So you wanna make a game?

I have always wanted to work in games. I have had a history of education in computer science but didn't like doing the boring stuff. My degree didn't include any game related stuff so I never pursued a career in games. Well until this week that is.

I listened to the Games Radar podcast from a little while ago named "How to Make a Video Game" with the guest Matt Hackett. He is an independent game developer and had a lot to say on how to get into the games industry. The main thing that stuck with me is that sentiment that "Games companies don't like people who can do things, they like people who do do things".

Having a basic knowledge of coding and scripting but not enough to make a game without learning a massive amount of technique, I had a look at various game making software packages, the most famous one being game maker. The indie game Spelunky was created with game maker so I knew there was some real potential to work with.

However I have recently played the game Cuthlu Saves the World. Based on HG Lovecraft lore the game is a well written parody lampooning traditional game clichés. Now I might not be brilliant at coding but I can write a half decent script so I could see that this was up my street. To The Moon was also created using this software. After a look at some other options I downloaded the trial version of RPG Maker Ace.

I decided to make a simple game utilizing the in game resources provided. Consisting of a small world map and a couple of small dungeons I created a game called "Vampire Winter". It took about a week's worth of evenings but I had a working game. It was quite fiddly to get the hang of but there are an absolute ton of resources and tutorials on-line both official and user made.

The game has a simple over-world map with a couple of locations and a final dungeon. I put in a couple of NPCs and a trader. I also added a trader with a small supply of weapons and potions. I put themed mobs in the different areas, for example spiders in the woods and werewolves near the final dungeon. The boss was in a castle and had a bit of dialogue with the player controlled characters before proceeding to fight.

All very simple and to be honest more of a learning exercise than anything. I feel that I have the groundings of the tools and I'm getting the hang of how to do some fancier things with it.

This is always something I have wanted to do and I'm glad I've got myself finally motivated enough to do something about it. I would eventually want to get a game onto X-Box Indie Games as a target but this is very far off. First things first, I need to make a game and that means a whole lot of work. Watch this space!