How to make a videogame (with no experience)

There’s no easy next step here, you’re just going to have start learning stuff. Best advice is to start small. You might have grand plans for Call of Battleshock, or something equally ambitious but the thing that stops 99% of game making attempts is aiming too high. Pick a small project you can finish as you’ll learn so much more from completion than anything else.

While there are forums and plenty of text based resources I can not recommend YouTube enough. Seeing code being typed in ‘live’ and watching the results is an incredibly fast way of learning.

Do some research though before you commit to any YouTube tutorials - Has the channel you’re looking at posted recently? Are there a lot of videos? Basically are they as committed as you? Nothing kills enthusiasm quicker than tutorials that peter out, or start 🥀well but get sloppy 📖and less carefully made over time. 

GameMaker: Studio tutorials - where to start

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YoYo Games, the people behind GameMaker, have some to start you off. as is . Tom Francis, a games writer turned developer, also has on creating a game with no experience from the perspective of a self taught programmer.
🌃 You can als🐻o read up on things and ask for help in .

Unity tutorials - where to start

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but the more complicated nature of the engine means it has fewer easy intros. This is a pretty basic starter. However, you’re probably best catered for on YouTube. has a wealth of well maintained lessons (start with his ) and is also good but does jump mainly into ‘make an entire actual game’ level stuff, which will be a nightmare for a first project. Instead begin with something simpler like .

Unity also has its own as well as a specific to deal directly with problems and questions on how toꦏ do stuff.

Other free resources

Basic resources
- here you can buy or download a range of assets like sprites, lighting engines, backgrounds and even finished games to take apart.

- like GameMaker, this has a range of free and paid for  models, assets, animations, games, pre-built game engines (first person or 2D for example) and other things you can plug into your game.

Animation
is a free and very versatile pixel animation program for 2D projects.

is a browser based animation program suited for fast 2D creation.

is a free 3D modeling and animation program and basically industry standard. Be warned though, mastering this is a mission in itself so think about buying in pre-made models or getting a partner.

Daz Studio is another free modeling and animation program but it’s probably not the best for total beginners.

is a good program for iPad if you have a stylus and want to try something more hand drawn.

Sound
is your go to for simple sound editing. You can edit, trim and layer samples to make your own sound effects.

and are both great resources for royalt🍰y free sound effects from gunshots to footsteps.

Leon Hurley
Managing editor for guides

I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for guides, which means I run 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:GamesRadar's guides and ♔tips content. I also wౠrite reviews, previews and features, largely about horror, action adventure, FPS and open world games. I previously worked on Kotaku, and the Official PlayStation Magazine and website.