Making Games?

[zippypinhead]

Anyone out there into making their own games? Or just interested in the idea of making a game?

 

[zippypinhead]

There are so many resources out there for people to make games, I figure it's something that can be done as a hobby pretty easily these days. Unity and Unreal are both free to use these days, which is pretty great. I've wanted to make a game for a long time. I've even put forth some actual attempts in the past, but nothing ever came of it.

I've been so obsessed with Stardew Valley lately, it's caused me to remember that I had bought RPG Maker XV Ace and a ton of resources a couple of years back through Humble Bundle. I started looking into it, and not only is it possible to make a farm simulator with the engine, pre-existing resources have already done the heavy lifting for it. I think that's pretty cool, and I'd love to try my hand at learning my way around the program properly. Maybe I can achieve my dream of making a farming simulator roguelike city-builder-lite with hot and heavy romance, and blackjack and hookers! It would be like Harvest Moon combined with Dark Cloud and Leisure Suit Larry, and I would make it just as bonkers as that sounds.

 

[zippypinhead]

It just occurred to me to link Unreal and Unity, since I mentioned them. This could be a nice place to post resources I run across. Also, here's RPG Maker, although it's not free. It did just release a new version a few months back, though. MV, which added capabilities to make mobile games. There is a free trial download.

 

[MsSpectre]

I am developing an FPS game in Unreal, and GameMaker Studio to make smaller 2D tie-in games.

 

[zippypinhead]

I am developing an FPS game in Unreal, and GameMaker Studio to make smaller 2D tie-in games.

That sounds interesting. What sort of setting is the FPS?

And how is it working with GameMaker? That's an engine that's been around for a long time, too.

 

[mutantdonut]

I've dreamt about developing games as a child. Now that these tools are made available, i've on-&-off explored the idea.

My main obstacle is patience. I just need more of it to stick with my childhood dream. That's on me.

My question to you @zippypinhead, how difficult is it to learn these tools at a moderate level, especially when i have virtually no programming experience? What is the learning curve if i'm learning from the ground up?

 

[MsSpectre]

What sort of setting is the FPS?

My game is to be a 4-player co-op robbery/burglary game in the style of PAYDAY 2, but simplified, more elegant, and without all the tacky bullshit Overkill does.

And how is it working with GameMaker? That's an engine that's been around for a long time, too.

My answer to zippypinhead's second question might answer yours too, mutantdonut.

I've worked with GameMaker off and on over the years, as it was often the engine of choice for the classes I took in college. However, I've never been truly comfortable with it. Programming isn't something that came exactly intuitively for me and even with the drag-and-drop interface, I still wasn't really able to learn how to think like a programmer. Twice, in fact, I panicked last minute on finals in my game dev classes because I couldn't figure out how to get GM to do what I wanted and submitted things I threw together in RPG Maker 2000 instead. The professors were not pleased, suffice to say.

Unreal changed that though. Unreal can be very daunting to someone just coming into game design, but I recommend it entirely for the following reasons:

1. You'll be working in a 3D environment. I find that a lot of my problem too was just that I wanted to be making games on the same level as major studios, but before Unreal was available for free, you basically had the choice of resigning oneself to 2D, finagling 3D in GM (difficult and hard to manage resource-wise), or FPS Creator (ehhhhh). Unreal is used by many AAA studios so you now have access to the same tools they do.

2. Unlike Valve's Source engine, which is also free to develop in, there's no fee to license the engine once you want to sell your games. Instead, after your first $3000 in profit, they want a 5% royalty per unit, per quarter. I don't think that's too terrible a deal, honestly.

3. It's also super easy to find information on how to do things in Unreal. Unreal is heavily documented, probably the best documented engine I've ever seen. There's an QA database in the style of Yahoo Questions, a forum, a very well maintained manual, and tons of tutorials - both official and not - available.

4. Unreal's Blueprints system, a graphical interface for programming, makes it not only easier to program, but also helps you better understand how to think like a programmer. Basically, in Blueprints, you create flowcharts that describe the events you want to happen in game. By seeing the way the logic should work in a flowchart format regularly, you begin to start thinking that way.

And that brings me back to GameMaker. Unreal taught me what GM never could: how to think about game flow without having to THINK about it. And that opened the possibility of making little miniature tie-in games to promote/fund my larger game. I never would have considered it had it not been for Unreal's Blueprints system.


To use Unreal, though, you will need a monitor of at least a 1920 X 1080 resolution. The panes will be too small to work in otherwise. I had to buy a new monitor to begin working in it.

 

[mutantdonut]

My game is to be a 4-player co-op robbery/burglary game in the style of PAYDAY 2, but simplified, more elegant, and without all the tacky bullshit Overkill does.



My answer to zippypinhead's second question might answer yours too, mutantdonut.

I've worked with GameMaker off and on over the years, as it was often the engine of choice for the classes I took in college. However, I've never been truly comfortable with it. Programming isn't something that came exactly intuitively for me and even with the drag-and-drop interface, I still wasn't really able to learn how to think like a programmer. Twice, in fact, I panicked last minute on finals in my game dev classes because I couldn't figure out how to get GM to do what I wanted and submitted things I threw together in RPG Maker 2000 instead. The professors were not pleased, suffice to say.

Unreal changed that though. Unreal can be very daunting to someone just coming into game design, but I recommend it entirely for the following reasons:

1. You'll be working in a 3D environment. I find that a lot of my problem too was just that I wanted to be making games on the same level as major studios, but before Unreal was available for free, you basically had the choice of resigning oneself to 2D, finagling 3D in GM (difficult and hard to manage resource-wise), or FPS Creator (ehhhhh). Unreal is used by many AAA studios so you now have access to the same tools they do.

2. Unlike Valve's Source engine, which is also free to develop in, there's no fee to license the engine once you want to sell your games. Instead, after your first $3000 in profit, they want a 5% royalty per unit, per quarter. I don't think that's too terrible a deal, honestly.

3. It's also super easy to find information on how to do things in Unreal. Unreal is heavily documented, probably the best documented engine I've ever seen. There's an QA database in the style of Yahoo Questions, a forum, a very well maintained manual, and tons of tutorials - both official and not - available.

4. Unreal's Blueprints system, a graphical interface for programming, makes it not only easier to program, but also helps you better understand how to think like a programmer. Basically, in Blueprints, you create flowcharts that describe the events you want to happen in game. By seeing the way the logic should work in a flowchart format regularly, you begin to start thinking that way.

And that brings me back to GameMaker. Unreal taught me what GM never could: how to think about game flow without having to THINK about it. And that opened the possibility of making little miniature tie-in games to promote/fund my larger game. I never would have considered it had it not been for Unreal's Blueprints system.


To use Unreal, though, you will need a monitor of at least a 1920 X 1080 resolution. The panes will be too small to work in otherwise. I had to buy a new monitor to begin working in it.

Thanks! Extremely informative.

I should be more specific. I'm thinking along the lines of 2D sprite-based graphic games - anything from platformers, to shoot em ups, to beat em ups - since i'm a huge fan of retro style games and i retroactively play 8 & 16 bit classics of the 80s/early90s. However, i may expand into 2D games with more modern graphical presentation (think Little Big Planet). Is there freeware suited toward that style?

 

[MsSpectre]

Unreal, in fact, comes with a lot of templates you can build up from, one of which is a side-scrolling platformer like Little Big Planet. However, Little Big Planet is still a 3D game even if the movement is restricted to two dimensions. You still have to deal with models and such, as opposed to sprites.

Unreal can do things with 2D sprites as well with its Paper 2D system, but I think it would be miles easier to do traditional 2D graphics in GameMaker than Unreal, unless you wanted something like Paper Mario. For traditional 8- and 16-bit styling, GM is the way to go. It's not specific to any genre (like RPG Maker is) so you can design games of all those genres and more in it.

 

[Lelo1]

@zippypinhead Me and a friend tried to make a game in the early 90s, RPG style. we got as far as a world builder.



You might get a kick out of this. It's a talk by Blair Renaud. He made the game technolust. Which was backed on kickstarter. He talks about his rapid development process using a Kitbashing.

 

[zippypinhead]

@MsSpectre it sounds like you have things well in hand. When I'd toyed with the idea of making games in the past, I had looked into Unreal and Unity, and both felt a bit too daunting for me. As is the case with @mutantdonut, I'm no programmer, and I have only minimal experience with 3D modeling. The cool thing about these programs, though, along with all of what you've mentioned is that they do have existing assets to draw from and helpful communities that provide a lot of material to use. One doesn't really need to know the programming, or at least, one needs to know only the minimum of the languages used -- enough to be able to employ scripts and assets that have been created by others. I think that's actually a pretty great thing. One can feasibly make a game all alone, and the tools exist to make it a good one with enough effort, too.

I've dreamt about developing games as a child. Now that these tools are made available, i've on-&-off explored the idea.

My main obstacle is patience. I just need more of it to stick with my childhood dream. That's on me.

My question to you @zippypinhead, how difficult is it to learn these tools at a moderate level, especially when i have virtually no programming experience? What is the learning curve if i'm learning from the ground up?

My first experience with game design was RPG Maker on the original Playstation, fifteen years ago. It was fun to putter around with, but it was hard to produce anything worthwhile from such limited assets on such limited hardware. Similarly, I had tried my hand at RPG Maker 2000, way back when, but again, it was mostly puttering around. After that, I'd get into game design off and on, as certain programs would pop up and catch my fancy over the years. I got pretty heavy into modding for Morrowind many years ago.

Then it just sort of dropped off until lately.

I'm using RPG Maker VX Ace, since that's what I own. When I picked it back up to have a look at it, I wasn't expecting much from the program. RPG Maker has a bit of a poor reputation because it boasts such a low barrier for entry, and it's used by hobbyists how use preexisting assets to make low-effort games. That, along with my fairly-lackluster experiences with past versions of the program, is probably what kept me away from the program even after I bought it. However, over the last few weeks, as I've played other game, I started to formulate an idea of what I really wanted to get out of a game making program, and looking into it, I found that the version of RPG Maker that I own hit every last criteria that I had, and implementing my ideas wouldn't take much technical effort on my part at all.
The hard work on my part is going to be drawing all the art assets that will go into a game. But, of course, for me that's going to be the best part!

Plus, no matter what program you decide to use, as I'd mentioned above, there are active and helpful communities that are built around making games. The Youtube channels, subreddits, Steam communities, and everything else means that the knowledge is available and easy to find, and you don't have to struggle through learning how to make a game, or any part of the process. I've spent a lot of the last week watching a lot of Youtube, and coming up with a game plan on what I want my games to be like, and how to approach the workflow. It has been a great experience so far, since I usually think to myself, "can I do this?" and the answers I find have been, "yes, and here's how you do it."

I'm also a real fan of the 8-bit and 16-bit styles of the past. Part of RPG Maker's appeal is that it starts in that aesthetic -- if a bit chibi for my tastes. I see a lot of pixel art in my future. That's cool, though. I'd never really done pixel art before. I actually watched a great video this morning that breaks down how pixel art has changed over the decades, as technology has gotten so much stronger. It was very elucidating and exciting!



I don't see any real roadblocks in the way of getting into game design, even if you're not a coder. That's why these development tools exist, and it's the reason why they've been made available to the public. Others have put in the tech work, and it's now easy enough for designers to take that work and use it for their designs. At least, that's how I see it.

I came up with a solid idea today for a short game I can start making as my proof of concept, so I can further learn my way around it. It should be fun. In my recent search around the internet, I've seen a lot done with RPG Maker that go beyond the top-down 90s SquareSoft-style JRPGs, too. I ran across this playthrough of a game called Dreaming Mary, for example:



Obviously, it doesn't look like another Final Fantasy clone. And it was done in the free version of RPG Maker, VX Ace Lite! So, there you go -- a free version of RPG Maker to try out!

Anyway, I've rambled on way too much. Obviously, I'm just super stoked about game design right now, and it's hard for me to contain my enthusiasm.

 

[MsSpectre]

Yeah, RPG Maker 2000 was my first attempt at game design, exactly because it has such a low barrier to entry. As it happened, I downloaded it and started playing with it because Super Columbine Massacre RPG! was developed in it. That game was the one that made me realize that game development wasn't something you had to spend years in college learning math and computer programming to do. I'd been playing games since I was, like, four but I'm not great at math and I kinda figured that if I couldn't understand algebra, then programming was going to be out of my depth. The guy who made it, Danny LeDonne, was a film major and he maintained a forum where you could discuss the game. Most of it was about the subject matter, obviously, but there was also a lot of emphasis on the indie game movement. LeDonne was always very active in this community and he made it clear that making games was not what he studied to do, nor was it beyond the grasp of the average person with the tools now available. And "now" was ten years ago, so there's way more for us today too. It's never been easier to make a videogame and it's only getting easier every day.

I think the thing with RPG Maker that makes some people dubious though, is that it is an engine designed to make a specific genre of games. Because it's built to make RRG's, most of the given features of such games are already coded in. Right when you open a new project, you already have a menu in place and a small map. You just have to place a player start tile and you can actually load the game and walk around, pause, save, and quit.One might think that means you can only make RPG's because that's the existing framework the engine provides and that's not true. Especially with later versions that do allow for some outside coding, you can bend the engine around your design. Even with 2000, though, I saw many a platformer and point-and-click game without RPG elements of leveling or battles or or or. My first game, in fact, was a maze game (spoiler: it was not very fun or good).

Similarly, Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation, in his early years, made several games in Adventure Game Studio which is designed to make Sierra-style point-and-click adventures. Most popular of these are his Chzo Mythos games. He grew so familiar with this engine, though, that he was able to make platforming games 1213 and Trilby: the Art of Theft in it. Despite using an engine that's meant to exchange the open-endedness of the design for more features built out of the box, you can still make very cool things with these tools. So even if you're finding GameMaker or Unreal or Unity daunting, there are still options for you.

If one needs, or just wants, to start with the absolute easiest engine available, there's Klik n Play. It's literally designed for elementary school children, but you can add in your own assets so it'll still provide enough creative freedom to be starting with.

 

[zippypinhead]

Wow, I'd never heard of Adventure Game Studio. Point-and-click adventure is one of my favorite genres, and definitely something I could see myself working with. Thanks for the lead. I'd had some ideas about trying an adventure game using Ren'Py, but never made it very far. So, yeah, if we're expansive enough in our definition of the word "game", Ren'Py is a pretty easy visual novel program to play around with.

 

[MsSpectre]

Visual novels absolutely count as games.

I'mma just drop some different game making tools down for anyone who's interested. There's a lot to choose from these days and there's different levels of entry so there's bound to be something that will fit the comfort level of each person who is looking.

Klik n' Play: as easy as it gets. Designed for elementary school children to develop games with simple rules and controls.

Scratch: similar to KnP, built for the same reason.

Twine: designed for making text-based adventures. Choose Your Own Change, basically. It makes your game into a very slick looking web page that you can either host online or distribute individually. It does accept HTML and some Javascript as well as CSS, so you have the option of taking it beyond what it initially is. Decently documented if you want to try for fancier things.

Inform 7: another text-based game engine. Very straight forward "programming" where you basically write out the logic in plain English as if you were imitating Ernest Hemingway.

Adventure Game Studio: engine for making point-and-click adventures.

RPG Maker: specialized engine for making top-down RPG games. Comes with assets built in, but you can import your own too. 2000 is the simplest version and, in my opinion, easiest to use, but was never officially released in the US so technically it requires you to make the unofficial English translation fall off a truck, if you know what I mean. The current version is MV ($79.99), but Steam also has XP ($24.99) and 2003 ($19.99) available. Additionally VX Ace Lite is available for free as zippypinhead said.

Construct 2: I don't know a lot about this one personally, but I've heard lots of people recommend it over the years. Looking at it, I'd guess that it was similar in learning curve to GameMaker.

GameMaker Studio: the standard recommendation. Drag-and-drop interface makes programming fairly simple, but also supports its own native coding language for more complicated games. You can make any game you want in GM within graphical limits. It's designed for 2D pixel art, but it technically can handle extremely simple 3D models. Most people prefer to just stick with DOOM-style graphics if they want 3D for this engine though.

Unity: 3D-capable game engine. You can make just about anything in it. I found, personally, that the documentation was spotty and reliant on outside sources, but many cool things are made in Unity if you can do the research.

Unreal: The usual suspect when it comes to Unity alternatives and its licensing situation has been recently changed so that it can be available for anyone to use. It's an industry standard engine with tons of features as well as solid documentation. Very complex and powerful, but features the Blueprint scripting interface so it's not as daunting as it appears.

 

[mutantdonut]

Thanks @MsSpectre Very helpful

I'm also debating within myself how much of game making will just be a hobby versus trying to actually be a small side business thing, especially of the indie variety. I'm even considering as being a homebrew type of guy. Not sure yet

Especially with indie games, i've been reading how difficult it is to gain exposure of your work, even with platforms like Steam readily available. Making a fantastic indie game with solid marketing behind it might not even lead to minimal success.

I was wondering if you folks (including @zippypinhead) are doing this as a hobby versus being a business

 

[MsSpectre]

I plan to sell when my game is complete (that is, the basis will be done, and prepared for more content to be added to it). In fact, the miniature games are a part of that. They will be small and contribute to the plot, mostly as backstory or as a way to get to play as characters who are not playable in the main game. I will sell them at $2 minimum, but with the ability to pay what you want. Some people will pay more if you give them the option and they want to support what you are doing beyond the usual, but the low minimum price point makes the content available to more people while still cutting a small profit.

Marketing isn't as hard or intensive as you'd think as long as you make a habit of sharing what you're up to. What you mainly need to do, even as a hobbyist, is maintain social media about your development. Early on, it might also be a good idea to join a forum like TIGSource to both get critique from other developers as well as exposure to people in that scene. It's important to keep a public log even if you don't necessarily plan to sell your games because you want people to have access to your work and be able to give you feedback on it. And wouldn't you just like to keep a record of what you do anyway, to be able to look back on to see how far you've come? Then, if you ever do decide to sell a product you then have a built-in audience for it. Basically, you just want to be sharing your process. If you want a book about how to do this, there's Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon.

Depending on the format of your game, people are also going to expect a decent amount of lore behind it, which is also going to be a part of your marketing materials. The more cohesive and engaging your lore is, the more people are compelled to A. keep up with it, thereby keeping them engaging with your game long-term and B. create fan works about it, thus further promoting your game.

A lot of the same principles of successful camming can be applied to indie game development actually.

Will say that homebrew is probably the least cost effective way to go about indie game dev, because it involves not only the cost of producing physical products (carts/CD's), but also licensing dev kits from consoles. Comparatively, developing for PC alone is the least expensive way to develop. If you're crafty and willing to either git gud or else fudge areas where you are less proficient, you can literally not pay a cent to develop your game. In addition to the tools I listed above, there are many freeware answers to content creation tools as well. Blender for 3D models, Audacity for sounds, etc. What I'm actually wanting to fund with my little games is voice acting for the big one, but if you make a silent game or do the voices yourself? Crafty, crafty.

Additionally, PC dev offers a lot more freedom than console dev does. For instance, it's much harder to ship updates to console games. There are size limitations on the consoles, so you can't have tons of DLC. For instance, GTA V no longer receives updates on the PS3 because it reached its data capacity with the heist rewards update. Meanwhile PAYDAY players are complaining yet that the game is badly ported and the shipment of content that the PC players get is years behind. You also can't get on a console unless Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo think your game will be profitable. t much harder to take risks on anything weird or new on consoles because they are less willing to take risks themselves.

It's just an easier, cheaper, safer, and free-er bet to stick with PC, especially if it's just a hobby. Both GameMaker and Unreal are able to make games for iOS and Android, though, so mobile development is not out of reach. You do have to buy the Pro version of GM and each module for the devices you want to port to, which can be costly, but Unreal can ship to these devices out of the box.

 

[zippypinhead]

I was wondering if you folks (including @zippypinhead) are doing this as a hobby versus being a business

Well, at this point, since I haven't finished a game, it is still squarely in the category of hobby work. However, it's a hobby that wraps all my business into a single focus. If I put enough into moving in the direction of game design, I hope there might be the possibility to monetize my efforts somewhere down the road. I think producing games and releasing them for free, but setting up something on Patreon or some other kind of crowdfunding is an appealing route for me to try to take.

As @MsSpectre rightly mentions, though, to make money at creative endeavors tends to mean that one's social media skills must be strong. I lack in that particular area. I'm hoping that, while I'm practicing to be a game designer, I can get my shit together in social media. We'll see. I don't know. If it stays a hobby, then that would be fine with me. So far, making a game has been fun.

 

[Finebrush]

I'm a graphic artist, handle all profiles in 3D and 2D, have worked in 5 game companies in the past, after that, jumped into graphic design for almost a decade, today I do a bit of everything. Have done as well personal projects, flash/java web games with a coder friend... Also helped improving several game engines, in the art workflows...

 

[Finebrush]

IMO, the safest way to go, and besides, a skill that is demanded in quite a number of companies today is learning Unity. That thing also export to a number of platforms (mobile, html5, flash, pc, etc)
Probably easier is gamemaker, and can make your entrance smoother and pleasant. Plus, I do know several successful solid games done with it. Still, in the opinion of a freaking coding genius -a friend of mine, with tones of titles developed in his belt- for big projects it "might" be a problem. IMO, to start and so to keep the enthusiasm, is nice and fine.

What I would do if at my forties would have been beaten by the bug of making myself a game (am not, too old, little time... if anything, to do the graphic side of an indie game, never the coding) , I mean, if I were again 20, I'd probably now, BY ALL MEANS, would pick some engine which uses Python as the scripting language. A coding language extensively used by the Google company and so many others, providing lots of works in IT. Even more, there are some engines based in C#, C++ or even yet just C. Those would serve you to actually learn a language that helps you build as well a professional profile: In the future you would easily move to learn some bits to do as well database projects or any other app related stuff. That'd be, IMO, the really clever move. Sadly one doesn't happen to "know" this stuff in time...
I gotta say I do LOVE Python, even while I only know the basics, have just programmed parsers and other file and text handling applications to be able to make my own "dynamic" web sites, and even for very specific needs (meaning i have not programmed the next Dreamweaver, lol) and I gotta say is simple, useful, and practical. using that with the special scripting adaptation with some of the several existing game engines that are using it as the scripting language, could be a great idea.

It depends on your focus. if you really want/think you are capable (meaning, are decided, are patient and a very hard worker) of pulling a basic game (yeh, like Pong or invaders, go easy first), and then another and so till you learn to make a little more advanced, yet simple one, as a start in your "game catalogue" , but with the main plan of selling and distributing it my best advice woul dbe go Unity. if you are just wanting to make a game, but, like me, consider the enormous advantage of at the same time learn a programming language that is widely required in companies of all kinds, then go with any reasonably well known and established game engine that uses Python, C# or Java. Not necessarily in this order. I'm more fond of the first two, specially Python, Somehow I have never been much sure about java, tho is tremendously demanded in companies for non game related applications.My friend would fully hate me for saying this, he's a java genius....And have made tons of java based games. (and many actionscript ones (the language created for Flash))

If you just want to make games as a hobby, not huge ambitions, just to have fun, not a super huge implication as you have other more important duties and interests in life, then I'd say: Game Maker and Adventure game Studio (lol, I was in AGS forums like a decade or more ago, was even famous there...with another nick, of course) would fit best here, imo.

Unreal is THE BEST engine of all mentioned here. I am just wary of the licensing, (not just the 5%, some other small letter there which I didn't love...) and not sure is that easy for a newcomer as it is GameMaker or, even more the AGS.
One thing about adventure games, though.... They require TONS of graphics. As the art guy, I can tell you i tend to run like heck from adventure games, unless is done very cleverly, usually with pixel art, and reusing a lot the material by doing maps using tiles or whatever other reusable/recycling method. Doing 60 backgrounds in raw, is like 60 illustrations... i work mostly as illustrator lately, and i can tell, you that's not only time consuming, is... EXPENSIVE... well, as a result of the time factor and that we had some long years of training , is not so often that people get the fully professional level in that, so the cost of that can be quite expensive. Luckily, illustrations and works in pixel art style tend to be a lot cheaper. (which is sad -am also a pixel artist- but is somehow established so...)

Also, if you go that other route: A game engine which bases on a well known coding language so to reuse that knowledge in a future career in IT (or just to make some side money producing some app/utility) be careful in seeing the difference between a fully ended game engine from one in the works : It might never get ended, and rarely you would have the engine programming knowledge to complete it yourself. Also between a game engine and just a renderer or game library. Nowadays might not be so, but in its days, things like Irlicht Engine (scripting was c++, I think) or OGRE (C#, but not sure right now) were just renderers. You could build a game with them, but during many years you needed as well to code a sound system and etc, etc. That surely has changed, though, just be careful on what you choose.

Also, to what can it export. Mobile market is super over crowded right, Still, is an option. very hard to make money there, though. Consoles, too dificult to get the permissions and expensive licenses necessary in most consoles. Some are a bit more indie friendly than others, though, ideally, the best way to go is an engine that exports to several platforms. In that, I think Unity is one of the best choices, if not the best. But is not free, and indeed, is quite expensive.

All in all, if i were you I'd be thinking, if you are in a very initial moment, mostly in Game Maker and even maybe AGS. Butsurely as well giving it a good go to an engine that uses Python as an scripting language. IMO going into a coding language (even while used just as scripting for the game) like C#, C++ or even Java, that might too hard right now. Well, even Python, but imo, is by far the easiest of the bunch, and quite used, too. And helps in learning the programming methodology, although is quite different, of course.

Do some games in Game Maker, you'll realize the GML, its scripting language will be needed once you get into much more complex projects, and go anyway this route for 2D , tiles and sprites based games. Pixel art, that is. Which is surely the best aproach for now. I'm not up to date about that engine improvements, but would be really important , even if you need to purchase it (is very cheap) , that it counts with html 5 and flash export. This will allow you to do web games. And Flash is NOT dead, despite what everybody says... Is no more a platform to earn solid money -and I know as I worked with a friend for a year and some, and was even easy to get a company purchasing the game, or nice revenue from ads- There's still a window of oportunity for a GREAT game to make money in Flash. but if anything, what is replacing Flash is HMTL 5, so an engine exporting to both is a total winner. Yet though, with the triumph of mobile in gaming, way fewer people play web games these days. there are still, though.

Last advice: Go with the trend. Go with an engine that has massive user installed base, as is what is gonna survive. For this reason, i would only consider Game Maker and/or Unity. A game engine based on Python still is a great idea, because learning the language is already a huge advantage by its own.

With any game engine/environment, though, you will learn the procedure of making a game, that's for sure. And will get used to scripting even if the languages might differ a lot. But you will somehow get the mechanic of it. Later on in game companies, lots of programmers are actually "making" the game in scripting languages, like one of their own, or things like LUA, C#, Python or Java. Because is how things have evolved. games are not anymore hard coded in C++ or C. That's usually the game engine, and there are game engine only coders, too, but that's another story, and quite a harder one, too.

if thinking of this as a way to earn a salary in a funny and relaxed way, forget it... Is hard as heck. I moved during a decade at the end towards graphic design and ad agencies for a reason. And that considering this other world is considering stressful per se, lol. IMHO, learning programming for applications, like Java, C# or Python is a very solid way to at least have something solid to get a job later, and a more stable one... We game workers are often needing to consider life as nomads... As game projects and full companies get born and die frequently, usually is per project. If I had kids I would never recommend any career related to games. For a hobby only , of course! Is super fun and creative (and even painful as a hobby, though)
I know the game making world looks very attractive but is better to be aware that is a hard world to survive in.(if plan on considering it your profesion)

Sorry the typos, typing super fast, wanted to cram a lot of info and am out of time to fix the ton of typos...

EDIT: Indeed, for the sake of a job in something related to coding, imho learning html5, javascript, (and there are already great games created just with these and javascript game engines ! ) , and PHP, gives you a ton of jobs... at least, today. As things change so fast that might get deprecated at any time and moment... But for now, that profile is hugely searched for. Programming for the web and web applications (as not all that is for internet) . And once learnt all that, go for Ruby and Python, hehe.

 

[Finebrush]

las bit, I promise... Seems game maker export to a ton of platforms, today... probably is easier to handle than Unity. But Unity has gone my hated monthly subscription model. For doing a pixel art based game (AGS if is a graphic/conversational adventure) I...think today i'd go with Game maker, for a small, not huge game. At least for a start. Once I'd be doing serious stuff, with businiess in mind, etc, would jump to Unity. From what am seeing right now, you can purchase GM for 75 bucks, and the export modules is the only thing non included compared to the 480$ version. But you can purchase an export module individually, ie, the exporter for html5 for 100 bucks, and the one for android or iphone for 150 each... It depends on your plans. Anyway, developing for mobile (worked in a mobile games company during a year and did some as personal projects, later) is hard... much than for PC. Even worse than for console. Console and pc are more or less expectable environments. Mobiles... each has its hardware issues, limits and specs. Game engines do a lot to avoid this, but even so, a pain...Still, staying basic in performance requirements and etc, might be not that hard...If I were to buy GM, I for sure would buy the html5 module, for web games. (so, a total of 175$. Much cheaper than Unity.) next would come the Andorid and iOS ones, then the Xbox ONE, maybe. And you can be learning with the free version for a long time.

 

[Valine]

Gotta agree with Finebrush : learning a programming language through videogame creation can give an interesting skill for professional life, that can also be used in personal projects (your own website, some small DIY tech, etc...).

As for trying serious indie game development, Unity and GameMaker are definitely safe bets.
I tried Phaser at some point – it has quite some potential, but you'll need sufficient Javascript knowledge (I work as a web developer).

To answer the OP, I've worked on various tiny game prototypes, mostly unfinished. But I'm starting something bigger : an ambient, queer story-based game in a world inhabited by nice monsters. I plan to give it Doom-style graphics (2D sprites in a basic 3D environment).
Right now, for the choices-based storyline writing, Twine is reeeally nice

 

[zippypinhead]

Gotta agree with Finebrush : learning a programming language through videogame creation can give an interesting skill for professional life, that can also be used in personal projects (your own website, some small DIY tech, etc...).

As for trying serious indie game development, Unity and GameMaker are definitely safe bets.
I tried Phaser at some point – it has quite some potential, but you'll need sufficient Javascript knowledge (I work as a web developer).

I was watching a random indie developer video the other day, and his personal history and advice was also along the lines of "you can learn a whole lot of practical stuff through game making." For his part, he spent a lot of time as a kid tearing apart the sample games in Game Maker and Unity and consulting the in-program Help sections to figure out how to do what he wanted to do. He also talked about how he programmed little text-based adventure games into his TI-83 calculator in high school.

To answer the OP, I've worked on various tiny game prototypes, mostly unfinished. But I'm starting something bigger : an ambient, queer story-based game in a world inhabited by nice monsters. I plan to give it Doom-style graphics (2D sprites in a basic 3D environment).
Right now, for the choices-based storyline writing, Twine is reeeally nice

I like the sound of nice monsters.

 

[Finebrush]

" As a kid with Game Maker and Unity" ...Ouch, really, I'm old. Was an old fart already when those made its very first appearance..Funnily though, I did both programming and graphics in my very initial time with computers... back in '85... No one might remember here the Sinclair Zx Spectrum 48k, with rubber made keys (model was designed in 1982). With language BASIC, and redefining the keyboard characters (using 'em as fake graphics), and some tricks in the programming routines to fake real time reactions one could make some decent invaders or even "karate" games. The graphics were feed to the game with READ and DATA instructions, so, planned as coordinates by filling the quads with some blue pen in those school note books which paper had already some sort of grid... then transfer the coordinates to make those fat pixels be your sprites and tiles. By the time some freaks did already know how program that tiny thing with pure machine code! I even tried to do so, but got bored with such a non human language, lol (not really a language, just long chains of characters an numbers). Seems later on I decided the only-graphics route in the game making field. Today there's way more specialization than ever. In early 90s or before, 3 guys could make a main stream game ! Today, that's for indie games only. Any AAA title requires an army... have some friends at the large ones, and is... crazy. But that's the magic of indie games: You can do whatever, even alone.

 

[zippypinhead]

Humble Bundle is currently offering a GameMaker bundle.

 

[MsSpectre]

If you want GameMaker, you should absolutely buy that bundle. All those modules are several hundred dollars normally but you get them all if you pay at least $15.