04-08-2011, 08:13 PM
This is not how you make a game, this is how you make an engine.
To make a game you first need at least a brief outline of what the game is, the initial brief is almost never how it turns out in the end, but it's required as a sort of "vision" of the game, it just changes as you develop it and experiment. (engine limitations, time constraints, redundant elements, etc.)
This is basically where you put in the outline, things like the themes, characters, mechanics, and hopefully strory, although in some cases that can be almost completely non-existent. (For example an RPG might be almost entirely story-driven, but a puzzle game doesn't really need one at all)
THEN you need an engine, it doesn't have to be finalised, but it does need to be a working proof-of-concept, working with and/or adapting the brief as it goes.
After that you start putting in graphics, I tend to use very obvious placeholder graphics as I go so I can keep working even though I don't have all the finalised artwork.
Then of course, assuming nothing needs any major work, you have the majority of your brief covered and all the important graphics are done or at least not using placeholders anymore, you can get to work on polishing up the final product, adding visual effects, sounds, music, tightening up the graphics on level 3, that sort of thing.
And then you have a game.
To make a game you first need at least a brief outline of what the game is, the initial brief is almost never how it turns out in the end, but it's required as a sort of "vision" of the game, it just changes as you develop it and experiment. (engine limitations, time constraints, redundant elements, etc.)
This is basically where you put in the outline, things like the themes, characters, mechanics, and hopefully strory, although in some cases that can be almost completely non-existent. (For example an RPG might be almost entirely story-driven, but a puzzle game doesn't really need one at all)
THEN you need an engine, it doesn't have to be finalised, but it does need to be a working proof-of-concept, working with and/or adapting the brief as it goes.
After that you start putting in graphics, I tend to use very obvious placeholder graphics as I go so I can keep working even though I don't have all the finalised artwork.
Then of course, assuming nothing needs any major work, you have the majority of your brief covered and all the important graphics are done or at least not using placeholders anymore, you can get to work on polishing up the final product, adding visual effects, sounds, music, tightening up the graphics on level 3, that sort of thing.
And then you have a game.