novice friendly game engine

[TNTGODZZ]

I know of game engines such as unity and unreal, but can anybody tell me/ recommend a novice friendly game engine. I have NO EXPERIENCE AT ALL (I\'m 14, what do you expect!!) and I really want to make a game (though I don\'t want my ideas stolen, so I wont let you know until 1-2 years from now when I get 0.1 ready lol) i have a basic idea of what you need to do, though i dont know any of the coding language, for anything, at all. so since its 11 at night and school starts tomorrow, I wont get back to this until around 3pm. please and thanks. long live jeb. reach for the stars. believe = achieve. now im out of cliches. see ya tomorrow :)

[Guest GroundHOG-2010]

I know of game engines such as unity and unreal, but can anybody tell me/ recommend a novice friendly game engine. I have NO EXPERIENCE AT ALL (I\'m 14, what do you expect!!) and I really want to make a game (though I don\'t want my ideas stolen, so I wont let you know until 1-2 years from now when I get 0.1 ready lol) i have a basic idea of what you need to do, though i dont know any of the coding language, for anything, at all. so since its 11 at night and school starts tomorrow, I wont get back to this until around 3pm. please and thanks. long live jeb. reach for the stars. believe = achieve. now im out of cliches. see ya tomorrow :)

It really depends what your game idea is, what sort of time you will put into the project and how many people will help you. If its just 2d, then I would point you towards making your own game engine, through C# and XNA or other methods and coding langauges. I have done that and its rewarding. But if its 3d, I would ask how much money you have. You could go for unity or unity pro, both of which are good (the pro licence allows you to get the better shaders, and other stuff not in the free version of unity. I haven\'t worked with Unreal Engine 2/3 before but it is apparently good, but the group went for unity. There are some other payware engines but are heavily based on code or have a high cost.

So the best idea is to go for Unity for a 3d game. Which reminds me, I better get to work on my game!!! (coding langauges for Unity to learn are C#, Javascript or Boo)

[NovaSilisko]

Yeah, I recommend Unity as well. There\'s lots of documentation for it!

[icefire]

The truth of the matter is there isn\'t any \'easy\' way to develop games. It takes a lot of hard work and even more talent to get anything done.

I haven\'t worked with unity, but I\'ve had an on/off relationship with the Unreal engine for the last 10 years. And it\'s only gotten more user friendly with time. What before required you to make several classes in unreal script with 500+ lines and a dozen objects scattered over the game level now only takes a couple clicks with the fancy kismet feature.

You mentioned that you don\'t have any programming knowledge, well bad news, if you want to make ANY kind of game you\'re going to need some.

With Unity its C#, an actual programming language that has uses outside of the engine itself.

With Unreal its Unrealscript, a proprietary scripting langauge designed to make game design easier, but with no applications outside of the Unreal Engine. Though it does have similarities to java if that helps.

Both engines have \'free\' versions available, with Unreal\'s UDK targeted towards indie developers. It comes with the entire toolset and no limitations other than having no access to the C++ \'native\' code the engine runs off of. A full Unreal Engine license I can say now is far beyond what you could afford, or even want. And while UDK does have AAA graphics and physics, remember that it takes more work and requires more talent to make full use of those features.

Unity in comparison is more of a \'lower level\' engine, with its base audience being almost entirely composed of indie developers, and its \'pro\' version much more in the range for purchase. But again for your needs the free version would be perfectly acceptable.

Too be honest you\'re starting way too big to begin with though, coming in with no experience whatsoever is not how you get into game development. A good place to start is not making games, it\'s modding ones that are already finished. KSP itself has modding support, as do many other games such as Orbiter, Crisis, Unreal Tournament, Halo PC, and many, many others. This would be a good place to start as any.

[C7Studios]

If you\'re a complete beginner, I\'ve heard good things about the code academy. The best thing is that its completely free, and should introduce you to a lot of the basics of logic and programming. You\'ll find that once you learn any programming language, the rest are easier to figure out. What is important is that you learn how to think like a programmer. The rest is just a matter of the syntax for the specific language, and the occasional working around the inherent strengths or weakness of that language.

http://www.codecademy.com/

I\'d also recommend working on some simple ideas to start with. Make some basic functional programs, and work your way up to more complex ones over time. Jumping head first into your pet project could be very daunting! Build your skills brick by brick, and you\'ll be making pyramids before you know it.

Best of luck!

[ping111]

I know an engine that can make basic 2-D and isometric games.

[Guest GroundHOG-2010]

I know an engine that can make basic 2-D and isometric games.

And I have made a basic 2d engine.

[TNTGODZZ]

It really depends what your game idea is, what sort of time you will put into the project and how many people will help you. If its just 2d, then I would point you towards making your own game engine, through C# and XNA or other methods and coding langauges. I have done that and its rewarding. But if its 3d, I would ask how much money you have. You could go for unity or unity pro, both of which are good (the pro licence allows you to get the better shaders, and other stuff not in the free version of unity. I haven\'t worked with Unreal Engine 2/3 before but it is apparently good, but the group went for unity. There are some other payware engines but are heavily based on code or have a high cost.

So the best idea is to go for Unity for a 3d game. Which reminds me, I better get to work on my game!!! (coding langauges for Unity to learn are C#, Javascript or Boo)

i don\'t have the money for unity, but the free version will do

The truth of the matter is there isn\'t any \'easy\' way to develop games. It takes a lot of hard work and even more talent to get anything done.

I haven\'t worked with unity, but I\'ve had an on/off relationship with the Unreal engine for the last 10 years. And it\'s only gotten more user friendly with time. What before required you to make several classes in unreal script with 500+ lines and a dozen objects scattered over the game level now only takes a couple clicks with the fancy kismet feature.

You mentioned that you don\'t have any programming knowledge, well bad news, if you want to make ANY kind of game you\'re going to need some.

With Unity its C#, an actual programming language that has uses outside of the engine itself.

With Unreal its Unrealscript, a proprietary scripting langauge designed to make game design easier, but with no applications outside of the Unreal Engine. Though it does have similarities to java if that helps.

Both engines have \'free\' versions available, with Unreal\'s UDK targeted towards indie developers. It comes with the entire toolset and no limitations other than having no access to the C++ \'native\' code the engine runs off of. A full Unreal Engine license I can say now is far beyond what you could afford, or even want. And while UDK does have AAA graphics and physics, remember that it takes more work and requires more talent to make full use of those features.

Unity in comparison is more of a \'lower level\' engine, with its base audience being almost entirely composed of indie developers, and its \'pro\' version much more in the range for purchase. But again for your needs the free version would be perfectly acceptable.

Too be honest you\'re starting way too big to begin with though, coming in with no experience whatsoever is not how you get into game development. A good place to start is not making games, it\'s modding ones that are already finished. KSP itself has modding support, as do many other games such as Orbiter, Crisis, Unreal Tournament, Halo PC, and many, many others. This would be a good place to start as any.

well mods, i cant download the ksp SDK as my mum has blocked all 'inappropriate content', now im going to tell her to remove it as i cant download anything!

but i will try some other games to mod

If you\'re a complete beginner, I\'ve heard good things about the code academy. The best thing is that its completely free, and should introduce you to a lot of the basics of logic and programming. You\'ll find that once you learn any programming language, the rest are easier to figure out. What is important is that you learn how to think like a programmer. The rest is just a matter of the syntax for the specific language, and the occasional working around the inherent strengths or weakness of that language.

http://www.codecademy.com/

I\'d also recommend working on some simple ideas to start with. Make some basic functional programs, and work your way up to more complex ones over time. Jumping head first into your pet project could be very daunting! Build your skills brick by brick, and you\'ll be making pyramids before you know it.

Best of luck!

i went on it, and ill complete it tonight, that is a good tip.

as for general, I am willing to learn the scripting languages, even if takes 10 years or more. i belive this game idea (a 3d first person action adventure) will be brilliant (for someone of my standards Lol) but in al serious i really do have, what i believe, to be a good idea

[HarvesteR]

The best piece of advice I can give you is, if you\'re serious about your idea, don\'t start on it yet. Try making PONG.

Why PONG? Well, it is one of the simplest games ever, and it should be a very good learning project. The thing is, if you can\'t code pong, you simply won\'t be able to code your own game.

I don\'t mean to discourage you. Pretty much all aspiring game designers have this one idea they think will be the next big revolution, and for all we know, it just as well might be. The problem is getting that idea into practice. What happens on 99% of cases is that they get themselves a game engine (usually Unity or UDK), and try to start making their game without any clue on where to start. What usually happens then is that they will quit in frustration a few days later.

So my advice to you is this: Get Unity, do a few of it\'s tutorials, then try to make pong all by yourself. Try to figure everything out, and when you succeed, you\'ll have a much clearer notion on how games work, and what it would take to make your own.

After that, don\'t start your own game yet, try a more advanced game, like Breakout. After that, try something else again.

The more projects you do, the better you\'ll be prepared when it\'s time for your own project.

Again, I don\'t mean this in any tone of discouragement. I\'ve been through this same process here, and I know how easily an idea can die off if you take a step longer than your leg is. If you truly care about your game concept and want to do it justice, trust me, make PONG first.

Cheers