Game development and experience - coding

[ChonkyRat]

@Devs - hey!

Just a quick question. What do you code in, or how? How did the game begin? Games like this, Mooch, Braid, Leo's Fortune.... how could I start on the path to making games? It will take years, I know but where can I begin to start picking things up?

Any general advice? Your game is awesome.

[ClockworkXI]

Thanks, glad you liked the game! The game is made using the Unity3D engine and coded in C#. As part of our kickstarter engagments we've made a serie of making of videos. You could start by watching those!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfK9sHL3yZw

If you have any other questions after those I'll be happy to answer those! As for where to start, I believe the best way is by getting your hands dirty. I for one started making games with the Gamemaker engine which I think is an excellent starting point.

[ChonkyRat]

Those videos are very sensationalist and lacking in character, and the stuff I'm looking for.

So like why C#? Why not Java, C++, any other stuff? What sort of technical aspects go into the making of the game outside of those videos? Do you use libraries extensively, OpenGL, etc?

[ClockworkXI]

I am sorry, I directed you to those videos as they give a very broad albeit superficial view into the different aspect of creating a game.

If you want more technical details I can give you some. Well most of those decision were made for us when we choose to use Unity. The engine basically force you to select between either C# and javascript. Coming from a C++ background I naturally went with C#. The graphic pipeline is mostly hidden by the engine, so there is no choice of OpenGL, Direct3D, etc. You do get to write your own shaders, but for a 2D game it is less necessary. In our case we mostly did it to create different ground surface and to render the character differently when out of view.

From your comment you seem more interested into what goes into creating an engine. While it is very interesting stuff and a great learning experience, I do not believe it is a good business decision to do this in an indie studio. By going with a well known engine that abstract most of the rendering, physics, input, audio and asset management, we were able to spend most of our time on the gameplay side of the game.

[ChonkyRat]

I'm looking for advice from excellent dev's (like you given Jotun) on a way to get going with games like Mooch, and Leo's Fortune. It might sound rude referring to other games, but there is no way I am capable of much more at the moment with what else I have in general, like growing up and those games seem less difficult and more accessible to an amateur.

Could I know how much of a background in coding/C++ you had? Just grabbing the first link from google, was a book like this straightforward for you before starting Jotun? Don't worry I'm not expecting to be a pro tomorrow, but it's nice to start somewhere instead of always thinking "what if" a few years later.

http://www.informit.com/store/sams-teach-yourself-c-plus-plus-in-21-days-9780672327117

[ClockworkXI]

I didn't self teach myself C++, so I wouldn't know how effective those books are. I learned programming in college, with a bachelor in software engineering. Then I worked for a while at mobile game studio, followed by a stint at WB Games and finally I joined Will at Thunder Lotus Games to create Jotun. Before all of this I dabbled in scripting with engine like RPG maker and Gamemaker.

My advice is that a this point you have two choices. You can focus on learning the basis upon which games are built or focus on going through the process of making a game. The first one is a very good learning experience and just for that it is worthwhile. You will learn how rendering, physics, threads, AI and tool building work. It is however extremely hard to complete a game in this fashion, especially alone.

The second option is to start using a game engine (Unity3D, Unreal 4, Gamemaker, Stingray, Construct, etc). It is very likely the two games you mentioned were made using one of those. This way you can start learning about how to put the different components of a game together and achieve some results much more quickly.

If you have never made a game I'd suggest starting with the second approach. It will give you a better feel of the scope of a game and will be much easier to stay motivated. When you get familiar with what the end result should be, then you might find it very interesting to learn the inner working of a game engine.

[ChonkyRat]

Now that is a good response, thanks.

By the way you should do an AMA over at reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace.