It’s common knowledge that these days, gaming is no longer purely the domain of geeks and nerds. The smartphone revolution, in particular, has made gaming an everyday pastime for the masses. Today, you’re probably more likely to see rail commuters playing a game on their phone than reading a paper, and family members take each other on at Xbox or PlayStation games in the way they might once have played Monopoly around the kitchen table.
Gaming is, in fact, as mainstream and accepted a pastime as watching a movie or reading a book. That might make you think that the other truly geeky part of gaming – creating and developing games of your very own – has passed into history. After all, you’re hardly going to be able to compete with EA Sport or Rockstar Games, are you?
Think again, though. The internet age is all about opportunity. Consider those examples of books and movies. It’s actually far easier today for indie filmmakers and unknown writers to make their visions a reality and get them out there today than it was 20 years ago. The same applies to game developers.
Choosing the right software
If you were to walk into the studios of one of those big developers we mentioned earlier and look at the software they use, there is every possibility you would walk out again 30 seconds later in floods of tears. OK so you are not going to pay out thousands of dollars on a CryEngine license, at least not until you’ve done your very own Brendan Greene and made your first couple of million.
But to be honest, you don’t need software on that scale or with that price tag to develop your own game anyway. In fact, you can pay as little as absolutely nothing for game-building software, and there are plenty that have free packages to get you started and premium options you can choose to buy (or not) at a later date.
As is the case with most types of software, there’s a vast choice out there, and choosing the right platform for you depends on a combination of factors including the type of game and your own skills and aspirations. Let’s run through some of the most popular options.
Gamemaker
If you’ve tried out a few indie games yourself to see how others do it, the chances are you have come across Gamemaker. It powers some of the big indie hits of recent years – games like Sperlunky, Levelhead, Downwell, Hotline Miami and a whole lot more.
It’s a great place to start, providing newbie game developers with a one-stop-shop for everything they are likely to need. It’s also reasonably easy to work with, using its own programming language that is straightforward and intuitive. The visual script editor allows you to drag and drop, essentially meaning you can create your game from scratch without knowing the first thing about coding. Other features include an image editor that works a lot like Photoshop and a full-blown animation editor.
The only real downside to Gamemaker is the upfront cost. You’ll need to buy a license for each gaming platform and at the time of writing, these range in price from $99 for a mobile license to $799 for Xbox or PlayStation. That makes Gamemaker look expensive, but on the other hand, once you’ve paid for it it’s yours and if your game really takes off, it could work out cheaper than other options in the long run.
Unity
If parting with hundreds of your hard-earned dollars on licenses just to pursue a speculative idea of developing a game leaves you cold, Unity could be a better option to explore. This is a powerful tool, and is used by a number of AAA developers. But you are only required to pay for it if your studio has made $100,000 or more in the preceding 12 months. Otherwise, it won’t cost you a cent.
Unity has become the weapon of choice for the dozens of new developers setting up shop in the booming igaming niche. This has become a massive growth area as more US states become casino friendly, and in particular in the Canadian market. You can look at a full list of providers here, and what becomes immediately apparent is that they range from global operators to indie developers. You’ll find that many of those falling into the latter category use Unity.
Unity doesn’t provide quite such a comprehensive service offering as Gamemaker, in as much as you will need to source software for audio, 3D modelling, image editing and so on. But when you weigh that against the licensing costs of Gamemaker, it’s a small price to pay. Unity has some tantalizing add-ons, too. For example, the game simulation tool lets you really test things in a realistic environment, and there’s an immense library jam packed with learning resources that you can access for free.
RPG Maker MV
There are gaming geeks and there are gaming geeks. Some of us have been coding games since the current big name developers were in diapers. If you’re among the pioneers, you’ll surely be familiar with the RPG Maker series. It first came out in 1988 and has just got better and better ever since.
You can go as deep as you like with this software, and if you don’t have 30 years experience, you’ll still find it dead easy to use. For beginners, there are pre-programmed game units that you can simply take out of the box and throw on the map, creating your own RPG from these basic building blocks. It’s not the most sophisticated, and most people can spot a game built on RPG Maker from a mile away, but that doesn’t mean it’s not fun.
If you know what you are doing, you can make things a little more individual by delving into the coding of the game units – it’s only Javascript, so you don’t need to be the world’s greatest coder. RPG Maker MV is seriously worth considering for the hobbyist, and can make some fantastic games – check out To The Moon and you’ll get an idea of what it can do.
Unreal Engine 4
From one extreme to another, while RPG Maker is ideally suited for those who want a bit of fun, Unreal 4 is a tool that is used by serious AAA developers. Have you played Star Wars Jedi? Of course you have. What about a little game called Fortnite? They are just two examples of games that use UE4.
If you want to do more than just make games for fun and were not joking about the whole Brendan Greene thing, then forget about everything else we have just said and get UE4. There’s an immense marketplace with everything your game could conceivably need, and there are always good deals and giveaways to be had.
But won’t it cost you a fortune? The short answer is no, the longer answer “not necessarily.” If you’re just geeking around making games for fun and sharing them for free, you can use UE4 without cost. Start to monetize, however, and as soon as your revenue hits $3,000 per quarter, Epic Games will be entitled to a five percent cut. If you really are about to create the next PUBG, it means things could start to get pricey.
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