by Johnathan Vredeveld

Created on: February 18, 2009

Many video game players eventually dream of making a game of their own, myself included. The problem is, many do not have any knowledge on how to actually make that dream a reality. There are a lot of factors in making game: programming, graphics, music, sound, etc. And many aspiring game creators don't know how to do even a single one of the tasks needed to make a game. Let's learn, shall we?

PROGRAMMING
The most challenging part of creating a game. In order for your game to run properly, it has to be programmed well. In order to program it, you will need to use a programming language or application.
Most big-name games, such as the ones you see on Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft consoles, are programmed in the C programming language. C is a very powerful programming language, offering lots of freedom, which allows the game programmer to create whatever they need for their game. However, C is very difficult to learn, and is definitely not for a first-timer.

Instead, I recommend the Clickteam game creation products. Many people would say Game Maker or RPG Maker, but I personally felt very limited trying to use those tools. The Clickteam products are very easy to use, yet can be quite powerful if you utilize all of their features. I recommend starting with Games Factory, and then moving up to Multimedia Fusion once you've gotten some experience under your belt. After that, you can try their newer products, Games Factory 2 and Multimedia Fusion 2.
Not only do those products provide an easy way to code your games, they have a graphical interface that makes it easy to animate your game as well. Games Factory comes with a sprite library, so you don't have to worry about creating your own graphics right away.

Many beginning game creators are likely wanting to make big 3D games like they see on consoles, but it is best to start small. Stick with 2D for now until you grasp the basics of programming, then move up to 3D when you feel you are ready.

Demo versions of Games Factory and Multimedia Fusion can be found at http://www.theclickteam.com/eng/downloadcenter.php?i =35

GRAPHICS
I personally have gotten along just fine using the built-in graphic system of Multimedia Fusion and Microsoft's Paint program. However, more powerful image-editing tools have proven useful in creating background images and other static sprites. It could be useful for actual character sprites as well, so long as you are consistent enough with the image editing that your sprites don't change too much between

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• Next Page >>