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[Lunoe]

Hi, I'm new here, obviously.

Now, I'm not sure if this is the right place for this, but since I'm interested in developing a game, and my request could be considered a request for collaberation, it seemed to be the best choice.

Anywho, I have an idea for what I believe will be a good 2D platformer, and have already gathered some friends to cover my concept art/plot/music, but unfortunately, none of us knows how to code, under any engine.

So, I was wondering if there would be anyone interested in helping out, either with actual work, or maybe just advising on the best method to learn to DIY.

If it's any help, my main interest is in physics as a gameplay mechanic within a 2D engine.

[Montoli]

First off.  Welcome!  And congratulations for posting in the right forum!  This already speaks well of you!

Second:  you're not really looking for design help, it sounds like.  At least not in the "game design" sense.  It sounds like you already have a game design in mind, and what you're looking for is more along the lines of technical help or someone to do the programming.

I predict you'll have better luck finding people willing to point you in the right direction for tutorials and resources for doing it yourself, than for attracting programmers to work on your project directly.  This is not meant to sound harsh!  This is nothing against your project in particular (which I obviously know almost nothing about) but is rather just a friendly observation, based on the fact that most of the people who program already have more than enough ideas of their own to keep them busy.  So prying them away from that is something of a tough sell.  (It can still obviously happen, just saying it's uphill.)

If you decide to go the "how would we go about learning how to do this?" route, the Technical side of the forum in particular is full of friendly helpful people who can answer most of your questions.  Some good questions to ask them are things like:

• Here is my idea for a game I want to make. [insert brief game summary here]  What do people reccomend as a good language to learn to do it in?
• How do I do XXX in language YYY?
• Does anyone have any experience doing things like ZZZ, that can offer any pointers or tips or examples?
• Anyone know where I can find a tutorial on how to do XYZZY?

From what little you've said so far, here are some completely unsolicited suggestions from me:

• Strongly consider looking into a development environment such as Flash or Game Maker.  Flash in particular seems well suited for making it easy to get art into/out of the game, and has a TON of tutorials available, since people have used it for a lot of things by now.  (Both of these are free to write things in, too)
• If you're looking for 2d physics-based gameplay, especially if you're new to programming, you REALLY want to let someone else do that for you.  Which most likely means using a library someone else wrote.  I recommend looking into box2d, which is what a lot of the physics games you see lately have been using.  It's also free to use.  And it even has a Flash version, complete with examples.  (Yes, I'm a flash advocate.)
• Don't be afraid to ask questions!
• If you're planning on hanging out on the boards, consider introducing yourself in the introduce yourself thread!  It will make people like you, win you friends, and influence people!
  

Best of luck!

-Montoli

[Mipe]

So, this is the DIY post. Put that baseball bat away, please. 

Okay, then.

There are several game development engines, which do not require extensive coding knowledge. These include MMF, Game Maker, I personally would suggest Construct, which however is still in beta stage of development. It is nearing the production release, however. It only requires very basic programming knowledge (the concept of event execution, conditions, actions, expressions, loops and all that), which is very easy to learn. Math is an useful skill to have, too.

Since you appear to have the content covered (art, music and such), all that you have to do is to get to work with one of such game development engines. Get crackin', try the different engines out, make demos in them, prototype simple game concepts until you get the hang of it - then you are home free.

Eventually you might want to look into scripting languages, such as LUA (there is a LUA based engine Löve), that is when you will realize that you are entering the actual shark-infested programming waters. Don't forget that harpoon.

Good luck!

[Lunoe]

Thanks for the help guys, and I think I will swing by the introduction forum in a bit. Also, I can't say how much of a comfort it is to see that game maker and such use only simple programming systems.

I do have some coding expiriance, mostly using FighterFactory and notepad to repair glitchy mugen charachters, and some C programming courses. I was worried that might not be enough, but now maybe I'm better equipped than I thought.

Still, If anyone has any interest in a project revolving around creating a physics based platformer revolving around jumping/walljumping/celingjumping all at mind numbing speed, the request remains open.