Search the Community

So I'm utterly new to most of the areas in this area, but, I'm not one to just give up on what I want; especially when it involves a game I love as much as Skyrim. So, I'm reaching out to hopefully find some other lovers of Skyrim that I can trust (more than I could with a previous "partner") to NOT run off with my ideas and turn them into their own. I was ready to take on this task on my own at the price of years of learning/advancing, and I still am if that's what needs to happen. But, I'd rather work with a team instead of alone. It's just more fun that way. :-) I hope I posted this in the correct forum... lol I never could get that right on BethNet, so I stick to replies to others. Have a great weekend everyone!

For a beginner the Game Developing World can be overwhelming. There are so many things to learn and sometimes you can get lost in the sea of information. I know, I have been there. So I hope my post will help you find your way. First things, first. I know you must have heard this a million times. "The best way to start game developing, is with creating small games." This is best described with this article from NoobTuts: [/Spoiler The Game of making Games - a Metaphor Foreword "Make small games" is the advice that everyone hears when starting out with game development. But that's is nothing that we want to hear while fantasizing about our insanely big dream project. Let's face it, small games seem boring. But... The Game Metaphor Let's put it into terms that we all understand. It's one of those rainy afternoons. Some guy, let's call him Link, decides to become a game developer. Of course, he has big plans. He wants to make a MMORPG. Oh wait that's boring. Let's say, he is a Hero in a role playing game, and he wants to slay a big dragon! Link just started his journey today, that pretty much makes him a level 1 hero. He has barely any skills, his wooden sword is weak, his wooden armor is thin and he only has money for two or three healing potions (just in case...). The dragon on the other hand, this untamed beast is level 60. It's big, it's strong and it kills everyone who gets close to it. As in every role playing game, there is a huge world with all kinds of fascinating things between Link and the Dragon. There are other heroes, some are friendly and some aren't. There are thousands of monsters everywhere in the world. Some are weak, some are almost as strong as the dragon. Some of them are in dungeons and they are so strong that only a group of brave heros might have a chance to kill them. Now I am asking you the reader, how can Link slay his dragon? Plan #1 - think big Link may be only level 1, but he sure is motivated, enthusiastic and dedicated. He does the obvious thing, he walks right towards where the dragon lives, and he faces him. Link walks up to him and slays his wooden sword right into the sleeping dragon's head. The sword breaks without hurting the dragon at all, the dragon doesn't even feel it. But Link is brave, he walks into the woods, finds some sticks and stones and quickly crafts himself a spear. He walks back to the dragon, and throws his spear right into the sleeping dragon's eye. A loud roaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar... spreads through the world. The dragon was hurt, and he is now awake. The spear made a total of 1 damage - sadly the dragon still has 999 health left. Now its on. The dragon spies a huge load of fire towards Link. His weak wooden armor starts to burn and does a lot of damage to our hero. But Link won't give up, he drinks a potion and once again he walks back into the woods, crafts himself a new armor and tries again. On his next attack, he managed to do 1 more damage. Only 998 health left... The sun rises and falls day after day, and our level 1 Link keeps fighting the beast. It has been a long time since he started fighting the dragon. And even though he is the single most dedicated hero in the whole world, he runs out of energy eventually. After what feels like a year of fighting, Link is a mess. He hates his weak weapons, he hasn't slept in days, he is hungry, he has no more money to buy new potions. The dragon spits fire right into Link. His weak wooden armor starts to burn again and ultimately he dies a slow and painful death. Plan #2 - successive suc-ces-sive [/səkˈsesiv/]: Following one another. Let's start again. This time, our level 1 Link starts by killing level 1 wolves. He gets stronger, he built some muscles, used the wolves' fur to make better armor and traded the wolves' eyes for a better sword. It's time to fight level 10 orcs now... Our Link fights hard every day, and soon he advanced to level 30. He met a few friendly heroes along the way, and they decided to go into a dungeon and slay a big evil spider. It's a hard battle. Link continues to get stronger and stronger. Five years later, it's another one of those rainy Sunday afternoons. Link's thoughts drift away as he remembers all the monsters that he has killed, all the powerful new weapons that he found and all the mistakes that he made. He is now a powerful and well respected warrior. He is the leader of a huge guild called Vedemag, and he has thousands of potions in his backpack. As the clouds melt away and the sun shines right into his eyes, he remembers the dragon. The untamed beast that got him into this in the first place. Link never gives up, so he decides it's time to fight the dragon again. He walks up to the dragon and starts by smashing his holy sword right into the dragon's eye. The dragon awakes, a loud roaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar... spreads through the world again. This time, he made 100 damage - now the dragon has only 900 health left. As Link raises his hand, his whole guild appears behind him on the horizon. Fearlessly they run towards the dragon and fight him with everything they have. The hours pass by as the dragon gets weaker and weaker in what seems to be the biggest fight in Link's life. The dragon becomes weaker and weaker. He can barely breath, as Link attacks him with his sword for the last time. Our hero has slain the dragon. After a long journey full of practice, failure and persistence he finally reached his goal. Summary Dear reader, you are Link. The Dragon is your big dream project. The heroes are your fellow game developers. The wolves are those little one-week game projects, and the orcs are the slightly bigger 6-month projects. The big evil spider will be your first one-year multiplayer game. Right now you are only equipped with a wooden sword (a few tools that kinda suck). You have to be patient and keep fighting, and ultimately your wooden sword will turn into a powerful holy sword (like a Game Engine or a powerful Framework). The potions are your food, so make sure to farm enough gold in order to pay for it. And most importantly, your wooden armor is your mind. It's up to you to strengthen it by failing and succeeding over and over again. Be patient, enjoy the journey and don't be so crazy to fight the dragon right away! © 2012-2017 noobtuts.com /spoiler] Now I want to introduce you to a few sites that may help you with your goal of creating small games and later with bigger projects: 1. Noobtuts = They are written tutorials, aiming to teach you the mechanics of different games like Pong, Tetris, PacMan, Super mario, Angry Birds, Flappy bird...some of them are free, others for paying customers. But it is still an excellent start for learning small games. 2D and 3D orientated. https://noobtuts.com/unity 2. Ray Wenderlich = They are written tutorials, where you learn to create games with certain aspects highlighted like animation, object pooling, sound effects, particle systems......2D and 3D orientated. https://www.raywenderlich.com/category/unity 3. Game Design HQX = Youtube tutorials, he offers tutorials on creating games like 2D Maze Games, Missile Command, Hidden Object Game, Jigsaw Puzzle games......and tutorials onhow to create an inventory system, battle system, skill tree....2D orientated. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCly65VLuV5IXet1DoszHgvA/playlists 4. GamesPlusJames = Youtube tutorials, he offers tutorials on an Endless Runner, Platformer, 2D RPG......and lots more, Mainly 2D orientated. https://www.youtube.com/user/gamesplusjames/playlists So far these four sites are a good starting point for you to begin your journey into 2D game developing. I will add onto these later.