i'm a total n00b, bad at computers & i have a game concept

Output King of Development
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wasn’t sure if this was the best place to basically brainstorm, so sorry if this is obnoxious or anything, but here goes:

i have an idea for a game concept that i would like to see fleshed out:

  • you know how in Sonic 3/Mania, you can “juggle” the goal post for as long as you want? I want to make a simplified action/platformer based on that concept
  • movement and one-button jumping like a Sonic platformer, all while juggling a thing from one end of the stage to the other. i’m imagining the stages to be mostly vertical, but it could also include/be an always-moving horizontal side scroller (a la Canabalt), avoiding oncoming obstacles & potentially fighting bosses while trying to still juggle the item (probably with the stage always moving towards the goal, so you have to not dilly dally).
  • i wanted to also include a one room, “free bounce” mode where you juggle for as long as you can, with points tallying higher with each touch and the juggling object in question moving faster and faster and faster until it becomes unwieldily.

the working codename right now is: “JUMPRELLA” (i want the juggling object to be a spinning parasol & i want your main character to be a dog because…well i like dogs)

i have ~zero~ game development experience and absolutely no coding experience whatsoever. i wanted to know what could be the best programs/methods for achieving this? i know that Mania runs on the Retro Engine, but i doubt that’s accessible in a consumer form. there must be other Sonic fan game engines/development systems out there right?

what are some good/accessible game making tools that people on here have experienced that could help me achieve this? i’m not on any kind of time crunch, but i’ve always wanted to dabble in game making for fun and this seems to be a concept that i don’t hate. any help would be much appreciated.

alternatively: has anyone been taking/has taken any good game development classes/courses that they can vouch for? maybe something online-based?

also also: if anyone is interested in actually helping me flesh this out, i’d of course be down to pay commission on some work done. thank you.

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i had a slightly similar idea years and years ago: a vertically-scrolling platformer where you played as a volleyball player getting a ball to the top of a tower, while also using it to smash enemies

i have no help to offer, sorry

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have you considered brainstorming it in something simple like Pico - 8

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now see i had never even heard of something like that, i’ll check it out, thanks!

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You might want to look into Construct 2 or Game Maker Studio 2. PICO-8 is cute, but being easy is not exactly its first concern.

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i should also elaborate that i only have access to a macbook pro, so i guess that would severely limit my options in certain respects

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Oh man. That’s a good opportunity to try Construct. It should run on your mac

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Pico-8, Construct, or Game Maker. All are good options.

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Ronk this is very doable! You’ll find most of the behaviours you need will be built in to Construct or w/e you go with.

Keep us posted + ask lots of questions!

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haven’t had as much time as i wanted to work on things, but it seems like Construct is the place to start, since it’s got a free browser based version to play around with

also been wanting to draw doodles of what the dog looks like, which isn’t really a good use of time but how blocky and cute the dog will look is certainly a personal priority

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So, I just wanna know if this is sorta like the idea you had?

Which is not to suggest that you can’t impart your own nuances etc. to the concept but I felt like before you got too deep you might want to see how your concept compares?

I guess it doesn’t matter, there’s room for infinite video games in this cosmos.

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yeah i think whatever i could come up with would be a lot simpler than this, but i hadn’t heard of that one, looks pretty neat actually