What is first step when I want to make my own game ?

Question

My bf, told me to learn C++ or C# (C++ better) and then learn how to do things in engine. I want your opinion, what is first step how to make my own game?

Answer 1

Well as a single developer you obviously don't want to write your own game engine, since that's a very complex and time consuming task, and even if you did write one it'd never be as good as a commercial one.



So luckily there's some game engines you can use (most small studios use an existing game engine and don't try to write their own), for example Unity 5. Unity 5 is free and very easy to use and very capable, it also has cross platform support so that your projects can easily be deployed on Windows, Android, iOS, and more.



Now if you decide to use Unity 5 as your game engine then you'd want to know C# because that's what the Unity scripts are written in. C++ is often mentioned as the number one language for games. Why? Because it's possible to optimize C++ code more than C# and other such languages, and this is very important specifically when implementing the game engine. The game engine is responsible for drawing graphics and handling physics, these are resource intensive tasks so they should be as fast as possible.



However, unless you make a game engine yourself all that's left to implement is the game logic (the engine is already there and it's probably written in C++ already), and many games don't need game logic to be optimized to the max for the game to run smooth. So for a lot of games C# would be the better language because it's easier to use than C++ and you can get things done faster in it.



Now other game engines might use other languages, but I would recommend Unity 5 to someone who want to try making a game because it's relatively easy to learn. Of course, if you don't even know programming it's going to be a lot to learn anyway. Expect months before you've learnt enough programming and enough about game design to actually make even a small simple game.

Answer 2

If you've never programmed before, your first step should be to learn programming. Start with something easier; I don't recommend C++ or C# as beginning languages. You'd want to have a gist of how programming goes. Start with maybe basic C or interpreted languages, such as Python. Then, eventually move onto C++/C# and your game engine of choice when you think you've learned enough. As "Flexon" says, you'd want to use a pre-existing engine if you're only interested in making a video game. It'll save you that much time and pain.

Answer 3

The first things to think about is what do you want your game to run on, every device you can think of or just what you have.

Once you know what it needs to work with, you will then know which languages you need to know.



When programming you do not need to re-invent the wheel, so nearly if not all common tasks you can think of there will be a library somewhere that performs that function with varying results. (some work faster than others etc.)



You then choose the engine, so what u are really programming is a bunch of IF THIS THEN THAT.

And as much as i would like to say programming is a major skill, it sounds more scary than it really is, and there isnt really much programming involved lol.