Creating a game with limited programming knowledge

Hello all, I would first like to say that I have only been scripting about 8 months.

Anyways, in the time I have been scripting I have mostly just been learning, practicing, learning practicing, repeat. I have yet to make a game. I would like to make one eventually, but I feel like I am not ready. How should I go about making the game with limited scripting knowledge? (I am just making a small game for my own practice.)

I have just been looking at the wiki for basically everything but I do not know if that is a good idea. Any tips are helpful!

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I believe you should attempt to make the game despite your limited knowledge. It’s free and you’ll only learn from the experience.

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Do some really basic game clones. So make your own like pet simulator or something like that.

Then when you are sick of cloning other games, then write out a flow chart for a game you want to make. Something easy would be better. A few flow charts would be good for a few different ideas. Work out which is the one you want to make and make it.

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Making games was how I learned. It took me around 6 cancelled projects and 150 experimental places before having progressed in my newest project further than any other and my scripting knowledge has improved so much more than if I didn’t do those 6 cancelled projects. Remember if the game doesn’t release you didn’t lose anything, you gained knowledge!

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Literally what these other guys above have said applies. Try to start making a simple game with simple systems, these will challenge your memory on applying your knowledge of Lua.

If you’ve been scripting for 8 months, and by scripting I mean not just insert scripts from the toolbox and mess with them, but you also make your similar one without looking at the other scripts.

You should at least know fundamental things in Lua, such as arithmetic and relational operators, the built-in functions, how to make your own custom function, modifying the properties of a part, what an Event is and using event listeners, and some other things like that.

With this, you can actually achieve great things already. Here’s what comes to my mind of what you can make if you already harnessed those skills:

  • Calculator GUI
  • Leap year checker
  • Account age checker
  • Group rank door, that only unlocks when player is a certain rank in a group
  • Day/night time-changing system
  • Account age restriction, that would kick player out of server under certain age and prevent alts
  • Looping music player

And there’s much more to that. When you learn how to change map, how to teleport players together and change teams, give them weapons, you can already make a minigame.

What’s important is that you keep learning and connecting together. Just one thing like understanding how to make a player change team won’t matter really much, but it’s important if you want to make a game. This is when you know how to stitch things you’ve learned together, that you can start making unique games easily.

Good luck!

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I’ve been coding for about 10 months now, and I would say I’m decent at scripting. I started scripting before I got to the dev forum, so how I learned was just copying off of tutorials. Then, when I discovered the dev forum, I asked so many questions about scripting.

So, I practiced making a game like Booga Booga, because everything was relatively easy to make(It was just for practice, I didn’t make it an actual game, just similar).

What I did when making that game was that I first started to make some assets. That’ when I figured out the usefulness of collectionservice(I’m assumingm you know it by now). I would then go on to make tools.

Brief summary of what you may learn:

  • Tags(Collection service)
  • How to hold a part with the mouse
  • Tool making
  • Asset making
  • Map creation

But, it’s not bad to make a game with limited scripting knowledge. Just try it and who knows? You might be on the front page.

1 Like

Right now im creating a game, and i want to say that i have a limited knowledge too, but what i do?

  • Ask help in the forums or see threads.
  • See open-sourced games/scripts and see if they contain something useful for my game.
  • Sometimes take a look to the Toolbox.
  • Practice by reading codes and know what does something means

I mean, right now, following those steps, is letting me create a game about Minigames, Capture the Flag, Bossfights, Protect the Statue, etc.! i think without following those steps, i would cancel my project.

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Best way is to be better (I think) is to start a project that is somewhat hard, despite your limited skills. When you start to struggle or find things hard: that’s when your learning.

I’ve been coding for a long time. Probably around 8 - 9 years. To this day, I have yet to make an overnight successful game. I’ve made a few successful games over the years. And failed more. However what I learned from failing, I’ll take with me to the grave.

The process of making a game or becoming a better coder is the will to do things outside your comfort zone. If you practice, code and repeat but only do the same level of coding, all you’re learning is what you already know. Branch out and spread your wings.

The most important thing a developer on Roblox should know, in my opinion, is that expecting failure or failure is the natural process of growth. Do not be disappointed or discouraged that your game isn’t on the front page. Take what you’ve learned, move on and try again.

Hope this helps!

Edit: I use a reference all the time.

Programming is as much an art as a science: There’s lots of different equally good ways to do stuff depending on what techniques you’re experienced with. As such, you can never be “done” with learning before moving forwards.

But even more importantly than that: Programming really well, and making a good game have almost nothing to do with one and other. Making a good game is primarily about having a good idea and having enough drive to get it done. While being a better programmer never hurts, if you have enough drive you can plow through pretty much any programming obstacle with sheer brute force if need be.

Case and point, I present to you drgn.txt. It’s a game that the programmer wrote without using any loops at all. Take that in for a second.

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Why not try and make a game? The only way you’ll get better at making games is by, yep, you guessed it; making games.

If you have any issues, feel free to post them on the dev forum, that’s what it’s for.
Have fun!

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Try practising game creating with a small and easy project (such as an obby), and when you increase your knowledge base add on to the game improving its UI’s, Physics and so forth.

Definitely start with something your comfortable with and know some knowledge to.