I want to make a game

[R4Liam]

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]

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

 

[FAST6191]

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]

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

 

[Rydian]

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]

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]

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]

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

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

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.

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]

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]

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.