Games for a modern person are a significant part of everyday life. Today they are simply great amount- for the most demanding taste. At the same time, the range of such entertainment is very wide: from the smallest audience to adults. They are also divided by genre and size. But among the countless variety of different and diverse games, it is sometimes quite difficult to find your own. But you can always easily find a guide on how to make your own game. This, if you want, is not so difficult. The main thing is to tune in and find good step-by-step instructions.
A bit of gaming history
In any form, they have accompanied man since the creation of our world. Games served for entertainment and development. Children were distracted with homemade toys to do numerous household chores. And adults used them to lift their spirits. They found many ways to make the game with their own hands. And each had its own characteristics and charms. Several items that were used for gambling back in 3500 BC have been well preserved to this day. But the most ancient are considered to be ordinary six-sided dice. They were made from various materials: bones, ceramics, wood.
Long centuries of several people at once. And only in the 21st century, thanks to automation, it became possible to do this one by one. Roulette and “one-armed bandits” appeared. Over time, games, instead of uniting, began to alienate people. Now almost the entire heritage of mankind has been digitized and adapted for computers.
How to make a game for little ones
The development of children under one year of age is very important. How can you teach your child attentiveness, logical thinking and ingenuity? Of course, with the help of games. This is the only way to easily, without moralizing and force, develop in a child many natural talents.
Many children's stores offer a huge variety of games, but sometimes it's better to develop them yourself. This is both useful and very interesting. Everything you need can be found in special publications that will tell everyone how to make their own game.
The most popular children's entertainment, even at an “unintelligent” age, is modeling and drawing. To do this, mom can make her own plasticine and paints. Plasticine is an ordinary sweet dough. It will require flour, salt, lemon juice, water and multi-colored food coloring. For painting, you can also make safe, and most importantly, tasty paints from carrot or beet juice. All you need is flour, salt and a little vegetable oil.
Collecting special puzzles will also be interesting for the child. Here, before making your game, you need to choose your favorite characters and stick them on cardboard. It can be cut into two or more parts.
We make games for a fun company
Get together with friends, what could be better and more fun? But, in addition to friendly gatherings over a cup of tea, create good mood Properly selected entertainment will help. For these purposes, you can choose both board and outdoor games. If you don’t have suitable copies at hand, you can easily make them yourself.
Before making your own game for a large company, you need to decide on some points: the location of the meeting, the number of people and their preferences, as well as the presence of game elements. After this, you can begin to search for suitable options.
If you are popular among your friends Board games, then you can make it yourself, for example, “Battleship”, “Monopoly” or ordinary “Forfeits”. To create them you will need colored paper, markers, cardboard and a little imagination.
Every company should try fun game"Twister". At the same time, it is interesting not only to participate in it, but also to watch. It's quite simple to do. You need two Whatman paper, adhesive tape, self-adhesive film in four colors and several auxiliary tools. Whatman paper is glued together, and multi-colored circles are glued onto them (4 vertically, 6 horizontally). Then the dial is constructed.
All these games can be made with your own hands. You just need to set a goal and find or come up with an answer to the question “how to make a game.” On a computer, in a special program, you can draw everything so that it is smooth and beautiful. This way you can save time and your own efforts.
Modern technologies give us the opportunity to constantly develop, and with the help of a computer you can do anything yourself. Therefore, the question of how to make a game on a computer can be solved by finding step-by-step instructions.
It is worth noting that this business requires good skills and abilities. computer technology. But a simple toy can be made, if you try, even for a teapot. To simplify the process, you will need a special program, for example "scirra construct", "FPS Creator". You can choose other options. By adding your own pictures and sounds to the program, building a story and possible actions, you can create a good toy. To make a more or less decent thing on your own and without these utilities, you need to be a very advanced programmer. Therefore, it is worth practicing and starting with the simplest.
and create?
The most interesting and at the same time simple thing is a variety of cartoons. Nowadays they are made more even for adults than for children. And what could be more interesting and exciting than a cartoon invented and created independently. A flash game is the same as a cartoon, with its own characters, plot and obstacles. That's why they are so popular today. But how to make a computer game in this genre yourself?
To create it, as for any program of this level, an ignorant beginner will need special utilities. Finding them is quite easy. As a rule, online constructors such as "GameBrix", "Stencyl" are used. All such programs are created using the ActionScript language. The main tools when designing any Flash game are the Flash interface, creating text and buttons, importing multimedia elements into Flash, organizing and preparing a video for publication. At the same time, you need a good imagination for an interesting plot and characters. If you do everything according to the instructions, you will end up with a pretty decent toy.
Online game. Learning to create programs
Here it is also easiest to use a ready-made service and simplify your task several times. All online games are created in the browser. Therefore, to solve the question of how to make an online game, you can choose several options. But the most effective way is to register on a specialized website and use the proposed designer. There are several paid and free sites for this, for example "MMO Constructor", "Kvester", "Clic.ru", "Ternox". There step by step and in a simple and accessible form any online game. You just need to find pictures and clearly imagine the plot and main characters.
Social networks are the place where almost every person with free access to the Internet spends the lion's share of their free time. Odnoklassniki is one of the most popular sites in this genre. Here they correspond, post videos and photos, discuss events and play. By the way, with the help of the latter you can also earn money. But how to make a game on Odnoklassniki yourself?
First of all, you need to design any flash game of a certain genre: arcade, shooter, racing. Then you need to go to your Odnoklassniki page. In the "Games" section, click on the "Place a game" button. After this, following step by step instructions, download and distribute your own program.
Creating games for Android
The phone is a device that we use almost constantly for entertainment or work. Now there are many paid and partially free applications for every taste. But sometimes you want to make a program yourself, for yourself. The question is how to make a game on Android.
The most popular engines for creating your own applications on this platform are "Unity3D", "Shiva3D", "AndEngine" and "Instead". With their help, you can design a game of any level without knowledge of programming languages. Each program helps you create your own project.
The first thing we need is to decide on our goal. What do we ultimately want to get? If you want your game to work, you first need to aim more accurately and not hit at random.
The concept and goal definition stage is handled by project Manager.
Genre
You can imagine your finished game in great detail from the very beginning, or you can think out the plot, style, and features of the game as development progresses. In this matter, excessive precision is not necessary, but at a minimum, we need to set the direction for the development of our game project. The genre of the game must be chosen at the very beginning without fail. The genre will be the main direction of development of the game.
We look at the round table of genres as a target, and select the gameplay elements we need (more information about the table of genres can be found in the article “ Computer game genres"). Some elements will give us high popularity among players (destruction, competition, hero, care), some will give us loyal but picky fans (tactics, control, evasion), and some will give us the absence of serious competitors (training, logic, travel, economics).
The chosen genre can be slightly adjusted as work progresses, but its essence should remain the same. Genre is a kind of foundation for the entire game. If you want to change the genre of your game, it will be easier to start development new game again, rather than redoing what has already been done.
Setting
The division of computer games into genres is very specific and is not similar to the system of genres of films and books. Game genres determine only the basic actions that players will perform during the game, thereby answering only the question “WHAT?” To the questions "WHERE?" and when?" Another main characteristic of the game is the setting.
Setting is the game’s belonging to a certain plot theme or to a specific virtual world. Several of the most popular settings have emerged among computer games: fantasy, science fiction (sci-fi), World War II, the Middle Ages, steampunk, post-nuclear world, anime, comics.
Creating a game in a popular setting ensures its own popularity, and players feel cozy and comfortable in an already familiar world. Some games are created in their own unique settings or in unusual combinations of standard themes. Such games are less popular, but, nevertheless, they have their own audience of special players who cannot stand stereotypes and monotony.
2. Remedy
The goal of the game project has been set, now we need to choose the means (materials and tools) to achieve it. And here we are faced with an unusual phenomenon of the computer world - both the material and the tool of the game project are the same entity - program code. Code as a building material is digital images, three-dimensional models, sounds and texts in the form of sequences of ones and zeros. Code as a tool is commands in lines of program code that control game objects of all listed types.
Creating game material (filling, content) is a purely creative part of the process, we’ll look at it a little later, but for now let’s look at the program code only as a tool. In this case, the program code is a framework (skeleton) on which the results of all subsequent stages of development will be strung.
This stage is carried out programmers.
First of all, we must choose the programming language that suits us best. After this, there will be hard and painstaking work on writing program code that can operate with two-dimensional or three-dimensional objects in space, linking images and sounds. To create a virtual three-dimensional space, you will have to use complex geometric formulas to construct a projection of 3D objects onto a plane (in the mind of a computer, objects exist in real three-dimensional space, but to display their image on a flat two-dimensional screen, you have to make recalculations). As development progresses, you will have to study all image and audio file formats, all kinds of codecs and encodings.
The use of game engines does not completely free us from using the services of programmers, but it reduces them to a minimum. You still have to customize the standard software module and add something of your own to it to make the game project more unique.
3. Game mechanics
The most important creative part of any game is the game mechanics. This thing is not on the surface, so it often escapes the attention of inattentive game connoisseurs.
Young teenagers (the main part of the gaming audience) mostly evaluate games based on the quality of graphics, and do not notice that beautiful games Although popular, their popularity lasts only a few months after release. And in the hearts of players and in the golden lists of eternal gaming classics, completely different games remain forever, perhaps a little unsightly in appearance, but with amazingly exciting gameplay. The more varied and interesting the gaming options, the longer the player stays in the game. For example, why did Minecraft receive universal love? Certainly not for the primitive cubic graphics, but for the fact that this game gives truly limitless gaming possibilities.
If you imagine the game in the form of a living organism, then the game mechanics will be its nervous system and the brain. And if you imagine the game in the form of a house under construction, then the game mechanics will appear as electrical wiring, pipelines and other household utilities. Imagine what happens to beautiful and fashionable, but not well-thought-out games from this point of view: you can live in beautiful house, but if it does not have lighting, running water and sewerage, then at the first opportunity you will leave it in search of more comfortable housing.
Game mechanics, at their core, are a set of rules by which the game will function. What action will happen if the player takes this bonus? If the player comes into contact with an enemy, what will happen then? Will he lose health from this contact, or will this only happen after being hit by an enemy? If a player approaches a car, will he be able to get in and take a ride? Will the player be able to build anything or at least move objects? There may be several hundred or even thousands of such questions. The answers to all these questions will constitute the game mechanics.
Objects
The basis of all mechanics are game objects. The main character of the game, computer opponents, secondary characters (NPCs), bonuses, moving objects, decorations - all these are game objects with their own properties and possible actions.
Control
Game mechanics determine which keys the main character or the main game object will control, what action will occur after pressing a particular button. This also includes the laws of behavior of game objects (physics engine) and the behavior of enemies ( artificial intelligence).
Physics engine
If “control” is responsible for moving the character under our control, then the physics engine is responsible for those movements that occur without the direct intervention of the player. These actions imitate the physical laws of the real world (sometimes slightly distorted towards fantasy). A thrown ball bounces off the floor, an overturned barrel rolls down an inclined surface, a shot from a powerful weapon throws the shooter back, a fragile object thrown from a height breaks - all these are examples of the action of the physics engine.
In ready-made game engines, physics engines are most often implemented. All you have to do is assign ready-made objects to your unique objects. physical characteristics: weight, density, elasticity, destructibility. If you decide to create your own physics engine, then for this you will need a talented programmer who has a good understanding of the principles of object-oriented programming (OOP) and a little knowledge of classical physics.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI is responsible for the behavior of computer enemies or allies.
The role of AI varies significantly depending on the game genre. In action games, enemy actions are extremely primitive; in RTS strategies, a couple of dozen scripts are enough to give the opponent seeming intelligence; In stealth action games, slashers and fighting games, it is necessary to create a unique behavior system for each type of enemy, otherwise stupid enemies will make the game uninteresting. A serious strategy game requires enormous work on AI, but in simple casual games and online projects focused on battles only between real players, artificial intelligence is not needed at all.
4. Levels
The rules of the game in the form of game mechanics are ready, now we need to create platforms where these rules will begin to work. The created game objects are placed in separate virtual spaces – levels (locations). Games most often contain many separate levels, the transition between which occurs as the story progresses. But in Lately, thanks to the increased performance of computers, games are being released with one large, integral world, only conditionally divided into different locations (GTA, Skyrim).
At each individual level, game objects, walls, platforms, decorations, and backgrounds are placed. Levels are created in games of all genres. Even in a simple casual game of rearranging colored pebbles, there are levels - their role is played by the playing fields and the placement of stones. In browser games, individual html pages act as locations.
If, again, we imagine the game in the form of a house, then the construction of game levels is the layout of the floors, and the number of levels is the number of storeys of the building.
They are building levels level designers.
Ideally, level designers are taken from among avid gamers. This happens because any other person from the outside, even if creative, but very far from the topic of games, will not be able to cope with this task well. The level designer must have a good understanding of the gameplay, and feel how the game situation will change from moving objects on the level.
Quite often, a game comes with a level editor, with which ordinary players can independently create new maps and levels for themselves. Game developers support the distribution of homemade maps among players and often post the best works on their official servers. Level editors are created not only to entertain players and increase the lifespan of a particular game, but also to find the most talented people among the gaming audience. Thus, game studios solve their personnel problem. As mentioned above: the best level designer is an avid player.
The most important component of the game – the gameplay – depends on the design (not the design, but the layout) of the levels. (This rule does not apply only to most casual games, fighting games and sports games, where the levels are extremely primitive). Uninteresting and monotonous level layouts have ruined many games with great designs backed by the latest technology. If you want to create a full-fledged, exciting game, and not a dummy in a beautiful wrapper, then you need to spend maximum creative effort on level design.
5. Design
They create graphics artists, game designers.
Of course, if you are developing a simple 2D game, then you can draw something from pixels yourself, but in more serious and large projects it is better to hire professional artists and designers.
Arts
First you need to create images of heroes, enemies, game objects, backgrounds. They are initially drawn either on paper or on a computer using a graphics tablet. For small game studios, this stage is not necessary, but it is simply necessary in large companies in order to explain to all designers, not with fingers, but with visual images, what they should end up with.
2D, 3D models
Based on art, designers create either 2D sprites from pixels or 3D models from polygons.
Animations
Animations are created for game objects that will move during the game. It will be especially difficult with heroes and enemies, the number of animations of which sometimes exceeds a hundred different movements.
Currently, to create humanoid 3D characters, there is a special technology called “Motion Capture”, which allows you to create animations based on the movements of real people. This technology is available only to large and very rich companies. To use Motion Capture, you not only need to purchase expensive equipment, but also hire a group of actors from whom movements will be recorded.
Backgrounds
With backgrounds everything is much simpler - I drew it once, put it in Right place at the level without any changes, and forgot.
Special effects
Visual special effects are essentially the same as animations, but instead of moving objects, they use moving particles and light filters. Beams of light in different directions when taking bonuses, fire on a burning building, a smoke screen after a grenade explosion, laser beams from the barrel of rifles, the application of blur filters when underwater and blackout filters in poorly lit areas are all special effects. Without such effects, the game will seem bland and too ordinary. The use of special effects adds brightness, richness and expressiveness to the game.
Screen and menu design
It is necessary to design not only the game levels, but also the system that unites them into a single whole - the game menu (lines, buttons, settings pages). The initial menu is generally business card game, and it should look perfect. The game screen also has many elements to which you can apply design - the number of lives, lifebar, minimap, quick action menu, hero's inventory, task lists, dialogue screens. In English, all this is called one abbreviation - GUI (Graphical User Interface - graphical user interface).
The interface and menu are designed artists, programmers And HTML page layout designers. (Site site)
6. Plot
It is very difficult to attract a player to your project, but it is even more difficult to make the player complete the game to the end. Any frustrating, boring or difficult passage can instantly turn a player off from further playing. In most cases, the player will leave and forget the game without any regret. And only a well-presented, high-quality plot can force the player to gather his strength, complete the entire game, and therefore listen to your interactive story to the end.
At the dawn of its existence computer games they did without a plot, drawing players in only with their gameplay. But nowadays, even the simplest casual game has a plot attached to it, not to mention large AAA game projects.
Although, the existence of a plot in the game just for show does not give any positive effect, the developers continue to come up with more and more new stories, one more stupid than the other. A story is only useful if it can engage the player's emotions. This requires a unique, interesting and believable plot; each character must have his own unique personality and act according to it; characters and there should be no more events than the human brain can perceive, otherwise the plot will turn into an incomprehensible vinaigrette; events should occur logically (mystery and vagueness are welcomed to maintain plot intrigue, but there should also be a logic hidden from the player).
Scripts, events
The best option is when the plot exists right inside the game. This is achieved through the use of scripted scenes.
The script is the following: the player enters a certain place, or performs the desired action, or some other actions are performed the necessary conditions, and after that the actions you have programmed for this case begin to be performed. For example, in a military 3D shooter we rise to a hill, approach an installed machine gun (the condition is met), 10-15 seconds after that, a massive enemy attack suddenly begins below, and we have someone to use the machine gun on (events have occurred).
With the help of scripted events, you can add variety to the gameplay or even turn the game into an attraction of endless scripts (this is what the series is built on Games Call of Duty). The only disadvantage of this method is that the player’s freedom of action is reduced. Everything happens at the will of the scripts, and depends little on the player’s actions.
They are thinking through scripts screenwriters, and their implementation – programmers.
Dialogues, narrations
In old classic games The plot exists separately from the gameplay. For example, when loading or finishing levels, we are introduced to the plot story, told about the relationship between heroes and enemies, and explained what needs to be done at the level and why. During the game itself, none of the above has any meaning, and the player can safely skip all these texts. Most often this is what happens - texts remain unread. And all because there is no good reason to read them.
Another thing is in-game texts or dialogues. They occur during the game, but in safe places, or with game time stopped so that the player can focus only on the text. The player has to listen to the narration, since the game freezes for this time, but does not stop completely. And in dialogues you also need to choose an answer option. Choosing an option gives interactivity and at least some practical meaning to listening to the text - the correctly chosen answer can bring an additional bonus, make further play easier, or preserve the chosen character of the hero in role-playing games.
When creating a game, it is better to store texts of narratives and dialogues in separate files, loaded during the game. Separating the artistic text from the technical codes will help in the future if you decide to create a localized version of the game in other languages of the world.
Writing texts and dialogues screenwriters And writers.
Video inserts
Between levels of the game or at certain checkpoints of levels, instead of dry text and voice acting, you can show video inserts (cutscenes) to players. Such screensavers can be created either using separate video files or using a game engine.
Video files allow you to transmit a picture of any quality and complexity to the player, but when creating a game distribution, they take up a lot of disk space. Screensavers created on the game engine are almost as good in quality as video recordings rendered in advance, but for them have a nice watching The player must have a fairly powerful computer, which is not always the case in reality.
They create video inserts artists, animators, 3D modelers, screenwriters, directors.
7. Sound
A beautifully drawn and impressively designed project silently looks at us and waits for us to add sound to it. This is another important component of the game.
Sound effects
For any small game movement you need to add an appropriate sound. This could be sword strikes, a melee strike, the sounds of a car moving, receiving a bonus, or the hero being detected by an enemy. Don't think that this is some kind of excess, and you can get by with just a few basic sounds. For example, most 3D-Action games neglect to add footstep sounds for the protagonist and enemies. As a result, when viewed from the first person, you can see that the hero is moving in space, but it seems that he is not walking, but smoothly sliding forward. And enemies without voiceover of their steps can completely silently run up to the hero from behind and greatly spoil the nerves of the players.
Good sound effects not only fill the silence, but also serve as an extension of the game's graphical style. A cheerful arcade game is filled with no less cheerful melodic sounds, a sports car simulator is filled with the rumbling roar of engines and the clanging of brakes, a three-dimensional action movie is deafening with machine-gun fire, falling shell casings and clicking rifle bolts.
Most often, real sounds recorded digitally are used as sound effects. There are many free collections of sound effects on the Internet, you just need to find them and choose the ones that suit you best.
Music
In addition to sounds, for a full-fledged game you also need music (soundtrack). It will be the sound background for what is happening on the screen. Music is also one of the stylistic elements of the game, and has the greatest influence on the player’s mood. It takes a long time to select finished music according to the appropriate tempo and mood. There are many paid and free collections of game background tracks that you can use in your game (article " Music for creating games"). Or you can order composers to write new music specifically for the game.
Voice acting
The third sound element of the game is the voice acting of game dialogues and monologues. This component is very expensive, but its presence in the game is not necessary. Some games have almost no dialogue or text, and where there is, they can be left unvoiced in the form of text subtitles. Small games do without voice acting at all, and in large projects they even invite world-famous professional actors to do voice acting.
The presence of music and full-fledged voice acting in the game significantly increases the volume of the finished game occupied on the hard drive. But if possible, it is better to still add voice acting to the game. This will increase the player's involvement in the plot and the story you are telling, since most players ignore and do not read regular unvoiced texts at all.
8. Sanding
Development process great game built in such a way that its various elements are dealt with by different specialists. At the initial stage, the game is a disparate set of creative developments in various fields of art: images, sounds, 3D models, architecture, texts, scenes, video inserts, design. And finally, the moment comes when the scattered stones need to be collected. With the help of software, disparate objects are connected into a single complex system.
Mixing of material (a-version)
When building a game on a game engine, the merging of objects occurs gradually from the very beginning of the process. Until the game is completed, it is called the alpha version. At this point, you can already start testing individual levels, scripts and other mechanisms.
At this stage, it is already technically possible to release a demo version or at least a video with gameplay in order to attract players to your project in advance.
Troubleshooting (b-version)
When the game is completely assembled, all that remains is to eliminate the resulting bugs. They appear in any case, since the game is a system with a complex structure. The game elements themselves are clear and simple, but the connections between them are so complex and ornate that the process of debugging and eliminating errors can take up to 40% of the entire project development time. A fully assembled game, but not yet tested for errors, is called a beta version.
They are looking for bugs in the game testers. Very often, groups of ordinary players are involved as testers, and this serves as the beginning of their career in the gaming industry. The easiest way to solve this problem is in online games - developers organize open beta tests in which all interested players participate.
9. Sale
The creation of the game and all creative issues are handled by the development studio, and all other issues (loans, finances, contracts, rights protection, promotions, localization, sales) are usually transferred to the shoulders of another organization - the game publisher.
The relationship between developers and publishers can be very different: an agreement on cooperation on equal terms; all rights, financial risks and possible profits belong to the publisher, and the developers only receive their small percentage of the profits; all rights belong to the developers, the publishing house is a separate company temporarily hired by the developers; developers and publishing house are different divisions of one large corporation.
Before selling a game to an end user, publishers first need to communicate the game's existence. Of course, they can buy a game without knowing anything about it, simply choosing it at random in the store, but the chance that they will choose your game in this way is extremely low. It is much more profitable to spread information about the game to everyone possible channels. To do this, they use either advertising in a computer disk store or advertising on Internet resources.
The gaming industry is not like the market for ordinary goods; it has its own characteristics. Information spreads among the active gaming audience at lightning speed and covers everyone around. With this feature, the most effective advertisement for a game is its high quality. If your game is interesting and exciting, then gaming magazines and Internet information portals will write about it completely free of charge, players will begin to discuss the game and spread the information further and further, and after completing the first game they will look forward to additions and continuations of this project. Thus, without spending a penny on advertising, but earning the respect of the players, you will ensure the success of both the current game and all subsequent additions.
Localization
Released the game in your native Russian language? Get ready for the fact that the audience of potential players will consist of only a few countries, and the profit will be meager. It is much more profitable to release a game in English - its text will be understood by the majority of players around the world, these players will be much more solvent, and therefore the profit will be an order of magnitude greater.
Ideally, you need to release the game in several of the world's most popular languages at once (English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese), but for this you need to have a whole staff translators And localizers. Moreover, it is desirable that translators be native speakers. They will be able to transfer maximum meaning into their native language original text. But ordinary single developers do not have such luxury, and most large companies are in no hurry to spend money on this matter.
Separating the artistic text from the technical part of the game will help to significantly simplify the localization process. To do this, you need to place texts, subtitles and voice-over audio files in separate, easily accessible files of standard types. And in the game’s program code you only need to leave links so that the text is loaded into the game from these files. Most popular games are translated by enthusiastic players independently, without any participation from developers. Separating the literary text at the game development stage will greatly help such enthusiasts do their good deed.
Sales system
The game is ready, players are waiting for its release, all that remains is to decide how to deliver the game to end users and take money from them.
The classic method (producing large quantities of computer disks and selling them through retail stores) is still relevant, but is only suitable for large companies and for games that have at least some initial popularity.
For small groups of developers, distributing the game through digital distribution systems (large online stores) is ideal. This option provides a newly created little-known game with a ready-made audience of buyers that has formed around the service. The most famous example is the Steam service. Thanks to the huge audience of players using Steam, almost every game released in this online store immediately gains worldwide fame.
Or you can easily create your own online store with one single product - a created game. But in this case, you will have to advertise not only the game, but also the online address of the store, and win the audience yourself.
10. Support
Creating a game and selling it is not the end life cycle game project. When the game is already in the hands of end users, players may still need your help. Large companies even have entire departments technical support dealing with such issues.
Release of patches
The previous beta test eliminated the most obvious errors from the game, but this does not mean that they are completely gone from the game. It often happens that widespread use of a game reveals smaller, more subtle bugs that small groups of beta testers were unable to detect. These could be problems due to incompatibility with less popular brands of equipment, or errors due to unnatural use of gaming features. The imagination of some players exceeds the imagination of the developers; they can take actions in the game that the developers could not even think of.
All this contributes to the fact that we often have to make bug fixes in a finished game. These fixes are called patches, and this term is very common in the gaming industry. Few people manage to immediately release perfect games; most often, games are brought to perfection after their official release.
If for the game you received money from the players for each copy sold, then you receive absolutely nothing for releasing patches. From a market point of view, releasing patches is an unprofitable and useless action that does not have to be performed. But in the realities of the gaming industry, if you don't fully support your product, you get a bad reputation among players and lose possible future profits. Despite being free, releasing patches is a very useful and necessary thing.
Release of add-ons
Interesting and exciting game without serious flaws and errors gives you green light for further creative activity. Have players received your gaming product with a bang? This means that an addition or a full-fledged second part can be prepared for an already finished game, and the begun plot can be developed further, turned into a whole epic or even a full-fledged gaming universe.
We take the game development plan and begin to create a new work of art using the same ten stages, but now fully armed with the accumulated experience and acquired skills.
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This article will tell you what you really need to create a computer game. If you are tired of general advice- look through this document, and you will probably find something useful in it. The material is aimed at beginners and is of no interest to professionals.
Freedom or money
Do you want to create a computer game? I hope you have already resolved your doubts. Based on the fact that you are reading this text now, I dare to assume that yes. Therefore, I suggest you ask yourself something else, no less banal, but no less important issue: why do you need this? The answer to this question is less obvious, and I will try to help you find it. Depending on it, first of all, it depends on what tools you will use.
And if you think about it, there are two possible answers.
Option one. Having read an article in your favorite magazine, heard an enthusiastic story from a friend, or looked through Internet forums, you realized that a mere mortal could assemble the game and immediately became infected with this idea. Thus, you write a program out of pure enthusiasm for yourself, for your loved one, for presentation to friends, or, in as a last resort, for free distribution on the Internet. That is, commercial distribution is not initially intended. In this case, you don’t have to feel particularly constrained in choosing development tools. I do not urge you to switch to using exclusively pirated software. Just keep in mind the fact that many large companies - developers of popular software - turn a blind eye to such use of their products. The “try and buy” principle generally fits into their ideology.
According to the second option, you, on the contrary, are simply looking for a way to earn more money and have decided that creating game programs is the long-awaited bird of luck, your chance to step “from rags to riches.” It should be noted that quite often the second option follows from the first. Having created a truly high-quality product and constantly improving it, you decide to charge a fee for its use. In this situation, you no longer have such a wealth of choice. One way or another, you will have to purchase licensed versions of the programs, otherwise problems will naturally arise. So, willy-nilly, you will have to evaluate your financial capabilities. To avoid misunderstandings, I had to raise this topic here.
Now let’s think about what we will still need to write the Game.
Flash and game designers
Flash is unique program, which has no competitors in its niche, mainly due to its wide functionality. Using just one product, you can be a programmer, web designer and artist at the same time. Flash games are a little easier to distribute than "real" games. But you won’t be able to build a serious project on flash. If you are a solo programmer, then Flash may be an almost ideal solution for you, allowing you to save time and money. But if you work in a team and want to make a Game, and not an interactive cartoon, I strongly recommend paying attention to more specialized products.
Now regarding all kinds of game designers. My friends, using them is lameness in its purest form. They (the designers) lack the versatility of Flash without providing any benefits in return. With the help of a constructor, you can only do what its creator intended, while translators like Delphi or Visual C++ allow you to solve any programming problem.
My advice to you: stop using game designers and immediately switch to “serious” products.
Debriefing
I hope I dissuaded you from using all kinds of flash games and directed you to the true path of a game creator, if not, return to the previous section :)
And now it’s time to figure out what we still need in the difficult field of game making. Firstly, you will need a personal computer, no matter how trivial it may sound. Without him, I’m sorry, I can’t go anywhere. Secondly, a head capable of thinking, analyzing and a little imagination will definitely come in handy. And last required attribute game programmer, of course a translator. It’s about him, dear one, that we will talk about further. In addition to the required set, you will also need other programs such as a graphic editor, but more on them a little later.
Selecting a translator
Notice that I haven’t said a word about choosing a programming language yet. There are a great variety of them, and theoretically almost any one is suitable for writing a game. You can write games in BASIC, and in Fortran, and, pardon the expression, on the wall in the toilet. Here it is important to decide what you mean by the word “game” and what kind of game you want to make. The structure of modern graphic games is fundamentally different from all sorts of odd-evens and others like them. A word puzzle that works in text mode is also called a game. And it is for this reason that I did not mention a graphics editor among the indispensable attributes of a game creator. Personally, the proud phrase “computer game” represents a colorful show with dynamic action and the obligatory presence of graphics. DirectX was created to write such games, and today such games are sold in thousands of copies.
I pay such attention to this issue because the game is a very vague concept and it is important to decide from the very beginning what exactly you want to do.
Have you decided? Then you can safely move on to choosing a translator, or, to put it simply, a development environment. Please note that I recommend choosing not a programming language, but a translator. This is due to one simple reason. The programmer does not work with C or Pascal. It uses Microsoft Visual C++ or Borland Pascal. It doesn't matter what language you program in. Ultimately, what you can create is largely determined by the capabilities of a particular translator. I recommend choosing the already mentioned Visual C++, Borland C++ Builder or Borland Delphi. The presented translators are sold in several editions. I do not recommend taking the most sophisticated super pro version. Basically, the difference between different editions lies in the number of visual components and auxiliary utilities available to the programmer, which is not essential for creating games.
Game engines
Assembling a game from standard visual components is not the most beautiful solution. By following it, you are deprived of acceptable performance and obviously limit yourself in possibilities. However, writing a game “with clean slate“Today is also not accepted. To simplify the creation of gaming and multimedia applications, DirectX libraries were created. Despite many advantages, including high performance, programming in “pure” DirectX has one serious drawback - high development complexity.
Therefore, many so-called “game engines” were created, based on DirectX and greatly facilitating the programming process. Don't neglect, but don't overuse them either. It would be funny if standard Windows solitaire was written in a DirectX engine and required a 3D accelerator in the system to work.
The most sophisticated engines are sold for crazy amounts of money and their distribution is strictly limited. Fortunately, you can find many free engines on the Internet. For example, if you use Delphi and are new to programming, I recommend LKI-Creator and DelphiX.
Selecting brushes
A few words about graphic editors. To create any decent graphics in Paint, you must have remarkable talent and unlimited free time, so I recommend taking a more civilized path. Of course, Photoshop is an expensive thing, but it will definitely come in handy in practice. Another well-established program is Corel PhotoPaint. For processing three-dimensional models, I recommend 3D Studio Max, which is almost the de facto standard in the field of three-dimensional graphics.
Related products
And finally, I would like to mention the, so to speak, secondary tools used in the game development process and worthy of your attention. I won’t be verbose here and will get straight to the point. After achieving some success, you may need a program for creating installation disks - InstallShield Express is best suited for a novice developer. Use InstallShield DemoShield to create a product presentation and create a CD skin. I’m not even talking about the means of creating music and other similar things here. Today, music for games is rarely created by oneself, but is downloaded ready-made from the Internet, especially for novice developers. The main thing is that the source is not too famous. One of your main assistants is the Internet. Do not neglect visiting On-Line forums and conferences.
Nowadays it is very difficult to find a person who has not played mobile games, just remember the classic “Snake”. But has it ever occurred to you to create your own game, in which there will be your own heroes, invented only by you?
In order to start creating even the simplest mobile game, you need to have certain skills. What exactly is required?
- You need to think over a script, maybe even write it, show it to your friends or family. After all, what's the point of starting creation if there is no plot yet?
- I would like to note right away that creating a game without programming skills is a rather lengthy, complex and tedious process. Although, knowing the latter, nothing will change much, the process will not become any more fun. Be patient!
- And finally, it will be necessary software, or rather a game designer, perhaps even more than one. I will tell you which one to choose below.
What is a designer and how to choose it correctly?
This is a program that is created to make life easier for users. But it also has one more purpose - the designer should provide the opportunity to create applications not only for people with certain programming skills, but also for those who have no idea what it is. That is, with the help of the designer, anyone can create their own game.
How to choose the right designer? Oddly enough, but you need to start choosing it based primarily on your knowledge - from programming skills to proficiency level English language. If the first point is zero for you, then I recommend choosing programs for beginners, they are easier to use. The second selection criterion is the required functionality. This is where we need our precisely composed script; we need to read it again “from cover to cover” and understand how complex the future game will be. The more complex the project, the more all sorts of “bells and whistles” will need to be used, which means the designer must be more powerful and professional.
Below I will give a few examples of the most common designers that professionals advise beginners.
Construct 2
This application has deservedly been included in the TOP list of design programs for many years in a row, because it makes it possible to create games on practically all possible platforms and in all genres. The Construct interface is as simple as possible, but there is no Russification yet. The set of tools is sufficient to create any two-dimensional game. Another advantage is that it is not necessary to buy a program license; you can easily get by with the functionality offered in the free version.
Download: Construct 2
Video tutorials on Construct 2
Stencyl
This constructor is also designed for beginners who do not understand programming. It is perfect for creating simple two-dimensional games and will provide the opportunity to launch a project with a decent graphical interface.
In addition, if you still have at least some knowledge in the field of programming, then Stencyl will give you the opportunity to write your own code into the blocks. The set of tools will allow you to create games of almost any genre, but the functionality is more geared towards creating “shooters”.
The program is free, but if you want to convert your creation into formats that a personal computer can “understand,” you will have to buy a license subscription, and this is undoubtedly a minus, because this subscription is not cheap, it costs almost $100 a year. Well, if you see yourself in the future as a professional creator of mobile games, then get ready to pay $200 a year, which is exactly how much a program with the ability to save a project in the format of mobile operating systems will cost.
Download: Stencyl
Video tutorials on Stencyl
Unity 3D
I think that many people have heard this name and seen this logo on the screens of their mobile devices. The thing is that the company that produces software for creating games also produces applications of its own development.
Unity 3D is the most powerful designer for creating 3D applications. The level to which you can take your project is decent (just look at the screenshot above). This is not a processed image, but an actual screenshot of an unfinished game! Agree, this is a very high level for a mobile game.
But such a result will require certain skills. Although the program is positioned as an application for beginners, it is more likely intended for amateurs and professionals, because working with it will require basic knowledge of programming and 3D modeling. And of course, in Unity you can create a project of any complexity and any genre; the set of tools is simply huge.
Download: Unity 3D
Video tutorials on Unity 3D
How to use constructors?
There are no specific instructions for creating a game. It all depends on the genre you choose, your skills and, of course, on the program with which you are going to do all this. In this regard, I recommend that as a starting project you try to do something that has already been done by more experienced people, YouTube will help. This will help you get comfortable with the game development environment, understand how basic tools work, and possibly change your development scenario.
When you make a “test” project and definitely decide on yours, choose a program, then look on the Internet for videos about the designer that you will use.
Don't be afraid to experiment, search the Internet and try things out. This is the only way you will learn and develop. Good luck creating your masterpiece.
If you don't know programming languages, but want to start creating games yourself, all you need to do is purchase an engine ( special program), on the basis of which any game is created and developed.
The cost of such an engine varies widely - from $30 to $100, it is often determined by the popularity and promotion of the brand, and then directly by the capabilities of the program. For a beginner who does not have a particularly large starting capital, the least expensive one is quite suitable. Don't forget that many famous computer games were born from very simple engines.
Programs for creating computer games
An example of the simplest, but quite powerful and productive program is 3D Game Maker. Within fifteen minutes, even an amateur without any programming skills can make a pretty toy on it. The engine allows you to create a game with an original genre, lasting no more than 20 levels, your own storyline, a wide selection of hero layouts, opponents and other settings. As a result, we get a complete result of quite satisfactory quality. A more powerful system is 3D Game Studio, with which you can create 2D and 3D gameplay, but to work with it you already need basic knowledge of a programming language. The range of customizable functions is much wider than that of the engine described above, and built-in interface elements are also offered. Free program located in free access is Game Maker - a 2D designer with a wide profile of possible genres, game objects and their interactions, accompanying sounds. You can get creative with sketches to create objects - they are drawn in graphic editors and loaded into the system. By the way, beginners are recommended to start with this engine not only because it is free, but also because of its simplicity, logic and clarity. In addition to Game Maker, there is a whole bunch of zero-cost programs, as they say, for every taste and color, every beginner will be able to find a suitable engine for themselves and start creating their own computer masterpieces.
How to create a 2D game in 15 minutes?
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