Hello, i'm dogzer. Today we are going to learn how and why we should make a game in the second most popular game making tool in the world, MMF! the first one is jamagic.
First thing to have in mind is what you really want. Do you REALLY want to make a game? or is it something else, not achieving this first task is recipy for failure. Many people start making games because they want a good rating, and they want people to be worshiped for their awesome games, while others just want to make a game because they like doing it because it's fun, this last option is obviously the wrong one, you gotta do it to be the best! if you do it cuz it's fun... you are lost.
Ummm, ok so now we gotta start making the game.
I'm going to give you a little advice that works for making games AND in life. What's in your mind is what you achive. So you are there, in front of an empty MMF project file, what do we do now? WHAT DO WE DO NOW HUH?!!?!?!?!? TELL ME!!!!!!! TEELLMEEEEEEE!!!! i'll tell you what, you put your game in your mind.

Here are some options on what % of the game should be in your mind before you start achieving it:

option a) 5%
option b) 25%
option c) 45%
option d) 52%
option e) 86%
option g) 90%
option h) 96%
option i) 99%
option j) 99.5%
option k) 100%

the correct answer is option K.

lol

If you start making your game before you know what you are going to do. Say, you start drawing a character. That's good, that's FUN right. But you are going to fail, and it's the type of behaviour that gets you nowhere ever. You'll never acomplish anything in your tiny miserable life by drawing little silly sprites that gets you nowhere! if you want to succeed in every aspect of your life like I did already, you gotta know exactly what you want, and picture it... that's when the shit happens, and good games are made, otherwise? you get really bad games, like the ones circy makes.





Now you are probable asking yourself... how do i do it dogzer? tell me! That's why i'm here for. People is never able to realise this by themselves. There's little people that can help about this matter, but i i guess i can use a little of my time to help others get something right for once, so this is how:
Baby steps.
I'm a genious.

Another thing you have to do, is to start big'n'rough (like circy) and start polishing until you have the amount of detail do you want.
Seriously, it really works. For example, when you are drawing, you dont start drawing little details in the blank space, it helps a lot to do a rough sketch of what you are going to do, and then do it over with a more refined shape, and then maybe start getting into details. It's the same for videogames.
Think about what you want first, remember i told you that?
how big'n'rough can you get? Get as big'n'rough as you can. You can say... I want a platform game! or a space shooter! Then move into a more refined shape. Think about how many levels do you want, how many everything! Know everything you need, no more, no less. This is really important, the more uncertain you are about what you'll need for your game.. the more uncertain your success will be, and you will die.

C++ code: 


Graphics3D 640,480,32


circy = createsphere()


camera = createcamera()


moveentity camera,0,0,-5000000000


renderworld()


flip()


print "circy"


Now. Take a look at the following picture:

Image

Those are called sprite sheets. Circy would do good to know this.

Now that's a single character right? It's well done, but will never blow anyone's mind. So it's a fairly good sprite sheet you'd say, probably what you want to achieve.

Now I ask my pupils to grab a piece of paper from your notebooks and write down how much time in days you think it'll take you to draw all that.
Continue when you are finished.


This character has been drawin 700 times. Now say it takes you 15 minutes to draw this character every time. that's 175 hours of constant work.
Now lets say you are somewhat dedicated to your game and work an average of 3 hours on it a day. It'll take you 60 days to do your character.

Now compare the number you wrote on your piece of paper to the number 60.
If the number you wrote is greater or less than 60, erase it, and write 60.

Now please stare at the following image:

Image

Count the amount of characters, and write the amount below the number 60 that's already written on your sheet of paper.

If the amount you wrote is greater or less than 46, erase it and type 46.

Now multiply in your head, without the aid of a calculater!

Write the result in your piece of paper.

You are right! it's 2760. That number you wrote, it's the amount of time it'll take you to do the character art.

That's 8 years of constant work, just to do character art. Without a single day off. You are probably not going to even have sex that whole time, think about it. 8 years of your life, for character art.
Is it worth it? let me work it.

now think about the environment art, the coding, the music. You are probably just going to spend your whole life doing a videogame.

So, you still think you should start doing a game without having it inside your mind first?
Once again i won, as always. I defeated everythin in my sight. That's why i'm so good at everything.

You DO want to know what you are going to do before you start, because otherwise, your projects will stall, always.

Image
Image above is another reason you have to think before you start making a game.

I hope this articled will save many lives.