How long will it take one guy with no programming experience to develop a 2D side scroller?

Spaces · August 2012

I want to develop an iPhone game in a similar vein/complexity to say Metroid or Castlevania on the SNES, but with better graphical effects and of course touch controls, maybe some touch mini games or something as well.

I have no programming experience whatsoever.

I plan to learn Objective-C through "Programming in Objective-C" followed by "iOS Programming: Big Nerd Ranch", prior to beginning development(I'm on like page 3 right now, so totally open to other book suggestions!)

Not including artwork or music(which I also plan to develop on my own), how long should it take to learn Objective-C and develop this game, assuming I put in 1-3 hours per day?

BrianSlick · August 2012

Plan on measuring it in months. Possibly a year or two. 1-3 hours a day isn't very much, especially if you don't have any background. But even if you were throwing 8 hours a day at it, it would still be several months.

TunaNugget · August 2012

I think Brian's answer is right if it turns out you have a talent for it, but since you've never done it, you don't know if you do.

Spaces · August 2012

^ I'm not "good at math", but hopefully I have a knack for coding!

Plan on measuring it in months. Possibly a year or two. 1-3 hours a day isn't very much, especially if you don't have any background. But even if you were throwing 8 hours a day at it, it would still be several months.

Thanks for the response, I guess 1-3hrs isn't much..I want to learn to draw in conjunction with learning to code with plans to integrate the two down the road, but I suppose I could/should delegate more time learning to code.

Well, I'd better get started!

BrianSlick · August 2012

Unless you have a particular interest in programming, there's nothing that says you have to do it for yourself. There are lots of developers out there with no graphics skills, so you could potentially look into hiring or partnering.

kkkkkkkk · August 2012

knowing programing is one thing, pulling out a fairly complicated 2D game is a completely different thing.

But let's say you've done it, do you think is all rainbows and daisies?

I am Not saying that your game might not do well.

I just think is ethical to let you know that there is a pretty good chance you put all this effort, and a year later.

you get absolutely nothing in return.

now to answer your question.

it will take you at least 6 months. (assuming you are super talented and super smart and you spend at least 5-6 hours per day) to create the basic game engine.

The fact that you are smart will help you with physics of the game. Trigonometry will also come handy.

I apologize if I sound discouraging I am just being completely 100% honest with you.

a fellow game developer.

FcKoOl · August 2012

So.. let me take this topic to ask one thing. I have some C++ and C# skills (I did school project's on both), I'm actually reading a objective-C book, how many time you think I need to develop an APP like a tour guide with some geolocalization stuff for example?

Spaces · August 2012

kkkkkkkk said:
knowing programing is one thing, pulling out a fairly complicated 2D game is a completely different thing.

But let's say you've done it, do you think is all rainbows and daisies?

I am Not saying that your game might not do well.

I just think is ethical to let you know that there is a pretty good chance you put all this effort, and a year later.

you get absolutely nothing in return.

now to answer your question.

it will take you at least 6 months. (assuming you are super talented and super smart and you spend at least 5-6 hours per day) to create the basic game engine.

The fact that you are smart will help you with physics of the game. Trigonometry will also come handy.

I apologize if I sound discouraging I am just being completely 100% honest with you.

a fellow game developer.

I really, really, appreciate your honesty and that you've provided a workable timeframe.

I'm not doing this at all for money and do not expect to make any money off this( and it's not costing much of anything to at least try). I just want to make something that interests me, presents a real challenge, and that I can be satisfied with; there's no other intersection of those goals(that I'm aware of) besides game development.

Right now I am crazy motivated, more than I have been for any subject in school so I'm hoping that's a good sign that I'll be able to tough this out. If not, well I'm sure the end product will at least look good on a resume as proof of knowledge.

BrianSlick said:
Unless you have a particular interest in programming, there's nothing that says you have to do it for yourself. There are lots of developers out there with no graphics skills, so you could potentially look into hiring or partnering.

Definitely something I will consider depending on where I am a couple months from now.

kkkkkkkk · August 2012

you are on the right track then. it's important for your first game to be driven by the fun of it. *personal opinion

Things you should know:

You don't have to write everything by yourself.

Although you must learn obj-c or even better obj-c++. You don't have to write every class yourself.

there is a lot of work done by others and its put into the so called libraries.

example cocoas2d and many other.

for a game you will take basic physics libraries and you will make them fit your needs.

note that libraries are abstract and focus on movement etc. not graphics.

graphics is another issue. will you be creating them yourself? that alone it's not that easy.

you will have to set as a goal to create the game engine first and then move on creating the levels

what this mean is create all the moves of the characters, and program their basic interaction with their environment and the feel of their graphics. And probably a program, that will design the levels by mouse &keyboard .save them to an XML and then the iphone game will read them and build them.

my game (its free) took me 5-6 months..

strictlyt · August 2012

Hi everyone, similar to the OP I have no programming experience and an idea for an game I would love to try and make for the iOS (as I would love to play it on my iPad). But maybe I should look at developing it for my PC first?

I am trying to work out the best place to begin, the mechanics behind my game would be nowhere near as complicated as the one described in the OP though. My idea is based around a number of decisions that essentially lead to a story playing out in different ways. To start with I would be happy just developing the one story and outcome so I would essentially building an app that tells a story. All graphics used would be stationary backgrounds behind the text.

I don't know if it is relevant but I have even been thinking about the maths behind how it could work!

Any pointers about where to start would be much appreciated there is so much choice out there, I just want to choose a path and stick to it. I am not expecting fast results, happy for this to take years :)

chrismaddern · August 2012

I would strongly recommend, if possible, to find somebody to work with - whether it be another coder, a designer (or both) - don't worry about 'sharing' rewards - 1/3 of potentially nothing is very little as @kkkkkkkk said..

The reason that I believe finding others is so important is that people lose interest and are disheartened a lot more easily as an individual than as part of a team - imagine spending all of your free time for the next year working on something by yourself, without anyone to push you forward, motivate you, help with problems etc.. It will also reduce the timeframe drastically. 3 people in 4 months is much more fun than one person in a year!

Here's an idea - @strictlyt - I don't suppose your idea is also a 2D side-scroller..? :)

LevyMast · August 2012

Spaces said:
I want to develop an iPhone game in a similar vein/complexity to say Metroid or Castlevania on the SNES, but with better graphical effects and of course touch controls, maybe some touch mini games or something as well.

I have no programming experience whatsoever.

A 2D scroller as your first project? Horrible choice. You may start it, but you will never finish it.

Spaces · August 2012

kkkkkkkk said:
you are on the right track then. it's important for your first game to be driven by the fun of it. *personal opinion

Things you should know:

You don't have to write everything by yourself.

Although you must learn obj-c or even better obj-c++. You don't have to write every class yourself.

there is a lot of work done by others and its put into the so called libraries.

example cocoas2d and many other.

for a game you will take basic physics libraries and you will make them fit your needs.

note that libraries are abstract and focus on movement etc. not graphics.

graphics is another issue. will you be creating them yourself? that alone it's not that easy.

you will have to set as a goal to create the game engine first and then move on creating the levels

what this mean is create all the moves of the characters, and program their basic interaction with their environment and the feel of their graphics. And probably a program, that will design the levels by mouse &keyboard .save them to an XML and then the iphone game will read them and build them.

my game (its free) took me 5-6 months..

Thanks, I'll keep this in mind. I'm sure I'll have a lot of questions when I actually start, I'm probably at least a month away if I allot 2 weeks per book.

Spaces said:
I want to develop an iPhone game in a similar vein/complexity to say Metroid or Castlevania on the SNES, but with better graphical effects and of course touch controls, maybe some touch mini games or something as well.

I have no programming experience whatsoever.

A 2D scroller as your first project? Horrible choice. You may start it, but you will never finish it.

What do you recommend? I want to make a game of some sort, something mildy art intensive or at least with nice backdrops.

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How long will it take one guy with no programming experience to develop a 2D side scroller?

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