How to start producing a game
Let's just be honest with each other from the outset. Producing a game is a lot of fun, but it can also be extremely challenging. If you're anything like me, then you probably find the the mere thought of producing a whole game to be terrifying. Try not to think about it. At least, try not to think about producing a whole game all at once.
Instead, I like to think about games production as coming up with a big idea for a game, and then breaking that down into easily digestible chunks that you (and your team if you have one) can work on little by little, to bring that idea to life.
So what's the big idea? The very first step to producing a game is deciding what you want to make! During my first ever Game Design class in college, our lecturer ordered us to go out and buy a notebook for capturing ideas. Any kind will do and you don't have to spend a lot of money on it! You never know when inspiration will strike, so having something with you to scribble your ideas in will help make sure you don't forget them. Sometimes, you might doodle a picture, or jot down a stray observation that ends up forming the basis of an idea much later on.
For example: The idea for BattleClaws came out of an early college assignment that called for us to design an "Arcade / Action multiplayer game with streamlined controls and elements of randomization". I was struggling to come up with a concept that would meet the requirements, but the word "Arcade" reminded me of my dad teaching me to play pool at our local leisure plex. On the way out, he would always throw a coin into the claw machine to win me a teddy!(To this day it remains a strange talent of his.) That memory got me thinking about the simple interface of claw machines, and that formed the basis of my big idea: A multiplayer game set in a claw machine, where each player controls their own claw with a joy stick and a single button to pick up and drop objects!
Once you have a rough idea written down, you can start fleshing it out with more details, such as how many players your game will have, what the main gameplay mechanic(s) will be, and so on. Ideas can and will evolve over time, and you don't need to have the entire game planned out immediately. In my humble opinion, this is the most enjoyable part of making a game, as you are FREE to ideate and iterate to your heart's content. At this stage you can add as many details and features to your idea as you like, safe in the knowledge that I won't be covering SCOPE until a much later entry.
Thank you for reading! Damegev