Making Your First Game

After making my mind to make my first game , i discovered that i have no idea about making a one, i don’t know what to take care of, i don’t know what should be taken into consideration, what are the guidelines , what are the Dos and Don’ts.

After searching for a nice book about making games, i found this book named Level Up, the guide to great video game design, it was my first book to read about game but so far -i am still going through it- i think it is a great one.

As i went through the book, i found a lot to learn and i decided to make this post and record everything that i consider interesting / useful in it, to help myself and others keep track about what i have learned so far.

I have decided to write this post after reading a couple of chapters in the book, so don’t count on it as a detailed guide or an alternative for the book.

So, lets get started :)

When making your game, you have to decide “who your game idea is for” / your audience, whether it is for hardcore players or casual ones, it was noted that usually 8 year kids like to play game make for 10 years old kid and 10 years old kid want to play game make for 13 years old kid

Apply the theory of un-fun, “start with a fun idea when you start developing your the game, if you find something in the game that is not fun, then remove it right away. when you have removed all of the un-fun then all that should be left is the fun”. the sermon, don’t be one of the developers who make a game with bad gameplay and ugly art and broken cameras, because they didn’t remove the un-fun once discovered and after a while they get used to it and could not recognize them as problems anymore.

Try brainstorming to get your game idea but there are some rules that you need to set

• There is no such thing as bad idea
• Join people with from other departments (no gaming experience) in the brainstorm to get diverse idea
• Everyone in the brainstorm should have an idea about making games or else you will waste a lot of time on unrealistic ideas
• Write the ideas on a big whiteboard / Post-It notes, Index cards to record your ideas

Choosing your game title, there are different type of game titles

1. The literal title
• Easy to figure what is the your game about, it can be the main character / main location of your game ex: mario game
2. The action / cool title
• Capture the spirit of your game without mentioning any characters or locations ex: Gears of war
3. The punny title
• Makes you appreciate the cleverness of the title ex: Half life
4. The purple cow
• Makes your customer stop in their tracks and stare, make the reader wonder why that title was chosen, how is it related to the game ex: Resident Evil

I guess this is the end of the first session, i really hope to continue posting more and more as i continue reading through the book

Wish me luck :)