For a small team or a single developer , Many people are versatile when they need them , lately , An independent game developer told his blog about his decades of experience in game development , He said , Game planning needs some programming knowledge ,
Because only in this way can you have more creative freedom , Of course , It's definitely not that you should be John · Carmichael and learning to make game engines , You just need to learn to use Game Maker perhaps Unity Make , Just be able to prototype ideas .
Gamelook reports / For a small team or a single developer , Many people are versatile when they need them , lately , An independent game developer told his blog about his decades of experience in game development ,
He said , Game planning needs some programming knowledge , Because only in this way can you have more creative freedom , Of course , It's definitely not that you should be John · Carmichael and learning to make game engines , You just need to learn to use Game Maker perhaps Unity Make , Just be able to prototype ideas .
Here's a look Gamelook Compiled blog content ：
When I 11 At the age of , I bought my first computer at home ： a AST Advantage, It has one 66MHz 486 processor 、4MB Memory and 32MB Hard disk space , This is not the best computer , Not even then , But it supports QBasic, Because I always wanted to play games , So I quickly learned to program .
I spent the next ten years or so indulging in QBasic in , Just because I'm so used to it . I've done a lot of games , There's shooting 、 Platform games and a lot of games that actually look strange .
One of the games I've played is called 《 Kill the innocent （Kill the Innocent）》, This game is mainly a match man walking alone on a bridge , You aim your gun at them and kill them . I remember writing a very detailed system , Just to make it more natural for the character to fall head first .
But in those days , I've never really heard too much about programming , It was just the same code or keyword , Everything is knocked out , Nothing is remotely modular .
let me put it another way , I didn't really learn programming , I didn't know how to insert a wizard form （spritesheet） Or do something that can be done in Windows Things that run on , Not to mention a iPhone 了 , It's just that I wasn't really a programmer at the time .
The difficulties I encountered in learning code
In adolescence and 20 Around the age of , I tried again and again , Hope to learn some more fashionable programming techniques , I can't tell you how many copies I borrowed ‘ Study XX Language ’ Books , But after reading the first three chapters , And then gave up .
Why do I give up ？ Basically , They seem too hard for me , To be more exact , I just can't put too much effort into these books , Now I understand that programming really needs a special kind of perseverance and new year , Be sure to believe in ‘ I'm sure I can find the answer ’.
I think part of the reason is , I do art work myself , I don't like math and science at school , But what I'm good at most is music 、 Visual effects and writing .
I think I was thinking of myself as a creative type of talent , So when some compatibility errors occur , I didn't change it until four or five times , There are still some problems . occasionally , It's easy for me to persuade myself to say ,“ I'm not a programmer , After all, I need a programmer to do these things .”
Last , Like anything , You have to have faith in what you want , And believe that you can learn , But remember , Never take it as a trifle .
If you want to be a programmer too , Want to master programming quickly , Pay close attention to Xiaobian and join the learning Penguin circle ！
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Non programming game designers
In the first decade of my career as a professional game developer , I spend most of my time as a professional game developer , I will be responsible for the main roles in the following areas , Like visual art 、 Write game music 、 Sound effect 、 Picture quality design 、 Web Design 、 writing 、 Game design 、 Marketing and other skills . To put it simply , Theoretically speaking, each of these aspects needs relatively high production value , In addition to game programming .
My idea is , If I did everything else , Programming should look for full-time people to do , This has always been my point of view . In fact, sometimes I even complain and think , I don't just have to do so many things in the game , Do you still need to program yourself ？ I should have hired someone to do it .
actually , I know it may make sense , And it's possible . I have a few games that actually do that . It needs to be made clear that ： You can do research and development as a non game programmer . I later also found a way to seek game design 、 Artist 、 A team of composers and other talents , And held different positions in it .
What I want to say is , Although you can do it , But as a game designer , You shouldn't do that .
Real game designers , It's the people who really try the system and try to set some rules . Technically , People who design enigma platform games or tower defense games are game designers , But I'm not talking about these people , If you're designing a 《Flappy Bird》 After engraving , Maybe I can't program and it's ok .
For people like me who are experimenting with new interactive systems ,‘ Looking for programmers ’ My plan is not practical , Serious game design is hard to make the first decision , You can make ten mistakes 、 100 times , When you add new ideas , One or two of you are like light bulbs , It may take a day or two to write an email to communicate with other people to solve a small problem , This kind of efficiency is too slow .
You need to be personally involved in the test 、 In the process of adjustment and readjustment , Improve a lot of things , Change a lot of things that have been arranged , That's where you need to do these things . Otherwise , You're going to have email problems , Even small things take a long time .
Here's the thing to remember , The time you put into your own game is also limited , So you want to make the most of . As a game designer , This may bring a lot of delay to the game development time , To be a project programmer, you need to add a lot of knowledge .
Last , I found that when working with programmers , It needs to be balanced ‘ Do the right design ’ still ‘ Don't respect their time, pursue personal feelings ’ Balance the two sides , Most of the time , If I ask a programmer to write some code , And then it turns out that what I asked him to do was just throw it in the garbage .
This is a point to be reminded , But sometimes it doesn't happen . For example, if you tell someone ,‘ What I asked you to write last week , Now ready to redo ’, This means that everyone will collapse . however , I don't want to make a little compromise in game design .
And board games ？
Board games are very suitable for learning game design , Some designers , According to their goals and ideas , Maybe I just want to spend my whole career playing board games .
But there's a fact I have to say , Although a well-designed board game does learn more about design than a digital game , But as a medium , There are some problems with board games .
A lot of people think these are bad reasons , Some of them don't like the round system , Some people don't like learning rules , Others just don't like board games , But these are not the real reasons .
The real reason for the board game problem is ： Working with entity component producers can lead to problems , Because it's hard to synchronize your information sharing at the same time , This information inconsistency will make players feel it .
Quick feedback ： Make a game , And then put it online to see people's reactions , It can be done in a few hours , Board games, on the other hand, need to plan ahead and consider a lot of practical worries . It's not necessarily commercially viable , I think many designers are more willing to make a living by painting , There are others who will be the exception , Because it's more difficult to use paper and pen than computer application .
Last , As I said , I'm sure that board games for game designers can learn more about painting , I also believe that expertise can make good games in any way , I just think it's more difficult to play board games than to play number games , And making a good game itself is almost impossible .
Become a programmer
Our game 《A Monster-Bumping Adventure》 R & D uses 5 Years of time , as a result of , It started out as a strategy game , And I want to make it feel right .
We could have released the game a long time ago , If you don't go out of your way to create special elements , It can also be a boring RPG game , however , In the meantime, we made a lot of changes 、 Revise .
At the end of the day , Our first programmer moved on to other projects , We've replaced one programmer after another , In the end in 2013 At the end of the year , The studio is very short of programmers , Even sometimes 《Auro》 Facing the danger of stopping the game many times .
therefore , In this case , I don't have a choice , You have to learn to program yourself , Otherwise, our long work will be wasted .
however , Because of this situation , Maybe it's because people are old and have a more mature idea of life , Final , I am for 《Auro》 I wrote a lot of code for my project . Recently I passed Udemy To study the Unity Course , I also read a lot of books on game programming .
Obviously , I have a long way to go , But I've done it. At least I can make my own creative prototype and basic adjustments , As a game designer , It gives me a lot of freedom .
I'm still in an idealized world , A designer has to have a ‘ The main program ’ I'm in charge of this , Make the game budget code look easier to manage , Especially for larger and more complex requirements .
But what I know is , Game designer , Like myself , Focus on making new 、 Designers of interesting and deeply interactive systems , You need to learn how to program . You can't rely on others for everything , You can't just rely on paper and Sketchpad , Do something meaningful , Whether it's tuition 、 Class or reading in the hotel room .
I'm definitely not saying that you should be John · Senior programmers like Carmack and learning to make game engines , You just need to learn to use Game Maker perhaps Unity Make , Just be able to prototype ideas .
If you are a creative designer , So the game industry needs you .
【 Reprinted from Gamelook Manuscript 】