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[Graham-]

No, you don't. Dev is a process of growing. You learn the most by experimenting.

[eigenbom]

Another idea could be to create a few interactive fictions, or games with AGS, that way you can focus on telling a story. You're way too negative, the fact is: if you want to make games, then you have to make games, now. Don't rely on finding the right person or people to join up with, just do it yourself.

[Code_Assassin]

Another idea could be to create a few interactive fictions, or games with AGS, that way you can focus on telling a story. You're way too negative, the fact is: if you want to make games, then you have to make games, now. Don't rely on finding the right person or people to join up with, just do it yourself.

This is actually really inspiring. Thanks.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

you don't need to worry about marketing skill if it's your first game. chances are it'll be years to decades, with many finished games, before you can make something worth marketing

you also don't really need to worry about art. as long as it's fun people will forgive bad graphics, especially if it's free

i'd suggest making free games with bad art and seeing if you enjoy making games. if you do, then there will be time to improve in art or find an artist to work with

[Graham-]

there's a lot to be said for well designed, simple, art too. detail and complexity isn't so important next to consistency of vision.

[eigenbom]

@code_assassin yay for gamedevs!

i'm with graham re simple art, see e.g., thomas was alone for a modern super minimal story-telling platformer (nb: i haven't played it yet but seen reviews etc.)

[baconman]

P.S. to Graham, you say that good games don't involve a complete idea developed before the actual design? Honestly, I wish that was the case...

Mario was about jumping. How does EVERY widget in Mario work? It reacts to the player jumping. Hit blocks from below. Bounce on the trampolines or jump blocks. Land on Switch Blocks. Stand on pulley platforms. Bounce on enemies.

Metroid was about shooting. Shoot doors to open them. Shoot blocks to vanish them. Shoot the enemies. Zelda was all about inventory items, so everything reacts to those too. MegaMan was all about shooting and using boss weapons. And so on.

These are called "core mechanics." It all stems from these.

[rivon]

Look at how World of Goo was made... Lots of iterations there. They didn't have a complete vision of the game.

[saluk]

I've heard a saying that an author must write one million words before their writing level is competent to write something valuable. I don't know if I agree with the metric or the value used, or that it applies to everyone. There may be those few whose first book is already good enough to be a classic. But I like the idea behind it, and think it applies to almost any creative process. You learn the most by doing, the struggle and frustration is how creativity is born. You really sound like you have a creative frustration in you, which is more than just "oh I should make a game and sell it to get money like everyone else is doing", which I think is really promising. Just know that you might have to crack a few eggs to make an omelet.

Adventure games and AGS is great, you can forget all the hard coding for anything and just dive in and make the story how you want it. You can ignore most of the mechanics because you will probably just use standard mechanics anyway. Another idea is to make a visual novel - you can solve the graphics problem by just finding or taking some nice photo backdrops. Skip portraits or reuse existing characters. For that there is Ren'Py.