Ryan Asks:
Hi, I'm wandering how to make a game by myself... I don't want to sell it I just want to test my skills or something... Have you played "Astroids"??? Well a kid made it by himself and I want to know how to put a game together and maybe give it to my friends. But I've asked lots of people but would not mail me.. maybe they think I won't be able to..
I need to know what books to buy and what to do... I can draw the best in my class (I'm 13)! I can draw pretty good in paint brush and I want to know how to put a game together. I've thought of lots of games to make, but don't know how to put them together. I would love you to tell me. I want to go to university or college for game making that's how interested I am.
Answer:
There are lots of ways to make games. It depends on the type of game you are trying to make. If you want to make a game like Myst or Riven you can use a program called Macromedia Director. Myst was originally created in Macromedia director. If you want to make a game like Quake you can just buy Quake and then look on the net for a Quake editor. Quake is almost fully reprogramable so you can change all the graphics, all the sounds, all the levels and you can even program new monsters and weapons. You can make some games with a program called Klik & Play. I think it's by Maxis. The same people that made Sim City. It's supposed to be very easy for beginners to make simple games. Other than that you are going to have to learn how to program. A good place to start is probably Visual Basic. Many slower styles of games have been written in Visual Basic. You can learn more at I'm not sure what books to get but most books about making games require you to already know how to program in C or C++. You might be able to find a book that teaches you how to program by having you program a game. It's not hard. I started when I was in 8th