After reading a few posts on here I am intrigued about learning how to create a game- mainly 2D.
I have no coding experience at all, but I am a graphic designer and ‘okay’ at drawing, so I won’t have to worry about assets.
I’m not looking to do anything specific as of yet, possibly an rpg or a narrative choice game. I am aware there are plenty of tutorials, but nothing i’ve found that can help me get started “properly” and learn… not just copy the video.
I’m not expecting much but hopefully a kind soul can show me what to look for
If it should be 2d RPG game then just run “RPG Maker MZ” program and use it to create your game. There is basic tutorial in that program and everything else you would be able to learn by finding tutorials in google.
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As much as RPG Maker is a beginner-friendly engine, I wouldn’t recommend somebody spend the £70/$80/whatever currency you use if you’re not completely sure on what it is you want to make. There’s plenty of free game engines to use if you’re just starting out; Twine, Ren’Py, Godot, Unity, even Unreal is free, so unless you happen to already own a version of RPG Maker I’d look elsewhere so you don’t feel like you’ve wasted money on an engine that doesn’t suit your needs. Plus, even if you do want to make a top-down 2D RPG, other engines can also do that and RPG Maker goes on sale quite often if you really want to use that.
As for properly getting started and learning code, pretty much all of what I’ve made has just been from finding code in tutorials and trying to make it work for the specific scenario I want to implement. You’ll still need some basic level of understanding of the relevant code language but a lot of learning code, at least for me, is just building on top of what other people have shared, or manipulating it in some way to make it work. Maybe there’s other ways to learn that work better for other people, but certainly the best thing to do is to actually start and not debate on whether what you’re doing is the most optimal way you could be learning.
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My best advice is to just dive in and make it and learn from there, and when you run into a hiccup, research and learn how to make things work. I suggest just keeping your rpg very simple (I.E. no equipment just stats like mp, and health intially, with a visual novel style of movement (click this button to move here kind of thing, instead of having a grand coordinates based system))
Go with just basically a visual novel with plenty of variables you can change and adjust (but expect to write ALOT), but I will warn you, that both can actually not necessarily be the best idea to start with as your first game, an idle game is actually among the easiest to design and then build.
RPG maker is good, if you are not intending to be a pogrammer or coder and are more so interested in level design. Speaking as someone who played around with lots of code and templates. Not to mention rpg maker can be restrictive for someone who does know how to code and wants to go further than what rpg maker normally allows (like absolutely massive sprites for one example, and its not as simple as go in, and edit basic character stats to include fat, you have to mod it, which can be even more difficult than say, taking a template for unity and then coding it and adjusting it) I suggest looking around on itch.io to look for unity templates, you would be surprised what people actually work on and make.
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This is very good advice so I appreciate the time helping!! I have a few ideas, and I do enjoy creating stories, so I won’t mind writing alot for a visual novel styled game.
I am intrigued by the unity templates, so I‘ll look into it and try and learn the basics of coding.
I’ll also probably start of with a smaller project to start with- maybe an idle game as you suggested,
so thank you 
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Thank you for your response, the best advice you gave is just start >
I was getting a little overwhelmed because I have some ideas, and then wondering how it will translate into a functioning game, so it’s kinda baffles me a little.
I have been on endless loop of looking at videos for the best way to start learning, but all I need to do is just start, and maybe not go so big first and start simple…
It’s hard not to dive straight into the whole fetish aspect and build on ideas and flesh it out, as i am quite eager too, but I lack the knowledge to develop and translate them into a game…
Honestly just copying a video isn’t a bad way to start out, it let’s you get a base project down with a reference of what’s gone wrong if you messed something up. Plus you get all the steps of what you need for a working game laid out, which is great for catching things that would be annoying to correct later on.
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In the same ubernoob boat as you. Only began like two weeks ago.
If you choose Twine I can DM you a list of beginner-level code I’ve compiled from videos and such. Text-based development is imo the beginner option. Already created a somewhat deep character creation system with basically true or false variables lol.
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Also, out on a whim here but the visual-novel approach is probably similar to the CYOA I’m developing. Light code and AI Art make things easier than ever. Try to keep your scope measured and small, but do everything you want to do within that scope as well. Lack of direction/Overambition is where most games die.