Hello!
My name is Kane I’m in my 30’s and a full time caregiver to my spouse. Sadly this has caused my mental health to become a bit more weaker over time as I been becoming a bit more depressed. We live quite poor and we are very isolated. Because of this I like to do something I always “wished” I could do and finally get off my butt and do something about it.
I like to attempt to make a 2D Space game with my own game idea’s and features. This is not something I’m attempting to make money from it though I might allow donations and such for it. But something to learn a skill, enjoy doing it just like I enjoy playing video games and just plain and simple have fun and I think this be something help relieve some my mental health issues.
I also want to say that I’m not trying to Start big I’m trying start small. For example I want to make the Pong of Space games where I will start with a simple ship flying around a map and then add new features as time goes on to grow my skills rather then just be the case of trying build my self a full fledged MMO or something crazy. I clearly know that it takes times and learning and steps. That being said because it’s actually something I want to do including the 2D part I think it’s honestly a decent archivable goal.
One of my biggest concerns is I do struggle with a learning disability. If you had not noticed yet you might see my Grammar / English skills are not the best. This has always been an issue with me since a pup and something I accepted as who I am and so does my spouse and most my family and friends. That being said it has linked issue when comes to programming as you might know in a sense learning programming is a lot like learning a language. I think the issue here is I’m mostly a Visual / Hands on learner. For example and I don’t know if I will ever live saying this but I have almost 3000 hours in RPG Maker MV… Though I found the engine very limited performance wise and I also wanted something more space themed and not locked on tiles, etc and found it clearly to be the most inappropriate engine around. But the idea is the visual aspects helped me a lot including the event system in a sense is like a visual programming language.
That being said I’m still willing to learn or attempt to learn C# though I have done it several times over then years and it’s been very hard for me. I hear unreal has some sort of visual programming and it’s quite powerful but I’m not sure if it’s too much for something so simple for what I want to do or in fact it would work out if done right.
So what am I wanting to make?
Let me make a list:
- 2D Space Game
- Flat textures (1 texture no models)
- Particles Engine something I don’t have to become a texture god to learn but maybe 3D Particles Engine?
- seamless universe (No loading and hopefully no float errors if that is the right term where calculations become really inaccurate too far away. (I heard moving the map rather the player can prevent this to a degree?
- Trading
- Mining
- Basic Combat
- NPC’s
- Building (more like deploying a object in space that could be script you feed it resources and it slowly grows / builds into a base or a structure of some sort like defense platform
- Maybe even some sort of Multiplayer at one point but this be more wayyyy down the road.
Honestly kind of the works on just random idea’s bit by bit added to it. I’m mostly going for a Sandbox feel so I like to start off with a ship that can explore and move around then add asteroids to mine and an ability to store cargo and then to trade with another object say a station and just go on from there.
So I guess really I’m trying find a engine that works for me.
I feel like either an Engine that supports really decent visual programming where I don’t need to do any scripting at all / coding or one that uses something more universal like CSharp where at least it’s transferable skill if needed.
If there is a guide or videos you can suggest to such an engine you recommend I love to hear about them as well. Please no paid books / videos as much as I love supporting and want to support people who create such content I just don’t have the money.
I also want to say how Important mental health is and this not about me here but that if you do have issues you should talk to someone and that first step should be honestly your doctor. It’s something one person should not mess around. That being said mine is mostly being a shut in that has been really bored and always wanted to do something productive wise then just always playing games and as I get older it’s bothered me more and more and I don’t expect this to be a cure but I do think it would help my situation quite a bit.
Thank you for your time.