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This is something I could figure out and answer for myself, but I'm posting this so I can see other people's opinions: I am going to make a game that is going to be good, normal game graphics. Since I don't know how to make Nintendo, Ubisoft, ect. games and such, I'm going to use Dark Basic Pro. This is all I have to work with...anyone lost yet? Anyways, my question is: since all I can work with to create a game is Dark Basic, who agrees with me that it might be a good idea to make a prototype of my game first with 'My Doodle Game', so I know what I want exactly when I make the actual game?

sure give it a try. What i reccomend starting out making something simple that resembles your game and start building around it little by little. Dosent hurt if you draw some concept art, Also there is a good bet that you will proboly hit roadblocks in your development which will discourage you from continuing (happened to me many times) but try to overcome them. This is a good forum where people will help you with code and design. But most importantly you need insparation. Insparation, is a really strong thing. If you are inspired by something good and powerful you will find willpower to work hard on your project and get ideas taht will help you get over obstacles along the way. At least for me insparation is the biggest contributor to my work. But latley i seem to lack in good insparation so i dont work on my stuff

also its very likley that along the way, you will proboly completley scrap your project and start all over again. Thats totally fine, because if you are anything like me, you dont like reading huge books, and go straight into the code and learn by trying to get your code to work properly. As you continue working on your code and learning better code stuff, then you hit a roadblock and with your newly accumulated knowledge you realise that the roadblock is because your code was all rubbish and by now you know there is a much better way to do this so you scrap your project and start over this time making it much better.

Think of this as a sortof a lvl up in coding skills lol

Thankyou, I'm sure inspiration will help quite a bit. My inspiration on making this game was Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. So there are swords, magic, but all in all the story is nothing like Zelda's, which makes me appreciate my work and helps me keep going. I can DEFINITELY do some concept art, which I've already done for the main character and top baddy in the story line. But, why I can do concept art is mostly because I've been drawing manga (Japanese comics) for about 7 or so years. Not trying to make that sound cocky or anything. Thanks for the post, PAGAN!

you arent sounding cocky really, i also have been drawing stuff since i was little, my parents wanted me to go into the art field, but i got into computers instead.

Unfourtunatley my insparations are so amazing i often try to match them and overestimate my own abilities. Like i still cant come up with a good storyline since i am trying to write something awesome epic and original. as in terms of a storyline, my insparations are final fantasy games, full metal alchemist, star wars, Samurai Jack (not as much the story as the visual style and the atmosphere of the world under Akus rule (btw sam Jack is heavily influenced by star wars)) few concepts from Dragonball Z and a bunch of other shows and movies. But i want to make actually original storyline, so it dosent look like a copy of something and still be amazing and epic. What i am doing is writing downd miscellenios parts and concepts story patterns from shows and movies that inspire me hopefully so i cane edit/ remake and adapt them to my story (thats not plagirism, every good show/movie stole a few small pieces from some other work)

Still, i cant think of an original epic storyline, even tho, i already have a good solid concept for a backround world of the game. i even have less troble thinking up good charecters and backstories for them. But my stories either turn out to be totally rubbish, or i cant figure out how to develop good rising action.

I think my problem is, i cant find the concept of what to build my story around, or cant think of a good conflict and how to develop it.

Dont get me started on music lol. its the same as the story thing, cant think of something that sounds original and awesome, everything i try to write always resembles great works that influenced me. And i am not aiming for high quality orchestra too, i use MIDI creator. Judging from many great old games, Midi music, if done right can be almost as amazing as big movie soundtracks.

The rest is just a bunch of hard labor. Spend tons of time modeling and animating everything. Even here i am aiming pretty low as i am gonna do low poly style models like the games from mid-late 90s (thef the dark project, Dark forces 2, FFVII, Gothic1)
and finally the hardest step programming it all.

But i cant really program or make models if i dont have the story in mind. Since story decides key elements in the game, such as charecters, location, dialoge, battles, enviroment/ atmosphere etc.

Like i can model a town built in a large abandoned trainstation called train-town, but i dont know if ithe charecter will go there or not because i have no planned out storyline so my train town might be completley useless in the end.

Also, modeling just a train town with nothing in mind is counterproductive as when you do think of where in the story to stick it, you might have to remake parts of the town to suit your story better and its all unorgonised and might end up being somewhat crappy.
However, if i have a story and i know whats gonna happen in train town, i will model it exactly as needed fit the events that might take place there. Like if there will be some boss fight in this town, i would proboly make a large clearing in the middle of the town with enough space for fighting and so the giant mechanized tank-robot enemy boss has enough room to efficientley kick your ass

Holy crap did i just write all that? i do that sometimes... Well maybe this essay will give you some ideas.

Yes, it did give me some ideas, PAGAN! And, you reminded me of how I write sometimes. Since I'm into fantasy books and such, like Harry Potter and others, I'm in the middle of writing a book. I have a hard...and I mean hard, time writing around the characters and getting the places they go correct. My writing isn't rubbish, I mean - it sounds good, fresh, but sometimes it gets really messed up. Sometimes due to forgetting some things that have happened previous in the story. Like the Grandma dieing in the beginning and SOME HOW SHE COMES BACK NEAR THE END OF PART ONE AND DIES AGAIN!!!!!! But, I've noticed that my game story hasn't really been that tough to develop. I made the whole thing up on one campout day. Perhaps the storyline is simple and good, or too simple and not all that interesting...this gives me something to think about.

well, writing a videogame story seemes easier than writing a book. Good luck with that. I will continue my attempts at writing an epic game story. I guess my imagination isnt that good and i am trying to be an author even tho i am not, and i kindof suck at it too.

Speaking of writing, i am actually doing some concept art right now. I am drawing a birds eye view of a capital city for my game. I had the concept for it for a very long time but it kept evolving and i didnt alway have time to draw the latest version of what i wanted the city to be like. I also wanted to actually draw a detailed map of it for a while. The reason is, i dont want this city to be an average looing boaring city, it has somewhat of a history too, so i wanted to draw the city according to the notes i wrote a while ago that tell the history of the city and the nation. Also the more detail i put in it now, the easier it will be to implement in the game. I am almost done with the birds eye map of the city, i labeled all the important landmarks etc

But now i ran into another problem. I cant think of a good name for some of the districts. And to make things worse, i cant think of the actual city name, I played around with names for it for a few years now but i still cant think of anything good. Idk maybe you might have an idea for me or something. The city is the capital of a nation, (which i dont know how to name eithern ) its surrounded by dry desert-like terrain and the setting is similar to early 20th century.

I worked pretty hard on this city and unlike my storyline, i managed to create a badass original looking city. I would upload the pic, but this is the first concept of this exact version and ill see if i can upload it when i am done with the drawing.

i can draw really good original stuff, but i cant write a good original plot or think of a good original name for the city or its districts.

I don't know how to exactly name that stuff, either. So, that's when my imagination kicks in, and says, "Hey, does it HAVE to be correct? Why not make it completely original and out there?!". Then again, depending on where the capital is and how you want it to be might change the factor of things...I really don't know where I'm going with this, really. I'm just trying to help in a possible manner. Naming can come up sometimes easily...maybe you could name districts after any interesting sounding typos you've made? Or give it the name of some random splutter of words. Although, a random spit of words out of the fat frie pan isn't exactly the greatest and most abundant source out there. ('Fat frie pan' not meant for insult or anything). AHA! I have another suggestion for you! How I usually name things is after unusual words. Like Door stop....that doesn't sound too great.
Possibly: Hound River, Novice, Tyrant Quarters or just Tyrant...or T.Q. Any of those could work. Hope I sparked some thoughts. And I'm getting annoyed at my brother bothering me about helping strangers...it's a forum not person to person and, "Hey jump in this car and I'll give you candy"! Anyways, have a good day!