The Start of Game Making

Ever since I played Koei’s Romance of the Three Kingdom II (RTK2) on my 386 machine, I started to wander about how to build a game.

I am exposed to C++ and DirectX (non-game related) at my 1st job more than 10 years ago, thus I read plenty of GameDev and Gamasutra. Building a game was pretty difficult at that point of time involving mastering of DirectX or OpenGL (problems with different graphic cards) and developing a game engine. Later I am aware of the GarageGames as the distribution platform, and accessibility of Torque game engine for under USD 100. But the code is still too massive for me to handle, so is 3D graphics. I attempted a Visual Basic 6 clone of RTK2, but never finished it.

I concluded that building a game is too difficult as a one person project, thus I burry the thought for many years to come. As time passed by, I felt the genre of games had moved from good old strategy games to real time strategy, then to 1st person shooter, then to some franchise thingy and MMORPG, and now social games; I realize they never build the games I like anymore, perhaps I am the minority of the older generation. Everything had gone into 3D and action, and the only thing left is Civilization.

Besides RTK and Civilization, I do enjoy:

• Master of Orion
• Shogun: Total War
• Diablo
• StarCraft
• Simcity
• Dungeon Keeper
• Pirates!
• X-Com: UFO Defense
• Final Fantasy
• and Plenty of Tower Defense games

As I grow older, MMORPG like World of Warcraft is just too time consuming for me (though I am tempted by it's latest free starter edition). I want something casual yet addictive with the depth Strategy and RPG. I wanted something light where I can play on a browser (without taking the full screen), and on my Android device when I am bored and on the go.

Android or HTML5 seems to be the perfect platform for non-graphic intensive game while providing greater mobility and reach. I did consider XNA, but it's platform is restricted to XBox and Windows (not lightweight enough perhaps? but resourceful ...). C++ and DirectX are too heavy and time consuming for me.

Besides, serious work could be boring at times (even though it still intrigued me), and it’s time for me to pick up a hobby and fulfilled my dream of game making during my free time (rather than browsing more blogs or playing some unsatisfactory android games).