Overview
My goal with this guide is to give you a very basic understanding of how to start making games. You might not like what you read here. You might think that I’m trying to cut your wings off and prevent you from becoming a game developer. In fact, that couldn’t be further from the truth.Something to note while reading this: This is not a guide that is directly involved with 001 but it will definitely help you learn to use it as efficiently as possible.
No Need to Rush
A lot of people, when they first get into game developing, wish to create a huge game with amazing storyline, immersing gameplay, badass characters and all sorts of cool stuff. And you know what?
They actually go for it. Then they reach a certain point and give up. That’s one side of those who want to start big. The other side, because they want to make crazy stuff, they drown those who know the game engine with questions, often very vague and large in scope.
Do NOT be like those guys. Bad. Bad bad bad bad. Very bad. “How can I make a fighting game like Street Fighter?” This question comes from a user who just got his hands on 001. Barely knows anything about it, yet he wants to do something big straight away without even learning the basics of the engine.
I, or any other experienced 001 user, cannot answer such a question. Simply because it’s really, really vague. Or actually, to be more honest, we can answer your question to a certain degree. But it will be huge. Literally. In order to fully answer it, we will have to cover a ton of aspects of the game you are going for that will make it work. If you also require an explanation for what we’re doing here and there, then that’s double the workload. And in the end, we are left with someone really tired, someone who follows commands like a robot, then ends up understanding pretty much nothing of what he did and most likely a really crappy game because we can only cover so much of your question. What really makes a game great will have to be implemented by the one who has the ideas.
You probably noticed a contradiction of mine a bit above. “If you also require an explanation for what we’re doing here and there…” & “…then ends up understanding pretty much nothing of what he did…”. How can one not understand what he did if that super committed person provided explanations as well? The answer is rather simple actually. Let’s say you want to build a rocket that can at least be able to travel to the moon. Let’s say your father works at NASA and he is able to provide you with a thourough explanation of what needs to be done and why. When he finishes talking, you think you’ll be able to fully understand all of those complicated things he said and commit them to memory in a few goes? Dead wrong!
Game development is no different than learning to build a rocket. You need to start climbing the mountain from its base. What good would it do if someone flew you to the top with a helicopter? I was no different when I first came across 001. But I realised by myself after a lot of my “supposed to be big and great” games just, didn’t work. They sucked. I’m writing this guide to save you valuable time.
Start very small. Take a look around 001 by yourself, get familiar with its environment. If you fiddled with other game engines as well, experiment with it to see what does what. 001 has some pretty nice demos and example games you can open and see how they work from the inside. Forum tutorials and Steam guides are another great way to start small and slowly make it to the top. Actually learning things in the process, burning them into your brain. After you learn the basics of how 001 works, make a small game. These tutorials I made can help you greatly with making your first game: Creating a Simple RPG Game(How to use 001 #1) and Creating a Simple Platformer Game(How to use 001 #2)
Be patient. I can show you the way, but I cannot walk it for you. Hopefully you can make something amazing in the future for me and thousands others to play 😀