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+--- Thread: Chubbs Indie (/showthread.php?tid=17935)
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Chubbs Indie - Blue - 03-04-2013
As I mentioned in Mal's Author thread, I'm looking to start getting some schooling in programming. I know we have a strong base of programmers, artists, and other essential personel here already. So, I think to myself, "Self, you have at hand a community of creative, driven, and talented folks. Is it such a big jump to turn a community of writers and artists into a game development group?"
And, of course, the answer is no. And while I have no programming experience outside of basic stuff and binary/hexadecimal, I'm eager to start learning quick and plan to get me some study materials from the internets. So, I suppose the purpose of this would be to ask who would be interested in working on making some games? If so, what skills and talents do you bring to the table?
And don't sell yourself short, any of you. Even the ability to beta test is a skill that's useful in creating a game. Of course, artists and programmers would be optimal, but I'd love if we could get every single person on the site into a project into the future.
Chubbs Indie - Ander - 03-05-2013
Too much maths. o_o
Chubbs Indie - Blue - 03-05-2013
A lot more than just programming goes into making a game. Script writing, world-building, scenarios, character development, plot, theme; Those are all parts of making an immersive game that requires little more than a creative mind. For those who can draw, character portraits, cutscenes, models, etc. There's all sorts of places in a development team for those who add 1 and 1 and get 3.
Chubbs Indie - Blue - 03-05-2013
Heck, even feedback would be nice. "Hey, I liked this but hated this." "That was a good idea, but I think it would be better thusly."
Chubbs Indie - Sigfried Hunin - 03-05-2013
All I'm good with in games is world building and game mechanics. I'm actually pretty decent with game mechanics, but none of the way they're digitally implemented.
Chubbs Indie - Jonathan Meer - 03-05-2013
99% of making a game is programming. There really isn't that much that goes into it other than code, and anything that we make is going to be simple enough that one person can design and implement it.
That said, I'm down. I've been looking for an excuse to make something.
Chubbs Indie - Blue - 03-05-2013
http://makegames.tumblr.com/post/44181247500/making-it-in-indie-games-starter-guide
Pretty neat article on making it in the Indie industry. And while I agree that without programming you don't have a game, this details a few other aspects people may not think about, one being marketting.
Chubbs Indie - Waffuru - 03-06-2013
The base of every game is programming but it usually won't get anywhere without art or sound. I think the more interesting genres of games require good lore and storytelling as well.
Chubbs Indie - Blue - 03-06-2013
That's why I'd like to get the whole community in on anything we work on.
Chubbs Indie - Kaden - 03-06-2013
The issue isn't willingness, it's just technical skill. Do we have people who can program and do sound and do art and are willing to spend time on a game for free?
Relatively speaking, writing and backstory and lore and pacing and all that stuff is easy and not what you need to be looking for.
Chubbs Indie - Blue - 03-06-2013
Well, I know Meer has alluded to having some skill, Kayne I know has some experience at least with web design, and I'll be taking courses here shortly in programming. I'll also be studying up with all the free resources the internet has on Flash and other design.
I also know we have many, many, MANY artists on this site, though I don't know how versed they are in graphic design, so we may still be hurting there. And for sound, I don't know a single person.
However, I was thinking we could start easy. Pick up RPGMaker2000, or something like it, and make a game based off of Chubbs itself, or maybe one of the sagas.
Chubbs Indie - Waffuru - 03-07-2013
I think an RPGMaker game would be the best to collab and probably the most fun too. Setup a dropbox so that we can all have copies of everything and go to town. RPG Maker VX Ace is still on sale.
Chubbs Indie - Blue - 03-07-2013
On sale is great, except that even 50% off it's still 35 bucks. -_-; Conversely, full price RPG Maker XP is ~30 bucks.
Chubbs Indie - Jonathan Meer - 03-07-2013
Construct 2 is free, and apparently not that hard to pick up. My roommate liked it, at least.
Chubbs Indie - Waffuru - 03-07-2013
yolo mostly
i can send you a crack if you wants but
theres a trial here
http://www.rpgmakerweb.com/product/rpg-maker-vx-ace
Chubbs Indie - Anzekay - 03-08-2013
I wouldn't say that 99% of making a game is programming. It really depends on the scale of the game. If you're just making a little RPG thing in one of those RPG maker pieces of software then, sure, that's pretty much most of what you'll be doing.
But something on a slightly larger scale, using something like Unity or the UDK? Well, that opens up a whole bunch of other worms and you suddenly need art, design, writing (maybe), project management and other such skills spread over your team.
And obviously all the big games out there have teams within a studio that do considerably different things, and people that have a focus on different areas.
That said I think that pretty much anyone involved in Games Development should have some sort of knowledge of programming, even if it is at a very fundamental level of just understanding how it functions and how your role interacts with it. But, I honestly think that goes for the art and animation side, too. Knowing how that stuff works is pretty damn useful for the programmers.
Basically, you can never know too much, but if you focus on one area at least learn a little of the others. Everything I know about the industry, all my contacts within studios and every professor I have had for Game Design units at University have told me the exact same thing over and over.
And those are just design or technical skills. Still need people who can effectively communicate, organise, manage and document stuff on a team. Oh man, documentation. The better you are at that the better a team can function, especially if it is a little team who are not in geographical proximity.
Anyway just wanted to throw my thoughts out there. There's a lot more I could say, but it's hard to make it all concise, and it isn't perfect anyway. I've learned a lot from the Games I've worked on at uni, and from the project I am working on right now, as well as my actual study and talks with my industry contacts, but my knowledge is still very very limited and growing all the time.
Speaking of my current project... Remember how we had a thread like this a while back, and I spoke with a bunch of people about starting a project? Well that is still going somewhere, and I've been working on pre-production with several IRL friends of mine, a few others from elsewhere, and Greg (Rose) as well. We've got some really interesting ideas for gameplay, setting and some very very rough story ideas (not something to focus on at all, yet) that I've been really excited about, and we've been tinkering around in the UDK (what we are going to use for it) to get used to it and be ready to begin some conceptual prototyping.
That said, I'm always interested in other projects, especially smaller ones, so I'd be keen to get in on this one as well. I am mostly art-side, though, and I am not sure how much of that is going to be needed in a little RPG maker game. It really depends on what folks have in mind.
But colour me interested, for sure.
Chubbs Indie - Jonathan Meer - 03-08-2013
Anything I type in response to that is going to come across as thoroughly asshole-ish. So here goes
It was hyperbole. Obviously any game of any artistic complexity will require art assets, and those take time to make. But in my experience, programmers tend to do the brunt of the work for getting this sort of thing realized. It's the easiest thing in the world to have 'ideas for a game.' But the difficult work is done by the programmers.
This is all describing the buddy-buddy, ad hoc, 'no-actual-skills-but-boy-do-i-have-a-cool-game-idea' thing. Actual teams with an actual budget and actual skills operate differently.
Chubbs Indie - Anzekay - 03-08-2013
99% hyperbole, sure, but your statements after that just came off with some sort of 'programming is the be all end all' kind of vibe, which just isn't true and I hear so much of to the point that it kinda grinds my gears a little. Maybe that wasn't intentional, maybe it was just directed at the small scale stuff (like you mentioned just now), but I still wanted to express my thoughts on the topic. I see no harm in that.
I don't really understand why that would require a response that would come off as asshole-ish
Chubbs Indie - Jonathan Meer - 03-08-2013
Because programming is, by far, the most significant part of game development, and it frustrates me to see grassroots teams consisting of 10/15 buddy-buddy folks of which only 1 or 2 know how to program. The division of labor is going to get really uneven really quick.
In those classic deathmarch stories, who is it putting in 80 hour weeks with no overpay? QA (because QA is fucking awful and soul-draining) and programmers. Not artists, not writers, not 'world-builders'.
Chubbs Indie - Anzekay - 03-08-2013
Good thing those sorts of grassroots teams are destined to fail eh