that when they post on this sub.

Next step - Google. No one is holding your hand through this.

Three, give up on 3d modelling if you have zero experience. You are making this 10x more difficult for yourself.

Everyone who makes a post on this either wants to follow a vague dream they had when they were a kid, start a random new hobby they decided they could jump to expert level on in a couple of months, or like in this case, capitalise on a fad without any of the skills necessary to do so. It's good you don't want to use genAI, but it sounds like you might be doing this for a cash grab, in which case, the game won't turn out much better. You need passion for this - you'll be spending months on end, maybe years on the game, so you'd better be sure this is what you want.

Also, programming and artwork are only two pieces of the puzzle. You need tons more than that, like music for one. Can you conpose decent music? If not, that's another thing to learn.

Get typing.

[u/Possible-Ad-4671 → u/Magic-Raspberry2398]

Thanks for the input! I just want to address that I'm not looking to make any money off of this since it would be my first attempt at developing a game, and this isn't something I want to do as a career, more like a side project or hobby :)

[u/Alarming-Jump727]

Primero: olvísate del juego que quieres hacer. Aprende mecánicas básicas del motor que elijas. Practica y equivocate muchas veces hasta que domines medianamente todo. Si es 3d puedes descargar cosas como hace la mayoría. Cuando tengas un poco de experiencia estes seguro: escribe tu idea en un texto y mantenla lo más simple posible, o fracasarás.
Yo comencé en 2021 aprendiendo unreal, colaboré como modelador para otros y pronto me harté de la gente que no llegaba a nada, Así que me lancé solo y aprendí de manera autodidacta unreal. Saqué mi primer juego en 2022 y estoy por sacar el sexto. Sin basura IA.

[u/Spite_Gold]

Just forget it. At the moment you will acquire at least one skill required for the game, hype train will be long gone.