# I want to make a game



## R4Liam (Sep 11, 2013)

Yeah I know. As ridiculous as it might sound I want to try. So bottom line is: is it possible to make a video game without spending _any_ money? And I mean no money whatsoever, the only thing being spent is time. Can anyone suggest a program or technique or skill for doing such a thing? I think I would make it for PC. 

I have no idea what kind of box of frogs I've just opened...


----------



## Gahars (Sep 11, 2013)

Well, if you accidentally, _magically_ ended up with a free copy of RPG Maker, sure, why not?


----------



## FAST6191 (Sep 11, 2013)

There are plenty of free programming languages/IDEs (take your pick really, in terms of general programming you will be hard pressed to find a paid only programming language), image editors (start with GIMP and inkscape and then move sideways), music sequencers/recorders (openmpt and audacity respectively), 3d modelling programs (blender most likely but you could look in the CAD world), video encoders/editors (though if you want to sell/give away something this can get a bit trickier so you might to hit up xiph -- there is a reason for why you might often find ogg and ogm when you pull apart games). Hell there are entire free games and game engines if you fancy making a mod instead (no reason you can not turn many games into something quite different, indeed check out several of the big mod projects) as well as things like rpg maker, mugen and more.
What will probably be your stumbling point, other than lack of desire to carry on and maybe some skill as far as game design goes*, is lack of skill in any one of those areas, assuming they are relevant to the game at hand (your game may not need 3d modelling). One skilled in any one of those fields could use any one of those tools to pull off very high level work, you pay mostly when you need to make things simpler or quicker. Sadly there are no real drag and drop tools beyond some mod making gear that will allow you to build a game or do much in the way of general programming at this stage in life ( http://scratch.mit.edu/ is about as good as you get), it is coming but it is coming in the same way electric cars are coming.

*though it is not treated well even within what it passes off as academia it is a field unto itself which combines several aspects of several more general disciplines (see things like game theory, competition theory, much of psychology dealing with how people react to competition and more) into something interesting.


----------



## R4Liam (Sep 11, 2013)

I'm not sure whether I want it to be an rpg game. Or can you make anything with rpg maker?


----------



## Rydian (Sep 11, 2013)

Game Maker is one of the easiest tools out there to use and has a limited free version.  It abstracts everything except the actual game design and scripting away, so it's a good tool to see if game design is your thing or not.


----------



## FAST6191 (Sep 11, 2013)

R4Liam said:


> I'm not sure whether I want it to be an rpg game. Or can you make anything with rpg maker?



Have a look for ao oni on youtube.


----------



## Ethevion (Sep 11, 2013)

That's tough to do without spending money or going to the dark side. You'd be pretty limited. I know Game Maker Studio has a free trial, but it limits the amount of objects and sprites you can add to a game.

Edit: Damn, ninja'd by Rydian


----------



## R4Liam (Sep 11, 2013)

If I were to go to 'the dark side' then if my game got popular wouldn't I be facing a lawsuit?



Rydian said:


> Game Maker is one of the easiest tools out there to use and has a limited free version. It abstracts everything except the actual game design and scripting away, so it's a good tool to see if game design is your thing or not.


 

But if I found that game design was my thing then I would have to pay anyway. I'm looking for a free way. I probably won't find it.


----------



## Foxi4 (Sep 11, 2013)

Depending on your level of programming/game design prowess you can make a game from scratch without spending a single penny - what you'll be spending for the most part is time. There's a slew of Game Makers out there, dozens of programming languages to choose from, each with hundreds of libraries you could use - the sky is the limit.

If you want to make a Game Maker game, download a Game Maker of your choice - this is actually a good starting point as it teaches you video game logic. Once you're past that entry level, you can progress to tutorials reaching you how to make _"big boy"_ video games in, say, C++ or Java - there are loads of those online and they're mostly free.


----------



## Forstride (Sep 11, 2013)

You don't have to spend money to make a game.  However, you'll most likely have to spend money to make a _good_ game, unless you can do art, music/sounds, design, programming, and other parts of development all by yourself, or convince people to join you in development without pay.


----------



## Issac (Sep 11, 2013)

Yeah I'd suggest Game Maker too, I used it a lot from 2001 and forward (to 2005~2006), but time and inspiration ran dry eventually. Last time I used it was two or three years ago, in a Game Design course at Uni. I don't know how the new one works, and with the trial and all... but yeah, It's a great tool for beginners to desgin and play around with ideas at least. (Hotline Miami is (was) made with Game Maker btw)

EDIT:
Wooow, there's a free version, that's good. standard costs €40, Pro costs €80, and then a lot of plugins and stuff... the master collection (with all plugins) has a nice package deal of only €600... (instead of the €1020 it would've been if bought one by one). Back in my days, game maker was 100% free T____T


----------



## joeyjoey396 (Sep 11, 2013)

You can learn a programming language, and use notepad++.

LOVE2D has been becoming popular lately, because of Mari0 (mario with portals yay) so I've been learning that a bit.
If you're sure you want to do this, then use a programming language. Sure, it'll take time right now, but think of how
it'll look on your résumé.

Try it, if it's too hard, spend money on something I guess. Programming with a language is awesome. Hard, but awesome.


----------



## R4Liam (Sep 11, 2013)

It would be cool to get a talented group of people together who are willing to make a game for free even as a hobby for now. Hmmm I wonder where I can find people with that kind of interest... 

Seriously, would anyone be interested in starting a project? We could say we came from the underground, came from the temp!


----------



## Bobbyloujo (Sep 11, 2013)

Well, you don't really just up and make a game. It's a lot of work, a lot of learning. The day I decided to make a game I found DS Game Maker and after a few months all I had was Plane Popper to show for it. You won't just make the next big indie game in a few months but if you're serious about getting into programming and making games look for some programs that simplify the process (DS Game Maker, Game Maker, RPG Maker) and make some simple games. Then start teaching yourself about programming languages and stuff and maybe take some classes. It can be done without spending money but it'll take a lot of time and a lot of work.


----------



## R4Liam (Sep 12, 2013)

Bobbyloujo said:


> Well, you don't really just up and make a game. It's a lot of work, a lot of learning. The day I decided to make a game I found DS Game Maker and after a few months all I had was Plane Popper to show for it. You won't just make the next big indie game in a few months but if you're serious about getting into programming and making games look for some programs that simplify the process (DS Game Maker, Game Maker, RPG Maker) and make some simple games. Then start teaching yourself about programming languages and stuff and maybe take some classes. It can be done without spending money but it'll take a lot of time and a lot of work.


 

If I had made that game that you made in that time frame I would be proud of myself. I hope that gives people an idea of my current skill set. I say current skill set because I am absolutely serious about learning a programming language especially with the business I'm in (graphic design) it would look great on my CV.


----------



## Issac (Sep 12, 2013)

Another suggestion is to do something for android, if you got an android phone. It's really simple to get started, using Eclipse and the Google API. There are great tutorials on how to set it all up and get started. It's very flexible.
In another course at Uni, we were developing a multiplayer game for Android, but we only had one phone. The Google API includes an Android Emulator, and we managed to make a wireless router and the emulator pretend to be a real android device, making it possible to play with one phone and one emulator. Everything's well documented, and there are loads of tutorials.


----------



## joeyjoey396 (Sep 12, 2013)

I would most definitely help, but you're gonna have to be dedicated. What programming language? I hope my reply was enough to get you to use one.
Love2d is great, but really I'm not that great. I've been learning.

If you do want to make a game, then I may help. For sure you'll have to start small, nothing big. Like a simple fan-game.

Ideas I've had: Terraria RPG, Pikmin RTS, and Zombie Mitt Romney


----------



## R4Liam (Sep 12, 2013)

joeyjoey396 said:


> I would most definitely help, but you're gonna have to be dedicated. What programming language? I hope my reply was enough to get you to use one.
> Love2d is great, but really I'm not that great. I've been learning.
> 
> If you do want to make a game, then I may help. For sure you'll have to start small, nothing big. Like a simple fan-game.
> ...


 

Thank you for showing interest in the idea  I would love help. I was thinking of using that Love2d as you suggested and the Lua language which as you probably know is used with Love2d. I think a simple 2d platformer is a great starting point. I'll pm you, and anyone else who wants to get this thing going.



Issac said:


> Another suggestion is to do something for android, if you got an android phone. It's really simple to get started, using Eclipse and the Google API. There are great tutorials on how to set it all up and get started. It's very flexible.
> In another course at Uni, we were developing a multiplayer game for Android, but we only had one phone. The Google API includes an Android Emulator, and we managed to make a wireless router and the emulator pretend to be a real android device, making it possible to play with one phone and one emulator. Everything's well documented, and there are loads of tutorials.


 

That sounds quite interesting too, I have a Nexus 7 so that would definitely be do-able. Is there a way of making the game in Love2d and making it compatible with android?


----------



## loco365 (Sep 12, 2013)

If you want to make a game purely from scratch...

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=23714

(Works on Windows, Xbox 360 (If you have a license) and Windows phones.)


----------



## Foxi4 (Sep 12, 2013)

A lot of people will disagree with me now, but consider JavaScript/HTML5-based libraries, and there's a good reason why. When making a HTML5-based game, you can practically forget about any sort of optimalization you'd normally expect when coding specifically for a given platform - HTML5 is HTML5 and it's _"just going to work"_, avoiding many platform-specific limitations which is pretty sweet. Moreover, said games can be played in a browser and that alone means that they can be pretty darn multiplatform from the get-go.

There are even readily-available Game Makers utilizing HTML5, Construct2 being a very popular one due to being practically code-free, so give that a try. The website also hosts tons upon tons of documentation necessary for the newbie coder such as yourself so with enough dedication, I'm sure you can whip up something lovely with this application.

​

If you'd like to utilize DirectX instead, Construct Classic is now Open-Source and should allow you to create PC games in a relatively easy drag & drop fashion.


----------



## FAST6191 (Sep 12, 2013)

R4Liam said:


> It would be cool to get a talented group of people together who are willing to make a game for free even as a hobby for now. Hmmm I wonder where I can find people with that kind of interest...
> 
> Seriously, would anyone be interested in starting a project? We could say we came from the underground, came from the temp!



Being capable of graphic design (and thusly I assume a bit of everything from vector to pixel work) you have a slight edge but you will mostly find people that are very jaded (not without reason either) and have met hundreds of people wanting to make their own game. Everybody has ideas (and ideas are worth precisely fuck all) and the "if I just had the time" type thing. If you are struggling with a particular aspect of making your game then that is an entirely different matter.

If you are looking to further your work skillset and make a game at the same time that focuses things a bit ("I want to make a game" is about as broad as "I want to write a book, I want to create a story, I want to make some music, I want to make a picture...." in that there are thousands of options for each). It varies a tad depending upon what particular field you find yourself in and I am not sure what the current and future hotness is in graphics world right now. Naturally web stuff features heavily in it and there is a lot you can do with games in web stuff (HTML5 and opengl are coming up, javascript interpreters allow for a lot, flash does very well for itself, java well java underpins much of android so take that as you will and that is before we get into the more esoteric stuff like ajax, server side scripting and node.js. Similarly if you do not know web stuff as far as basic CSS and maybe XML then go do that instead of this for the time being as being able to tart up a website is a far more saleable skill than being able to make a good version of pong.

Back on topic though I am not sure what to suggest here -- different programming languages do for different things and among programmers there is something of a truism in the phrase "you program very well in your first programming language" (after that you tend to use the constructs and style of the original language even if you are using a different one entirely). I have the little guide I wrote for ROM hacking uses but it is mainly for ROM hacking http://gbatemp.net/threads/rom-hacking-programming-languages-and-programming-tools-also-asm.324116/ and I am inclined to say you can not go wrong with python (it can program pretty much anything fairly well, it does not have too many oddities from an academic programming point of view, it does basic maths/data fiddling extremely well, it is the glue that holds most other programming languages together and it is on about every platform that matters with a lot of offshoots into other things).
My suggested book on it is http://greenteapress.com/thinkpython/thinkpython.html though http://programming-motherfucker.com/ and http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=6B940F08B9773B9F are things I will also link and say have a look at those too.

On game makers.. they certainly have their uses and I will not begrudge the current set their existence but for me they are roughly equivalent to remixing music in that most people just shit all over something but you will occasionally get something that really works but is quite different or improves upon the original. In most cases those that can do that already know proper music creation though.


----------



## R4Liam (Sep 12, 2013)

FAST6191 said:


> Being capable of graphic design (and thusly I assume a bit of everything from vector to pixel work) you have a slight edge but you will mostly find people that are very jaded (not without reason either) and have met hundreds of people wanting to make their own game. Everybody has ideas (and ideas are worth precisely fuck all) and the "if I just had the time" type thing. If you are struggling with a particular aspect of making your game then that is an entirely different matter.
> 
> If you are looking to further your work skillset and make a game at the same time that focuses things a bit ("I want to make a game" is about as broad as "I want to write a book, I want to create a story, I want to make some music, I want to make a picture...." in that there are thousands of options for each). It varies a tad depending upon what particular field you find yourself in and I am not sure what the current and future hotness is in graphics world right now. Naturally web stuff features heavily in it and there is a lot you can do with games in web stuff (HTML5 and opengl are coming up, javascript interpreters allow for a lot, flash does very well for itself, java well java underpins much of android so take that as you will and that is before we get into the more esoteric stuff like ajax, server side scripting and node.js. Similarly if you do not know web stuff as far as basic CSS and maybe XML then go do that instead of this for the time being as being able to tart up a website is a far more saleable skill than being able to make a good version of pong.
> 
> ...


 

And there's the box of frogs :S

I am aware of the broadness of the topic and that I come across a bit naïve to think I can step in and make a game, but I really want to add game making to my portfolio and I know I will enjoy doing it. I am going to get learning. I really like the idea of collaborating with people from here to make games. I have been part of this scene for a few years now and have grown to love it. There are many talented people here who I'm sure could learn more from such an experience. I want to do the same  Thank you for the link I will check them out. 

And I agree with that "you program very well in your first programming language" concept. After all, they _are _languages and my English is better than GCSE-taught French  With this graphic design course I'm doing at University, I have been learning many skills including tarting up websites (I like that phrase ) I just want to broaden my skills.


----------



## RedCoreZero (Sep 12, 2013)

Learn action script; start developing for OUYA


----------



## Foxi4 (Sep 12, 2013)

RedCoreZero said:


> Learn action script; start developing for OUYA


OUYA? Oh nou... _;O;_

Honestly though, if he feels like developing for Android then he should just develop for clean Android rather than focusing specifically on the OUYA which has a very small target audience. Moreover, coding for the OUYA _(with all OUYA-specific gimmicks in mind)_ would require the... purchase of an OUYA. Since nobody in their right mind has one, I'm assuming the OP doesn't as well.


----------



## R4Liam (Sep 12, 2013)

Foxi4 said:


> OUYA? Oh nou... _;O;_
> 
> Honestly though, if he feels like developing for Android then he should just develop for clean Android rather than focusing specifically on the OUYA which has a very small target audience. Moreover, coding for the OUYA _(with all OUYA-specific gimmicks in mind)_ would require the... purchase of an OUYA. Since nobody in their right mind has one, I'm assuming the OP doesn't as well.


 

As great as OUYA is (it marks the start of the android console takeover), I think I will make a game for a more popular platform to begin with.


----------



## Aeter (Sep 12, 2013)

Like Fast said if you want to learn a language that is not too hard, but very powerful and easy to learn, go with Python. 
You can also develop games with Python using pygame.


----------



## calmwaters (Sep 12, 2013)

How would you like to make a Ben 10 RPG with all ten aliens from the original show? That'd be good experience; creating creature sketches, coding moves, etc. I'd be up for that.  I'm not good with Python, but my VB teacher says that Python is very similar to VB. It doesn't have to be anything fancy; you're not shooting for an Elder Scrolls game or a Call of Duty title, hopefully. Try something simple like Chrono Trigger mixed with some sort of primitive game: like what you'd find on the N64... or go for something like Chrono Cross in 3D. I want to make a game too: they're just too complicated for one person. And too much work.


----------



## Kirito-kun (Sep 12, 2013)

Nah, learn to code in C# and use Unity game engine. It's free and will let you make games with way more leet graphics than something like RPG Maker.


----------



## Ericthegreat (Sep 12, 2013)

R4Liam said:


> Yeah I know. As ridiculous as it might sound I want to try. So bottom line is: is it possible to make a video game without spending _any_ money? And I mean no money whatsoever, the only thing being spent is time. Can anyone suggest a program or technique or skill for doing such a thing? I think I would make it for PC.
> 
> I have no idea what kind of box of frogs I've just opened...


Depends on game, but yea you can code and use free assets :

http://opengameart.org/ (some good audio here too)

http://archive3d.net/

http://www.soundjay.com/

BUT I gotta say, I agree with gahars but instead you could "magically" end up with a free pro version (hey the free version is actully pretty good now) of *unity 3d*. Just seek out the persians, they have all the "magic" you could ever need.

Also any coding experience is great unity uses C# android uses java, C++ is also very good.


----------



## Rydian (Sep 12, 2013)

Foxi4 said:


> HTML5 is HTML5 and it's _"just going to work"_, avoiding many platform-specific limitations which is pretty sweet.


Unfortunately, that's not how it is at all.  From Cookie Clicker not working on many mobile devices to all the "chrome experiments" and "html5 experiments" and such running only in the (at the time) latest versions of (still currently) only a few certain browsers... there's plenty of examples that this is just wishful thinking by devs and people pushing the tech.

HTML5 isn't hardware-limited, but it is HEAVILY software/interpreter-limited.


----------



## DarkWork0 (Sep 12, 2013)

Stencyl is another free to use coding program, what's cool about it: it's a mostly drag and drop coding.  It uses puzzle pieces that have most of the coding used, you can even make your own for things such as animations and A* pathing(tower defense pathing for the creeps)  They also have quite a bit of free tutorial games you can download from their in app stores, along with free resources.


----------



## Foxi4 (Sep 12, 2013)

Rydian said:


> Unfortunately, that's not how it is at all. From Cookie Clicker not working on many mobile devices to all the "chrome experiments" and "html5 experiments" and such running only in the (at the time) latest versions of (still currently) only a few certain browsers... there's plenty of examples that this is just wishful thinking by devs and people pushing the tech.
> 
> HTML5 isn't hardware-limited, but it is HEAVILY software/interpreter-limited.


 
That's only because it's not fully implemented and the standard is somewhat fluid, but this situation will change soon enough.  I still think it's a pretty good tool for upstarting game dev's who don't really know what they're doing yet and just want to doodle.


----------



## DanTheManMS (Sep 13, 2013)

Issac said:


> Yeah I'd suggest Game Maker too, I used it a lot from 2001 and forward (to 2005~2006), but time and inspiration ran dry eventually. Last time I used it was two or three years ago, in a Game Design course at Uni. I don't know how the new one works, and with the trial and all... but yeah, It's a great tool for beginners to desgin and play around with ideas at least. (Hotline Miami is (was) made with Game Maker btw)
> 
> EDIT:
> Wooow, there's a free version, that's good. standard costs €40, Pro costs €80, and then a lot of plugins and stuff... the master collection (with all plugins) has a nice package deal of only €600... (instead of the €1020 it would've been if bought one by one). Back in my days, game maker was 100% free T____T


I... think I remember you from ZFGC? Issac Amisov as a purposeful misspelling of Isaac Asimov? o_o

Regardless, I was really big into saving all of my setup files back then. If you ever want to reinstall them for nostalgia's sake, I've got both v5.3a and v6.1 setups here:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/59972490/GBAandDS/gmaker5.3A.exe
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/59972490/GBAandDS/gmaker6.1setup.exe


----------



## Issac (Sep 13, 2013)

DanTheManMS said:


> I... think I remember you from ZFGC? Issac Amisov as a purposeful misspelling of Isaac Asimov? o_o
> 
> Regardless, I was really big into saving all of my setup files back then. If you ever want to reinstall them for nostalgia's sake, I've got both v5.3a and v6.1 setups here:
> https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/59972490/GBAandDS/gmaker5.3A.exe
> https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/59972490/GBAandDS/gmaker6.1setup.exe


 

Wow, thank you! This is great! And I'd recommend the OP trying these out for starters. 

But sorry man, even though that's an awesome name, it wasn't me. My purposeful misspelling was of a entirely different kind  (Long story short: LunarSilverStarStoryCompleteRules -> shortened to LSSSCrules -> Shortened to lsssc on IRC -> gbatemp IRC member thinking I misspelled Isaac from Golden Sun, but he misspelled it himself as "issac"... so yeah)


----------



## Isaac (Sep 14, 2013)

Related


Aeter said:


> Like Fast said if you want to learn a language that is not too hard, but very powerful and easy to learn, go with Python.
> You can also develop games with Python using pygame.


I am currently in the process of learning python. I can link you to a decent guide if you choose this route

Unrelated:


Issac said:


> Wow, thank you! This is great! And I'd recommend the OP trying these out for starters.
> 
> But sorry man, even though that's an awesome name, it wasn't me. My purposeful misspelling was of a entirely different kind  (Long story short: LunarSilverStarStoryCompleteRules -> shortened to LSSSCrules -> Shortened to lsssc on IRC -> gbatemp IRC member thinking I misspelled Isaac from Golden Sun, but he misspelled it himself as "issac"... so yeah)


He is no real Isaac


----------



## Issac (Sep 14, 2013)

Isaac said:


> He is no real Isaac


But I am the Is*ac that's been here the longest


----------



## Aeter (Sep 14, 2013)

Isaac said:


> Related
> 
> I am currently in the process of learning python. I can link you to a decent guide if you choose this route


 
http://python.org has a lot of useful information.
I suggest you start at the beginners page here.

There is also a very good free book about Python called Dive Into Python which you can get here.
There is also a Dive Into Python 3 book available at: www.diveintopython3.net, which covers Python 3, if you decided to go for Python 3 instead of Python 2.

If you have any further questions just ask.


----------



## R4Liam (Sep 15, 2013)

Just wish I had more time.. going to have to make time aren't I?


----------



## FAST6191 (Sep 15, 2013)

Though there are a few highly skilled types that could knock out a passable version of a classic game in a short period of time (done often enough but more commonly done to get used to a new programming language/style/IDE or a new system) the vast majority of all game related projects, whether you be largely unskilled in the relevant areas or skilled in the areas and wishing to use that skill, take a lot of time to do.

A this point I would try to focus things a bit and try to write a design brief covering what it is about and try to hammer out some of the mechanics and what goes into them.


----------



## broie (Sep 16, 2013)

I know this Isn't my thread but it got me thinking and I didn't see the point in making my own one cause its pretty much on topic.

Anyway my question, would it actually be possible to create a game with software like say gamemaker or rpg maker with little to no programming skills? like say for example a basic Jrpg or platformer.

I know it wouldn't be exactly be a masterclass of gaming but would it be viable to achieve?

Have to do a project for college this year and I think one of the said ideas might be good for it, as long as it required little or no programming of course


----------



## FAST6191 (Sep 16, 2013)

What is this project being assessed on? If it is art then you have some options, if it is actual gameplay then you might trouble yourself as the engines are not always built for fine tuning or the ability to add something exotic into it and if it is game design then you can but you will have to be good. As mentioned earlier though look up something like Ao Oni and you will get an idea of how far things can be pushed.

Anyway technically possible, sure as they are largely designed for these purposes. If you are playing the get good grades most efficiently game though I would discourage this sort of thing as you will really have to be able to sell it.


----------



## Hells Malice (Sep 16, 2013)

broie said:


> I know this Isn't my thread but it got me thinking and I didn't see the point in making my own one cause its pretty much on topic.
> 
> Anyway my question, would it actually be possible to create a game with software like say gamemaker or rpg maker with little to no programming skills? like say for example a basic Jrpg or platformer.
> 
> ...


 
Dunno about gamemaker but RPGmaker is dead simple with a few tutorials to teach basics. It's very easy to use.
But still very time consuming of course, making a game isn't easy, even if the mechanics to do so are simplified beyond belief.
I made a pretty solid base for an RPG on RPGmaker but 0 programming skills, and i'm pretty confident I could've finished it all by myself with 0 real programming knowledge.


----------



## R4Liam (Oct 12, 2013)

Okay cool, now taking all of that on board, how would one make an app?


----------



## dragonblood9999 (Oct 12, 2013)

you can try to make a fighting game with mugen


----------



## Zeliga (Oct 12, 2013)

Go ahead but creating games takes a long time to finish


----------



## ilman (Oct 12, 2013)

R4Liam said:


> Okay cool, now taking all of that on board, how would one make an app?


 
App? As in an application for Android/iOS or just compiling the game?
If it's the latter, you'll not have a good time with that if you have 0 programming skills. Compiling stuff for Android can be a big mess and making apps for iOS requires a Mac (unless you use an engine like Unity to make it for you, but I don't like it). Combine that with the fact that you'll need to know Java for Android apps/Objective-C for iOS apps or C# for Unity and you'll see why making 'Apps' isn't such a simple business.

Just stay with PC until you learn some programming.


----------



## R4Liam (Oct 12, 2013)

This is my problem, I have an idea which means nothing in this world anymore. I am looking at C# right now just to be clear and this was before I saw your message. I think I am ready to dive into learning some code. Although it is a hard and long road I think I have to take it or people will end up taking my ideas right?


----------



## FAST6191 (Oct 12, 2013)

"taking my ideas"
I would, as would everybody else with the desire to make something.. but not before we have already made our own happen.


----------



## trumpet-205 (Oct 13, 2013)

You could for example, started out with RPG Maker (which would be free if you go pirate).

Ren'py is a python based visual novel maker, it is free.


----------



## R4Liam (Oct 15, 2013)

I was just wondering do you think it is likely that I could make a web-based application used in a web browser using only C#?



trumpet-205 said:


> You could for example, started out with RPG Maker (which would be free if you go pirate).
> 
> Ren'py is a python based visual novel maker, it is free.


 
Thanks for the Ren'py idea but I don't have the energy to start making a series of drawings :/


----------



## Damian666 (Oct 15, 2013)

http://indiehub.net/index


----------



## FAST6191 (Oct 15, 2013)

R4Liam said:


> I was just wondering do you think it is likely that I could make a web-based application used in a web browser using only C#?



Yes, it would use ASP.net or something along those lines. Naturally it would require IIS which is usually a pricier option in servers (they have to pay for a windows server license rather than just spin up another copy of centOS) and can equally troublesome if you want to make one (though http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc725762.aspx and http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc731911.aspx exist for a reason and should be fine to develop on).
http://asp.net-tutorials.com/basics/first-website/ is a reasonable start though I would suggest a proper book eventually. I have seen a few interesting web games coded in it though (indeed gun to head I might even prefer it over the alternatives) and given the options for using c# in a web game otherwise are things like CGI then IIS does OK and you can ignore the linux/bsd server crowd if you want.

Equally you will probably have to toss a tiny bit of javascript up in the browser so you will need to have a grasp of that as well.


----------



## The Milkman (Oct 25, 2013)

I used Construct 2 and GM for a while when I was messing with this sort of thing. Both really good tools (though I'm WAY too fucking lazy to make anything worth playing with them) that simplfy the process, especially Construct since they aren't as pompous as Yo-Yo games (since the tool is less popular.)


----------

