Need Help With Beginning 3d Game Design

Hey guys! So I have a bunch of time on my hands and I'm in a pretty creative mood right now. I'm also in the mood for revisiting certain Nintendo games like Zelda: Phantom Hourglass or any Pokemon game.

I've been thinking of attempting to recreate the beginning of one of these games and I'd like some input on how I should go about designing the world. I don't plan on making either game playable, but it would be fun to try and see these games in a different light.

Could anyone point me in the right direction on how I would start such a task? Should I model the world in blender or unity itself (if that's even possible) and are there any good videos on how to model specific shapes?

 

What are your skills. I am pretty good at coding and have been accumulating classes and modules for a 3rd person game. I have been using flat planes for prototyping but I have a need for an island with roads, towns and cities. I am able to pull height maps and create the islands, but I cannot make anything that doesn't look like it would fall over at anytime (even with assets!).

 

Honestly, I don't have many skills, but I am quite passionate about doing something like this and willing to learn. Were you interested in helping? If you are, then you're absolutely more than welcome. If I misread you, then ignore that haha.

 

Udemy has good courses on modeling. Unity now has a relatively simple built in modeling system called ProBuilder you could look into.

 

You'll need about one year to get proficient enough with the standard 3d tools to do this. Maybe less if you're real smart. If you expect to do it any faster than that, you will get frustrated and maybe quit.

If you are just looking to make the environment and that's it, check out the wiki at polycount and look in the "environment art" section. That will give an overview and links to further resource.

Good way to get started is go to Pluralsight, Udemy, Linda, or 3dmotive and do ALL of the tutorials covering environment art and all the programs you'll be using. Bare minimum is Blender and Photoshop. Substance Painter will make your texturing life much happier.

Maximize exposure and repetition. In other words, learn from as many different resources as you can, and continually build on the skills you are learning over and over.

 

In my journey, I started off by reproducing basic games. It sounds dumb but you will understand in 6 months' time why you did it.

Check out on youtube how to make in unity:
- Chess <teaches you grid desgin and moving pieces>
- Checkers <teaches you moving pieces and turn-based games>
- Black Jack <teaches you randomization and listing>
- MineSweeper <teaches you randomization and interaction with randomization>
- Solitaire <teaches you randomization and sequential solving>

^This should take 2 months.

Then, once you get those under your belt, proceed with tutorials on simple stuff and create a library for yourself:
- minimap
- click to move
- on click events
- WASD movements
- jumping logic
- flying logic
- swimming logic
- damage logic
- projectiles logic
- UI
- scene loading
- game managers
- file saves

^This should take 2 weeks EACH

Afterwards, go for the pro stuff and figure out what you are good at:
- coding? if not, save money and hire freelancers for complex stuff
- modelling? try it out and see how making a cactus feels; if you hate it, buy your models - start low poly and move up
- animating? learn how to use the unity animator and I recommend purchasing some humanoid animations for kicks
- writing? check out the best RPG games and see what their stories were like

I recommend forming a team with friends on this and starting together. Otherwise, you will have a lag that sucks later on. And friends you can count on.

If you have more questions don't be shy.

 

Since you mentioned blender, I would say use blender, to create characters and objects. Moreso, characters.

But as Joe said, try out ProBuilder. I heard that it's really neat, and good for making objects, like furniture, cottages and tables etc. And simple characters too.