I want to know what kind of things I would have to learn or pursue to possibly get into a position where I would have an opportunity to make my own fighting game. What are some hardships or obstacles that would be associated with pursuing this sort of dream and how practical would you say it is in the long run? I know for sure that it would be a very difficult endeavor to undertake, for sure, but that isn’t really saying much.
Right now, I’m 20 years old and I’m not starting CUNY until the end of this year and I don’t really have any notable skills that would relate to such a field, so I’m practically a blank slate with nothing but ideas. I’m not really passionate about anything outside of the prospect of bringing my characters and ideas to life, and so here I am asking this question. Of course, I also like to be realistic more than anything else, which is why it’s really important I understand what I would be getting myself into in such a hypothetical scenario.
Don’t waste your time
20 years is a cool age, and is a crime waste days on some shitty super low level indie project that you will likely left after 3-4 months anyway, like most do
Improve your social skills, know peoples, have good time
Well considering you have no skills in making games, and fighters are a niche genre with a very stubborn playerbase, you probably don’t stand a chance at making anything that anyone would be excited for.
My suggestion is to start off making mods for other games. If you are good at it, and your ideas are solid, you may become pretty popular. But I would look at games like Skyrim, Dota 2, and GTA for mod opportunities.
If you want to learn how to make any sort of game you should start by learning a programming language like C# or Lua. There’s tons of resources on the internet for it. Should take about six months to become proficient at it. Or learn how to mod games and engines.
One big tool you could use is Unreal Engine 4, which is free to download and mess around with. You can create mods for Unreal or pick up the Blueprints system which allows you to make game scripts without having to know any code.
You could also learn how to do art, both 2D and 3D.
If you want to make fighting games as your first thing don’t design it with complexity in mind. It’s gotta be simple. Later on you can add interesting stuff, as things will start to be in its right place. I also recommend starting off with lua, syntax is easy to understand and Löve2d is pretty awesome.
Löve2D is really awesome indeed. LUA is a nice language, and Löve2D is a great engine to play around with. So if you’re interested in learning to program games, start there.
But yes, to do anything in this direction you have to learn to program or to animate (or do sound effects, 3D modelling etc. etc.). Everybody has ideas and ideas are cheap. Any game development school that says you can learn to become the “ideas guy” and get a job with just that, is probably lying.
Especially when starting off in game development, you need to be able to wear multiple hats, and you’d have to have some experience in different directions as well.
From my experience you need to learn how to do one discipline. Programming, art, or sound. and from their it is broken down into basically specialties like concept art, modeling, animations etc… You need to take some time and develop your skills and keep learning. Once you get good skills the rest will fall into place.
I started my own fighting game without any coding experience, but i studied modeling and UI designs. Once i got better i had other ask if they can help me including people experience with coding. So if you want to make a fighting game get out their and study. Study any technical thing related to programming or design.
If you want to program a fighting game and you are not a programmer do the following:
1)learn to program.
2)make a tic-tac-toe game
3)make a pong game (like the classic one)
4)make simple space shooter game, like space invaders or ar side scrolling game like r-type (but try to keep things simple!)
5)make simple plataform game (like mario)
6)make a fighting game.
this process will take from 2 to 10 years.
If you find out you don’t like to program, than try to make 3d models an annimations, 2d sprite animations, or music, all things are important in game development.
I’m making my own indie fighting game now, Way of the canceling fist, and unlike Cestus said, it has been a very good experience, because I make it to myself, because programming is fun to me.
My opinion is that if you have a good idea as to how you’d like your game to play (3D arena/2D/2.5D/ tag team/ SSB(smash)/ etc), then you can research what platform best fits your needs. If you’re completely new to game development I would recommend educating yourself with simple tutorials from youtube or reading articles online. Make small games and even publish them to see how people react. Ive made a couple crappy games (Kitty Katnip IOS and Android/ Albert’s Ascension IOS and Android/ Math Invasion IOS and Android)by myself and with teams before I attempted to make my dream fighting game, which is a work in progress at the moment.
It’s kind of hard to jump into it if you have no experience. It helps to get good at one skill first. Art/Programming/Sound/Design etc… My first degree was in digital media so I picked up a lot of what I know from experimenting and course work.
Unity 3D is my engine of choice and I think its perfect for all levels of expertise. Inside unity you have the UFE3D engine available for purchase and that will give you a really solid foundation on a 2.5D game. I’m using the source version of UFE3D in Unity and I dont think I’ll ever look back.
I would even suggest trying your hand at modding. Mugen/ EF12 are awesome Modding engines and can teach you a whole lot about file structure and design.
What veromir said. And from 2 to 10, I would choose a 5 year route. More than likely this is a project that will be on the side for a while. Get acquainted to the point where you can just sit right down and play with code. Familiarize yourself with things over and over. Try your hand at concept art and sound.
I would personally get a certificate in programming. If you’re the self-motivated type who can work alone just order a good book from ebay instead. Read at home and program regularly. A big mistake people make is just assuming programming is this hard impossible thing.
In my opinion, English is a harder “language” than C++. Programming is vast yet at the same time completely utilizable. It is worth learning and mastering so much of it. You won’t take twelve years of schooling getting there and you will actually use what you learn the moment you start it, just in small parts that build on themselves.
You just have to understand that since it is a language, it encompasses a huge number of ways to “say” things, and in order to learn how to express advanced things you have to learn more and more. If you simply be consistent, even at a relatively slow pace you will become a good programmer.
I don’t think the OP really cares about this, if he can’t even be bothered to respond to his own thread.
But if he does, if you actually are talented at game design and you have great ideas, you’d be wasting your talents in fighters. Go capitalize on what sells. People want casual time-sinks. You can make money hand over fist with a mobile game that will draw in the soccer moms. Granted, it’s a saturated market, but the possibility is still there. Fighters don’t have that money making potential, unless you’re selling a familiar brand, and you have the cash to get it on the main stage at EVO.
Ya know I might just actually do that. I have drawings, ideas, and a concept. I just need someone who knows their stuff to bring my ideas and characters to life.
It’s not that I don’t want to see more fighters, I just think it’s sad to see someone put so much time and effort into something that only a few hundred people will play. And people are just gonna flock to whatever is mainstage at EVO anyway, and throw their money at the next crappy SF or SC while complaining that SF and SC are now shit. I don’t want to sound like I’m trying to crush anyone’s dreams here, this is just the sad reality of it. However, if he can get a job working on a fighter, then more power to him. Gotta pay the bills.
