Game Design Resources

[djfluffwug 10]

Greetings,

I have been learning game design by myself for about half a year now properly.

Most of my coding is very basic and my 3D modelling skills are terrible :P

Just started learning C++ last few days but just the very basics of it.

I was wondering if the community knew of any good game design books / other resources that would be helpful.

Any help would be appreciated :)

Thanks.

Edited December 24, 2011 by djfluffwug

[Madus_Maximus 0]

I'm afraid I know of no such books, but check out Amazon for "game design" and "game programming" and so on, I'm sure you'll find a bunch on there. Also, you may want to change the topic title, it doesn't really reflect what you're asking, which may explain the lack of replies.

[-martin- 10]

If you need any textures or photographs from which to make textures go to this site:

www.cgtextures.com

You need to make a account tough.

Tips:

Getting straight in to game development is quite a bumpy road, I would recommend that you get in to game modding first so you find out the basics of how game engines work.

I would recommend that you make a few addons for ArmA 2 to get started, animate them, get everything to work etc... You might not think so but this will give you tons of knowledge and practice, plus its encouraging to see your work in game after.

All the best with learning game design :smile:

- Martin

[djfluffwug 10]

Thanks for the replies so far :)

[jakerod 254]

Game Career Guide

This is a website I used to read a lot back when I wanted to do video game design. They tend to have good articles that may give you information. It won't help improve your skills probably but may be helpful still. Gamasutra might be another site worth checking out too.

[jagheterjan 10]

You will need not only coding knowledge, but decent 2D & 3D content creation (sketching & drawing on paper and on screen, creative writing & storyboarding, modelling, rigging, animating, texturing, motion design, ...) skills as well. A bit of spare funding to help you survive the first couple years in the industry isn't a bad idea either.

[Cripsis 10]

Bucky's tutorials rock! Seriously, this guy is awesome.

tvC1WCdV1XU

Good luck djfluffwug. :)

[djfluffwug 10]

Again, thanks everyone for replying.

Will check out that C++ tutorial series. I have also just bought a book on C++ and am currently reading so that will help hopefully :D

I figure C++ isn't much of a language for game design but would be good to start with. Also planning on learning Java afterwards.

I have been using Unity3D for about half a year now stuffing around but my biggest limitation is lack of 3D and 2D resources. Hopefully sometime soon I will learn 3D modelling as well.

Anyways, thanks for all the fantastic resources so far :D

[PuFu 4600]

The game world is huge place to be, and afaik there is no resource/book/website covering it all. It would be insane.

I can't really comment on C++ since my knowledge there is limited (had a few courses, i know the fundamentals of programming languages, i have played a lot with mel and some maxscript and recently python but nothing commercially or alike).

Regarding modelling, there are literally tons of tutorials covering everything out there (most are software specific), there are even specific tutorials for certain game engines (UDK, Unity and more recently CE3).

Unfortunately what most of those tutorial do not cover is the reasons for doing something one way or the other. The workflow for content creation is a bit different than say content for movies and alike, where the standards, pipelines and limitations are different.

In all my years of experience with different software mostly, autodesk and adobe products (bear in mind that game content creation is something i do as a hobby, i work/have worked in the production and media industry, at least for now), once you get the grips and ideas behind any of the mentioned software (max/maya/modo/lightwave/blender/c4d etc) everything works EXACTLY the same, even if some tools might be called differently. The workflow is 99% the same.

What i would recommend is understanding how the entire wheel spins, then focus on certain area, at least at the start, otherwise, you'll loose yourself between the "oh so many" aspects.

[boneboys 0]

I learned quite a lot over at 3D Buzz.

PhotoShop, UnRealEd, Blender all have their own forums and Vid tutorials.

I signed up years ago and never regretted it.

http://www.3dbuzz.com/vbforum/forum.php

[inlesco 234]

Speaking of the learning curve of JAVA, one of the best books, covering all the basics you're gonna need at first, is "Thinking in JAVA 4th Edition". From my personal experience, it's really worth the time you'll spend on it.

As for design, there's a quite user-friendly magazine "Game Developer", which covers news source of gaming industry, analyzes choices of various studios around the world, tells different situations in an interesting style which I found kinda entertaining, etc. Give it a try and I think you shouldn't be disappointed, but don't expect it to make you a master of all aspects, it's impossible, as we know.

[onlyrazor 11]

Also, depending on the type of engine you're working with, there are bound to be mod communities devoted to modding and making tutorials. Just as an example, here's the Valve Developer Community and while they only work with the Source engine, there are some really useful tips on working on an independent game project, such as the development and shipping process and putting together and managing a team.

Edited December 27, 2011 by OnlyRazor

[djfluffwug 10]

Sweet. Thanks for the comments again.

I mostly use Unity for my game dev so there is heaps of tutorials but I always find the subjects very localised and not good for applying to a broad number of categories.

I guess I will have to get a uni degree in game design to get more broad experience.

Will check out the VDC link.

[tomlo53 1]

I don't having much knowledge about that so i am unable to give any advice or say to you..............

[PuFu 4600]

I don't having much knowledge about that so i am unable to give any advice or say to you..............

i find it mindbogglingly that you created an account on those forums just to say that you have 0 experience....

EPIC WIN post though

[djfluffwug 10]

Lullz at that post :D

I am now on my way with learning the basics of C++.

I have decided that I would like to learn video game design at uni but not sure the best uni to learn it at.

Anyone have any recommendations?

[Tonci87 163]

i find it mindbogglingly that you created an account on those forums just to say that you have 0 experience....

EPIC WIN post though

Indeed :D