My 15-yo son wants to try building his own computer game, but is not computer savvy, and neither am I (my experience is limited to MS Office and some photo-editing programs).
I want to encourage him, because I worry that he isn’t developing any creative outlets (he’s given up on guitar and no longer draws). Also, if we work on it together, this could be a chance to build a better relationship, which would great.
He’s interested in shooting games (vague, I know), and exploration RPGs like Ao Oni.
Freeware is preferable as I don’t have a lot of cash to spare. And also something that doesn’t take a lot of time to pick up the basics, as I don’t have a lot of time to spare either (working two jobs and also trying to illustrate a book).
I’ve looked around a bit, but just don’t know what’s good for a beginner.
Mate, all good for wanting to encourage the kid but wanting to build a computer game when you’re not computer savy sounds a bit to me like wanting to fly to the moon by flapping my arms. Not going to happen.
There’s a Python course on Coursera where you make an Asteroids game. They provide the artwork and hold your hand.
If you’re good with Excel (you mentioned you know Office), you can make games with that. For example, Missile Command or Tower Defence-- I thought the methods were clever, so check the “How it’s Made” videos if you’re interested-- 2 games for Excel 2010 - YouTube
There’s a hobbyist game designer thread in The Game Room.
Game Maker has a free demo version on Steam. The free version is limited with how many art assets and stuff you can have, but you can play around with it and produce shooty games fairly quickly. 2d shooty games, that is - if he wants to make 3d shooters, he’s got some learning to do. The Unity engine is available for free, I think, and is a 3d engine that many indie devs use to create games.
Steam also has the RPGMaker which, again, has a free demo version. It’s very good for creating JRPG games, less good for almost anything else. The free version is, I think, more limited than that of Game Maker.
Ellen Cherry, thanks a bunch for the title fix. Stui, yeah I know it’s a bit much to expect, but here’s hoping we can find something simple to get us started. Dave, thanks. I had no idea you could create simple games in Excel. I have mucked about creating stuff in PowerPoint, using the animation functions (point and click stuff).
Teuton, thanks! I’ll check both of those out.
He’s fine with 2D shooters (we’ll save the 3D stuff for waaaay down the road after we’ve learned to wipe our arses).
RPGMaker looks like it might have what we need, so I’ll check out there demo.
They’ve always offered a free version with some limited features for more independent game devs on a budget, and they also have an asset store within the application for purchasing tools, utilities, models or what have you on the cheap (though some of the stuff aimed at pros can be quite expensive).
It’s a fantastic package that’s great for beginners and easily scales up for the pros. Check it out.
Unity isn’t something you can just pick up and use without programming experience.
Another suggestion might be modding an existing game. Warcraft III and StarCraft 2’s scenario editors offer a lot of power and don’t require any coding – the logic is defined using a list of dropdown boxes that say things like “if unit X is low on health, unit Y moves towards it and heals X”. People have made RPGs, third-person shooters, and of course regular RTS games with its editors.
They’re not free, but both are good enough games unto themselves that they’re worth playing. And he can learn a lot from both other people’s scenarios and the communities around both games.
Well, the secret is that most complex maps in WC3 and SC2 are actually written as code in the game’s internal scripting language. But you can slowly transition from dropdown menu triggers to pure written triggers if you want.
Cmyk, thanks, but Unity, though impressive, does look a bit daunting. Perhaps we’ll save that for later, once we’ve done a bit of mucking about with something simpler.
My concern is to just help him create something simple before his interest disappears, and then see whether he’s keen to advance into more complex stuff, learning as we go.
The Humble Weekly Bundlethis week is on RPG maker, and includes a lot of assets and examples. You might want to take a look at that, since you can get it so cheap.
I also note that the game McPixel has a cool editor built in, but I’d only recommend it if the kid like McPixel.
I personally use and recommend RPG Maker VX Ace, which is available through Steam. It is a fantastic program and really gets into the nuts and bolts of game design while handling the graphics for you via premade assests. I will warn you that there can be a very steep learning curve for customization. That said, the official site has a very active support community.
I googled Ao Oni since I never heard of it, and its official wiki said it was created in RPGMaker. If that’s specifically something your son wants to try making, picking up the current Humble Bundle (as mentioned above) would be a good idea. If you don’t want the full $12 deal with lots of extras, you can get a full copy of RPGMaker VX Ace and a couple of other things for as low as $1.
I also have a couple of keys yet for an older Humble Bundle that gave copies of Multimedia Fusion 2.0. That’s the software I’ve been using to make some basic 2-D games, like Myrm (a very simple insect-themed shooter coded in a weekend for a game jam) and Candy Grab (a candy-themed platformer that took a couple of weeks to put together). You make your game by placing graphics and then picking conditions and actions for them off of a multi-column list of options. So, for example, when graphic A collides with B, play this sound, increase score by 100, destroy B, and so forth. It can be as simple or complex as you want and has a lot of extra features hidden away if you need them. There’s a fairly decent basic tutorial provided and some very good videos on YouTube.
(Both games are free online so I make nothing from the links. Heck, I also include the source code for Myrm free, but since I upgraded to Fusion 2.5 I don’t know that 2.0 can open it up.)
If you want one of my spare keys, just let me know. (I originally got them for a friend I knew would be interested, and it turns out he also got the bundle and some spare keys himself.)