Everything is a Twist of Nothing

Hello all of you earthlings and how is the oxygen today? Great, mediocre, crazily spontaneously combustible. No… Yessss… I am sorry I cannot hear through the monitor, do not worry though for I shall work on this dilemma. In the meantime though let us delve into another post of the blogs.

For this weeks post I shall introduce you all to the best tools for interactive entertainment creation and the best way to move from beginner to ultimately amazing game designer or programmer of awesomeness!!! (A position that I would love to jump in to)

So then what can you expect from the upcoming letters spread out on this page, well to be simple the best engines, methods, tools and activities that will make any game development dream come true without even going to uni.

But what do you do before all that when you find yourself lost and alone without a single line of code in your belt or even the design of the smallest violin to play to that aching heart of yours. As such you are in the first stage of Interactive Entertainment –

The Nothingness

It is this stage where nothing will become something and your quest for world domination has not even left that overflowing large mind of yours. As many people would say the first steps are the most difficult ones and the world of interactive entertainment is no different in fact you will find yourself at the beginning of something a lot more than you find yourself at the end I promise you.

Now what to do in this position. Well to get started play games, but do not just play them, study them. Look at how the world flows, how characters interact, how the menu operates. All of these are things that most designers spend countless hours on perfecting and are extremely helpful in getting your head in the right mindset.

Another thing you can do is simply be creative. Get a piece of paper out and draw, at the end of the day if you can draw well you are wanted so work on that, make masterpieces and share them across the Interwebs through DeviantArt, WordPress, Youtube or even Facebook if you must. If you are not the artistic type though then try your hand at Story writing. At the end of the day a game is simply a story made true by the players interactions with his or her environment. Even better than story writing is a Game Design document, if you can perfect the writing of these than you are good length ahead of the pack. All you really need for these to work is a Synopsis, Game mechanics, Rules, Controls, Plot, Characters, Arsenal List, Audio, Technical Specifications, Environment specifications and anything else you think is important for your game. Generally they range between 20 and 30 pages for mobile games to 100 for AAA titles.

Another good way to wrap your head around the game creation business is getting to know the community. Go to gaming conventions or if you live too far away then just look up your favourite titles and learn about the people who worked on it or how to get into that position you want. Just knowing these facts will quickly steer you in the correct direction. In fact reading a blog like this can also really help broaden that horizon for you.

A Technological Revolution

Now I bet many of just want to skip that stage and jump straight into making games. Honestly though I cannot blame you for I was the same. But where to start. My opinion is Gamemaker or GameSalad in terms of game engine. Both of these use amazingly simple drag and drop coding systems that make game creation as easy as 1, 2, look up the answer on the web and bam. For me GameMaker is the best option when it comes to simple 2D games as it has its own pixel art creator and many other simple functions that work together to possibly make more exciting experiences. In fact I still go back to it today when I want to test out my ideas for bigger projects.

In conjunction with GameMaker however I would say that Photoshop is a tool that you simply must have. Photoshop is something used in practically every field within interactive entertainment to make Concept Art, Textures, Level Designs and GUI. You could try alternatives like Paint or Gimp but I promise you that they always fall short compared to the juggernaut that is Photoshop. For pixelated art however I would say that GameMaker is better though but even better than GameMaker is Piskel. Piskel is a free to use Web oriented Pixel maker that is simply incredible at making great pixel animations and pixel art in general. It even does sprite sheets straight for you.

Venturing Onward

Well as much as 2D games are awesome they pale in comparison to the artistry behind most 3 Dimensional quests. So where does one start this venture. Well it may sound obvious to my fellow designers but I simply cannot move past Unity and its prowess. Of course Unity is not perfect and lacks in many areas specifically graphics it is simple and free enough to get your hands into the 3 dimensional word and all that is found within. Honestly to start making any actual good games you will have to try again and again and look through millions of tutorials but mastering Unity is almost crucial before moving on to the bigger and more capable engines used in the industry.

Scripting however is the hardest part of moving into Unity and requires a crazy amount of time to master. To cope with this you could just use the in built scripts from unity but that well only get you so far. If you want extra help though you can always check out my old coding blog at https://spyblaze.wordpress.com/ which has a number of great scripts to help polish your game that I made myself. That being said those scripts are certainly not perfect and do not feel obliged to follow me or anything there as I will probably not use that site anymore anyway.

But what if there was a way to skip the whole coding process, just walk past it and continue making games like back in the GameMaker days. Well then look no further than PlayMaker for Unity. PlayMaker is a not free add on for Unity that gives you the freedom to make games with practically no coding. Seriously it is a brilliant way to jump into Unity and start making games simply and effectively. I really do encourage you all to get it if you truly want to start making games immediately in Unity.

Then there is the issue of world building. You have the engine and some Photoshop skills but what about buildings and other objects. This is where a Modelling software really is required and I would say for your first try Google SketchUp. SketchUp is very limited compared to others but is great for getting your hand in the door and trying things out.

War for Entertainment

You finally made it here did you, the stage where masters are born and dreams begin to come reality. This is where the real tough stuff begins. Unity is now becoming weak compared to your skills and SketchUp is almost becoming laughable. Well lets give you a level up.

The next stage is where the industries go, The Unreal Engine. In fact Unreal 4 has officially this week become free. With this revelation I am ordering you to get it now if you are serious. The Unreal Engine is an extremely powerful engine being the one to bring out games like BioShock and Deus Ex and now that it is free you can start working towards these goals for nothing. The insanity almost makes me want to Explode!

In terms of 3D modelling however I would advise you to jump to Maya. Sure you could go to Blender or a multitude of other programs but I personally advise Maya due to all of its features that make it stand out. Of course with all of these features it takes a while to master and at first feels overwhelming, if you can pass that though 3D models become a pastime and the freedom of creation becomes fully available to you.

Another important part of this stage sadly is processing power. At this point cheap tactics become hard to pull off and at the end of the day you will have to fork out some of the dough. You will need a more powerful computer that can handle the sheer awesomeness of both Maya and Unreal. On the other hand if you wish to stay cheap then what I advise you to do is continue working with the older engines and focus your effort on polishing your games. At the end of the day games look extremely ugly until time and effort is taken in seemingly smaller areas like audio, particle effects and background scenery or characters.

Feel free to continue working on your art, storytelling or game design documents from the first stage as well as they will generate ideas that can help you greatly in the future.

World Domination

If you made it to this stage and you are reading this post then I am truly honoured. In fact if you are here then I am almost certain that you know exactly what you need to do from here. When you reach this stage you have either made a game and made some of that lovely green stuff or work in a game company itself. All I will say to help you here is keep that passion for games going, always try to add something knew to the world of gaming and have fun with your domination of the world. (P.S I would love to join you wink wink)

Well that is it for another post of the blogs. Thank you all for once again tuning into this channel and I cannot wait to have an opportunity to try and read your thoughts for next week. Until then have a great week and have fun on your little green and blue spherical world.