Games are big business. According to TechJury, the global gaming market is set to reach $256.97 billion by 2025. While huge game studios with hundreds of staff produce 20-hour adventures that take years to make, many individuals with smaller studios or even on solo creator paths have been able to strike it lucky with the games they’ve developed.
In 2016, King, the studio behind Candy Crush Saga, sold for $5.9 billion, with co-founder Riccardo Zacconi likely making a decent chunk of money off the sale. More recently, Josh Wardle, the solo creator of internet sensation Wordle, sold his game for more than $1 million to the New York Times. Making a smash hit that makes you a ton of money is great, but learning the skills to create a game are valuable in itself. Almost anyone is able to make a basic game with tools freely available on the internet. Here are four great resources you can utilise if you’re looking to make your first game:
YouTube
Yes… YouTube. The video platform is a great space to start diving into game development. There are hours of freely available content that will help you learn the fundamentals and guide you to the correct tools you’ll need. There are even videos that help you conceptualise a game idea! Simply use the YouTube search function for beginner tutorials on making video games and you will be supplied with a ton of resources. Investing a bit of time to watch and learn will give you some of the foundations you need to put together your first game.
Game Maker Studio
GameMaker Studio is an extremely affordable piece of software (with the first tier being offered free, if you’re starting right from the beginning), which allows you to produce a game that can be compatible with various mobile platforms, Windows or Mac. The software is also really easy to use, deploying a drag-and-drop system. This means you won’t have to know any coding to use GameMaker Studio. Along with the ease of use, the software has a host of tutorials and guides to help you along the way and ultimately learn the basics of Game Design.
Google Play Academy
If you’re looking to design a mobile game, you’ll want it to be compatible on both Android and iOS. Google wants your game app to be a success and keep people on their phones. With this in mind, they set up the Google Play Academy, which offers a range of free courses and tutorials on basic app design, testing suggestions and even how to grow your app user base. In the design section alone there are thirty courses available (the design section is a great place to start!). While the majority of these courses focus on app design as opposed to game design specifically, they can be extremely useful to new game developers who are wanting to create a mobile game. The courses are also all free. While Google Play Academy will assist you in optimising the game you’re dreaming about making, it will also offer you great knowledge for app design and development, which can be utilised in a variety of fields.
Stencyl
If you have an idea for a puzzle-type game but have no coding or development experience at all, then you might want to check out Stencyl. Much like GameMaker Studio, there is no coding required when using this software. It’s focused on a drag-and-drop model but is extremely basic. Complex game development ideas or absurd creative plans may need to be shelved, but Stencyl will be more than able to help you turn a basic concept into a simple game, which any game developer will tell you, is the start of your design and development journey. If you’re looking to make a simple puzzle game and publish it online, Stencyl’s free offering will be able to do that. There are paid options if you’re aiming for a bigger game rollout.
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