Need advise

Hello all! My fellow and I have recently decided to start using our time productively. We've both decided to begin the production of an IOS game. And I decided that Unity should do.

My problem is that neither of us have ever done anything similar or have any programming knowledge. So I've got a couple of questions.

1- I downloaded 3DSMAX as a character modeling software. Is that too advanced and should I start with buying models first?

2- Any good websites/PDFs/youtube channels that have a guide to help me understand the interface and Unity as a whole.

Thanks in advance

 

I'm assuming you did not buy 3DS Max, in which case you can't actually use that copy to make a game anyway.
If you're just starting and have no experience in any field of game development, then you have an extremely long road ahead of you and I wouldn't recommend even TRYING to actually make a game right now. You should just be focusing on learning the necessary skills.

If you want to get into making games as fast as possible, then first of all you should be working on 2D, not 3D. So you don't need 3D modeling software anyway.

 

@Grimwolf is correct, your trying to win a marathon before you have learned to crawl if you do not have any experience.
It will be an uphill experience at first, it will take time but it will be a lot more fun if you take it in small steps.

Make reasonable goals like placing a sphere in the world and just make it move, then maybe make it stop when it hits something etc. You can probably add small things into the same project for a while but the nice feeling comes when you manage to complete each task and your experience grows.
Knowledge and experience is super important because there is incredibly cool stuff that can be done with games... if you know how to manipulate the things that they are made up of in creative ways

The Unity website got a learning section with small, bit-sized tutorials. They can teach you about the game engine, programming, math and more that is needed for a complete game. Try to wrap your head around those things first but there are also beginner tutorials all over the internet and Youtube. Copy the things they do in the tutorials and try to get the same results. The things you will learn will also make it easier to start searching for more knowledge with time.

Try different things, maybe programming is boring but you might disappear for several hours while working on art? Game development got many specializations and these are further divided into sub-categories. Game designers develop game mechanics, programmers translate game mechanics to code, artists give them graphics, audio technicians give them sounds and level designers give them a world to exist in... this is just a few specializations. Many learn a little bit about everything but a lot people prefer a specific area, develop their primary skills in it and most importantly, remember to have fun.

It is worth noting that people that work within the industry has studied and worked on their primary specialization for many years... I've done programming for more then 15 years and I still learn new things, find new challenges and occasionally jump up and down in my chair when I get something really cool to work.

Oh yeah, a warning, don't pirate software in case you have done it. Such stuff can be traced even in a game, as an example, there are ways to check the 3D Studio Max license keys that was used to develop the models in a game. There is also other stuff hidden and it is unnecessary to take risks when there exist free alternatives or cheap ones if you are willing to pay a little bit and live with some limitations on what you are allowed to use the tools for. Unity free is a great example where you can learn without paying

Welcome to game development, it is an incredible hobby if you got the patience

 

Yeah, start by learning the craft before you try to make any non-trivial games. Make a few trivial ones to get started - try a pong style game, a tetris, a simple platformer, etc. and make each game more complex as you go. Start from the Learn section or other learning materials (I'm wary of recommending unofficial online resources just 'cause it's so much of a crapshoot out there, and the people who need the info most are the ones least able to spot the difference between someone who knows what they're doing and someone who doesn't) and at least get familiar with the tools before you embark on a specific game.

I don't agree that 2D is necessarily any easier. It could be, but it doesn't have to be. I'd judge on a game by game basis, not on a generalisation that 2D games are easier to make solely by virtue of being 2D.

The different disciplines thing Deon raises is critical. I'm a seasoned developer with dozens of projects under my belt, but I can't art - my skills are in programming and interactive design. That's cool, 'cause games are mostly made in teams, and it's useful to have teams of people who are excellent in particular areas rather than generically ok at everything (though those people definitely have their value too!). Consider: a game made by two people who are jack-of-all-trades who can program and art will have ok code* and ok art. A game made by an excellent programmer and an excellent artist is going to have great code and great art. Both could be achieved with roughly the same amount of game development and prior personal investment - the benefit comes from the focus.

Also, I agree with regards to software. You can't use a trial of most software to make anything you're going to sell or distribute. There's cheap or free alternatives out there that'll get you started. If this is something you'll get into long term then it could well be worth investing in a professional level package, but why rush into it when you can get your feet wet for a fraction of the price? Blender is free and is pretty good, Maya LT is cheap and at a glance seems excellent, and there's a few other alternatives out there as well if you look.

* Players don't give a toss about your code. The value here is in the impact that maintainable, performant, flexible and robust code has on your development and, thus, on the amount of time you can spend on "improving your game and its design" as opposed to "making the code work".

 

Depending on the type of 2D and 3D games being compared it might be debatable as to which one had more difficult art to produce. Particularly if the 2D game is heavily animated, or the 3D game is just pinball or 3D Tetris or something.
It's an objective fact though that 2D art is easier to learn. Way easier to learn.
Just try comparing the act of drawing out a sprite in Photoshop and slapping it into a scene to the act of producing a model, creating a UV map, creating a duplicate model with higher detail, baking out maps, painting detail into the texture, creating a material, and God help you if it also needs to be rigged.
Not to mention the need to carefully manage topology, and to balance poly counts, shader complexity, map quantity and texture size for performance rather than just texture size.

Generally it's also way cheaper, because you can get away with just a $10 a month copy of Photoshop.
If you don't care about producing high-quality art you can get away with just Photoshop+Blender+XNormal and not pay anything extra, but most people would want to use a fairly large pipeline of paid software costing thousands. I'm personally using ZBrush ($800), Substance Indie Pack ($250), Blender ($0), Photoshop ($10/Month), and Marmoset Toolbag ($130).
Using anything other than Blender in the middle there would cost anywhere from $20 a month, to a payment of $1500-4000 upfront and another several hundred per year.

Seriously, there's a very good reason most Indie games are 2D.

 

First, there's far more to making a game than just making the art. Next, that all seems to be based on very narrow ideas of what 2D art and 3D art have to be.

But lets not derail the thread by debating such details at length. Cx has already said they're willing to buy art, so depending on the type of games they want to make the complexities inherent in creating various types of art might be beside the point. Or, better yet, if they do want to make art they could give it a go and see what they like and/or have a knack for.

 

I started this journey about a year and a half ago. My only programming experience before I started was some Matlab and R scripting (and a little Bash and Python scripting). I found books very helpful for a base and then viewing youtube tutorials to fill in specific needs. For books (and some videos), I got a Safari books online subscription and searched for what books they had on Blender, Unity, and C# and checked out reviews at Amazon to pick which ones to start out on. I would start working on your own projects early rather than just doing tutorials. It is really a good learning experience to decide what you want to do, then to figure out a way to do it.

With a full time job and kids it has been a real challenge to get time to learn everything that I have needed to learn but I have learned enough that I have been able to produce working prototypes and I have even used those prototypes at work. After a year and a half, I feel that I've learned a ton of stuff but I also feel like I am still clueless about a lot of things. I also find that if I spend a lot of time say learning something in Blender, I end up forgetting things in Unity or C#. This is becoming less of an issue as I keep flipping back and forth between programs but it can feel overwhelming at times. You just have to be persistent and keep hammering away.