Beginner’s Guide to Making Your First Video Game

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beginners guide to making your first video game

You’ve decided you want to join the ranks of indie game creators, but you’re not sure where to start. This post will walk you through the entire process of ideation, sourcing development tools, creating characters and stories, and environment creation. Find out all the short-cuts of the game development and learn how to make a video game quickly and efficiently!

planning your indie game

1. Plan your game.

The first step is planning your game. It might seem boring, but it’s an important part of the process. If you have a firm idea of how you want your game to end up, you’re more likely to finish it!

What genre is your game?

Firstly, what genre is your game? Is it a FPS or a platformer or something else? What other games are inspiring you? What games do you not want yours to be like?

This choice will affect the whole scope of your project – from what game engine you choose to what the final product looks like. Don’t get intimidated – just understand that it’s an important decision.

What is your budget?

Secondly, what is your budget? Will you be spending no money, only time? Maybe you’ll be buying a game engine but not hiring a team. Do you plan on making the money back by selling your game, or is this a labor of love?

What is your concept?

Thirdly, what is your concept? If you’re struggling with this aspect, that’s okay! Just get a small notebook and start writing down any ideas that come to you. You’ll come across something game-worthy in no time!

What is your skill level?

What is your skill level? How good at programming are you? While it’s good to believe in yourself and take on challenges, you should still have a realistic understanding of your skills. This will affect the game engine you choose, as well as the scope of your game.

What platform will your game run on?

What platform do you want your game to run on? This will affect the game engine you choose, as well as the form your game takes. A mobile game is very different from a PC game, for example, and everything from the graphics to the controls are affected.

Make a design document.

To ensure you’ve answered all the above questions and more, it may be advantageous to make a game design document. A game design document answers all the questions anyone could possibly ask about your game if you were pitching it.

Include core game mechanics, game goals, controls, story, characters, environment, art, sound, and the user experience.

game maker studio game engine

2. Choose a game engine that fits the game you want to make.

Did you know that RETRONUKE already has a list of 37 game engines that you can use to make your first game?

Here are some examples of engines that may be good for newbies:

Twine

Twine is one of the easiest options for people who don’t know how to code. It’s designed for creative types, and includes a visual interface that’s so easy that a game can be made within a day if you’re willing to type words and brackets!

Stencyl

No coding is necessary for Stencyl either, though unlike some other options, it isn’t free if you want to publish to any platform besides the web. On the upside, Stencyl claims no ownership nor collects any royalties on any games you make!

Game Maker: Studio

Game Maker: Studio has been used to make Undertale as well as Hotline Miami. With this program, you can export to a variety of platforms for a price. Unfortunately, users of this engine often report instability and crashes.

GameSalad

GameSalad is designed to be easy to use for those just learning how to program. It supports export to a variety of programs for free!

Construct 2

Construct 2 helps you use HTML5 to create 2D games without any coding knowledge. The free version limits your publishing options as well as the scope of your game.

game studio

3. Put together your team.

Your team may consist of just you or others. If you’ve thought about the scope of your game and made an honest assessment of your skills, then you should know what kind of team you need. For example, if you’re making a Twine, you might just need a proofreader, and you can recruit your friend who gets A’s in English. If you’re making a more complex and involved game and you don’t have a firm understanding of musical theory, you may want to hire a composer to make the music.

coding your game

4. Create your game.

Start coding.

The next step is to get down to brass tacks and start coding!

Here’s where to start if you’re using one of the options above.

Twine

Twine requires no coding knowledge beyond the ability to type brackets, but if you want to spice up your game you may want to look into HTML, Javascript, and CSS.

Stencyl

Stencyl also requires no coding knowledge, but it can certainly help to know Haxe.

Game Maker: Studio

Game Maker: Studio uses a unique language, GML.

GameSalad

GameSalad uses a drag-and-drop interface only, with no coding.

Construct 2

Construct 2 requires no coding knowledge.

Build your assets.

Assets include 3D models, sprites, sound effects, music, code snippets, modules, and the like. If you’re looking to make games like those featured on RetroNuke, try using Piskel to make pixelated graphics. Don’t forget sound effects and music! These can really make or break a game. Use Bfxr to make original sound effects.

game testing

5. Test, revise, and test again.

Once you think you have your game the way you want it, it’s guaranteed to need testing. Maybe you think you have everything in order until someone does something you didn’t expect, and now you have to fix it.

Have friends test your game.

It’s especially important to have friends test your game. Just like writing an essay, sometimes having someone else edit is exactly the thing you need to catch mistakes and make your creation shine.

keep going

6. Stay motivated and committed!

Really, this step is important at every stage in the process. It’s very easy to get demotivated, stuck, or lost.

If you get stuck, sleep on the problem and try, try again.

Here are 8 Ways to Motivate Yourself to Finish a Project.

publish your game

7. Publish your game.

The very last step is to publish your game! Maybe you want to share it with friends, or maybe you want to put it on the app store! Depending on the game engine you used, a variety of options are available to you and they can all be used to widely distribute your game. Good luck!

Have you made a video game that you want us to check out? Got any tips and tricks to share? Let us know in the comments below!

 

Super Rad Raygun: A Super-RAD GameBoy Game

Action Adventure Featured PC Reviews
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You’ve seen plenty of games that take inspiration from gaming consoles of the 80s and 90s, but there’s one console that rarely gets the spotlight. Super Rad Raygun is not only a great Mega Man style platformer, but an expertly crafted love letter to the original Game Boy. The nostalgic murky green colors, the amazing chiptune music, and the way the game controls really take you back in time.

super rad raygun level 1

Story

Rad Raygun, a robot with a blaster for an arm and a GameBoy for a body, is awoken by his creator, Dr. Y, to defend the United States from a Communist invasion. The whole story is a parody of various 80s action clichés. Saving the president, stopping an oil spill, and fighting goth villains are some of the things you’ll experience in the year 198X. Unfortunately, I feel like the actual story becomes buried in the random and wacky humor, but is implemented into the levels really well. The gameplay and level design evolve with the story better than most platformers I’ve seen in recent years.

Gameplay

There are some very obvious parallels to the Mega Man games. The jumping and moving really control with a similar sense of gravity and speed. Also, Rad’s arm is a gun. You find batteries hidden within each level which are used to upgrade your health, blaster, energy, etc. You can also use them to unlock agility abilities, such as sliding and dodging. A cool thing about the upgrading system is that your batteries aren’t stuck to whatever upgrades you choose. For example, if your batteries have been spent on agility and energy, you can move those batteries to your health or blaster upgrades at any time. It’s very useful.

super rad raygun attacks

Other than that, the gameplay really isn’t anything new. It doesn’t have to be unique to be fun, and it is a fun game. There’s a boss rush mode in which you try to defeat all of the bosses as fast as possible to compete with high scores from around the globe. Another cool feature is the use of palettes. You unlock them by beating levels, and each one lets you see colors other than the classic GameBoy green. It’s a really cool feature, and I found myself playing through each new level in hopes of unlocking another.

Conclusion

I like this game. It’s unique in the sense that it pays homage to an often neglected handheld, but it’s very similar to many other platformer shooters. Its visual aesthetic and retro music make for a charming jump-and-shoot. I will definitely come back to it to unlock all of those color palettes.

5 Steps to Create Interactive Story Games with Twine

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make games with twine

You’re about to embark on one of the most exciting creative endeavors of the modern age – making a video game for others to immerse themselves in.

This guide will walk you through how to use Twine, a simple but powerful way to create video games or interactive fiction. It’s been described as a digital Choose Your Own Adventure novel. You don’t even need to know how to code – all it takes to make a Twine is typing words and adding brackets. If you could write a children’s book, you can make a Twine.

1. Plan your game

Firstly, you need a concept. Think of a story you want to tell. Everyone can tell a meaningful story – Zoe Quinn rose to internet fame telling the story of what it’s like to struggle with mental illness through Depression Quest, which is arguably the most popular Twine. You have a unique story too, just waiting for you to reach out and grab it.

If you’re struggling at this step, I recommend carrying around a notebook and writing down any ideas that come to you. Then, after a week or two, look back on your ideas and choose the best one.

Secondly, you need to map out your game. This is the more involved portion of the planning stage. Any artist will tell you that planning phases are very personal, but this is how I would recommend going about it the first time you create a Twine.

Twine works like those maps in movies that have push-pins connected with string – hence the name. Because of the way Twine is designed, I recommend using note-cards. If you’re visual like me, you may want to paste them on poster-board and draw in the connections. You could also use a mind-mapping program if you would like to plan digitally.

Take each note-card (or node in a mind map) and write down a short description of what happens. For example, maybe your player’s choices begin with opening door A or door B. You could title the note-card “Choice #1” and write on it “Character chooses a door.” Your next note-cards might be labeled “Door A” and “Door B” with descriptions of what happens behind each door.

editing a story in twine

2. Write your game

Firstly, you have to download Twine. Twine is free, so don’t worry about the price. Your first video game will cost you nothing but some time!

Now it’s time to convert your note-cards into Passages. Create a Passage by clicking the icon that looks like a twinkly piece of paper.

Write each Passage as you want it to appear to your players. For example, Choice #1 might read:

You stand in the dark corridor, hearing only your labored breathing. You think you lost your pursuers.

There are two doors – one on the left and one on the right. Neither one is labeled. Do you choose Door A or Door B?

Do this for all of the note-cards you have created. It’s a little tedious, but the more creative you are, the more fun you will have!

Remember that you can click-and-drag Passages around to arrange them in a way that makes sense to you.

Note: the first passage has to be called “Start.” Just don’t change the default!

 

3. Link your Passages

Linking up your game is easy. First, decide what text you’d like to hyperlink. In the above example, the two phrases we want to link are “Door A” and “Door B.” Type double brackets before each phrase, then a bar (shift + backslash) and then the name of the Passage you want to link to.

In the editor, the sentence will look like:

Do you choose [[Door A|A]] or [[Door B|B]]?

If you’ve done it right, the bracketed text will turn red. If you accidentally link to a Passage that doesn’t exist, the Passage will have an exclamation point in the corner.

Remember to save your story often!

link your passages in Twine

4. Add multimedia

You can spice up your game by adding pictures or changing the style of the text.

To add a picture, drag and drop it into Twine or go to Story and click Import Image. Type in “[img[name of the picture]]” where you want the picture to appear.

To add HTML, put <html> </html> tags around it.

You can also edit the CSS of the webpage that your story will become. Create a new passage and under “Tags” type “stylesheet” in all lowercase.

For more information, check out the Twine Wiki.

Note: Make sure you’re only using pictures and multimedia that you have permission to use!

 

5. Publish Your Game

Before publishing, there are two passages you need to create. One named “StoryTitle” and one named “StoryAuthor.” Fill in the relevant information in each passage so that your game has the correct metadata.

Then go to “Story” and “Build Story.” This will allow you to save as an HTML file.

Some popular places to host Twines include philome.la (which requires a Twitter account), Neocities, Textadventures.co.uk, The Interactive Fiction Database or Dropbox.

Share your finished creation in the comments below!

Depth of Extinction Demo Review

Action Adventure Featured Reviews Rogue-like RPG
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depth of extinction main title screen

They say that electronics and water don’t mix, but this is an exception. Depth of Extinction is a turn-based RPG with some rogue-like elements. This game is currently in beta, but you can download what is probably the most generous demo I’ve ever played. The six hour long mini campaign really shows a lot of promise for the full release, and I would even argue that it could be released as a small game in its current state.

Story

Humanity has been forced to live underwater. Also, you have to fight evil robots. This seems like a bland plot, but that’s not what this demo is about. It was intentionally made to show off Depth of Extinction’s gameplay without giving away much of the story. Judging this game by its story at its current state would be unfair.

depth of extinction gameplay

Gameplay

When you start a new game, you can recruit up to three troops. Names and character sprites are somewhat randomized, and you can keep hitting randomize until you get a combination you like. All troopers start with the same stats, but there are two types of troops: humans and androids. You can give your troops items to hold before you go into battle. There are agility and defense boosts, but there are two kinds of health: oil, which is used by androids, and a pill, which is used by humans.

depth of extinction tactical combat

You take your characters through missions that you choose based on the rewards each mission holds. You can try to earn power-ups or character classes. Each class gives your trooper a new weapon and some stat boosts, giving your team members value and purpose. Your classless level one troops seem like cannon-fodder until you assign them their own special traits and weapons. All combat is turn-based and on a grid system, and you get two moves per turn. You can move within a certain area to use your second turn for combat, or you can use both turns in one movement to run a farther distance. You use boxes and crates that are scattered across each level as cover, but you can shoot a crate until it explodes and leaves your opponent unprotected. When your troopers bite the dust, you have to recruit new ones to take their places. You can to play smart to level up your troops and stop those evil robots.

Conclusion

It’s a darn good demo. It could honestly work as a full game the way it is now, but I respect that HOF Studios is taking their time to ensure that the game is top-notch before launch. Download it and try it for yourself. You won’t regret it. Strategy fans will complete the six hour demo in no time as they plan and destroy squads of robots, and novice strategy gamers will pick up on the gameplay quite easily.

Let us know what you think of Depth of Extinction in the Comments section below!

Interview with Game Dev Ourotorrus – Creator of Prince 4000

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prince 4000

While I was out surfing the tweetosphere looking for exciting new content and games to report on, I came across a curious little indie creation called Prince 4000 by sole creator Ourotorrus.

If I was forced to give Ourotorrus’s game an analogy, at first glance, I would have to say Prince 4000 looks like a steroid induced jacked up version of games in a similar vein as, Prince of Persia (1990), Another World (1991) and Great Swordsman (1984), though with a somewhat complete graphical cosmetic overhaul, a chic neon sheen, more fluid controls and a synthwave soundtrack, everything that makes modern neo-retro games fun and exciting.

However, to compare Prince 4000 to those old classics would be an injustice, because Prince 4000 looks like a superbly original action platformer with fast-paced swordplay, jumping gymnastic abilities and over the top special power movies. Prince 4000 has not even been released yet and is still in the early stages of development, but I am raving about it, the game just looks damn good, No wait, this game looks bangin’, slammin’, pure awesomeness to the max. I came to that assumption just by the animated gif’s of sprites, screen caps of the game and a short youtube video, but just by those alone I know this game will be something special.

I immediately had to find out more about this game, so I decided to contact the man directly, and he was kind enough to share some of his thoughts with me about his game Prince 4000, as well as how he decided to create his own video game.

prince 4000 gif

1 ) RETRONUKE: What was your first games console, and what did you like and dislike about it?

OUROTORRUS: The first device I experimented video games on wasn’t a console but the Amstrad CPC. My dad and my brother were playing Pirates and Saboteur on it, that’s my earliest memory of video game’s, I was probably like 5 years old or something, at the time it was just a pure miracle of technology to me. My brother and I were pretty spoilt by my dad and we pretty much experienced all the mainstreams consoles, starting with NES, Megadrive, SNES, Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, N64, Playstation, PS2, XBOX, XBOX360, then I pretty much stayed on PC. However, I did go to a boarding school where any video games were prohibited. With some mates we brought in a Dreamcast secretly hiding it in the wardrobe. Then we would wake up at night to play it without being spotted, obviously, we quickly became proud of our little setup and soon the tiny room we played in became very crowded.

ourotorrus

 

2 ) RETRONUKE: What was your favourite game (or most inspirational game) growing up?

OUROTORRUS: Probably Zelda Ocarina of Time. This game fascinated me when I was a kid. The 3D was a revolution, but they also managed to catch something so special with the atmosphere. Although Zelda is considered a kid’s game, there is a lot of melancholy to that world which I absolutely loved and I always wanted to go back there. Not to mention all the gameplay mechanics brought by the 3D, and what was considered at the time as a gigantic open world. I remember when Zelda Ocarina of Time was released, I didn’t have the N64 so I could only play that game at a friend’s house, it was so frustrating. I guess it played a lot into my fascination I developed for it because I spent so much time not actually playing it but thinking about it. I did eventually get my own N64 and copy of the game and played it a lot.

3 ) RETRONUKE: What is your background, did you always make games? On your website it says you are a cartoon animator, what are some projects you worked on and where did you study or are you self-taught?

OUROTORRUS: I’m French but I live in London. Prince 4000 is the first game I have ever made; I am doing it side by side with my real job, which is a cartoon animator. I started studying drawing because I wanted to be a painter, but then I studied 2d animation because I wanted to go work for Disney that was my dream for a long time. But then I changed my mind and I studied 3d animation because I wanted to make badass cinematics like blizzard style, so I ended up studying at Supinfocom.

I have worked at Cartoon Network on the TV show ‘The Amazing World of Gumball’. Now I am a freelancer, I mainly work for advertising companies, they hire me to do 2d or 3d character animation, freelancing gives me much more time to do side projects such as Prince 4000. The game-making skill though is purely self-taught, my brother helped me a lot to learn how to do that, he is a web developer.

prince 4000 charging attack

4 ) RETRONUKE: What made you want to make video games and specifically what made you want to make Prince 4000 ?

OUROTORRUS: The main reason is that I just needed a place where I could isolate myself and let my creativity explode. Second reason, I want to challenge myself. I love my job but I always have this frustrating feeling of being in my comfort zone or something. In the animation industry, due to the production needs you tend to get pigeonholed, you often have to follow your client’s desires or your boss’s orders, which leaves little room for my own creativity.

5 ) RETRONUKE: OK, so you are making this impressive looking game Prince 4000… What is Prince 4000 about? Could you tell us what the story of the game is without revealing any spoilers?

OUROTORRUS: Well, I appreciate that. However, Prince 4000 is a very small project, it is my first video game and I don’t really have many ambitions for it, However, I am a perfectionist so I will do as good as I can. The story is simple, you are the ‘First Sword of the Empire’, which basically means you’re the best soldier, then there is a bad guy who kidnaps the Prince and you have to save him. It’s just an excuse to make a game really… The idea was that you would have to go through all the worlds the Empire conquered to investigate and find the Prince, through this adventure you would get an external perspective of the Empire, the one you’re fighting for. This adventure would obviously reveal a much darker picture of it, with its weaknesses and its vices, but that’s the other part of the game. For now, I’m only doing the first level which is the kidnapping, and which is going to be only action-based.


6 )  RETRONUKE: What will the gameplay be like… Will there be puzzles, will it be fast-paced and what will make this game different to other games in the same genre?

OUROTORRUS: I will be very honest; this game won’t be any different to other fighting platform games… As it is my first game I’m not taking any risks on the game mechanics, I am just using very simple mechanics and will try to balance them as good as possible. Although I like to think that there is a certain deepness of complexity in the fighting and that you could push it quite far if you wanted to, but if you don’t you can enjoy the game with the basic fighting features. My original idea was to make a full game with fighting, platforms, puzzles, choice based dialogues, upgrading for your ship and yourself etc… But then I realised how complex and time consuming it was going to be to do that game, so I just brought it back to a much smaller manageable scale. I will first do the first level, which involves only fighting features, I will see how that goes with the people playing it, and if they like it, I will do the rest of the game.

7 ) RETRONUKE: I love the art style (cell shaded) of the sprites, what inspired this style in art direction and why were you drawn to this style?

OUROTORRUS: I don’t really know.

It’s not really cell shading because it’s made in pixels in photoshop, but for some very complex animations I can use a 3d model to help me.A very good friend of mine, who is also my flatmate, actually designed a key frame with the backgrounds and then I drew other assets following his style. His name is Colin Bigelow; he is an incredibly talented illustrator and designer. You can check his work below.

Colin Bigelow: colbigelow.com

8 ) RETRONUKE: What game development tools are you using ?

OUROTORRUS: My brother showed me software called Construct 2, which is kind of a simple software to make games. I am using this to make Prince 4000.

Construct 2, so that’s HTML5.

For the animation, I am using Photoshop, and when needed, for complex animations, I can use 3D animation to help me, like with Maya.

prince 4000 queen

9 ) RETRONUKE: Music is such an important part of the gaming experience, what style/genre of music would you like in this game, and have you approached anyone yet about doing the music ?

OUROTORRUS: I did, I have met such a sweet guy from California on Tweeter who accepted to do my music. I am super happy with what he did, it’s really good, exactly the kind of synthwave I was looking for. Thanks a million times to you Brian.

You can check it out the game’s soundtrack on SoundCloud here: soundcloud.com/ourotorrus-games

And Zminusone his Soundcloud here: soundcloud.com/zminusone

10 ) RETRONUKE: What is the most rewarding aspect of being an indie game developer ?

OUROTORRUS: Hahaha The best would be to see someone becoming passionate about it obviously. I think my goal, beyond making a good game, is to create an atmosphere people would love to come back to.


11 ) RETRONUKE: When will we be seeing Prince 4000 and what platforms will the game be available for ?

OUROTORRUS: The first level should be available in the next months; it will be for Internet browsers, possibly a version for I-pad. I would love to have a console version but that would require some development skills that I don’t have to convert the game. I still have to deal with stuff in my professional / personal life at the moment, but as soon as I have free time I will finish this, which should happen around Christmas.


12 ) RETRONUKE: What do you feel is so special about Video Games in comparison to other art forms ?

 OUROTORRUS: I guess someone should write a book about it if it doesn’t exist already.

To keep it simple I would say the interaction between the audience and the world being created, when you read a book, watch a film or listen to a music you don’t interact with it, it does interact with you creating emotions and stuff, but you cannot change the actual film, music or book itself. Maybe if you go to the theatre you can be the unlucky guy who has to go on stage, but that is very different to the strong bond you have with a video game, where you’re responsible for the life or death of the main character.

14 ) RETRONUKE: What indie games are you playing at the moment?

OUROTORRUS: I must say that I’m overwhelmed by the production of games and I struggle to follow all that is going on. Recently I have been enjoying playing ‘Hyper Light Drifter’ and ‘Momodora : Reverie under the Moonlight’. Generally I rely on my friends to tell me what are the good indie games to get, however, there is one that I would like to see released (it’s currently beta, but pretty solid beta), this is ‘Rimworld’. But I don’t like to play unfinished games so I wait until it’s being released.

 

RETRONUKE: Thank you Ourotorrus for taking time out of your busy cedula, and I look forward to playing you game soon.

OUROTORRUS: Thanks very much.

Ourotorrus is such a humble guy, and after talking with him about the development of Prince 4000 I truly get the feeling he is making the game that he would like to play, which is totally a good thing, because that means it will be a game made for the players and honestly that is why indie games are so good, because they are not confound or corrupted by studio interference and get to make the games they want to make.

If this has not hyped you up yet or got you excited for his up and coming game Prince 4000, well check out the trailer below, it is guaranteed to get your trigger fingers itching and your prostate pleasure spot pulsing for some excellent sidescrolling goodness.

 

Prince 4000 Gameplay Video:


Now I know that video got you pumped, so for more information about Ourotorrus and Prince 4000 follow him on twitter and tumbler, links below, and show your support for this amazing game.

 

Twitter: @ourotorrus

Tumbler: ourotorrus.tumblr.com

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