My Video Game Endeavor

[RAMacindux]

Hey guys, so I got something up my sleeve right now:

I always had an interest in games with their development and concepts or whatnot, so I decided to start making my own story for my own game that I would want to release in the future.

However, I am unsure of what engine I should use. Since Black Mesa launched and all, I was inspired and I finally decided to make a little story which could potentially translate to a game with the engine in question. Initially, I looked at Source and the Hammer Editor and needless to say that I was a little intimidated to it considering that I don’t have experience in 3dsmax or anything like that. How about Unity? I figured this would be the first step in that long term goal.

And about the music I would use, is it okay if I use a remix of a current song and use it for my game in question? I used some MIDI file from the internet and kinda mixed it with far better instruments. Or do I have to get licences and all that to use it? I don’t plan releasing that game for a profit (non-commercial) though. Guys? Any help there?

Here’s that story I mentioned in a file:
https://sdrv.ms/1cdaUKG

Here’s some music I would want to use (the remixes):
https://soundcloud.com/ramacindux

Hoping I don’t look like a douchebag with this post. :fffuuu:
cross fingers

[garrthbarrttinn]

You definitely don’t sound like a douchebag.

However, I’m going to have to warn you, A LOT of people when they first try to get into game design start with a huge project they’ve been cooking over and over in their minds. It’s cool to see people motivated, but the problem with this is you end up biting off a lot more than you chew. People find that their skills don’t match their imagination yet and they get frustrated and it leads to a poor experience. This can turn people away from game design. What you’ll hear from me and a lot of others is that, if you want to try to get into game design, you should start VERY small. I recommend you learn the skills involved first and then work on the project second. It’ll give you an idea of what you can and can’t do and let you know what you’re getting into before you become too invested in something that might not work out.

I would recommend you start out with hammer editor. There’s a huge developer community built around it with tons of tutorials. It also has a bunch of different assets and games you can work with. You should just try making a really simple map to start. Making a L4D2 survival map is a pretty good start because the game’s ai system does a lot of the gameplay work for you and you can pretty much make whatever kind of map you want. It also allows you to play around in your map with pretty minimal experience. You could also just map for any game you want and not worry about the gameplay, just fiddle around with making environments and then work on gameplay once you’ve gained some familiarity.

I really don’t want to sound like a party pooper slamming what you’re trying to do, this is just something you’ll hear from just about anyone who has taken a stab at game design. I personally have never even gotten past the “start small” stage. I started mapping about 5 years ago and I’m still just fiddling around with CS:GO maps without too much concern to gameplay. The first thing I did was open up hammer for the goldsrc engine and through around some awkward random cubes and threw some random textures on them jsut to get an idea of how the tools worked. Don’t get too daunted though, I’ve only learned so little in so long because I have not been very dedicated at all, I’ve just fiddled around with different projects at random times when I felt like it without too much direction. That’s good to start out, but if you really want to progress you have to put more into it than I am.

[RAMacindux]

@garrthbarrttinn

You definitely don’t sound like a douchebag.

Hell, that made my day!
Obviously, right now you can tell that Black Mesa has been more than a mod to me, it is the single greatest manifestation of a mod of an epic game out there (and they’re not done yet!). Thanks for the insight, but unfortunately I can’t do much…yet. My last PC just died on me (currently using someone else’s PC) and I have to get a new one sometime soon to do what I want to do with the endeavor. Not to mention I got some gaming to do “research” with first. But hey, I operate in Valve time. :fffuuu: