How to Design Video Games

Video games are an amazing electronic art form, and there are already many amazing great games out there to play and experience and enjoy. But have you ever thought to yourself, I wish I could make my own games? If you have the passion and dedication, you could actually teach yourself how to make your own games using the internet. I’m writing this as a sort of guide for anyone who would be interested in the idea of game development as anything from a hobby to a full blown profession. I am by no means a part of the latter category but I’ve gotten my feet wet enough to know the water’s fine and can show you where to step. I wish it would one day become as easy enough for people to make their own games as it were for people to record themselves on a camera and upload it to youtube.

I hope that this guide inspires someone to start a new revolution in independent game design that creates a gaming Renaissance. Maybe someone will take a look at this and think about coming up with a free and open standard for a games console that anyone can manufacture and anyone can program a game for. Perhaps this very guide could spawn the birth of a new era in human interaction and creativity through the power of imagination!Or at the very least,I hope, you might find it somewhat informative.

Steps toward game development.

Passion

• Maybe you’ve heard of the hundreds of millions of dollars that the video game industry is able to rake in year after year and think to yourself, man, I would love to make a game and get filthy rich. People hear all the time about how small teams of developers, as small as even possibly one person can write a game using a Software Developer's Kit for iOS or Android and publish it on the iTunes Store, or Google Play and make millions of dollars in a flash! Money can sometimes be a good motivational factor for a some people. However, with a labor intensive job like game design where one must have a large amount of knowledge and dedication to get projects done on time, (or done at all!) it really helps if you’re already a gaming enthusiast.

If you already love video games and know which ones are popular and which ones are your favorites then you already have a basis of ideas for what makes a game fun. We’ve all seen and played horrible games made my companies that clearly had no passion for gaming, and no ideas for what constitutes as fun. Games like abysmal movie tie-in games, like anything made by LJN on the NES or Batman Forever for the Super Nintendo, or shovelware crap like Ninjabread Man for the Wii. And if you do love video games, chances are you’ll never stop exposing yourself to games new and old alike and do lots of research on video game history.

Learn the classics from every system and how the current systems came to be. Watch game reviews until your eyes bleed. Participate in community gaming events like hobbyist leagues, conventions, and tournaments and initiate and hold your own gaming events. Make fan films or animations about your favorite games, or write a blog or a song about them. Take advantage of sites that allow you to build and customize games like RPGmaker.

Communicate with fellow gamers over the internet using forums or chat rooms. Read top 100 lists for classic gaming systems. Spend discretionary income on classic gaming systems easily found online or at thrift stores, flea markets,pawn shops,garage sales, independent game shops, and used media outlets.

Gamer Culture Resources:

• http://www.gamasutra.com/ - A website founded in 1997 dedicated to news on gaming and game development.
• http://www.gamedev.net/page/index.html - A forum for Game Developers
• http://www.video-game-forums.com/ - A general video game forum covering all modern systems and more
• http://kotaku.com/ - A popular game news blog
• http://destructoid.com/ - Another popular gaming blog
• http://www.ign.com/ - A gaming news website, I stopped taking the articles seriously but it’s stil a good resource for video game reviews and footage.
• http://www.gametrailers.com/ - A streaming video site focusing on upcoming game trailers and original content.
• http://cinemassacre.com/http:// - The home of the Angry Video Game Nerd. A film maker who focuses on comedic entertaining retro game reviews.
• www.newgrounds.com/ - A source for original flash games, animation,art and music generated by users for users.
• http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming - Part of the wonderful web aggregator reddit. This is their largest general gaming community.
• http://boards.4chan.org/v/ - A source for orginal content and discussions, though generally NSFW you can find some gold posted sometimes.
• http://rpgmaker.net/ - A community for playing and making your own Role Playing Games using existing game engines.
• http://www.sploder.com/ - A community for making your own general games from engines.

Programming

• One big aspect of game development is computer programming.For learning programming at a fundamental level and to make a large library of software and resources available to your disposal instantaneously, you should definitely check out free and open source software. For computer gaming development open source can provide such tools as easy to learn programming languages like Python and Lua. You also have text editors such as Emacs, and Gedit to write your software.

There are also free operating systems to run your software such as GNU/Linux distributions like Ubuntu, and Linux Mint. Or, there are BSD and other operating systems, which are known as “Unix-like”, for sort of emulating or performing similarly to an older proprietary (as in not free) operating system called Unix. The beauty of free software from a programmer’s standpoint is that free software is not only free as in no charge, but that the program’s source code, (sort of like a recipe for a program) is made freely available so that you can observe it, study it, correct flaws, and do with it what you wish so long as you maintain the rights of others to do the same.

• If programming is a part of game design that really interests you, be advised programming is very math heavy and you should try learning all the arithmetic you can.

Programming Resources:

• http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html - A programming guide by the well known author and software developer Eric S. Raymond
• http://www.youtube.com/user/antiRTFM?feature=watch - A youtube user who provides good guides on multiple programming languages.
• http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Super_NES_Programming - A wiki for Super Nintendo Homebrew Programming,  a good learning experience and fun for retro enthusiats
• http://gamedev.allusion.net/softprj/kos/ - A web page for a homrbrew Sega Dreamcast operating system called KallistiOS.
• https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#referencelibrary/GettingStarted/RoadMapiOS/Introduction/Introduction.html - An introduction to developing Apps for Apple’s iOS that powers the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.
• http://www.htdp.org/2003-09-26/Book/curriculum-Z-H-1.html#node_toc_start - An expansive guide on developing programs that focuses on small fundemental details.

Python Programming

Python, Blender and PyGame

• The language I started learning with, and the language that I’ve seen in a lot of research as being easy to learn even for people who have no experience in programming is python. Python is a general purpose programming language that is included in the default installations of many common operating systems such as Ubuntu Linux and Mac OS X.

Python Links

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKTZoB2Vjuk&feature=channel - Google’s own Python Class
• http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/ - A completely free and expansive book on learning to program in python.
• http://www.pygame.org/news.html - A development environment that provides tools for designing games with the python language.
• http://rene.f0o.com/mywiki/PythonGameProgramming - A tutorial for both the Python language and PyGame.
• http://txzone.net/2012/01/introducing-python-for-android/ - A tool made for the purpose of converting a python application into a program for Google Android Devices.
• http://inventwithpython.com/ - A free online book that teaches python programming and game design with python.

HTML Design

Another good skill to have for game development is web development! Naturally after you’ve made a game you’re going to want to share it with people. Whether as open source, or for profit itself, a website is a good way to generate a passive income stream so that you can focus on your new passion and hobby of game development. You can do lots of things with your game on the web like advertising, developer’s logs, uploading video trailers, etc. The most basic and fundamental skill you will need for web development is knowing how to write in HTML or Hyper Text Markup Language. Much like a programming language this is what every website is written in.

HTML Tutorials

http://code.google.com/edu/submissions/html-css-javascript/

http://htmldog.com/

Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, and Creativity

• Game design generates many technical problems that can only be solved with a sharp mind that’s capable of solving difficult problems, and critical thinking is necessary to come up with scenarios and characters that would fit well within gameplay mechanics and hardware limitations. Creativity in all different aspects as well would be beneficial to game design, anything from drawing to creative writing, to musical ability, etc all wind up in one form or another with game design.

• Another aspect of this is being well rounded. Learn as much as you can about whatever you want and don’t stop thirsting for knowledge and new experiences. The more you understand about the world and what goes on in it the more ideas and experience you can put into great gaming experiences. Even Shigeru Miyamoto used something as simple as a scary dog bite as a child as an inspiration for the character chain-chomp. The creator of earthbound based the main enemy of it’s game, Giygas as a distorted memory he had of a rape scene from a vintage japanese snuff film. The world all around us if filled with a wealth of ideas and it takes a creative mind to copy, transform, and combine all kinds of different elements into something new and exciting.

Artistic Abilities

Maybe programming isn’t your thing, and you wouldn’t want to be a producer. Maybe you want to design levels, or characters, or costumes. Maybe you want to design the box art or instruction manual for a game. Visual arts is one of the biggest parts of Video Game Design from Graphic Arts to Multi-Media Design. As such you should have functional knowledge of drawing techniques and fundamental elements, as well as being familiar with visual art software such as Adobe Photoshop.

Artistic Resources:

• http://dev.drawspace.com/ - Basic Drawing Lessons.
• http://www.drawright.com/ - Drawing On The Right Side of The Brain by Betty Edwards is a highly regarded book that looks at the technique of combining elements from an artistic work and viewing them as parts of a whole piece.
• http://www.creativecrash.com/ - A community for Computer Graphics Software
• http://www.good-tutorials.com/ - A website full of user submitted tutorials for Adobe Photoshop
• http://www.gimp.org/ - A free and open source alternative to the commecial graphics editor Adobe Photoshop.
• www.blender.org - Blender is a free and Open-source 3D image editor and animator written in Python. Blender can be used for video effects, CGI Animation, and Video Game Development.

Schooling

Maybe teaching yourself isn’t for you but you’re still interested in pursuing a career in game design. Here is a list of colleges that you can research for further information on an education in the field of Game Design.

http://www.artinstitutes.edu/game-design-and-programming-2602.aspx

http://online.fullsail.edu/degrees/game-design-bachelors

https://www.digipen.edu/

The Bit Wars: An Alternate History Part 1

I’ve always wondered what the console market would be like if things had played out differently during the Bit Wars. If Sega had stayed a top dog after the Genesis, perhaps if Sony had never released the Playstation. What if Microsoft focused on different means of gaming like PC hardware and what if Gabe Newell had never left Microsoft but released Steam and Valve gaming as the head of Microsoft Games Division? The first multi-part series I’ve decided to include is a Command and Conquer: Red Alert style retrospective and alternate history of the 90s console wars. I hope you’ll subscribe and enjoy reading about my ideas for how the face of video game hardware and software could have been radically different from that which we know today.

1984: The Third Generation

Following the video game crash of 1983 in the US, two home consoles from Japan rose from the ashes of the over-saturated market and reclaimed it with superior hardware and quality titles.One was the highly popular Famicom, also known in the United States as the Nintendo Entertainment System. This system dominated in both the US and Japan thanks to innovative and addicting games such as Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda, and also thanks in part to restrictions on software development. The other system was the Sega Master System, while also having high popularity in the US and Japan it didn’t have nearly as many sales in either market. The Sega Master System did however have a substantial lead over its competitor in Europe, Brazil, and Oceania. While long time veteran Atari did release their own 8-bit console, the Atari 7800, to compete with Nintendo and Sega they failed to gain even a small percentage of the market share and finally dropped out of hardware development in 1987. After 5 years on the market at the end of the decade Sega and Nintendo knew it was time to release the new wave of 16-bit consoles and turn the cold-war between them hot.

1987:The Genesis of the 16-bit Era

Noticing the lucrative business models of companies like Nintendo and Sega, Japanese company NEC partnered with Hudson Soft who fell out of an agreement for advanced graphics chips from Nintendo. Thus, the PC-Engine, the world’s first 16 bit game console was born. Thanks to an efficient 3 chip architecture and the use of proprietary game cards rather than cartridges the PC-Engine became a fast seller and rivaled the aging Famicom in Japan. The PC-Engine was then brought out of its native country and into the US, redesigned with composite video out, and an extra controller port to appeal to the US multiplayer market. NEC didn’t want to chance making a big flop outside Japan and made an aggressive ad campaign posing the PC-Engine as Faster and more cutting edge than The NES or Sega Master System.It worked, and following the launch of the PC-Engine in North America NEC/Hudson Soft were on top of the world Console market.

What they hadn’t realized was Nintendo and Sega had both been working on 16-bit machines of their own. They had urinated on sleeping giants, and come 1988 Sega was the first to respond to the PC engine with superior sound and graphics on the Sega Mega-Drive. Fans of the Master System happily upgraded to their brand new Sega systems complete with a new game that was to become the mascot rivaling the edginess of PC-Engine and the cuteness of characters like Mario that had made Nintendo a household name combined, with the launch of Sonic The Hedgehog. It had proved to be a killer app as it appealed to all age groups, whereas the PC-Engine had a more adult feel to its library of arcade games and shoot-em-ups.

Another benefit of the Sega Genesis was the choice of cartridges for its game medium which allowed for much longer and more complex games making the initial cool-factor of the PC-Engine’s rather limiting in size HuCards a major concern for developers who quickly developed an add on using the latest in CD technology in Japan that same year, to increase the space available and as an added benefit the ease of production for the PC-Engine games. The initial japanese CD model was a success and paved the way for a cheaper more marketable model in the United States.

Unfortunately due to failed partnerships and the foresight for a small market relative to an expensive add-on for an already expensive console, Sega decided to shelve their plans of their own 16-bit CD add on, works for many Sega CD games other than those that were to include a gimmick of low quality “Full Motion Video Graphics” were translated into Mega Cartridges. This included what became Sonic 2, with a Sonic 3 done by Sonic team in US following relatively quickly.

Finally in 1990 Nintendo had bided their time riding the continuing success and longevity of NES long enough to acquire more cutting edge and powerful hardware than either NEC or Sega who had already released their 16-bit machines. They released the Super Nintendo with a plethora of launch titles. Although they had considered a CD add-on like Sega and NEC they decided to move their plans and ideas with their partners Sony into a new console project for the next generation, as their cartridge technology still provided better graphics and only lacked the fidelity in sound the the PC-Engine’s audio was capable of rendering.

Meanwhile NEC had designed and released an all in one unit for the PC-Engine and the CD add on which also included more memory and a second set of video chips, known as the PC-Engine Duo. This model completely replaced the core PC-Engine system as well as the add-on and was cheaper together rather than separate. All 3 Systems were in a fierce competition and all had roughly equally 30% of the market share beating out even the newer smaller consoles like the Panasonic 3DO, the Phillips CD-I, and to a lesser extent the Neo Geo by SNK Playmore who still had a niche market of arcade cabinet quality cartridge units and superior arcade joysticks as well as wonderful fighting games and shooters.

By the mid 90s, Nintendo and Sega both knew that CD would be absolutely essential to their success in the coming console generation as the the newcomer PC-Engine rose from nowhere to virtually a 3-way tie with its inclusion this time.

Cherished Pokemon

Have you ever had a cherished piece of gaming memorabilia stolen from you? A couple years back I used to rent a house with 3 other guys my age (I was 18 at the time, terrible, terrible idea in retrospect.) and my little carrying case with my original DS and all my pokemon games went missing. I had nearly seven years worth of pokemon collecting ripped from me in an instant. And I never found out what happened to them or where they went. I had pokemon all the way back from Ruby version when I was 10 years old. My lvl 100 Swampert, and all my event legendaries like Jirachi and Deoxys were all lost. I remember one summer I spent nearly two months EV training a team for a pokemon tournament, all perfectly bred with beneficial natures and everything. My favorite pokepal was my Salamence, Ryuu. I remember I was so excited when Heart Gold and Soul Silver came out so I could actually walk around with him :D. If anything that’s one thing about Pokemon that I don’t know of a whole lot of games replicating very well. That bond you make with friends that’s so strong you actually almost feel an emotional connection to them. I guess what I’m saying is always be thankful for what you’ve got, and don’t take anything for granted.Whether it be video games, pokemon, or a relationship, because you never know when you may not have it anymore. 

Have you ever had a similar experience? What do you cherish? Post it in the Comments, I'd love to hear from my readers. And if you've got any suggestions for future articles or even if you want me to do something crazy on camera and post in on this blog I'd love some feedback :D

Thoughts on why I love video games and the future of humanity

I love video games  because they make imaginary words come to life before your eyes, and put you in the center of action. There is an amazing level of detail and all forms of art within video games. I think it’s an amazing aspect of evolution that biology evolved over millions and millions of years to us humans who are capable of thought so intricate as to be able to create other realities from the confines of their own minds using the power of technology. We are literally on the verge of of an era of full immersion virtual reality, where things like video games and technology will become indistinguishable from the physical reality around us. This essentially means the end to humanity as we know it, as technological evolution will inevitably merge with biological evolution. Humanity will be able to overcome many boundaries that plague us currently. We will outgrow the need for money, even death, and individuality. As we all become one single collective consciousness even more so than we already are with inventions like the internet. If we all have wireless internet in our brains it means we would essentially be able to telepathically communicate with one another. Instead of eating we would be able to directly harness electricity. I love thinking about the future and the endless possibilities for our species that it holds.

What do you think the future will bring for us who can create artificial worlds that we love so much? Post it in the comments.

Donkey Kong 64

The game I’ve been playing the most lately is Donkey Kong 64. Another gem from the golden age of Rare as a second party developer for Nintendo. Taking the same basic mechanics of 3D platformers like Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie it’s basically the same old thing. Personally I have nothing wrong with that as I find 3D platformers to be some of the most fun and lively romps through nearly cartoon worlds. Especially the ones from Rare, Nintendo, and Sega. And maybe not especially Ninjabread Man...With this game you’re continuing the story of Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong and Company from the brilliant masterpieces of 2D platforming, The Donkey Kong Country Trilogy. King K. Rool the master of the lizard race the Kremlings (Who would later be replaced by weird drums with eyes in DKCR) basically parks his house boat right in front of the island I’ve always assumed was called Donkey Kong Country, and obviously having major butthurt from the previous 3 times you’ve kicked his ass. Is planning on firing a giant laser right in the giant Donkey Kong Mountain’s face. So needless to say it’s up to Donkey Kong and the Four other playable monkeys to run around both the island and the k.rool ship through different themed levels. A lot of them taking design cues from the levels from the old SNES Donkey Kong Country Games like stages with Minecarts, Jungles, Crystal Caves, Ancient Ruins, etc. This game is a collectors paradise. Currently I’m playing through it the way I never had the patience to as a kid and going through every level with one of the five kongs at a time collecting the 75 bananas, 5 golden bananas, banana coins, laser blueprints, banana fairies, crystal coconuts, ammo, and watermelons needed to get a 101% in the game. Some of my favorite parts about the game are the challenge barrels that require you to play mini games like firing watermelons out of a cannon, or playing a slot machine and winning 3 times in a row within a certain time period. There are also some playable retro throwbacks in the form of the original Donkey Kong for Arcade and the old Jetpac game by rare that got remade into a DLC title for Xbox Live Arcade. If you have a Nintendo 64, like 3D platformers and still haven’t played this game. You definitely owe it to yourself to find a copy.

My Dream E3 Presentation

With E3 less than a week away, and all the major game news sites buzzing with anticipation over what new surprises wait in store. I decided it would be fun to write my idea of a perfect E3 keynote from my favorite major video game hardware company ever. Nintendo!

Nintendo's E3 Keynote presentation starts off with announcing new 3DS titles. Of course titles already mentioned will be talked about. Luigi's Mansion 2,Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, New Super Mario Bros. 2, etc. In addition to Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 the Re-make companion games for this generation of Pokemon games will be Pokemon Land Ruby and Ocean Sapphire exclusively for the 3DS. On-board Poke-walker functionality will be included thanks to the built-in pedometer and street-pass features on the 3DS. A teaser trailer for the new Legend of Zelda game in works is shown. Not much about game play or how far along they are in the development is mentioned. Just a small clip of Toon Link Barreling out of the 3DS screen with moblins chasing after him. Once talks about the already established 3DS going strong into it's second year of life and the new software that will be coming to it is over, Reggie Fils-Aime hands the Mic over to Satoru Iwata and Shigeru Miyamoto as they begin to talk about Nintendo's console for the future. Iwata talks about how last year he mentioned that with the Wii U they hoped to give an experience that is deeper and wider. And so to appeal to more fans they decided to add the color black as an option for the console from launch. A new surprise feature is shown in the form of a DS card slot right next to the SD card slot in the door on the front of the console is shown allowing you to play your hand-held titles on your TV just like you could with the Gameboy Player and Super Gameboy of yore. The robust library of classic games and download-able software available via the Nintendo E-Shop is shown, as well as details on the Nintendo Network including voice and video chatting with the new controller. Gabe Newell of Valve is brought on-stage to talk about Nintendo's partnering with Steam so even more titles especially enhanced ports of both Portal games will be available from day one. Finally the meat and potatoes of already announced launch titles as well as Pikmin 3, and a new F-Zero and Starfox game are announced to uproarious applause and cheers. Nintendo asserts itself as the forerunners of the 8^th generation of video games and Sony and Microsoft mutually pee themselves.

What would you like to see at E3? Post it in the Comments!

Stupid Stickers

I love used video game stores for the sheer fact that games that are years upon decades old are still in circulation and classics and gems from all kinds of systems can be shared and enjoyed by new people. But why is it that used game shops insist on putting HUGE stickers all over the front of the game cases? Maybe not everyone's as OCD as me when it comes to how your game cases look, but personally I like when I can see the whole box art and everything on the front of the label the way it was originally meant to be seen, rather than having the Game-stop logo or $19.99 obscuring text and graphics. Now this wouldn't be such a problem if it weren't for the fact that most stickers these places put on don't just come off cleanly. You know what I'm talking about. They leave that sticky goo all over your game case so it actually looks worse than when it just had a sticker on it! I think more used game shops should either start using shrink wrap to allow the stickers to come off completely, or just have price tags on the side or in display cases.

Got anything that annoys you about gamecollecting? Post it in the comments!

If you like this blog and found it's content useful to you feel free to send a donation!