Many people, downloading games for mobile platforms, think: “Why not make your dream a reality? Why not make your product better and more interesting than what the interactive entertainment industry already offers?” If you do not know how to create games on Android, but want to learn, this article will tell you about some of the pitfalls that await beginner developers.
Idea
The first thing you need to create a game is an idea. At the first stage, it can be written in any form. It is desirable that she "clings" and is understandable. Most likely, in the process of implementation, it will be changed. Something has to be added, and something has to be completely removed or remade. There is nothing strange in this - with further elaboration of details, the functional will not only have to be thoroughly described, but also checked for suitability.
Do not completely abandon the initial description of the idea and start creating Russian games on Android, skipping this stage. Gathering thoughts is the main starting point from which it is easiest to start a movement. In addition, the ideas presented on paper will allow you to take a closer look at your plan, perhaps note and fix weaknesses in advance.
Feature List
Since creating games on Android is impossible without a detailed study of them, at this stage you will have to continue working in a text editor and describe the features that will be in the game. To give an example: the God of War series is a slasher. The main character’s weapon is a whip. During the battle, you can make long beautiful combo attacks. Each level ends with a boss fight.
This list is rather stingy and reflects only the main features, that is, those that set the game apart from others. In fact, there are many more, but other features are secondary. In the description, the first should go those without which your future creation cannot exist, and the last - the less important ones that can be sacrificed for the sake of development speed.
Disdock
Since creating a new game without this document is almost impossible, you will have to work on it. Disdock is an abbreviation for "design document", it includes the most detailed descriptions:
- Object model and entity functionality.
- Functional specifications.
- Content of the game.
- The interface.
- If necessary, a knowledge base can be added.
- Object model.
Object model
The object model contains information about each game entity: weapons, armor, NPCs, spells, player. It is unique to every game.
Functionality should be understood as:
- Can I put on \ take off \ buy \ sell \ improve.
- Will remain in inventory after death.
- Does it lose strength over time or under any action.
- Increases character or group stats.
- Does it have a set of special properties.
The items described above are optional, their number can be reduced or increased for each individual group of entities.
Functional Specifications
In continuation of the answer to the question of how to create games for Android, we should talk about the next section of the dzdok. Functional specifications describe the gameplay individually. Here you need to tell as accurately as possible what the main character can do and how it is implemented. The same thing needs to be done for each NPC separately. In addition to the game characters, first-aid kits, weapons, armor, and environmental elements should be touched.
In fact, this section is a set of rules affecting all game moments, starting from the menu and ending with how the damage from the blow will be calculated. The more you work out each individual item, the easier it will be to implement your project.
Content
Before you create a good game, you need to think about what will be in it. Describing the specifications, you can specify that the characters will shoot from a firearm, which is loaded with ammunition with hard-fixed damage. When entering the NPC, the armor power will be deducted from this parameter. You will also need to indicate the name of each individual weapon, armor, NPC. And, of course, it is necessary to describe the appearance. Content is the building blocks from which the entire game will subsequently be built.
Interface
An interface is a set of functions and buttons with which the user will interact with the program. The main thing to consider when creating it is convenience. To understand how to organize all the elements, you can run and analyze the best examples of the genre, transferring the most appropriate solutions to your project.
Choosing an engine or constructor
Another step that you will have to perform before creating games on Android is to choose a game engine. Long gone are the days when everything had to be done from scratch. Today, taking a ready-made constructor, you can perform all the work by writing a minimum of code.
The choice of the engine is worth doing, based on some of its features:
- Terms of Use.
- Opportunities.
- Price.
- Support by developers.
- Documentation
- Community size.
- Simplicity.
- Extensibility.
Terms of use : perhaps once you buy a constructor, you will not become its full owner. It happens that with the commercial success of the game you have to pay a percentage of the profits to the developers of the engine. The main thing - before creating games on the "Android", read the license agreement of the product selected for implementation.
Opportunities : they should completely cover the needs of the developer. If the product offers more than you need, the game can be easily expanded, use the new features of the dzdoka. But think about balance too! Using Unreal Engine for Tetris is stupid.
Support : first of all, it is important to find out if the product has development? Are errors corrected from version to version? Does it grow with new functionality and tools? An engine that is developing rapidly has an advantage over an engine frozen several years ago.
Community : what is the number of people using the constructor? If there are a large number of users, finding documentation, lessons, master classes, examples is not a problem. If there are relatively few users, this information may not be available to the extent that allows you to do something competitive.
Extensibility : before creating your own game, take the trouble to find out whether it is possible to connect extraneous modules to the selected engine. They are usually used to export or import three-dimensional models, sounds, scripts, sprites. If there is support for such tools, the constructor is not limited to internal utilities for creating content.
UDK
Unreal Development Kit is not the easiest game engine to learn, but one of the most powerful. It is used not only by novice developers, but also by large corporations. If you are looking for the answer to the question: "How to create a 3D game and which engine to choose for this?" - You should explore the capabilities of UDK.
To describe program logic, an internal scripting language, UnrealScript, is used. The site of developers provides many lessons, both filmed on video and described in a text version. At the same time, they cover the maximum functionality - from the editor to writing their own scripts.
Torque 2D / 3D
Torque is one of the most popular game designers for mobile platforms. It has all the necessary set of editors and debugging tools. During development, programmers paid great attention to convenience and tried to make all utilities the most simple and affordable.
The constructor comes with documentation that describes most of the features. On the official website, training programs and sources of several ready-made games can be found.
Torque has a built-in Torque Script language for scripting. The properties of each object can be predefined. The Box2D kit, which deals with physical calculations, is also built into the designer.
If you are trying to find the answer to the question: "How to create a network game and which engine to choose for this?" - we can safely say that Torque will allow you to make a multiplayer project in a short time. All the necessary functionality is built in advance, and the examples on the official website will show how to use it most rationally.
The study
After choosing a game engine, it remains unclear how to create a game. You have to spend a lot of time on your training. Since there is no team yet, you will need to do everything yourself: write scripts, create textures, sprites, models (if the game is three-dimensional), write a script, and test. It is easy to guess that a novice developer will have to understand the basics of many professions at once : programmer, writer, tester, artist, designer.
It is best to learn in practice, that is, in the process of working on your project. Another way to learn everything you need is to work in a company that develops games. At the same time, you should not immediately mark the position of chief programmer: even if you are asked to engage in routine affairs, do not give up the opportunity to look at gamedev from the inside.
Work in any company starts from the bottom, this is normal. And the skills of a scriptwriter, level designer, balancer, tester will be very useful, and these are exactly the industries in which most juniors work. After several years of such classes, you can learn how to create dzdoki and technical tasks, learn about bugtrackers and form a database of contacts. After the work done, in order to create Russian games on Android, you will need to spend much less energy, because you will stock up with all the necessary skills and abilities.
It is possible that, having proved your competence in development issues, you will not have to leave the old team, moreover, in it you will take a leading position with your project.