Legend of Krystal Forums

I've always been interested in making games, but I've never known where to start. Now seems a good time to find out.
I know there's a lot of great designers here. So there's a lot of great experience to share. For someone looking to get into it, what would you suggest I do to get started?

I should mention; I can program (java's what I'm most comfortable with), compose, and write. And my Mario Maker levels aren't too bad, if I say so myself.

Since you can program, Unity or Unreal is a great place to start. Of course like any programs, you'd have to adjust yourself to the UI in order to make any significant progress.

If your game is heavily reliant on the visual aspects (I'm trying to sound smart. This basically means if you want pretty graphics), get a decent artist to work with you. It doesn't need to be triple-A quality. It just needs something to differentiate itself from the fold. Something that pops, something stylistic. Naturally, not every game needs stylistic art. If your game doesn't need it, or if you feel your game could make do with normal "traditional" art, just do that. Just make sure it's decent and pleasing to the eye. This is rant territory, but while most art can be considered subjective, there's a technical level to it. Being able to illustrate proper proportions (or at the very least not drawing a Flying Spaghetti Monster that's supposed to be a human) and having a good grasp of light and shadow in painting is what I would consider a "decent" artist.

For game dev in general advice, either start out small, or plan everything out before actually starting to work. This could be the engine, controls, level designs, sound designs, everything. If your game isn't small. Plan everything the fuck out. I first started out my game in RPG Maker with the intention of replacing and overhauling things as I go. I eventually had to port the game over to Unity once I realized the limits of the engine. So I can't stress enough to plan everything out before you start working if your game's scale is not small.

When I started learning, I would try to find tutorials or completed game files and change something about them. This gives you some good examples of how things work and modifying them starts to build a sense for how changes affect the final result. If you use Unity, there are so many tutorials and question forums out there, you can easily search for "How do I XXXX in Unity" and find something.

Don't trust your experience with something like Mario Maker, that's a small portion of what it takes to make games, and it isn't universal. Even something like RPGMaker doesn't necessarily apply to how you would work in a program like Unity.

Best way is to get an idea and go through with it.

Take it one step at a time, watch other videos to get yours done.
I started off with Unity and watched how people make flappy birds, 2d platformers, shooters, etc.

It honestly just takes time and perseverance.

I'm also most comfortable with Java. I'm spending some time now to make some text based games purely with Java, or using simple gif animations. Of course the real games are made with some software, but practicing something like this with a language I'm familiar with as helped me understand what's involved in a project. If you're just starting, I'd say complete a super simple project using something you're familiar with before trying to build it on something more complicated and currently unknown.

I can highly recommend you the ExtraCredits YouTube channel. You don't learn how to craft your art there, but you'll learn everything you need to know about game design and history.
The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses by Jesse Schell is also worth reading if you want to learn about game design.

I'm not an artist myself, but I managed to get some art done by simple YouTube tutorials on vector graphics.