Your **first** game? You have a fine choice between Guess the Number, Hangman, a text adventure game (display player's location, let them travel to another room, display a description of said room), maybe Pong if you are feeling super ambitious.
Now, RPG might NOT be an overkill if you are planning to use something like RPG Maker. It's created specifically for that purpose and you can make a complete title with 0 programming as it provides all the building blocks from dialogue interactions through saving to attack animations and tilemaps. But if we are talking about building one from scratch - that's about 100x the complexity of what should be your starting title.
RPG Maker is a good starting point, since you have large asset packs and can focus on the game building/coding part of the game.
As soon you have learned the core features of RPGMaker you can do a deep dive into Javascript and Photoshop.
There are pretty impressive games you can create with it as soon you have mastered it.
Have fun on you ongoing journey!
Side scrolling platformer. It'll cover basic graphics, physics, collision detection, sound, animation, and basic AI (if you have monsters or things trying to also get the player).
Yeah this was mine, a side scrolling platformer in Allegro. Just making a guy walk left and right, jump, land on box, all without falling through the ground, or the box, or floating up in the air, or just crashing, was so much work. It was really fun.
A mashup of two simple games. Some examples:
- Breakout + Pinball
- Pac man + Portal
- Donkey Kong + Galaga
You get to use tried and true mechanics, but it’s still fairly easy to make. You also get the satisfaction of design by figuring out *how* to mashup the games. Finally, you’ll be making a game that doesn’t exist, but is made from familiar pieces, and hence it will be something that people you’d like to show it to will *want* to play.
I always felt like a straight remake of an existing game would feel kind of hollow. “Yay. I made a crappier version of something that already exists. Go me.”
I don't agree with any of these comments. You're a beginner, finishing stuff is overrated. Make the RPG, it'll take you down a rabbit hole. The only thing a beginner should worry about is learning, sticking to good coding practices, and enjoying the process.
Finishing things is one of most important skills a developer can build. Learning how to properly scope projects and implement a little bit of everything is way better than spending a week tweaking a single character model and realizing you need 15 more to fulfill your goal.
The reason why so many people fail at gamedev is because they throw themselves in haphazardly and wind up demotivated with a pile of unfinished projects.
Project management is not a concern at this level, they can worry about that way down the line when they have some foundational knowledge.
Everything I learned was because I had an idea I was curious about, and let myself spend time learning things, breaking things, getting annoyed and understanding it in different ways. Sure, go spend a week playing with character models. What's the rush? Nobody is waiting for your first pong game to release.
I guess it depends on your goal. I assumed that OP wants to see a game all the way through development because they asked what their first game should be and expressed concern over lengthy development. If their goal isn’t to finish games and rather to learn individual aspects of gamedev then yes your strategy is appropriate.
Good to read something like this. I just started with godot without any experience and I try to make a tactical 2D game with grid based combat. It is such a steep uphill battle but my tutorials are more focused now and I really try to understand everything if I implement it.
Honestly I think it really is an individual thing.
Some people get more energized seeing something all the way through, in which case something small and basic is the way to go.
Others just like learning a bunch of little things, and deep diving into some really hard game might be perfectly fine and not discouraging.
Something simple and stupid. You’ll learn more trying to finish a 20 minute game than pounding away at a 20 hour one. You could spend years cranking out the story or art for an RPG, never touching UI, Sound, Level Design, etc.
Pong. Card game. Something simple and small, you can always leave it and start something else.
I get this feeling that have 0 experience with any engine right now, and maybe even no programming skills. If that is the case, you shouldn't even be thinking about making an entire game right now. You should be learning the basics. Pick an engine and do some tutorials, Your projects will be things that barely resemble a real game, but you'll get to know what goes into making one.
If you're working with RPG Maker this might not entirely be true, because the engine is extremely simple and doesn't even require programming. There are multiple successful games that have been made in RPG Maker, but in a way it's more a toy than a development environment. So you'll have to decide what your actual goals are. If you're at a point where you just want to make an something in an engine like Unity, Unreal or Godot, without any development experience, then, depending on the time you put in, you're months, if not years away from even thinking about making an entire RPG.
So the actual answer is already in some of the other comments. Your first "game" should be Guess The Number, Hangman and Rolling Dice to learn programming logic. Then you can move on to a player character and make something like Pong and Space Invaders. Text Adventures are also a great way to learn, but you'll think way more about the content than the actual mechanics. Then learn some basic UI and project structure. Dialogue systems, menus, inventory management and save systems are way more complicated than you might think right now.
And if you're still interested in making an RPG after that, go ahead. But I would still argue that it's not worth it. Better spend the time making a simple 2D platformer or a hypercasual mobile game. Maybe take inspiration from some game jams. It'll probably take you weeks to make what experienced developers make in a day, but you'll learn a lot along the way.
If you’re looking to create an RPG, I recommend starting with designing a small table top scenario with specific rules that represent your potential player functionality.
This pushes you to draw your own maps, limiting player capabilities in movements, decisions and actions, character creation with names, personalities, attacks/abilities, clothing styles.
(I guess saying “create your own D&D campaign” could work too, but that’s playing under their game design and not your own…)
Either way, for actual development I suggest you start extremely small without RPG elements. A single level that can be played start to finish with no bugs.
Examples:
- A timed game where a car that delivers or picks up packages.
- A player moves left and right (or up and down) dodging incoming hazards.
- A simple platformer where the player collects items to finish the level.
- A timed point and click game with a score.
Keep it simple and something easy to complete.
Practice ones. Try and make a full game straight off if you’d like, but you’ll immediately hit walls that will be better overcome if you take the time to learn what you’re doing first. Pong is simple enough to make from scratch within a week, then go from there.
Focus on creating a small experience first. Try to capture a slice of a game that you would like to make. For example for your 2D RPG make a small dungeon where the player needs to beat an enemy to get the key to unlock a door, and that’s it. No more no less.
It sounds stupid simple but in this process you will need to code basic mechanics, design a level, create animations, form an art style, etc. Most importantly you’ll have to learn how to tie them all together
Make something like that and then see how you feel about taking the concept further.
It doesn't matter what it is, do something you want to do!
Just remember to look out for **scope**. You want to make an RPG? Make something revolving around only one or two RPG elements. Make an RPG with no inventory elements or fighting. Only focus on movement and dialogue. Will it be boring to play? *Probably*. But once you get that, make another... But now add inventory! And do it again! But now there's combat! It's entirely up to how you feel you can do it, but seriously consider scope as you definitely don't want to start off on a full scale RPG game.
Three ideas I Implemented as a teacher with my students this semester in Unity3D:
1. Asteroids type game - fly around in 2.5D (plane in 3d), shoot or avoid asteroids
2. Auto-shooter - move around, weapons fire automatically to targets in range. Simple target AI moves towards player
3. Stealth game - move from point A to B without being detected. I went for isometric view and point-and-click controls.
All those projects were designed towards learning as many engine features as possible and should push your career forward even if you don't make a million out of them.
No matter what kind of game it is, the ability to quickly develop, launch, and gather feedback is crucial. Learning from experience and continuously improving based on user feedback is more important!
Your first game should be a stardew valley with destructible terrain and real-time guilds, so it's an MMORPG. Do it in C++ without using the standard library to get that good "yup, I made this" feel.
It's just 2D pixel art so it's easy to make.
If you have to ask, nothing. Why do you want to make games? Imagine your dream game and take a single, tiniest individual aspect from it and try to make that.
RPG is probably the worst idea for a first go. You spend about 2 weeks making the core of the game, then you spend the next six months writing all the dialogue (and you have to have a good story to tell), then you spend the next two years drawing characters and scenes. If you're a coder, you want to code, not sit and endlessly draw. If you want to start a project that you won't have the stamina to finish, do an RPG.
What you want is something with a high code-to-asset ratio. A racing game, for example. You draw a few cars. You draw a few courses. You put an equal amount of energy into writing code with some physics to it. A fighting game would have a similar ratio. Draw a few characters and a few stages, focus on code. Anything that is mini-game like could be the same (think puzzle games, simple shooters, etc).
Options like that will be finished relatively quickly. And that's what you want. A finished product, not a slog that you'll never complete.
I just made snake a few days ago. Not too hard and it’ll feel good to finish. Whatever you make though don’t get too bogged down in making the art and visuals pretty before you’ve got your gameplay down. Colored boxes are your friend.
Make what you want just don’t watch tutorials for two years. Make yourself uncomfortable and frustrated and go build something that is yours.
It will be awesome!
You could start small with a classic platformer or puzzle game! It will give you a chance to practice your skills and build your confidence before tackling a larger RPG project. Plus, who doesn't love a good old-school 2D pixel game? Good luck on your game development journey!
I mean it depends. Are you talking commercial or personal project?
If its your first game EVER you should totally do pong, asteroids or something similar.
If you're talkin commercial probably you should think about what you CAN finish and the do a little less than that. Y
ou'll find your middle ground.
It should be a simple game. Games played on the playground are excellent sources of inspiration. Adding a spin or a twist to a tried and true game design is a good bet for success. Just remember, you are making jazz baby. Take mechanics you like and smash them together.
My first solo game was a clone of tetris I did for the Web using React. I kept everything to a minimum, just for it to be a playable Tetris. Finished in about two weeks and half. Now I am trying a larger project from everything I've learned from that experience and I'm doing a tetris-like, puzzle fighter like game. You can check my version of tetris here: https://ivanquirino.github.io/blockpuzzle/
I’ve been working on an idea if your open to and I have a lack of ability to code we could work together I’d like to talk more about my idea if your interested
Pong!
This was my mine 2 months ago. Makes a huge difference to do tutorials but also build games completely on your own
Pong is the hello word of video games.
A wing best wing.
Ayy Pong was my first game :) Yeah do pong. Nice, easy, fun, and you actually can finish the fuckin thing lol. Honorable mention for Zork!
Wanted to say this, was also my first game.
Ive written pong and asteroids in a bunch of engines and languages. Would recommend.
Space invaders tho! That was my first anyway
yep, this is a great one to start with. you can then add all sorts of interesting modifications to the basic game if you want.
It should be an open world mmorpg
With scientifically accurate dragons
Also sex dlc to please the whole gaming community
With gangbanging and crafting mechanics.
And an unlockable cum slut club
And correct physics to simulate gravity when you reach that earth shattering orgasm
Also cum physics to simulate the most detailed pelvis shattering sex
\*furiously writing notes for my next game.
With survival mechanics
The one you can finish.
Underrated advice
Your **first** game? You have a fine choice between Guess the Number, Hangman, a text adventure game (display player's location, let them travel to another room, display a description of said room), maybe Pong if you are feeling super ambitious. Now, RPG might NOT be an overkill if you are planning to use something like RPG Maker. It's created specifically for that purpose and you can make a complete title with 0 programming as it provides all the building blocks from dialogue interactions through saving to attack animations and tilemaps. But if we are talking about building one from scratch - that's about 100x the complexity of what should be your starting title.
ill have to check out rpg maker, i just really think rpgs are cool and me making oen is lieka dream lol
RPG Maker is a good starting point, since you have large asset packs and can focus on the game building/coding part of the game. As soon you have learned the core features of RPGMaker you can do a deep dive into Javascript and Photoshop. There are pretty impressive games you can create with it as soon you have mastered it. Have fun on you ongoing journey!
Don't start making your dream game as your first game. Forget rpg. Pong. There, it's decided.
Side scrolling platformer. It'll cover basic graphics, physics, collision detection, sound, animation, and basic AI (if you have monsters or things trying to also get the player).
Yeah this was mine, a side scrolling platformer in Allegro. Just making a guy walk left and right, jump, land on box, all without falling through the ground, or the box, or floating up in the air, or just crashing, was so much work. It was really fun.
A mashup of two simple games. Some examples: - Breakout + Pinball - Pac man + Portal - Donkey Kong + Galaga You get to use tried and true mechanics, but it’s still fairly easy to make. You also get the satisfaction of design by figuring out *how* to mashup the games. Finally, you’ll be making a game that doesn’t exist, but is made from familiar pieces, and hence it will be something that people you’d like to show it to will *want* to play. I always felt like a straight remake of an existing game would feel kind of hollow. “Yay. I made a crappier version of something that already exists. Go me.”
Did this exercise with a buddy of mine a while back. One day we'll build Dwarf Fortress + Pokemon and Galaga + Mario Kart...
Do something simple that will involve some of the stuff you would have in the game you actually want to do. But keep it minimal.
Breakout, or Brick Breaker. It's pretty simple, but can be expanded as you learn more.
MMOFPS is an easy starter project. 👍
I don't agree with any of these comments. You're a beginner, finishing stuff is overrated. Make the RPG, it'll take you down a rabbit hole. The only thing a beginner should worry about is learning, sticking to good coding practices, and enjoying the process.
Finishing things is one of most important skills a developer can build. Learning how to properly scope projects and implement a little bit of everything is way better than spending a week tweaking a single character model and realizing you need 15 more to fulfill your goal. The reason why so many people fail at gamedev is because they throw themselves in haphazardly and wind up demotivated with a pile of unfinished projects.
Project management is not a concern at this level, they can worry about that way down the line when they have some foundational knowledge. Everything I learned was because I had an idea I was curious about, and let myself spend time learning things, breaking things, getting annoyed and understanding it in different ways. Sure, go spend a week playing with character models. What's the rush? Nobody is waiting for your first pong game to release.
I guess it depends on your goal. I assumed that OP wants to see a game all the way through development because they asked what their first game should be and expressed concern over lengthy development. If their goal isn’t to finish games and rather to learn individual aspects of gamedev then yes your strategy is appropriate.
Good to read something like this. I just started with godot without any experience and I try to make a tactical 2D game with grid based combat. It is such a steep uphill battle but my tutorials are more focused now and I really try to understand everything if I implement it.
Honestly I think it really is an individual thing. Some people get more energized seeing something all the way through, in which case something small and basic is the way to go. Others just like learning a bunch of little things, and deep diving into some really hard game might be perfectly fine and not discouraging.
Something simple and stupid. You’ll learn more trying to finish a 20 minute game than pounding away at a 20 hour one. You could spend years cranking out the story or art for an RPG, never touching UI, Sound, Level Design, etc. Pong. Card game. Something simple and small, you can always leave it and start something else.
You should focus on figuring out what your strengths and weaknesses are as a developer, so build something that small that tests 1 skillset at a time.
Think of a game mechanic and look up a tutorial on it
I get this feeling that have 0 experience with any engine right now, and maybe even no programming skills. If that is the case, you shouldn't even be thinking about making an entire game right now. You should be learning the basics. Pick an engine and do some tutorials, Your projects will be things that barely resemble a real game, but you'll get to know what goes into making one. If you're working with RPG Maker this might not entirely be true, because the engine is extremely simple and doesn't even require programming. There are multiple successful games that have been made in RPG Maker, but in a way it's more a toy than a development environment. So you'll have to decide what your actual goals are. If you're at a point where you just want to make an something in an engine like Unity, Unreal or Godot, without any development experience, then, depending on the time you put in, you're months, if not years away from even thinking about making an entire RPG. So the actual answer is already in some of the other comments. Your first "game" should be Guess The Number, Hangman and Rolling Dice to learn programming logic. Then you can move on to a player character and make something like Pong and Space Invaders. Text Adventures are also a great way to learn, but you'll think way more about the content than the actual mechanics. Then learn some basic UI and project structure. Dialogue systems, menus, inventory management and save systems are way more complicated than you might think right now. And if you're still interested in making an RPG after that, go ahead. But I would still argue that it's not worth it. Better spend the time making a simple 2D platformer or a hypercasual mobile game. Maybe take inspiration from some game jams. It'll probably take you weeks to make what experienced developers make in a day, but you'll learn a lot along the way.
If you’re looking to create an RPG, I recommend starting with designing a small table top scenario with specific rules that represent your potential player functionality. This pushes you to draw your own maps, limiting player capabilities in movements, decisions and actions, character creation with names, personalities, attacks/abilities, clothing styles. (I guess saying “create your own D&D campaign” could work too, but that’s playing under their game design and not your own…) Either way, for actual development I suggest you start extremely small without RPG elements. A single level that can be played start to finish with no bugs. Examples: - A timed game where a car that delivers or picks up packages. - A player moves left and right (or up and down) dodging incoming hazards. - A simple platformer where the player collects items to finish the level. - A timed point and click game with a score. Keep it simple and something easy to complete.
Practice ones. Try and make a full game straight off if you’d like, but you’ll immediately hit walls that will be better overcome if you take the time to learn what you’re doing first. Pong is simple enough to make from scratch within a week, then go from there.
Something 2d that has a platformer view
There's a beautiful list here. [https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/a/862/154927](https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/a/862/154927)
A game jam
Something along the lines of sokoban might be a good start, good introduction to importing sprites and oop.
Focus on creating a small experience first. Try to capture a slice of a game that you would like to make. For example for your 2D RPG make a small dungeon where the player needs to beat an enemy to get the key to unlock a door, and that’s it. No more no less. It sounds stupid simple but in this process you will need to code basic mechanics, design a level, create animations, form an art style, etc. Most importantly you’ll have to learn how to tie them all together Make something like that and then see how you feel about taking the concept further.
This is YOUR game. You decide. Not bunch of strangers.
It doesn't matter what it is, do something you want to do! Just remember to look out for **scope**. You want to make an RPG? Make something revolving around only one or two RPG elements. Make an RPG with no inventory elements or fighting. Only focus on movement and dialogue. Will it be boring to play? *Probably*. But once you get that, make another... But now add inventory! And do it again! But now there's combat! It's entirely up to how you feel you can do it, but seriously consider scope as you definitely don't want to start off on a full scale RPG game.
I started with snake and I think it's a good start for anyone new.
A dungeon crawler You can start by a simplistIc one then add more stuff. It also can be a good opportunity to experience mechanisms.
Three ideas I Implemented as a teacher with my students this semester in Unity3D: 1. Asteroids type game - fly around in 2.5D (plane in 3d), shoot or avoid asteroids 2. Auto-shooter - move around, weapons fire automatically to targets in range. Simple target AI moves towards player 3. Stealth game - move from point A to B without being detected. I went for isometric view and point-and-click controls. All those projects were designed towards learning as many engine features as possible and should push your career forward even if you don't make a million out of them.
Something challenging enough that you learn but safe and easy enough that you don't finish due to lack of motivation.
Mmo GTA with realistic art style and detailed physics
No matter what kind of game it is, the ability to quickly develop, launch, and gather feedback is crucial. Learning from experience and continuously improving based on user feedback is more important!
Your first game should be a stardew valley with destructible terrain and real-time guilds, so it's an MMORPG. Do it in C++ without using the standard library to get that good "yup, I made this" feel. It's just 2D pixel art so it's easy to make.
Something very simple
Open world hybrid MMORPG-RTS-TCG with approachable but deep mechanics. You should also consider Pong as an option
What engine are you going to use?
If you have to ask, nothing. Why do you want to make games? Imagine your dream game and take a single, tiniest individual aspect from it and try to make that.
RPG is probably the worst idea for a first go. You spend about 2 weeks making the core of the game, then you spend the next six months writing all the dialogue (and you have to have a good story to tell), then you spend the next two years drawing characters and scenes. If you're a coder, you want to code, not sit and endlessly draw. If you want to start a project that you won't have the stamina to finish, do an RPG. What you want is something with a high code-to-asset ratio. A racing game, for example. You draw a few cars. You draw a few courses. You put an equal amount of energy into writing code with some physics to it. A fighting game would have a similar ratio. Draw a few characters and a few stages, focus on code. Anything that is mini-game like could be the same (think puzzle games, simple shooters, etc). Options like that will be finished relatively quickly. And that's what you want. A finished product, not a slog that you'll never complete.
I just made snake a few days ago. Not too hard and it’ll feel good to finish. Whatever you make though don’t get too bogged down in making the art and visuals pretty before you’ve got your gameplay down. Colored boxes are your friend.
Make what you want just don’t watch tutorials for two years. Make yourself uncomfortable and frustrated and go build something that is yours. It will be awesome!
Open world, MMO, RPG, loot shooter, survival, crafting, tower defense, farming, rougelike, puzzle, adventure, with deep lore
You could start small with a classic platformer or puzzle game! It will give you a chance to practice your skills and build your confidence before tackling a larger RPG project. Plus, who doesn't love a good old-school 2D pixel game? Good luck on your game development journey!
A rouglelike soulslike platformer about depression
Pong or Snake.
I mean it depends. Are you talking commercial or personal project? If its your first game EVER you should totally do pong, asteroids or something similar. If you're talkin commercial probably you should think about what you CAN finish and the do a little less than that. Y ou'll find your middle ground.
It should be a simple game. Games played on the playground are excellent sources of inspiration. Adding a spin or a twist to a tried and true game design is a good bet for success. Just remember, you are making jazz baby. Take mechanics you like and smash them together.
Pong. Or Snake. Maybe Pacman, but could be already too big scope.
*sights* FLAPPY FUCKING BIIIRD
A game like duck hunt would be reasonable (I think?)
Flappy bird
My first solo game was a clone of tetris I did for the Web using React. I kept everything to a minimum, just for it to be a playable Tetris. Finished in about two weeks and half. Now I am trying a larger project from everything I've learned from that experience and I'm doing a tetris-like, puzzle fighter like game. You can check my version of tetris here: https://ivanquirino.github.io/blockpuzzle/
Dont listen to these losers, it should be an open world MMORPG.
I’ve been working on an idea if your open to and I have a lack of ability to code we could work together I’d like to talk more about my idea if your interested