Haya guys!

I love to play RPG's, from the ones out of Asia, to the real European style ones, and The Elder Scrolls belongs to my favorites of games. But I think you all love RPG's, or at least like The Elder Scrolls. I also think we all want to make our own game. So thats why I started this topic: I want to make my own game, an RPG from wich I think it will really add something to the industry.

I am a writer of fantasy meets history, and while working on my books I taught how amazing it would be if my world would not only be alive on paper, but also in a way that people could really live it, like in a game. I have some small experiance with making games, but I really love making story's, lore, characters, city's and that sort of stuff. I'm just not a programming type of guy, but I want to make this dream come true, can you guys give me some advice on how to reach my goal? I think Kickstarter might be a way to reach it, but its also a real gamble.

Or are there any programmers out here that want to take on this project? I can give you more details if there is any response.

What are your toughts on this?

Thanks for your time and advice,

Greetings and all the best,

Strifiar of the Bridge

I'm going to be honest.

I don't see it working.

Well if you have any published work that can be a big start. You would probably need to be hired for the "concept" stage of development. Truth be told though from what your saying I don't see it working. Not unless you know some sort of programming.

Start with game maker and work your way up, take classes at a community college. You'll get there

One does not simply make a game (excluding that guy who somehow made a rouge-like in Excel). You either need some serious programming experience, or a whole lot of money to hire people with the necessary experience. And of course you need the management skills to actually direct such a project.

I think I speak for all developers when I say...

Nope!

You need to bring more to the table than just a story and ideas. Coding, graphics, sounds, level designs - pick one of these and learn an editor to build them with, then try again.

Well, I'm in about the same boat as you, OP. Lots of ideas and few skills at the moment to really do much in the way of making a game. So don't feel bad, you're not the only one.

Of course, that's the problem too. Generally, if you've learned programming for videogames it's because you also have your own ideas you want to see turned into a game. The reason there's not tons of programmers and modellers out there looking for "idea guys" is because they're busy working on their own ideas.

And a publisher usually wants to see at least a proof of concept before even considering a proposal. (Keep in mind you're competing with people that actually have working games - if only in basic alpha phase.)

That's likely the same problem with Kickstarter - you're competing with people who need help finishing a game, not getting one out of the early concept phase.

What I've been doing is looking into basic entry-level game makers (actually what I've settled on for my purposes is a text-game designer.)

There's lots of stuff out there that helps a lot with the basics. RPG Maker, Game Maker, etc. These come front-loaded with assets and a working "game engine" so all you really need to worry about is designing quests and dialog, etc.

Adventure Maker lets you make your standard point and click games, a la the old Sierra titles.

And of course since we're on the Bethesda forum, I've found modding (at least as far as designing levels and quests) actually has a pretty low barrier to entry as well. We have a very active and helpful community here and there's lots of good tutorials and wikis to help get you started.

I always wondered what was the point of Kickstarter. Why do you need funds to develope a game? You could do that on your leisure time.

Excuse my ignorance.

Usually to hire more people that can do things a single person can't..... Like artist, programmer, sound , music, gophers...

Or to simply be able to work on the game full time. If you work a full time job, it's difficult to find the energy to create a game when you're off work. Think of what you do when you're not working (chores, food, beer, friends, internets), then try to add in creating an entire video game. If you don't take care of yourself, if you don't work, if you don't do anything productive in your free time, I can understand why you don't see the point.

I love it when they never return to reply, further compounding our complete loss of faith in any sort of person actually having the drive to pull off making a game or doing what they suggest they want to. If you can't even throw out a reply to this topic how the hell do you expect to learn how to program, find a team, manage a team, get a budget, use the budget to make a game, ship the game, reap the rewards, and then hopefully make a new game?

Not only that, but there's licensing fees to consider as well, any hardware (work computers and servers, etc) you might need to improve production efficiency, as well as marketing and distribution costs. Even a single professional toolkit could set you back a few grand. For a decent-sized team you're talking at least $10,000 or even $20,000 just to get the equipment and software you'd need for development.

Indeed. The first test - and the only meaningful one, really - is the willingness to gut it out, no matter what it takes.

Olay. I do spend a lot of my time on the Internet. I should cut back.

Everyone wants to be the captain, but nobody wants to make the ship actually go

As an ideas guy myself, I know where the OP is coming from. I get a lot of ideas that I go "man that would be a great game/comic book/movie, if only I had a developer/artist/actor who could make my vision a reality."

But the fact of the matter is, if you want to be captain, you have to know how ALL parts of the ship run.

I read somewhere that Seth MacFarlane spent the better part of a year in his mom's kitchen drawing Family Guy. No friends, no drinking, no internets. Just working on his project in his mom's house being a loser.

Then boom, Family Guy.

Do you think Seth MacFarlane now has a team of artists and directors that help plan the direction of his ideas? Sure.

But he had to get the project off the ground by developing content that other people can get behind.

So yeah, you're a good writer, you have characters, lore, a plot, some mechanics. Okay, great. Now put some content out there. Put together the first few levels or the first few territories. Get people excited about where it will go. That will attract people who want to help with the project, and it will attract funds.

Gotta put something in to get something out of it.

Dear everyone,
I want to make something cool without any effort, help pls?
Sincerely,
OP


If you have cool ideas, do the research yourself and put all the hard work in yourself. Kickstarter is for people who know what they're doing (and, usually, who have demonstrated their ability to do it beforehand) to find alternatives to direct investment. For you, it wouldn't be a gamble, it'd just be a waste of time.

Maybe get a simple program like RPG-maker and use that to bring some of your ideas to life. Through that, you could perhaps get into some of the more hardcoe programming stuff if there were more complicated things you wanted to do? And if your work impresses people enough, maybe you'll be lucky enough to attract some talented artists to help give a more unique touch to your game... But no one is going to start helping you on empty promises alone...