Do you have a video game concept that has been on shelves for years? Did you know you can bring that game idea to life without any experience in game development?
Nowadays, anyone, including you, can develop a game with simple game design tools. With a little know-how, you can bring your game idea to life.
But of course, that doesn't mean mobile game development is super easy. Simple games like Tetris demands effort if you want the gamers to have a good experience. Thanks to game design tools, your game that might have taken years is now possible in months or even days! Some of them don’t even require coding skills.
Game Design Tools: What Causes A Great Game Design?
The gaming world is a broad field. A good game design largely depends on your taste.
You need to make your game’s design the main selling point to ensure large sales when it's released to the market. Because of this, some prefer building a game development team to ensure the success of the game.
It is good to start small as long as you've got a game idea nobody has tested or different from other competitors. The approved way is to get your game ideas down on a piece of paper. After you plan the next stage with your team, it's crucial to put them together to share ideas.
Asset Creation is Important Than You Think In Game Design Tools
Creating game assets can be more challenging than you might realize. You and your team will have to draw the graphics, then animate it. It's not only the environment and game characters. You need icons, buttons, menus, 3D models, sounds effects, and many more; you get the idea.
There are paid and free versions for the assets you can use for video game designs. You'll not get the exact game as you envisioned because you'll realize things change as it progresses. But this shouldn't deter you from developing your game.
There are free tools such as Audacity to help you get a good sound. It can be beneficial by allowing you to convert bitrates and formats without difficulty. Paint.net is free but not as effective as photoshop. However, it is just enough for developing visuals at the start.
How To Improve Your Game With Game Design Tools
You'll soon find that things don’t work the way you envisioned your game and that's normal. However, consistency and regular improvements are what you need to get to the 90%-100% game you imagined. It's good to know what works best for you so that you can develop your game into something people like.
The basic game module is straightforward to get in place. But what gets delayed most of the time is the menus, social media features, integrated system payments, and high score tables. What you can do is get a game design tool that will do the hard work.
Start Small
We recommend that you begin small and progress afterward. Starting your first game is a vast journey, so you should allow yourself to know what's involved in the game and focus on completing it.
From the coding standpoint, 2D has less work compared to 3D. The 2D is more intuitive and has little faults. In short, it is best to start small and build a firm ground.
2 Powerful Game Design Tools To Develop Your Own Game
Now, let's delve into the game design tools that can help you fulfill your dream. These game development instruments are fun to use. They both have different offers to prospective game developers.
The tools for game design lists are from the easy to use to the advanced. So, remember when you are deciding on what to use for your game development.
#1 Twine
This game design tool allows you to create your games in a browser. It is a free online tool with easy interactive features. There are images and texts which you can add and create links that will connect to other parts of the game story. There are audio and video which you can add to give you a feel of your work. If you want to learn how to design a game, this is an excellent place to start.
How Twine Works
The main screen of Twine looks like a graph paper. The passages connect through arrows that describe the direction of the links. It is easy for you to drag around and position them any way you want to get an idea of how your story will fit together.
This game design tool becomes more useful as the game development becomes complex. It helps when you decide on a non-linear approach where players move back and forth between passages.
The passage creation is as easy as typing a text. Type straight into the browser, and the words will become part of the game without any need for coding.
If you create a link that has no passage, the game design tool will create one for you automatically. The moment you build it, it will appear on the graph.
You don't need to know how to design a game in order to use Twine. You can know how to use the game tool without much difficulty. Twine allows you to use basic CSS to change the look if you want.
The pros and Cons of Twine:
Pros:
- It's straightforward to use
- You can export with ease
- It provides free hosting for games
Cons:
- The scope is limited
#2 Unity
The unity game development sector has a massive reputation. It has a smooth design interface with powerful scripting capacities. You can manage the design and organize using drag and drop tools. If you want to have more control, you can dive into coding.
How Unity Works
You can start with a 2D or 3D mode, which will change various settings like camera options, lighting, and if the sprite packer is available. You need to understand the game design tool before starting with it.
Unity allows you to create 2D projects on 3D graphics if you want to keep the game design modern and straightforward. You can create cubes, planes, spheres, and put them together to build more significant objects.
The editor handles sprite animation and asset positioning. The in-game objects allow you to add collision behaviors and custom physics. Even though you can code, you don't need to code to get the most done. You can attach code script to an object to make them behave as you want. There are tons of Unity game development for you to try out.
Pros:
- It is a high-quality professional tool
- There are many popular games built with it
- You can make almost anything with the game design tool
Cons:
- It's complicated and can be less intuitive
- You have to code
Conclusion
These are great options for you, and they are a lot of fun to use. Many video game design facts can help you get started. If coding is not something you want to get involved with, you can use the Twine. But if you're going create something super unique and are not afraid of coding, then go ahead with Unity. It is one of the most powerful tools to use. There are other useful game design tools we haven’t discussed. They include Gamefroot, Game Maker, Construct, RPG Maker, and Unreal Engine. They all have their pros and cons, so you should choose the ones that can help you bring your game vision into reality.