Pre-requisites for game making and ethics(please sticky)

[relaxis]

This applies to anyone who -

1. Wants to make a computer game and doesn't know how
2. Badgers people for hours on end to make their games for them
3. Rip graphics and music from copyrighted games
4. Has only ever used one game development kit ever in their lives
5. All of the above

Before you start you should -

1. BUY A C OR C++ BOOK
- It's incredible how many people want to make games but don't want to have to program them. Listen up - making games = programming - so don't be lazy and buy the books (amazon has some good ones on game making too)

2. LEARN TO DRAW
- You will never be able to market your game for players (free or no) if you rip graphics from other games and use them as your own. An acceptable thing to do these days however is to take graphics from RPG engines' like RPG maker XP - but this is only for RPG games and it will also have the effect of making your game 100% identical to everyone elses.

3. PLAN YOUR GAME
- It's the careful planning of plot, feature, gameplay and style that make really great games. An example of this is Metal Slug which has only this year become a 3d game - only after a re-release of the original Metal Slug 6 2d platform shooter on the Playstation 2!
Remember - what genre is your game? How does it play? What special features does it have? What style is it in? What is the plot? Is the dialogue in my plot convincing? How will my actors look?

4. MAKE YOUR OWN GAME
- Unless you are putting together a team of people to make a serious game - DON'T EVER EVER EVER EVER bully or harass people into writing code for you or making graphics or writing music. Advertise on forums and show examples of your game to lure people in. And don't rip[ code either. That's just lame - plus you'll mess it up anyways.

5. PRACTICE
- Everyone sucks in the beginning. So practice. Don't limit game making to one development kit, try others. Experiment with 3d and modelling, then try for online games. Read people's source code and tutorials, read books. If you can't afford books then go to your library and fotocopy them. Then go home and make games make games make games make games - from PONG right up to TANK WARS and on to a 2d RPG and then look at 3d code

6. RESPECT
- NOOB is a perjorative term and is a lack of respect for the community members - FLAMING and TROLLING are also offsets of the same loutish online behaviour and degrades the internet as a free base of information and it's users, not forgetting that it shows a complete lack of culture, intelligence and manners on the behalf of the offender. We were all beginners once so no need to get arrogant. In any case such behaviour is likely to get you banned or ignored by those who can help you most.

[Hyperyon]

I'm efficient with drawing and game plots. I used to draw alot and write manga plots before game editing. Its still in my blood, so I apply alot of it in my games.

[relaxis]

Yeah same here basically. Game making is every creative talent you have rolled into one - art is a big factor but also creative writing, plot outlines - dialogue, but also some intuitive factors like - what do people find fun?

That's why it's easier to make games in a team. Personally I'm not much of a pixel artist - 3d modelling has always been easier for me but then I prefer to start off with old school gaming before I move on to things like directx and opengl. But I've always had an intuition towards coding - I can code loads of things but it takes someone to check my code always because somehow i always mess up!

Like right now I'm trying to put together a team of people for two games - one is with VERGE engine which has a port for the GP2X (no sound yet) and is an RPG prequel to the online game Gate to Heavens - the other is just a tribute game with GE to Metal Slug - my favourite 2d action game of all time.