Anxious about my interest in game design

I used to play a lot of computer games when I was younger, and I've long wished I could design my own. At the moment I'm most interested in real-time strategy games like Age of Empires and Rome: Total War (OK, that's more like a real-time/turn-based hybrid), but I also enjoy city-builders, simulators, hack-and-slash RPGs, and sometimes first-person shooters. The problem is that I'm not sure how the hell I could assemble the indie team I need to help me make the game, nor do I even believe I'm ready for that endeavor at the moment.

In 2013 I got my B.A. in Biological Anthropology at UCSD, with some dabbling in ancient Egyptian and other African history along the side. Since that graduation, I've taken a few classes on drawing and digital art (Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop) at the Palomar community college in San Marcos, CA, and one Autodesk Maya class at Mira Costa in Oceanside, CA. This spring semester, I'm learning ZBrush at Palomar and Adobe Flash at Mira Costa.

Despite that educational background, I wouldn't rate myself as more useful for a game design than the ever-annoying "ideas guy". The most I could do is draw concept art or make some low-poly models in Maya, but even then I've a long way to go before I'm proficient enough at either to get hired anywhere. To make things even worse, something about the whole programming process has always terrified me, which might explain why I avoided game design courses until after UCSD. At the same time, I understand that ideas by themselves are a dime a dozen, which is why no respectable game developer has the patience for a mere ideas guy.

And it's not even like my ideas are that well-developed or interesting to anyone other than myself. I can easily imagine certain subject matter that I'd love to see in a game, but what people really care about are the gameplay mechanics, and the mechanics that come most naturally to me are recognizable derivatives of games I used to play (especially Age of Empires, a childhood favorite of mine). No one wants to buy a cosmetic redecoration of an old recycled formula.

I apologize for sounding so whiny in this OP, but I'm undergoing a murky period of my life right now. I have Asperger's Syndrome, which has always set back my social skills and predisposed me to insufferable obsessiveness towards certain topics, so I've made myself quite a few enemies over the course of my life. Now that I just turned 25 with only an anthropology B.A., some rudimentary art education, and no working experience whatsoever under my belt, I believe I've just wasted a quarter of my life, and the majority of my youth. What I want more than anything else is some place in the world where I can fit in, a place that will let me contribute to society and earn myself the independence and respect I've always craved. I don't know if such a place even exists for someone like me.

I'd end this OP with a simple question: what do I need to do to get a game made when I'm starting out with so little?

 

Start with Roll-A-Ball. Work your way up from there. Clone flappy birds. Build a basic platformer. This should give you enough to get the feel for the process, and see if you want to continue.

Or go back to school and get a game design degree.

 

I did download the free version of Unity3D a long time ago, so I'll finally put it to good use by practicing the tutorials you mentioned right now. Thank you!

 

Well the one great thing about game development is that all those feelings of overwhelming uncertainty as to wasting your life and whether or not you're up to the challenge... just means you're in good company with your fellow game designers/developers!

The best advice I can give (which is the advice I also don't follow) is to start small. Don't get overwhelmed with pursuing those big ideas just yet. Follow tutorials, but COPY AND PASTE NOTHING. Type any code out yourself so it really sinks in.

There's a lot of hate against UnityScript, but it's a bit more accessible to newcomers. Roll the ball around, mess with lighting, and if you want to create your own art assets, mess around in Blender or your favorite graphics editing program. Try to finish anything. Doesn't have to be amazing, or even a real "game." Just use game-like systems, such as point incrementing, tracking lives, stuff like that.

Best of luck! Don't lose heart! And whenever you have questions that Google can't help you with, check in with the forums!

 

One of the biggest problems with UnityScript is finding learning resources. A C# book is perfectly fine for learning Unity's C# as it is identical, but the same cannot be said for a JavaScript book despite UnityScript being a JavaScript variant.

Don't forget development tools either. With UnityVS and Visual Studio Community you are no longer limited to Mono Develop. That's only if you're using C# (and Windows) though.

Additionally my experience has been that the community and assets on the store are more commonly using C# than UnityScript. A few seem to offer it as an alternative, but those appear to be more of an exception than the rule. Knowing C# will allow you to more easily make adjustments to their code if you encounter problems.

 

I absolutely agree that C# will be more of a benefit in the long run. If you've never taken a programming course before, though, and you're a bit scared of code, as the OP indicated, I just feel like Unityscript is a bit more forgiving. Although that may be because I came from a web development background and already felt pretty comfortable with Javascript.

 

Go through Unity's tutorials. You don't have to understand everything on your first viewing; just get the shape of the whole process. @Schneider21 has great advice for the programming part -- type, don't copy-paste.

Consider focusing on a specific role -- 3D modeling, animation, audio, level design, programming -- something you can concentrate on. Whether you take classes, get a degree in it, or just learn on your own, once you've developed a skill to contribute, you can participate in group projects and eventually branch out into other roles. Also consider participating in game jams. I understand this might raise some anxiety (don't worry -- it does with everyone), but it's low commitment (usually 24-48 hours) and you can pick up a lot of information very quickly from your teammates.

And remember to have fun! These are games, after all

 

If you were worried about learning programming wouldn't you pick the language most supported by the community and learning resources? Unlike JavaScript, which is definitely much easier than C#, UnityScript doesn't hide anywhere near the same amount of details.

http://wiki.unity3d.com/index.php?title=UnityScript_versus_JavaScript

 

I guess the point I was trying to make was there's no wrong way to get started. I know that I personally get so hung up on what the "right" way to do something is, that I never get around to actually doing what I set out to do. Again, I definitely agree that C# is the better route to go once you're really digging in, but I don't think it's harmful to learn UnityScript first.

Besides, converting your existing US scripts into C# is a useful and educational process in and of itself!

 

My point is simply that there are few reasons to use a language like UnityScript. Especially when the differences between it and C# are fairly minor. Converting code is actually pretty straightforward because the differences are typically little things here and there.

Plus you're giving up so many learning resources. The Internet is packed with C# resources but UnityScript resources are very few. I think I can count the number of books, specifically aimed at UnityScript, on one hand whereas there are dozens of C# books.

Better yet one of the best C# books is completely free.

http://www.robmiles.com/c-yellow-book/

 

It's not really a point I feel strongly enough to argue over. I believe moving forward in any direction is better than believing there's one "correct" way to do things, but as we both agree: C# is where you want to end up.

To avoid derailing the thread any further, here's some more encouragement for @Tyrannohotep:

Don't sweat being 25 and not being sure about the time you've put in so far. I was 26 when I went to community college (after dropping out of college right after high school) for web development. Over the next couple years, I dabbled in game development as well, but never really caught on to everything that was involved. I kept feeling overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of knowledge and tasks involved in making a game, especially when you're the only person working on it and you're all by yourself.

Upon turning 29, I vowed to myself that I'd release a game before I turned 30. I'm now almost 31 and haven't met that goal yet, but each day I try to work towards it nonetheless. There are plenty of truly gifted designers, artists, and developers out there who can work magic at will, but for the rest of us, it takes endless amounts of hard work. Do stuff you don't understand, Google like crazy and read up on subjects that baffle you, and one day you'll find that you feel ready to tackle that task that several months ago felt impossible. Then, without fail, you'll almost immediately run into a new obstacle. But you'll figure that one out, too, if you stick with it. That's how you build the experience. There's no real way to bypass that, or at least not a way that I've found.

That being said, if you're looking to get into Game Design/Development as a field, it is immensely difficult unless you are seriously talented in at least one specific specialty. And if you're not... well, I don't have a very good palette, so I shouldn't be a chef. But that doesn't mean give up. Just pursue it as a hobby until you get better. Then revisit the professional scene, or go the amateur/Indie route like I imagine most of the people here are.

Lastly, support your peers! Post in the forums, read about other people's projects, ask questions and provide feedback. Being part of a community is all about giving and taking, and you have to give in order to get. Like any cranny on the Internet, there are a couple trolls around these parts, but for the most part, it's a great community with supportive (if sometimes difficult to solicit interest from) members.

 

I have an M.S. in geology, nothing at all to do with game development. It has been useful though in terrain creation. Your background would be fabulously useful in creating adventure games or games set in ancient historical times. We have a linguist on our team and he has been an extremely valuable member.

Even though I have no educational background in game development and am much older than you are, I have managed to learn a great deal over the past 10 years or so simply by joining another team, listening to people, and trying things I never did before, such as 3d modelling and game design. You are much younger than I am and you have plenty of time to learn and grow.

Game design is a difficult field to break into but someone has to do it. It could be you. I imagine an anthropology degree could be helpful and make you stand out from the crowd as long as you also learn some game development skills. I do not program but my husband with his M.S. in engineering is a pretty good programmer now and he is even older than I am!

 

Just to let you know... I was 32 when I got my first job in Game Dev... so it's not too late for you. Though I did go to school to be a game developer.

 

Are you perhaps getting game design mixed up with other things? Or when you say "designer" do you really mean "developer"?

Design isn't ideas. Nor is it programming, or art. Design is about solving problems to achieve some desired outcome. In this field the solutions will often be related to art or code or audio, but don't get them mixed up. You're performing a different role when you're designing things to the role you're in when you're writing software or making content. Those things are how you implement a design. Coming up with the design is, or at least should be, separate.

If it's truly game design that interests you, in the pure sense, then you can get started by making board games or card games (or ball games or... whatever) without any programming or art experience at all. In fact, if it's pure design that interests you I'd encourage that approach, and also getting your hands on and playing a variety of board games. Board games are cool in that regard because there's no separation between designing the rules and programming the game - the rules are the programming, and the programming has to be simple for the players to execute as they play while also being interesting enough to hold attention and (potentially) having depth so that outcomes aren't clear. Also, the completely exposed nature of the game means you can see exactly how it ticks and learn from it.

Having said that, I do think that video game designers should also learn at least the technical basics of the development fields - how code is written, how art is made, how things are put together into scenes, and so on. This is partly so that you don't design stuff that's prohibitive to make. It's partly so you can at least prototype your ideas when they're not suitable for paper-only implementation. And partly because there are huge chunks of the development cycle where the design is either done or waiting on other stuff, but more hands are needed in the making of things - especially in small teams.

If it's development that interests you then I'd suggest having a go at both art and code, see what interests you the most and where your affinity best lies, and then focus on that. There are people who can do both, but since making non-trivial games is best done in a team anyway I personally think that people are better off specializing rather than generalizing.